Fly Through Exports Slow in AC17 (and AC16)

[Duncan]

In previous versions when doing a Creative Imagining > Create Fly-Through... and then choosing the 'show' instead of 'save' option I would get quick feedback progressing through each frame at a rapid rate. However, now in AC17 (and after trying workaround I discovered same problem in AC16) it's taking about 20 seconds per frame using a simple model. Has anyone else encountered this problem?


I first encountered this in 17. The model is only slabs with embedded custom jpgs (large) applied to the surface. I saved down to 16 and the problem persisted. In both 17 & 16 the show does not work at all unless I make all the slabs white (simple material). The save is extremely slow and doesn't show the individual frames. Then I saved down to 15 and everything ran smoothly using both the 'show' and 'save' method.

'3d Window' (OpenGL), 'Perspectives from Camera Path', 'with inbetween frames', 'all frames' were selected as the options for the Fly-Through. My 3d window settings are OpenGL, with transparency, and no sunshadows. This must be software/driver related to AC16/AC17. The size of the jpgs of the materials shouldn't be an issues as it works smoothly with the same high quality images in AC15.

Any response or advice would be extremely helpful as visualization a important to our work.

[Karl Ottenstein]

What are your computer specs? Particularly your display adapter model and amount of video memory?

[Duncan]

Win 7 64, Core2 Extreme X9650 (quad core), 8gb ram, nvidia geforce 9800gtx+, 512 dedicated graphics ram, 3583mb shared memory (uses space on raid 0 ssd config).

Why does it work fine with AC15 and not 16 or 17? Are they that much more complicated graphically? 3900 poly count.

[Karl Ottenstein]

That meets/exceed the minimal specs for 17, although the 9800gtx is a somewhat medium/low end card by today's standards.

No idea why 15 would be fast vs 16/17, unless GS changed the way they used OpenGL and/or the textures are not being cached in the card as the frames are generated. Is it possible that your AC 15 is 32 bit but 16/17 are 64 bit, yet you are running 32 bit display driver software?

Have you checked that you are using the most current 64 bit Win7 drivers for the 9800gtx?
http://www.geforce.com/drivers
Most recent drivers seem to have been released at the end of August.

[Duncan]

Good call on the outdated driver, but alas, it was not the culprit. Still slow after download and install of most recent ones.

Everything is 64bit version/drivers. Although I understand the 9800gtx is not even a good card by today's standards I feel that having it work properly in 15 should mean it would work in a later versions too. Plus, it's a very very simple model compared to files I've used in the past on this machine.

Thank you for the input Karl.

[Karl Ottenstein]

You're welcome. Sorry it didn't resolve the issue. You might want to contact tech support?

[Duncan]

Update: I've tested the file on other computers now (better specs than my office desktop), and tend to think that it's a combination of the large image (surface) coupled with whatever OpenGL programming/drivers within ArchiCAD. Results are the same: everything works fine in AC15, but both 'show' and 'save' are still significantly slower if not unusable. With simpler surfaces they work better in AC16,AC17 but still not as smooth as in AC15.

The main reason I'd like this to work better in 17 is because the BIMx (17) can now adopt 1 path as a smooth video, rather than previous versions where you had to record a path live in BIMx; this method would always yield jumpy vids unfit for presentations. In order to set it up in the AC17 file I would need to 'show' it several times over to edit the path and camera focal points for best results.

Tech support is next step.