Ever since I updated to ZBrush_2021 +plus or higher it has lagged and I can’t seem to figure it out. I am only at 4 million polygons total with two subtools and it starts to stress my PC which has 32gb of Ram. If I had to guess it would be my MaxThreads performance tab which is set to 7 (max is 8). I uninstalled ZBrush_2021.6.2 and reinstalled 2021 and it works just fine now. I re-checked my MaxThreads in the old version of Zbrush_2020 and it gave me the option for having Optimal to be unlimited and not just max setting of 8. Does anyone know how to set it higher or unlimited in ZBrush_2021.6.2? Thanks!
Hi @danpants
It’s possible that you activated Dynamic Subdivision (Tool > Geometry > Dynamic Subdiv > Dynamic) which uses the hotkeys “D” and “Shift+D”. If you already had multiple subdivisions then enabling Dynamic Subdivison while you are on a higher subdivision level will really lag your mouse or pen. The reason it worked OK after you re-installed is because it is turned off by default. This has usually been the result of lagging issues for quite some time now. Just make sure that Dynamic Subdivision is turned off if it happens again. If that is not your issue, then contacting Suppoort will probably be a good idea. Nobody knows the software better than the developers.
Hello @danpants,
Max # threads minus 1 is the default setting for most CPUs. If you click the “optimal” button, it will set the threads to this value. Using the maximum possible number of threads won’t improve your performance significantly, but it might cause problem elsewhere on your system if ZBrush is tying up all your threads.
What do you mean by “stressing your pc”? High CPU usage and fans ramping up? This isn’t necessarily unusual.
Please note that a 4 million polygon mesh will start to become performance intensive if there are no lower levels of subdivision to preview while navigating, especially if polyframe mode is enabled.
ZBrush has seen significant performance gains over the course of the 2021 development cycle. In most situations it is much faster than previous versions and it will utilize your CPU to a greater degree than it did previously. This is not a bug, but rather ZBrush making greater use of available resources than it did previously. If those resources are available and ZBrush decides it can use them, it will.
If you’d like us to take a closer look at your system and installation, please contact Pixologic Support and start a conversation there.
Thank you!