I think thats the tablet mode I mentioned thats ghosted out. Installed the msi, which should instal the correct version. I hate to deactivate and uninstall, because if theres an issue, they aren’t open on weekends.
You mean the SurfacePro4_Win10_161001_0.msi file? I would say ignore that and directly install the 64bit WinTab exe file. Unless I’m mistaken and you already have.
Yeah, I just checked, and the file sizes for the msi and the zip file were way different. For anyone else’s reference, I downloaded the zip, extracted that, and installed the exe from there… reboot, and bazinga, its finally working properly! Yay!
Thanks for the assist! This has been bugging me for months, but I’ve been too busy to address the issue.
This quite small 10" Panasonic Toughpad tablet PC has a Wacom stylus. I wonder if it will work as well as a Surface Pro? It would fit in my book bag.
Not baed on the specs…it might be not quite as good as the bottom line surface, but I don’t see pressure sensitivity, half the storage, 1/4 the ram, windows 8 vs 10, no sd memory expansion, a screen half the size, and a bottom line processor. If you are going to spend that much, you should just save a bit longer and buy at least a mid range surface. I’ve got the top tier surface 4 pro, and find zbrush runs fine…but that’s running much more robust hardware, and zbrush can be very demanding.
(My surface 4 is the $1800 version.
You really want a keyboard as well if it can handle one.
It looks like here they are comparing it favorably to the original surface pro, released ages ago. (The surface 1, not the 4th generation)
https://versus.com/en/microsoft-surface-pro-128gb-vs-panasonic-toughpad-fz-g1
I want something small, for casually learning ZBrush during commutes or over lunch. I wonder if there’s something more powerful then? The Surface mini was sadly canceled and the 4 is great but not compact.
The thing is, you need horsepower ram and sto rage to do zbrush decently. The top of the line I7 surface pro can handle it, but if you push it too hard it can end up lacking as well.
Afree watching reviews of zbrush on the smallet and older surfaces, it made sense to spend $300 more and get something moderately capable.
For my use, the top shelf surface pro is perfect.
Why would you expect to spend half the cost of the software on the hardware needed to run it?
Honestly, I’d just get the 1 year interest free financing on it at best buy like I did, and have something that can handIe it, and that you won’t want to replace in a year.
In addition to Gareee’s points, take a look at the physical specs
$1750
Panasonic ToughPad 10.1"
i5, 4g, 128GB
10.6 x 7.4 x 0.8
$1900
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3"
i7, 16g, 512GB
11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33
That Panasonic is THICK… over twice the thickness. Whatever bag you’re planning to cram the Panasonic into, its pocket will just as easily stow the Surface Pro. Respective circumference measurements of 16.4" vs 16.46" (height & depth x 2). The only difference from there is that the Surface Pro is barely an inch longer. For that relatively negligible difference in size, you’re losing over 2 inches of screen space and getting thicker bezels on the Panasonic.
Cost-wise, the $150 difference has you losing a lot more muscle and storage with a ToughPad. Back when I was shopping, the i7, 256GB SP4 was priced at $1800. I opted for the 512GB version at over $2400. That very same model is now under $1900. With ZBrush’s history-saving button toggled, my last two sculpt files were 1.7GB and over 4GB. No storage anxieties with the 512GB SSD.
With the i7 and 16GB RAM, when I’m blocking-in, sculpting, dynameshing, zremeshing, the cooling fan stays off (testament to ZBrush’s efficiency). When I’ve gotten beyond a 2million polygon sculpt and transition into polypainting or hit the BPR button, the fan occasionally comes on quietly and then stops when I’m sculpting again. By comparison, the fan kicks in throughout most of my sessions tinkering in Rhino CAD. Rhino being a solo-core app might be the cause.
Two additional Surface Pro features I really appreciate now. The face-detecting front camera for instant, painless login and the kickstand that permits a very Cintiq-like stance – whether waiting for my preschooler in the car lane or on the tray table during a flight. Being able to ZBrush anywhere without worrying about insufficient power, storage or battery life has been everything I could’ve hoped for. Still resisting the use of their TypeCover. My RadialMenu config continues to work for me. If there’s that odd key I need to hit or if I’m renaming a subtool, a click of the eraser button is custom-configured to pop-up the onscreen keyboard.
Just ran the ZBrush benchmarking utility (Preferences > Performance > Test Multithreading)
Surface Pro 4
i7 6650U 2.20Ghz
16GB Ram
Windows 10 x64
ZBrush 4R7 Patch3 x64
Single Thread Timer = 2.731
Multi Thread Timer = 1.189987
Multithreading performance = 229%
Interestingly, I’m opposite… I use the typecover 99% of the time, and really love it. For freehand drawing or painting though, I prefer tablet mode without it kind of like having a digital drawing tablet. I’ve been running my surface in agrees I’ve processor mode, and that does eat battery fast, so maybe I need to roll back to standard to see how zbrush performs. I figured I’d need the extra horsepower all the time, but it looks like that’s just draining tge battery faster, and is only needed upon occasion.
Hey guys,
I have a surface book and I was wondering if anyone has ran into the same issue that I have. Whenever sculpting in Zbrush when pressing the Alt,Ctrl, or shift button on the key board an annoying pop up icon comes up. The icon is a yellow box displaying what ever button you are pressing at the moment e.g. shift, ctrl, or alt. Microsoft is not helpful at all. There solution does not fix the issue. I did a google search trying to see if anyone else has had this issue and sure enough there are people with the same issue.I am wondering if any of you who are using the Surface book or Pro and use zbrush have a fix to this or if you even have the same issue. Thanks guys
Mike