[3dtrialpractice]

I noticed a general quite critical slow down in maya when using mxm's w/ textures assigned to them via file node.. NOT a slowdown on the opengl screen(that runs fine I even have the hardware texture preview res set lowest to 32x32 pixels) but a slowdown when I render or load a texture (jpg) file - also happens when maxwell enging fires up.. even if i have 1 texture assigned the startup is incredibley slow.. also this slow for when I acctually assign the jpg or texture file in maya.. it takes FORVER to update the file node w the textureimage name...

then when i hit render it says:

...
[01/July/2008 18:28:48] Checking Data
[01/July/2008 18:28:48] Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data

(THIS IS WERE IT STOPS FOR LONG TIME)

after 1min to 10min- depending on how many texture files i have in the scene it continues to...

[01/July/2008 18:29:04] Start Voxelization
[01/July/2008 18:29:04] End of voxelization
[01/July/2008 18:29:05] Start Rendering

...


I never had this problem before mx1.7 either w the enging or the slow texture loadup in maxwell...
I run a decent machine (DUAL xeon 64 3.0ghz w 16GB RAm 2xQuadroFX 4600cards)

ALSO I noticed this slow down when loading textures in MXED (maxwell material editor) cuz i was gettign frustrated waiting for textures to load in maya. .but maxwel material editor too takes FOREVER to load the jpg I have selected!-- the biggest jpgs i load are 2k or maybe a 4 k texture - but I never had such slowness before w 2k textures..

[3dtrialpractice]

ok.. mabe different rez sizes ofr image to load:

512 or smaller image at 72 or 100dpi loads/maxwell renders intantaniously.. no wait on loading data...

1000 or 1024 it taked maya/ maxwell engin about 4-5seconds to load EACH 1024 image before it can render or update it on mxm file node

2000 or 2048 rez texture file takes maxwell engine OVER 15 seconds to load for EACH file!!


also texted w standalone maxwell material editor
whats changed that it takes a 1k+ images to load for sooo long.. def never had this problem before and its making it very frustrating for me..

anyone else notice it takeing forever to load image mapes >512 pixels?

ive texted this w/ different images too. .and resave the jpgs at different dpi's 72 and 100 thru photoshop to try to find out why.. but it seems its a maxwell problem

[Mihnea Balta]

I'm not sure I understand exactly where the slowdown appears. Does Maya hang for 4-5 seconds when you set the path in the file texture node? Is MXCL slow when rendering a material preview or the scene? Is Studio slow when you load the exported scene into it?

[3dtrialpractice]

yes. maya hangs for 4-15 secs when i set the path to a file texture (as does mxed)

also maxwell engine hangs at acctual render time 4-15secs PEr image that is over 512pixels in size.(before voxelization)

I have tested it w simple box scen and a more complex poly scene..

I hav not tested it in studio..
i have just reinstalled maxwell render engine and installing the new maya 1.7.8 plugin and will test again..

[3dtrialpractice]

tested in studio.. Same problem!

after i load a map that is larger than 512pixels i have to wait x seconds(depending on how big 4-16) the image is for it to show up on my material preview or to even RENDER a preview of the material i have to wait 4-16secs PER image to load

-btw I tested loading these same maps in another renderer material editor (fry) and the 2 and 4 k images load instantaniously with out any load/wait time at material creation or main engine render

I tested this on anoth Dell workstation w maxwell (windowsXP 64) and also it had bad load lag problem..

Im calling it a bug.. (i even installed different versions of graphics drivers (nvidia) to see if it would help.. it didnt

[Mihnea Balta]

It's pretty weird that you get the slowdown when you assign the texture in Maya, because no plug-in code is involved there. What happens if you uninstall the Maxwell plug-in, does the slowdown go away? Do you get the same slowdown when applying a texture to a native Maya material, like Lambert?

Did you try opening the same texture files (from the same location) into Photoshop or a similar application to see if the slowdown persists? Do you have antivirus software enabled which scans the files on access?

[3dtrialpractice]

i have tested different textures and also opened in photoshop and no slow down


I have narrowed it down to a maxwell problem i think not as much a maya plugin problem..

THE slow down is image independent.. it happens on ANY image as long as its ofer 512pixels.. 1k 2k 4k all have slow downs..
NOW the Slowdown DOES NOT happen even with a maxwell shader in the scen if I apply the SAME 4k image to a regular Lambert shader!.. but if I try to apply that same 4k texture to a mxm shadeing material in the file node.. every thing freezes for 30secs or so.. I first thought it was a shading issue.. it was taking time to draw the texture on the maya node-- and THIS is where th maxwell code slows it down.. so i turned off hardware shading. but left the "hardwaretexture" options in the mxxm attribute edditor to combines... but it still freezes upon load..
so next i turned the TEXTURE CHANNEL form combined to Layer0:ref0 and WITH HARDWARE SHADING OFF it no longer freezes maya for 30 secs (for a 4k image)!!!

SO WHAT i think happens is that there is MAXWELL code that uses maxwell or a maxwellplugin code bit to run the hardware shading...

NOW let me explain that it is most likely a 1.7 enging error.. becasue IF i hit render
:
MAXWELL ENGINE STILL TAKES 16 sec PER 2k file (30secs per 4k file) to Load (Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data STAGE) before it voxelizes... and EVEN in STUDIO and EVEN in MXED standaolne IF I load any file over 512 pixels it takes maxwell tiem to even start the preview render of a sheder in studio OR mxed!!!

this started SPECIFICALY after i install maxwell 1.7 nothing else changed..

I am about to write up a bug thread for it.. as soon as i uninstall maxwell 1.7 and install1.6 to VERIFY it is a 1.7 enging bug..

[3dtrialpractice]

tested 4k images on a 32 bit Windows XP system and maxwell 1.7 and in MXED(my old computer- 3ghz 4g ram win xp) and there was almost NO loading time for a 4 k file (about 2secs only)

So looks like the problem is windows xp 64 bit specific

[3dtrialpractice]

OK HERE IS BUG THREAD:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=28882


after testing it apear that it is the JPG format that is the problem..
Usning a 4k png or better yet a 4 k tiff file both load faster than the 4 k jpg file on windows XP 64 bit running maxwell1.7 64bit...

BUT on windows xp 32bit runing maxwell 1.7 32bit the same 4k jpg loads in less than 2 secs!!! weird.