Unbearable Max UI lag with Octane viewport open Tweet

[senorpablo]

Using version 4.01.1, the Max UI becomes absolutely unbearable when an Octane viewport is open.

Max viewport drops to 3-4fps from 150-250. Selecting different objects in the scene, for example lights, takes 2 seconds for the Max modify panel UI to refresh. This is with a locked camera, and no modifications being made to the scene whatsoever, so there should be zero information being sent to the video card with respect to Octane. Setting all cards to low priority makes no difference. Performance does not improve after the scene is finished rendering(max samples achieved) either.

Please try out Vray GPU. One thing that stood out to me after using Octane was how there was zero perceptible difference in using Max while Vray GPU was rendering. It's completely fluid and transparent. They obviously made this a priority and it shows.

[Goldorak]

Using version 4.01.1, the Max UI becomes absolutely unbearable when an Octane viewport is open.

Max viewport drops to 3-4fps from 150-250. Selecting different objects in the scene, for example lights, takes 2 seconds for the Max modify panel UI to refresh. This is with a locked camera, and no modifications being made to the scene whatsoever, so there should be zero information being sent to the video card with respect to Octane. Setting all cards to low priority makes no difference. Performance does not improve after the scene is finished rendering(max samples achieved) either.

Please try out Vray GPU. One thing that stood out to me after using Octane was how there was zero perceptible difference in using Max while Vray GPU was rendering. It's completely fluid and transparent. They obviously made this a priority and it shows.

This doesn't seem right. If you have multiple GPUs on this system, can you try disabling Octane on the display GPU and see if that solves the issue?

[senorpablo]

Using version 4.01.1, the Max UI becomes absolutely unbearable when an Octane viewport is open.

Max viewport drops to 3-4fps from 150-250. Selecting different objects in the scene, for example lights, takes 2 seconds for the Max modify panel UI to refresh. This is with a locked camera, and no modifications being made to the scene whatsoever, so there should be zero information being sent to the video card with respect to Octane. Setting all cards to low priority makes no difference. Performance does not improve after the scene is finished rendering(max samples achieved) either.

Please try out Vray GPU. One thing that stood out to me after using Octane was how there was zero perceptible difference in using Max while Vray GPU was rendering. It's completely fluid and transparent. They obviously made this a priority and it shows.

This doesn't seem right. If you have multiple GPUs on this system, can you try disabling Octane on the display GPU and see if that solves the issue?

Makes no appreciable difference.

[Goldorak]

Is this new in V4 or did this happen on V3 as well?

[senorpablo]

Is this new in V4 or did this happen on V3 as well?

Couldn't say. I've not worked with this particular scene in any other version. It's only 2.5 mil polys, about 1000 objects and minimal texture maps.

[paride4331]

Hi senorpablo,
I made this clip starting from 2.5 mil to 4,3 mil; could you told me what do you think about?
Did I understand your workflow? Have you issue working like this?
Regards
Paride

[senorpablo]

Hi senorpablo,
I made this clip starting from 2.5 mil to 4,3 mil; could you told me what do you think about?
Did I understand your workflow? Have you issue working like this?
Regards
Paride

Thanks for taking the time on this. The viewport fps in your movie shows that it's dropping as low as 2 fps. The average is more like 8-20.

That's similar to what I'm experiencing on the low end, but without altering anything that effects the Octane scene. I'm just navigating around the viewports, not changing the camera or position of any objects. The material editor performance is worse, taking a second or more to update after each click in the UI. The thing I don't understand is, why is Octane consuming GPU resources when it's done rendering, and nothing in the scene is changing?

It's really tough to work with software running at 2 fps. The alternative is constantly opening and closing the Octane Viewport, which is also time consuming.

[paride4331]

Hi senorpablo,
I think fps is not so precise and seems discontinuous. As you can see, Octane does not use GPUs after rendering.
Did you use "Quick update mode" in OctaneRender Viewport?
Regards
Paride

[senorpablo]

Hi senorpablo,
I think fps is not so precise and seems discontinuous. As you can see, Octane does not use GPUs after rendering.
Did you use "Quick update mode" in OctaneRender Viewport?
Regards
Paride

In my tests, even when rendering is complete, the performance is severely degraded compared with no open Octane Viewport. I expect you will get the same results. Perhaps my assumption that this is due to GPU utilization is incorrect. Maybe the Octane plugin is slowing Max down on the CPU when the viewport is open? There is also no good reason for the material editor to be so slow. It takes one second for the UI to refresh clicking from one shader to the next, with no parameters changing. It doesn't matter if an Octane viewport is open or not. What is Octane doing in this case that makes it so slow? It takes me back to 1995.

As for the Max fps counter not being accurate, when you get down to below 10 fps you can see and feel that accurately without a readout I think you'll agree.

The Quick update does seem to help the framerate. What does that do and why wouldn't someone want this on all the time?

I have tried my scene on another computer and it's significantly faster at the minimum(down to 10-20 or so instead of 3), but the slowdown is still very significant, compared to 150 fps with no open Octane viewport. And, the material editor is still extremely slow.

Is Octane using callbacks to get messages from Max to decide when to update things, or is it just somehow manually checking all the time, because that's what it feels like.

[coilbook]

Hi senorpablo,
I think fps is not so precise and seems discontinuous. As you can see, Octane does not use GPUs after rendering.
Did you use "Quick update mode" in OctaneRender Viewport?
Regards
Paride

In my tests, even when rendering is complete, the performance is severely degraded compared with no open Octane Viewport. I expect you will get the same results. Perhaps my assumption that this is due to GPU utilization is incorrect. Maybe the Octane plugin is slowing Max down on the CPU when the viewport is open? There is also no good reason for the material editor to be so slow. It takes one second for the UI to refresh clicking from one shader to the next, with no parameters changing. It doesn't matter if an Octane viewport is open or not. What is Octane doing in this case that makes it so slow? It takes me back to 1995.

As for the Max fps counter not being accurate, when you get down to below 10 fps you can see and feel that accurately without a readout I think you'll agree.

The Quick update does seem to help the framerate. What does that do and why wouldn't someone want this on all the time?

I have tried my scene on another computer and it's significantly faster at the minimum(down to 10-20 or so instead of 3), but the slowdown is still very significant, compared to 150 fps with no open Octane viewport. And, the material editor is still extremely slow.

Is Octane using callbacks to get messages from Max to decide when to update things, or is it just somehow manually checking all the time, because that's what it feels like.

This is my problem (video attached) similar to yours. Also if octane viewport is opened and I have phoenix fd smoke in the scene and I move time slider then scene gets slow even after closing and reopening it. Octane permanently ruins the scene.