xStream = xStreamly unusable

#1

I need some help figuring out WHAT kind of system I need to have to make animations with Max 9 and Vue xStream together.

<rant> I am wondering if VUE is an acronym that stands for

Virtually
Unuseable
Engine.

I have tested xStream on several machines now. The latest was a Sony VAIO with 2 gigs of DDR2 Ram, 256 mb of dedicated video memory, and Core 2 DUO processor. (running Windows XP)

The viewport manipulation is still choppy and render times for one simple scene with NO objects, just a simple sky as 640 x 480 resolution is PAINFULLY slow… a few minutes for one frame. Anything else rendering in Mental Ray on that machine, even a scene with raytracing and tons of polygons, renders in seconds.

All other 3d apps run and render fast and very smoothly on this machine: Bryce, Max 9, Poser, Torque Game Engine, all 3d games on very high settings, etc. … no problem there

I don’t know how anyone can make full blown movies with this software on the average consumer system. the movies that you see in the demo… I wonder WHAT kind of machine those were made on, and if they used a render farm to render them, or maybe they were just made using vue INFINITE.

That’s probably what it is… people were probably using infinite to render those scenes. xStream is just not very useable from a rendering standpoint if you’re using Animation. I’ve seen people with 4 gigs of Ram and still having problems with xStream inside of Max. Correct me if I’m wrong.

</rant>

#2

I think that vue is a tool for artist.
and many tutorials are not for commercial use.

we need some useful help for commercial use.

#3

Nobody creates feature films on a desktop computer, but I agree, Vue is a beast. There is not much you can do without a render farm. I have given up on using xStream integrated and have reverted to creating mattes with Vue using camera sync.

#4

pcbyers: How is your workflow with Synch? Can’t even get this feature to work:scream:

amazing how difficult it is to get 1 camera into vue from max and keep the position from max, but maybe its just me:blush:

cheers

#5

This is the “easy” part :wink:
Here’s how i do it: in Max, animate your camera (including extending the timeline if necessary).
THEN, open utlities: VueSynch, do NOT do this before you extended your timeline, or your synchData will only contain the basic 100 frames. This means you can also not have the VueSynch utility in one of the buttons that are allways visible, you HAVE to click More… first to acces it. (don’t ask me why)
In the VueSynch options, select the camera you want to Synch and click on Export Synchro Data. Save the file somewhere on your hdd.
Then goto Vue, either the standalone or via xStream, doesn’t matter.
Under animation click import Synchronisation Data and get the file you just saved.
Then select your Main camera and on top, in the animation tab (the right one) click on the little directors seat, which provokes a warning: This camera is now switchable, blah blah…
In the same animation tab, select “synchonised” for motion and select the name of the camera you exported from max. A little lower, you will see Scale set to 10 (why is a mystery to me), set it to 1.
This is pretty much it, now your camera movement from max is identical in Vue.
Good luck.

#6

What he said… that covered it in more detail than I knew about. Thanks Pederson.

#7

Here’s some advice that may help:

I have virtually the same Sony Vaio system - but after Vue looking bad and performing poorly, I upgraded to a better video board: a PNY NVIDIA Quadro 1700 (about $600) - and now I’m getting much better results with Vue - even the viewport assembly areas are looking better that my Cinema 4D.

On the Synch problem - make sure you select all frames to render - then hit Export.

Hope that helps,
Jim

#8

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