Hello!
I was hoping to get some input and thoughts on a performance issue I’ve been having in ZBrush 2018. I’ve spent almost a week pulling my hair, testing & troubleshooting and researching threads on similar problems but to no avail.
I recently upgraded to ZBrush 2018 from ZBrush Core which I have been using for a couple of months without any issues. When I installed ZBrush 2018 and started working however, I found a very noticable slowdown when zooming in on a tool or subtool. It doesn’t seem to matter if I only have a basic cube, a sphere or a detailed sculpt, whenever I zoom in close and the model start taking up >60-80% of the canvas, the viewport framerates drops to what feels like 5-10fps when panning/rotating the view. However, when zoomed out I have a smooth 60fps experience without stuttering/lag. This is with a single basic tool with <10k polys and dynamic subdivision turned off.
I am wondering if this is a common thing with ZBrush? I can’t recall having this issue with ZBrush Core, which is why I find it a bit confusing. I’ve been comparing it with streamers/videos of users with similar specs less then or equal to mine, but from what I can tell, they aren’t really experiencing this. I’ve tried the full version of ZBrush in the past, but I can’t recall having this issue. With that said, I’m not very experienced with ZBrush and this might be a common thing. It’s working, it’s just that the viewport performance is horrible and laggy when panning/rotating when up close.
I might add that I am very much aware that ZBrush is CPU and RAM dependant and that the GPU is more or less irrelevant. I am also aware that ZBrush isn’t inherently a 3D software and that it’s based on a 2.5D canvas. I’ve also read that ZBrush performs fairly decently on modest hardware and that CPU, RAM, mesh-complexity and document size is the only thing that matters in terms of performance. But at this point, working with a multi-million mesh is pretty unthinkable.
I have plenty of RAM and I’d consider my CPU to be fairly decent and I thus have a hard time justifying the lag. The CPU does spike in usage when panning/zooming up close, but it never really goes above 90%, even with the maximum 8 cores selected and multidraw enabled. ZBrush + OS rarely ever surpasses 5GB used RAM either.
I can fully understand that certain performance drops in the viewport may be considered normal, but this is happening with really lowpoly models and even a single cube. Keeping it zoomed in and panning/rotating the view is painfully choppy and sometimes makes hotkey-keystrokes are even delayed, while zoomed out, it works fine. It’s kind of annoying to work with. Some might remark that it’s wiser to work very zoomed out, but I’d still like to be able to zoom in when doing detailed work.
My current specs are:
OS: Windows 10 Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K, Quad core (8 logical cores) @ 3.5GHz (goes up to 3.9GHz with Intel Turboboost)
RAM: 32 GB DDR3 1600MHz
Disk: 500GB & 120GB SSDs
GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 Ti (Albeit irrelevant to ZBrush)
Below are some of the things I’ve already tried but to no avail:
- Closing programs, removing second monitor. I have no startup programs enabled and did all testing with only ZBrush open and antivirus disabled during installation/activation.
- Update drivers. I reinstalled my OS during my testing and its thus a clean Windows 10 Pro install with the latest bios, chipset, GPU and Windows updates/drivers installed. Had the same issue before reinstalling it. Also updated and eventually removed Wacom drivers and switched to mouse, since it didnt make any difference. Before I reinstalled the OS, I physically cleaned out the PC and installed a CPU watercooler. The system performs excellent during benchmarks and with stays at low temps, even when ZBrush slowdown occurs.
- Create new documents. Performance is poor regardless if I open an existing project, import a model from another software, export/reimport a tool or if I create a entirely new project. I have tried also tried with the demo-files that comes with ZBrush, the issue remains even with the Dynamesh_Sphere_64.ZPR. It thus doesn't seem to be a problem with a specific file/tool.
- Dynamic subdivisions turned off. I've made sure this is the case over and over.
- Lowering the canvas size. I have done all my testing with a 1920x1080 canvas. Lowering it to less than half that size gives a slight performance boost, but I still experience poor performance when zoomed in on a tool.
- Lowering polycount. Polycount/mesh density doesnt seem to matter. I tried it with sculpts and with basic primitives. Subdivisions/higher polycounts decreases the performance further, but I still have the same slowdown issue with a basic cube or a sphere.
- Installation folder. In the ZBrush Knowledgebase it's mentioned that installing the program in the "Program Files (x86)" could cause issues, but I've made sure its installed in the x64-bit "Program Files". Tried installing it on both the OS SSD and the secondary SSD.
- Change scratchdisk location. I've tried changing it between 2 SSD drives and a HDD without any improvements. I've seen the Windows-page file being mentioned in some of the old threads, I have mine set to be managed by the OS, not sure if this could be the culprit. I ran also health/error checks on my disks and they are fine, which should be the case since they are pretty new.
- Reinstalling ZBrush. I've uninstalled ZBrush removed all the leftover files in "/Users/Public Documents/" and reinstalled it 10+ times.
- Compact mem set to 4k, MultiThreading optimized, with QuickAndDirtyEdit and Multidraw enabled. I've also tried compacting memory and played around with the core count, reducing it from 8 cores, but the performance only worsen at lower core counts.
- Re-initlializing ZBrush and removing custom UI. I havn't used any custom UI nor added any Matcaps/Brushes/Alphas etc. I've been running a clean, unmodified install. I've even tried wiping the UI, removing all the buttons and going with a really low resolution document size. This helped a bit, but it didn't really do wonders.
I would really appreciate some guidance. Is this a common things amongst ZBrush users or should I be considering upgrading my PC? At this point I’m pretty clueless about what to do and I just can’t pinpoint a bottleneck. I would prefer not having to upgrade my PC since it’s very much sufficient in all other areas that I use it in. The only thing I can think of at this point is reinstalling Windows yet again and trying to overclock the CPU.
I recorded a short clip of ZBrush in 60fps in which the framerate drop of the viewport is shown. It’s recorded through a capture card, so the recording doesn’t affect the ZBrush performance:
Here’s a screenshort of the viewport, comparing how the area the model is coverage is influencing the rendertime/framerate found in “Preferences > Utilities > Timing Info”:
Any thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated! Cheers!
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