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Intel Inside - Experiment

ZBrush Usage Questions
#41

Thank you dougt, this seems to be holding true. Rosetta takes quite some time to properly reset. I experienced this for the first time the other day doing several things at once. I quite Zbrush to do a few things and had to wait until Rosetta got around to letting go before Zbrush would reopen. Zbrush always starts/reopens fine as long as you don’t rush Rosetta! :wink:

It’s nice to see some consistancy in the responses developing. It’ll help narrow down the issue. It is even better that we can use Zbrush on our new systems. To date we only have 1 failure to get it running at all, and only 1 that seems to be having a fair amount of issues, both MacBookPro notebooks, but mine seems fine. The MacBook’s tested seem fine, the MacPro’s also seem to do the job well.

If everyone would keep thinking of this thread now and again, and posting it would be appreciated.

Happy Zbrushing! :wink:

#42

Just checking in. How are things progressing folks? :wink:

#43

STill using Zbrush daily for long periods. I have finally seen where using a different App during launch aborts can help get Zbrush to launch quickly.

I have now had several instances of Zbrush launching immediately I select it.

I still cannot find out how to eliminate custom windows, created when you use the Control Key and move the item description.

I have tried using a Wacom Tablet and as long as I do not modify the settings in Preferences it works reasonably well. The main problem I have with that is I cannot vary the Brush size or intensity using the pen’s pressure. I I set it up to do that, then painting is like trying to paint with a large square. Although the end result is usually what I am needing, the large square brush is very difficult to use.
As the folks at Pixologic say, it is amazing that Zbrush runs on Intel Macs at all.
I have got to where I am using pretty large meshes and about the only issue I run into here, is more often than not, if my mesh is too dense then I crash out completely during rendering using the best render with antialiasing on. I have a feeling this is partly due to memory limitations 2Gb and will be interested to see what happens when I get my Macpros in this week.

Will pass on any related info

Stuart

#44

I’ve found that I no longer need to reboot to get ZBrush to start or restart. When I open a ZBrush session, I open activity monitor and set the window so I can see all processes. If ZBrush doesn’t stabilize showing at least 44.10 % CPU, it usually drops to zero % CPU and hangs, and the ZBrush process thread turns red and shows a not responding message. I force quit ZBrush at this point AND THE translated process thread too.

I then restart ZBrush. When it stabilizes at 44.10 %CPU, I click on either the desktop or the dock and Zbrush pops open. When it doesn’t work, I repeat till it does. I rarely have to do this more than two or three times.

I’ve been using this process successfully now for over a week.

#45

Thanks people, this is great info. I’ve been testing another approach that has worked 3 times, by weeks end I should know if it does the magic. As for the large, quality render issue - yes! I’ve had that as well, BUT only after several tests. In other words Rosetta is not freeing up RAM properly or in a timely manner. Seems to be a recurring issue with Rosetta, but can be worked around with patience. And of course Rosetta uses quite a bit of RAM, little hog. As for tablets, I’ve had few issues. I have had the weird square once and awhile, but the tablet seems to function properly. I have the latest drivers. :wink:

#46

Overall I ma pretty happy with an application that I was told when I originally purchased it that I would have to wait for the Universal Binary as the current version does not work on the Intel based Macs.
That aside, so far I have never had Zbrush fail to open eventually and as far as the large render goes, I have atendency to push every MOdelling Animation package I have to its limits , mostly to see how well it handles things when the Poly Count is Very High.

As for the Wacom, I have the latest drivers, and I will have to check it out and see exactly where it is that the visual feedback gets corrupted.
It seems to me it is when I set Zbrush to respond to Tablet pressure, but there are 3 items involved with this setting so I will mess around with those to see if it is anything in particular.

I have managed to use it for painting on the Canvas with no real issue, it seems to be when I am trying to sculpt meshes this occurs.

Stuart

#47

Hey zBrushers,
After reading this thread, looks like I’m on the same boat as a poster by the name of “justG” as our system specs and issues are identical. I would really like to run Z2 with the current setup without having to dish out another couple hundred bucks for RAM but I just might have to.

I see poster “Daytona” has a significant RAM upgrade in which it works for them… Do you guys think a 2GB RAM upgrade will be enough to make this work if I do decide to go that route? Of course, if the issue is directly RAM related that is.

Thanks and this forum is awesome!.=)

#48

I have 2GB RAM as my specs show and I can get level 7 details - yes it gets slow around that level (so hide stuff). But let’s face it, we are in emulation mode. And Zbrush 2 was never meant to run at all under the Intel chip set.

If you go through the forum Zbrush makes very efficient use of RAM concerning performance holding your files in memory for speed. The processor handles what you are doing, sculpting, painting, etc… you can look that up for the specific words and factors concerning ‘performance’.

OS X takes RAM and system functions, Rosetta really grabs RAM, Zbrush has to use what is left. I have yet to see a system for graphics not benefit from RAM - make sure your get them ‘paired’!!!

Provide us your feedback…

#49

Well as promised I would let you know how things go with the Mac Pro’s once we got them and so far Zbrush still works fine.

It takes more attempts to launch than it did on the MacBook Pro, but the new System is loaded.

So my Config now is
Mac PRo
Dual Core Intel Zeon 3Ghz
2 Processors
4 Cores
L2 Cache per Processor 4 Mb
Memory 9GB
Graphics card NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
Sony DVD RX DW
1 SATA 500GB Drive
3 Glyph SATA 400Gb Drives (Should have gone with the 700’s)
SO it is loaded, with Software as well.

The machine is red hot and it reflects this in what I can do in Zbrush, which for some reason I thought would be limited but not the case.
THe only issue is the number of launch attempts required is now around 7 as opposed to 3, if there is any obvious Math for that I don’t know what it is, but as usual once it is up, it runs just fine

Stuart

#50

Hey stuartpa, nice system!

Try going even slower, the issue you are probably running into now is the system trying to see how to handle Zbrush through Rosetta for so much power. Hahaha, poor Rosetta, she is really having a hard time in a house of mirrors.

Everytime I think I jave something nailed down to pass on, it fails after a few attempts. However that said, it is nice to hear that it works on such a powerful machine! :wink:

#51

Well so far besides the Launch issue, I feel pretty confident tht most projects that involve Maya or Cinema 4D will work out, I am not too sure if I dare to present Zbrush to a client especially a new one, although I am pretty sure that if I had it up and running first Iwould not hit any real issues.

So basically for me as long as I stay in Zbrush, I am OK, it is when I use something else and dropZB into the background especialy for Long Periods that I get slowdowns and rarely crashes.
I have to admit tht if I had been working on something else wit hZB in the Background, then it seems advisable to Restart Zbrush.

Other than that OK, the thing that bothered e ost was the NVIDIA, and most of my Tri Di’s see OK with it although some of them comment on it on opening so far it has not caused any real problems nad its speed is phenomenal.

#52

Hi all. I’m still having sucess in launching, though today it took about 20 goes before it finally did. I noticed a funny thing though that might mean something to the techies. When attempting to launch, sometimes I would see the word ‘Tutorial View’ above the Projection Master button. Other times it wasn’t there…weird.

#53

Wait longer between launches - you have to let Rosetta reset, she is not the quickest babe! Also make sure you open and close a native app like Preview. It’s all about patience when working under emulation, once open things rock. :wink:

#54

Works fine on my MacPro. I just keep clicking Zbrush until I started. However, the wait under Rosetta resets seem to be on-point. Only thing that concerns me is I can’t seem to ZappLink working at all. Anybody Zapplink working on MacPro?

Machine Name: Mac Pro
Machine Model: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 3 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Cinema HD:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
VGA Display:
Resolution: 1024 x 768 @ 75 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Supported
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported

#55

Hello AVTPro, glad you’re rocking.

Can you provide a little more info on what is and isn’t happening with Zapplink? :wink:

#56

Hi Jason, I have to say, now that I have quite a few items such as Photoshop CS2 and the Creative suite CS2 installed along with quite a few other non UB items, I am beginning to really see the effects of Rosetta.

You do someting in a Power PC App and where it usually resulted in an immediate response on the G5 systems, on the MacPro there is a very definite delay. In Photoshop afte running for awhile you lose and brush shapes and sizes and end up with the Precision cursor all the time which is a real hassle for cloning.

All things considred for an application that is simply not supposed to run at all on this Platform I think that Zbrush does an excellent job once you get it running.

I have noticed I can work with much larger meshes without a massive performance drop on the MacPro with all that RAM than I could with the MacBook Pro with 3 Gigs. RAM is definitely a plus if you want any speed out of PowerPC apps on a MacPro System.
Cinema 4 D Studio and other tht are UBs work like having a new computer which is the purpose I guess. I just hope that the release of Leopard does not mess all the progress we have had with TIger and the new Ub Apps that are on the way. Maybe they will improve Rosetta but in my experience, whatever they fix, they ususally end up breaking somethng else.

I have to thank you on that score for SuperDuper, at least that way, I do not have to commit to a new OS until I know what I can get away with.
Many thanks for that one

Stuart

#57

Thanks for the info Stuartpa, it will help others. We seem to be growing in input as it is on this thread, not necessarily as was expected, but…

I was hoping for a bigger improvement to Rosetta on the last update, they sure did imply more. That said, you just have to be careful not to have to many apps open at once while using anything that runs through Rosetta.

As for Photoshop, you could replace it with Gimp, but your money will be out the window I suppose. Adobe have become a real pain over the last decade. I don’t use those apps anymore for anything. :wink:

As you say, the fact these apps work at all is wonderful and they are pretty efficient once running. :wink:

#58

Quick question, is Gimp as capable as Pshop and as for Illustrator etc is there another Unix Equivalent?.

I hate what Adobe did with the Creative suite, we made them rich with the Old licensing system, but now the yare getting like another well know company.

Thank god for people like Pixologic that have the guts to get out here and try something different at a reasonable price.
Tranferring to the other Mac was easy and hassle free.

Stuart

P.S.
Sorry about the fault spelling etc in my previous missive, but I was really tired. This has been a totally wierd week.

#59

Hey Stuartpa, Gimp is in many people’s opinion way better than PS. It is light, efficient and you can use the same keyboard commands to mke life easy. FilmGimp of course is another amazing tool.

As for Illustrator like app, yes several exist as well. Lineform is pretty impressive. Xara is another great app,Inkscape is yet another good app. More popping up all the time.

Enjoy. :wink:

#60

Well I hopefully will be able to test a new MacBookPro 17" Dual Core 2 with 3GB RAM soon. That should leave Zbrush with a full 2GB RAM to play with and keep that pesky Rosetta babe under control. We’ll see. :wink: