SJD Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Hi I'm finding that my render times are slower using v8 - are there any settings that might be skewing my results? my computer performance test is in line with other results so it seems my mac is working fine 20:37 i7 2.3 GHz quad core 16Gb RAM 2012 Mac Mini OS 10.9.5 I back saved the file to V6.7 and clocked a time of 18:03 I have used a couple of old files for my other tests created in V6.6 file 1 - 19:07 (V8) 12:06 (V6.7) file 2 - 6:02 (V8) 4:36 (V6.7) there were slight discrepancies with lighting parameters (grouped spotlight settings) but both the resulting images are virtually the same - is this what I should be seeing? any advice appreciated thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Hi Steve, That's strange, we will have to see if we can get our hands on one of those 2012 Mac Mini's to run some tests... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I notice the same thing using the v8 Trial on my 12 core 2010 Mac Pro. I tried playing with the Processor # setting, but it still doesn't make v8 render anywhere near as fast as v6, often upwards of 40-50% slower. This is one of the complaints we had with the Beta, that was never resolved. Hopefully a simple patch can get v8 rendering faster! Tech? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisA Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Justin, Set it to 6 processors.... I have same computer and that was best for performance test file. There is a possibility different projects may calculate difference results Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thanks Dennis- I can try 6, I also tried 12, but it really shouldn't take us setting the computer down below the number of actual processors. Autodessys needs to fix the code to appropriately address this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Hi Justin, We have been re-running render tests with formZ v6 vs. v8, and v8 is faster on all our computers, on both Mac and Windows. RenderZone in formZ v6 was limited to 8 processors maximum, and while this was extended to allow more processors with formZ v8, this is intended only for actual processors on OS X, and not "hyper-threaded virtual" ones. If you test rendering with your copy of formZ v8 set to 6 or 8 processors, does that then render as fast or faster than your v6 does? Hi Steve, For your Mac Mini "quad" core i7 -- if you go into the formZ v8 Imager: Preferences, does this show All Processors = 4 or 8? If this is recognizing "virtual" processors, if you change that to 4 so it only uses actual processors, does that then render as fast or faster than does v6 for you too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisA Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Justin I already posted this on performance test comments (same Mac Pro as yours): On a Mac Pro 2 x 2.93 GHz-6 Core Intel Xeon 6 processor=12:22:35 8 processor=12:24:37 12 processor=12:39:34 24 processor=1(hrs):46:28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Dennis, I'm not sure what is up with your numbers, but it looks like you are reporting fractions of seconds??? Tech- Something is definitely up with my computer and RenderZone then. While my 12 core 3.46ghz renders as fast as a new Mac Pro 12 core in Maxwell (do a find text for 'OSX')- http://www.maxwellrender.com/benchwell I'm nowhere near as fast as expected in RenderZone using the performance test file: v8 12 cpu - 00:35:23 24 cpu - 01:04:04 v7 12 cpu - 00:11:59 24 cpu - 00:11:28 v6 12 cpu - 00:11:47 24 cpu - 00:12:11 So something is amiss with my v8 results. I noticed very slow rendering during the Beta, and now the Trial. That's a large part of the reason I have not made the jump to purchase v8 yet. Hopefully it's something simple since my v7 and v6 results are pretty much inline with the others. I also noticed that the test file uses a bunch of settings beyond what we normally use. Typically Ambient Occlusion on low is sufficient, and Final Gather hasn't been needed, but something I'll take a look at to incorporate in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisA Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Yes, fraction of seconds not sure why? Hrs are recorded the same that is why I idicated difference in (hrs) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Dennis- Its probably just the way you wrote it, they should all read - HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS Did you get the times from the completed Imager app by double clicking Complete? Unless it took your computer 12 hours : 22 minutes : 35 seconds on 6 processors, it should read 00:12:22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Hi Justin, We suspect that with your computer, formZ v6 is only using 6 processors. If you change the v6 Imager to render with 6 and 8 processors, what are your times? And if you also change v8 to render with 6 and 8 processors, what are those times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Hi Tech- I'm not seeing that with my results - v6 6 cpu - 00:17:13 8 cpu - 00:13:37 12cpu- 00:11:47 24cpu- 00:12:11 My v8 Imager demo is no longer giving me an option for RenderZone under Rendering Type. I'm not sure how that could have happened. Is there a way to reset this? Thanks, I hope we can figure out how to get v8 optimized for 12+ cores and hyperthreading in OSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Hi Justin, We just found a case whereby the Maxwell Render Plugin can potentially cause RenderZone to not show in the Imager. Thanks for helping to bring this to our attention, we will get this corrected. Do you have this Maxwell Render Plugin loaded? If so, if you Quit formZ and Imager, and add an Underscore ("_") to the beginning of the name of the folder: Does RenderZone then reappear when you relaunch the Imager? And if so, does formZ v8 render as fast as v6 when you set it to use 6 or 8 processors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 That makes sense, as I recently installed the Maxwell Plugin. I renamed the Maxwell folder and sure enough, RenderZone is now appearing in the Imager. I'll run the v8 tests with the lower CPU number and post the results here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Ok, so here's my v8 results: 4 cpu - 00:31:19 6 cpu - 00:21:20 8 cpu - 00:28:08 12 cpu-00:35:23 24 cpu-01:04:04 So, while I could set the CPU to 6, it appears something is not working right with RenderZone's scaling in v8. v7 results: 12 cpu - 00:11:59 24 cpu - 00:11:28 v6 results: 6 cpu - 00:17:13 8 cpu - 00:13:37 12 cpu-00:11:47 24 cpu-00:12:11 After hearing about v8's speed improvements, I would expect this test to fall in the 8-9 second range. Especially since the 6 cpu setting creates the fastest result, while leaving the other 6 physical cores idle. Let me know what can be done to help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJD Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 Hi Steve, For your Mac Mini "quad" core i7 -- if you go into the formZ v8 Imager: Preferences, does this show All Processors = 4 or 8? If this is recognizing "virtual" processors, if you change that to 4 so it only uses actual processors, does that then render as fast or faster than does v6 for you too? thanks Tech I will give this a try and let you know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Tech- Any update here as to why I'm not getting the full benefits of v8? I even tried turning off App Nap and it's still much slower than 7 or 6. Please advise. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Hi Justin, Sorry, we really don't know why this would be slower on your computer. Perhaps there is something wrong with the Preferences? If you Quit all copies of formZ, go to the Desktop: Go Menu, hold down the Option key, choose Library: Preferences -- and rename the autodessys folder, if you then relaunch formZ, set the Preferences to 6, and render the file once more, does that help? If not, if you Delete the formZ Folder and reinstall once more, does that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Hey Tech- Unfortunately your suggestions did not work. I tried the preferences reset, as well as fully reinstall. I'm still only able to get 19min as a best result in v8 on the test file, where as I get 11min in v6 and v7. Any other things I could try? Have you heard from Lightworks about why v8 needs to be set at 6cpu for best performance, despite many of us having more idled cores we could use? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Hi Justin, We have not had a reply from Lightworks yet, but we will let you know when they do. However, we are not reproducing what you report on any of our computers, so we are not sure why v8 is being slow for you. We will continue investigating, but unless we can reproduce this, we are not sure how we would be able to find the cause or solution. Hopefully Lightworks will have an idea... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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