ZBrushCentral

Excellent Machine Getting Poor System Performance above 1 million Polys

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I recently built a new system with high hopes that it would be able to breeze through my Zbrush projects. Based on my system specs, it should be able to handle essentially anything I throw at it, but the program lags noticeably after subdividing to 1 million polys, and becomes unusable for sculpting at around 5 million. I’m currently using the ZBrush 4R7 64-bit trial.

Here’s my system:

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Intel Core i7-5820k CPU @ 3.30GHz
(6 cores, 12 threads, hyperthreading available)
32 GB RAM

I’ve tried maxing out “Compact Memory” and increased “Max Poly Per Model” under Memory settings, and I ran the multithreading optimizer with meager results (it reported a 15 % increase in performance, but did not fix the issue).

From what I’ve heard, people on much less powerful machines have no trouble working with models in the 10 million poly range. Why is my system experiencing issues? Any help is super appreciated.

#2

Out of curiosity, is the model a parametric object? In other words, is it one of the items in the Tool palette that ends with 3D for the name?

Those models have a MUCH lower polygon cap than polymesh objects do. This is because they are still linked to mathematical equations that get progressively more complex the higher the polygon count gets. If you press the Tool >> Make PolyMesh 3D button and select the new object, this should resolve the issue.

There are certain other things that can have similar results, such as trying to push ZSpheres to a really high polygon count. As with the parametric objects, ZSpheres are an object generator rather than pure geometry. They don’t become actual geometry until you skin them with Make Adaptive Skin or Make Unified Skin. Other object generators in ZBrush have similar poly restrictions and for the same basic reasons.

#3

Check that you don’t have Dynamic Subdivision on in the Tool>Geometry sub-palette. Using this and standard subdivision at the same time is the most common cause of performance issues.