ZBrushCentral

OS X Lion and Zbrush

ZBrush Usage Questions
#41

Since I am also using Photoshop and Sketchbook, I have to say that this cannot be a (solely) Wacom driver related issue since Autodesk released an update to Sketchbook Pro which now works perfectly under Lion, no lagging at all.
And Photoshop never had the problem with any of my computers to begin with.

I do think this is a hardware related issue, since ZBrush works fine on the Mac Pro but all other machines show problems. However, given the fact that Sketchbook worked fine on the Mac Pro as well but not on the other computers but now, after the update, it does, I would strongly suggest that Pixologic gets their act together and stops putting the blame on Wacom, simply stating that they do not have this problem because they seem to be unable to reproduce what many users experience. It is their job to find out what is causing the problem and to find a solution.

Maybe there is a correlation between ZBrush and Wacom, but the problem cannot be solely on Wacom’s side, otherwise Autodesk would probably not have been able to fix the problems people had with Sketchbook Pro.

#42

Adobe just updated Sketchbook Pro and now it works perfectly. SO perhaps its NOT a wacom issue but it is in actual fact a per app issue with Lion. :cry:

Mike

#43

well this is just… Peachy…
Having to use bootcamp in order to use zbrush… just isn’t the same :stuck_out_tongue:

#44

The response I got back from Wacom when I asked was that they hadn’t heard anything about ZBrush not working properly. I directed the rep to this thread and his response was:

“Many ZBrush customers have actually found that if they open the Preferences inside of Zbrush and open the Performance Preferences, if they disable MultiDraw their performance increases greatly when using the tablet. It’s not perfect but it does appear to be a bug in that ZBrush software, and please know that we’re committed to helping them in any way that we can.”

The MultiDraw thing didn’t work for me so that led to throwing my hands up and just starting over with a clean Snow Leopard install. Took about 4 hours to reinstall all of my stuff, but I’m glad I did. Got rid of a lot of junk cluttering up my HD. Hope Apple can clear up the bugs within the next couple of point releases.

#45

I’ve found the solution!

The issue has something to do with ram, lion and zbrush. My Mac Pro running lion has 8gb and I’ve had no issue with zbrush and wacom under Lion. My issue was with the wacom intros 4 and zbrush running on my MacBook pro with only 4 gb ram. After upgrading my MacBook pro to 8gb, the stuttering wacom issues are now gone and zbrush is running on my MacBook pro just as good as it did under snow leopard.

So this is a combination of issues. I personally don’t fault the lion OS and Apple as all companies should have had plenty of time with the beta. Anyone or company could have downloaded beta copies of lion by joining the Mac developer program. It costs 99.00. I’m an iOS developer and know how this works.

My feeling is that Pixologic should have been testing this more thoroughly. I think the issue with ZBrush is that not many users are running Z with a measly 4 gb of ram, so the underlying problem went largely undetected. Something in Lion did change, but it seems to me that Pixologic should have seen this early through their testing with the Lion Beta.

Neither Mudbox or Sculptris had this issue running on lion, so this clearly becomes a combination of ZBrush and Wacom. It could be that the problem mostly lies on the wacom drivers, but how would they know unless Pixologic tells them there is a suspected issue.

I hope this posts helps. I’m now back to running ZBrush on my laptop and am happily Z-sculpting again ; )

Wes

#46

Zbrush is much smoother, if not perfect yet, after uninstalling divx from my computer. A crash in zbrush I could repeat every time is completely gone now that divx is gone. I used zbrush all day yesterday with not a single crash or feeling that it might crash.

My whole computer seems much more stable and feels better as well now. (This actually is the same on Snow Leopard. It is running better on my old macbook with divx now removed.) My dad has now also removed divx and initial tests are he is finally happy again with the general running of his computer.

Brush strokes do at times still have slight juddery issues when using my wacom tablet but I am working on that.

If nothing else give it a try. You may find your computer just feels better.

Mike

#47

Hi All

I waited for the update on the lion before my move,in the hope that it would fix the worst diseases

Now i have actually updated to Lion and seems like Zbrush 4R2 are the Only Program Running BAD,its lagging like crazy
iv heard it should be a Wacom driver problem? i just updated my driver to 6.1.7-4 and the Problem still there…
If i use a mouse it seems fine…

I find it extremely annoying that there aint any information about this, from Pixologic or Wacom side…if thats where the problem is.

Seem pretty hard to figure out any information around this issue in general,so i guess that people in here would be the one to share info with…

Anyone else have this problem and maybe found a solution to it?

I Have made a Clean install of Lion and don’t have any divx on it as the previous suggested,still the same.

:slight_smile:

Cheers

#48

Hey,

To fix this issue, I go to Preferences > Performance and turn off MultiDraw. This stops the stuttering with the wacom completely. I have to do this each time I fire up ZBrush as I can’t seem to get this setting change to store in the Config after clicking Store Config.

This should fix your issue. It’s crazy that this hasn’t been addressed by Pixologic. I think this is a ZBrush problem and not Wacom. Every other app I have including Mudbox runs perfectly fine in Lion. Just turning off the MultiDraw fixes the issue. The problem is that this issue is only a small number of users. ZBrush works fine on my desktop, but stutters with Wacom on Mac Book Pro. There’s some combination of MultiDraw and hardware that’s causing the issue. I think it’s effecting such a small number that it’s not a priority for Pixologic, which for us, is unfortunate.

Hope this helps!

Wes

#49

you are not the only one.

wacom and zbrush point their fingers at eachother. no one is taking the responsibility for the major gliche.

i cannot use LION os because of the wacom issue with zbrush

unfortunately, both pixologic and wacom will not listen to our complaints. they simply tell you. “its not something we see on our end, try contacting your products _______ tech support”

i hope pixologic will see this thread and help us out fix this issue

#50

multidraw helps but doesnt solve the issue.

its a wacom and zbrush issue together. if you use a mouse with zbrush, its perfect

when you plug in a wacom and zbrush, LAG!

#51

yes me too, still gots the lag
its a bit better on my stronger mac pro
almost unusable on macbook pro, sans multidraw helps a bit
learning to live with it :cry:

#52

Has anyone seen a fix to this yet? I haven’t looked back since doing the fresh install back to Snow Leopard. Actually, I haven’t really heard much about Lion at all since its release. No “you have to get Lion because (insert great reason here).”

#53

pixologic and wacom dont seem to care enough to make it a big deal. it’s been a while now since this thread has started and yet not attempt from those corporations to do a single thing.

multidraw helps yes, but you still see a noticeable lag at the end. not fun when all you want to do is sculpt

for those with the big mac machines with serious power and the need to run Lion. best suggestion is to run windows zbrush

for those who want to see a fix. please help and post your complaints.

#54

I just tried the Cintiq 12wx to a brand new 21,5 i5 iMac with lion…
The same problem here…
Its unusable…:frowning: Such a shame that none of the two companies do or post something…:confused:

#55
#56

I just tried a friend’s 4gb memory module in my 2011 iMac…so the total memory is 8gb…
the Wacom is STILL unusable…
so beware…upgrading memory is NOT the solution to the problem!

I also have a hackintosh system q9550 intel with 4gb ram and an ati card with lion…guess what…
the Wacom runs flawlessly in zbrush…!
so I don’t know where the problem is…However I must note that the lion was installed as an upgrade to snow leopard and NOT with a clean install…I don’t know if this is the reason or not , however it is a culprit…

#57

Hello

I’m using ZB4R2 on my macbook pro (core2duo and 2Gb RAM) and when I connect either my old Bamboo or my new Cintiq 24HD, ZB is lagging (little freeze every second).
The issue is that the CPU is running at more than 100% every time ZB is the front task. If I switch with option+tab on another program without quitting ZB, the CPU ration decrease instantly.
If I deselect multidraw, I can use ZB without lag and I see my CPU ratio is about 50-80%, which is better.
I’m on OSX Lion with last version of Wacom drivers.
So, for me, the issue is on CPU but I don’t know why…but it’s pretty annoying…

#58

any news for the issue with the new version of Zbrush?

#59

We tried to do some changes in ZBrush which may fix this issue. Unfortunately, this is a problem that we can’t reproduce internally or with our betatesters, which of course, make things complex to solve.

#60

Wacom released a new driver. It actually improved the jittery and lag when using Zbrush on the lion OS.

its a small start. But I can say its ok to finally work within the Lion OS