What is the best Graphics card and memory to use

[Anonymous]

I have recently begun exploring he walk through function of ArchiCad, and am curious about speed....or more precisely, the lack of it. I have a four year old Mac G5 with an ATI radeon 9600 Pro graphics card with 64MB VRAM. Other info on the computer: dual 2 GHz processors, 1.5GB DDR SDRAM, L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB, 1GHz Bus speed. Does any one out there have suggestions on what can be done ( if anything) to speed up the ability of this machine to do Photo Render Walkthroughs? Any advice would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jeff.

[Dwight]

Even for a Mac, four years is ancient. I wouldn't be surprised if you opened up your machine and found it full of white beard hair.

I have just abandoned MY four year old G5 dual Mac - but with a 256 Mg video card [to the wife]. 64 Mgis hardly enough to generate an OpenGL window fully rendered. 128 or 256 is swell.

You have a minimum system there for rendering - You should have a minimum of 2.5 Gb RAM to run that machine AND Archicad rendering at the same time.

Here's what you do:

Recommended: Drop $4G on a new machine with enough RAM [16GB] and a 512 Mg Video card. Zoom.

OR - for no money, reduce the size and quality of LightWorks renderings.
My book has a number of suggestions and identifies pitfalls - like overlapping refractive glazing - that unreasonably extend rendering time.

OR: also for no money, abandon photorendering. Stick with OpenGL textured views. Most viewers accept a coarser transitional animation that cross-fades to a fine still rendering. This can happen in near real-time.

OR, for less money than a new machine, Get Artlantis. It makes images faster and prettier than LightWorks, has a smoother camera control, and has many other productivity benefits like previews. RECOMMENDED.

Clarification: While the CPU BUILDS the 3D view, OpenGL renders it as you navigate in 3D. OpenGL primarily uses the RAM on the video card to do this.

[Anonymous]

That is a bummer. I really see a lot of very cool potential with this program, but we (mostly) build steel frame buildings and I am sure my boss won't come up with that much of a new computer for me to play with. The walk through that I started on Friday @ 7:00 a.m. finished at 1:30 a.m. on saturday. It turned out pretty good for a first time, but a little jerky. Luckily I have a second computer to do them on while I work. Thanks for the answer. Jeff

[Dwight]

Do you mean "Steel buildings" derisively, as lousy unappealing shacks unworthy of appealing representation, or "Steel buildings" as a marvelous portent of an efficient and green future representing numerous polygons and a real modeling/rendering challenge?

Since steel buildings are made of many tiny and complex elements, imaging them is particularly demanding even if they will be occupied by grunting swine. Even designers of pretentious concert halls face this problem.

Get your boss excited by what you can do and figure out how this 3D rendering stuff will actually help you sell buildings or communicate their details or produce another benefit to the firm. Then he will spend.

And we keep returning to suggest Artlantis that will do these renderings more quickly and to a higher degree or artistry than LightWorks will.

[Anonymous]

I actually meant Steel Buildings As Big empty warehouses, but your post did open my eyes to the fact that there is a lot of detail inside and out of these buildings. As for the ArchiCad / Artlantis thing, I fell Challenged to learn the A/C light program. Keep hitting the wall 'till you break through kind of thing.... .

[Dwight]

Or your head smashes open like a five day old honey dew.

Only a really hard headed person wouldn't get the Artlantis tryout. After you recover from your spontaneous defecation, you can go back to LightWorks.

2.0 demo not yet - just try 1.2

http://www.abvent.com/support/download/

[Anonymous]

Actually I have a full version of Artlantis 1.4. I usually do my self teaching at home though, and I can not load this onto my laptop...

[Dwight]

He knows from obfuscation.


Artlantis Studio 1.2

Try it for 30 minutes.

Quit being chicken.

[Anonymous]

Yep, Artlantis is easy and actually bordering on fun.

Now, speaking of Artlantis...is anyone else unable to get to http://www.artlantis.com or even http://www.abvent.com?
Just want to know if its only me.
Thanks.

[Djordje]

Jeff wrote:
I actually meant Steel Buildings As Big empty warehouses, but your post did open my eyes to the fact that there is a lot of detail inside and out of these buildings. As for the ArchiCad / Artlantis thing, I fell Challenged to learn the A/C light program. Keep hitting the wall 'till you break through kind of thing.... .

Yep, big empty warehouses can be quite a task ... currently finishing about 60 000 m2 of them ...

... and yes, Artlantis works wonders. It is nice to hear the clients ooohing and aaaahing 😉 BTW, 2 is out - enjoy it!