[lpotamianos]

Dual core, 4 GB ram, dual display NVIDIA Geforce 8800GTS, Vista 32 Ultimate, 3dsmax8

Max slows down significantly when maxwell materials are applied to objects. When I load a max scene (with maxwell renderer assigned and maxwell materials assigned), the viewport performance is really slow when in shaded mode. Switching to wireframe provides a 1000% boost.
Vray and scanline scenes can be navigated smoothly with 8800GTS even if they contain millions of polygons. I even tried loading a maxwell max file, and without assigning a new render, I selected everything in the scene and assigned a standard material. The slowdown dissapeared instantly.
I tried messing with the viewport configuration, switching from DirectX to OpenGl and vice versa, changing settings, moving the max window to the adjacent display, deactivating the dual display mode, but to no avail.
I searched the forum, and found out some similar problems but no solutions. So I am trying to bring this up again.

I forgot to mention that I updated with the latest nvidia forceware

[JTB]

I haven't noticed that, at least not as annoying as you describe it... I will try to make some tests and will come back

[Bogdan Coroi]

Where did you find this issue on the forum?
If you decide to downgrade your drivers and the problem still persists, could you please share the scene so we can make some tests?

[lpotamianos]

I searched for "maxwell slow" or something like that and found a couple of threads, I think they had to do with mxstudio behavior, but the dual display and nvidia GPU were a common case.
Actually, this is not a new problem, I have had this for some time now, with previous forceware drivers. Also, it is not specific scene bound, it happens every time a scene grows in polygons. But the same scene, in my wife's pc (dual core, xp, 4 GB, and a ATI FireGL7100) runs so smoothly that makes me want to switch computers. It is certainly an NVIDIA drivers problem, but it presumably has to do with the way maxwell handles the materials in the viewport.
Just installed the max 9 version, and still no luck. Even with Direct3d 10 selected, the same slowdown. I would certainly drop the Gforce8800 and get a FireGL or a Quadro, but I need to do my gaming as well.

[lpotamianos]

I switched to OpenGL since it seems to be a bit faster, but it is definately a maxwell-NVIDIA problem, since vray, scanline and mental ray materials provide smooth viewport performance. I tested my hypothesis on all 5 render farm computers, no one had that problem. I wonder if anyone has to offer some more advice on that subject.

[lpotamianos]

for your information, I downgraded the NVIDIA drivers to 100.59 (from the latest 162.22), but the problem persists

[lpotamianos]

I also got a new render machine (quad, 2GBram that came with a Geforce 8600). After all installations, maxwell has the same problem with the display performance (single display). Vray, mental ray and scanline materials provide fast performance.

[Bogdan Coroi]

I would love to take a look at the scene if possible. (bogdan.coroi@gmai.com) Don't worry, everything will be confidential.

Until I pun my hands on the scene, I'll go on the try&error route.

1. About the maxwell materials, are they referenced or embedded type?
2. Do you have emitters?
3. If materials are embedded, do you have bitmap nodes on Reflectance 0? If yes, could you eliminate all of them so you can have default material types?
4. If materials are of referenced type, could you translate them to embedded type and repeat step 3?
5. If you get no performance after above mentioned, could you simplify the scene by eliminate maxwell materials one by one?

[lpotamianos]

ok, I am sending you the scene I am working on at the moment, although it happens in all of my maxwell scenes.
1. Maxwell materials are all embedded
2 no emitters.
3. There are some bitmap nodes of reflectance 0. Deleting the nodes does nothing in speed issues
4. -
5. I tried eliminating maxwell materials one by one by selecting standard scanline materials, getting performance boost with each one, and at the end the scene navigated fast.

[Bogdan Coroi]

Received. Thank you.
I'll keep you updated once we find some answers.

[lpotamianos]

I installed an ATI RADEON 2900XT in my system and I have the same problem. ATI is even a bit slower, though it is supposed to be faster than the 8800GTS. Thus it is not an NVIDIA driver thing, it must have to do with vista, or my system in particular

[lpotamianos]

I have read again all the "maxwell studio dual viewport slowdown" threads. They seem to be similar to my case, although I never use maxwell studio, always render from 3dsmax. But the problem persists. I even tried to use one display only, or two displays with the single display acceleration option enabled, but no hope.
To keep on working, I translated some simple maxwell materials to standard ones to get some viewport performance boost, but the render output is a bit different.

[lpotamianos]

I have acquired a new pc, quad core, vista 64bit ultimate, max2008 installed, 8gb ram. All my render farm quadcores run vista 64bit, and have 64bit maxwell for max plugin installed.
I experience the same problem as before with this configuration, it seems that when I apply maxwell materials the viewport slows down. Tried again with Directx 9, 10 and opengl in max, but to no avail.
Now I run dual display at 1920 resolution, I have a new project in maxwell, and I face the same problem. At the same time, one of my laptops running xp 32 (2gb ram, Nvidia Go gforce) will have no problem, and swing aroung the viewport in max like hell, when my 8800GTS monster will stall!.
Anyone having the same problem? It seems so weird that I am the only one experiencing that thing, I have a different configuration now, but the same problem???

[wr1nkles]

could it possibly be your operating system? if you are using the same install disc (meaning the same build etc) it could have something to do with the drivers or anything conflicting with your software..

[Bubbaloo]

I run Vista x64 and a Quadro 4500. It was several months that I had this and Max viewport was really slow. It has everything to do with Vista graphics drivers. The latest driver download from Nvidia has really made an improvement, I'd say double the framerate!

As far as a problem specific to Maxwell materials, I have not noticed this. Are your problems still only related to Maxwell materials?