What do I need for a fast Game Dev workflow

manilamerc

I have been reading some forums here on polycount on what to get. I use the Xoliul Shader for my character modeling. So far I bought 8 Gigs of Ram now having a total of 14 Gigs of ram.

However that did not solve my issue for fast workflow. I have read that I need good GPU more than anything since I'm using the Xoliul Shader and that CPU offline renders are quite expensive. What I think I need to buy is a new graphics card.

But I'm totally sure. Not even sure if I said makes sense. But... If you guys know anything about this stuff please let me know

WarrenM

Experience. :P

SnowInChina

i think you mixed up workflow with processing speed
and there it depends
most programms use the cpu (gpu is on the rise !) for rendering out maps, so the more cpu cores the faster it usually is (at least if the programm you use supports more than one core for rendering)

if you are using programms that render out maps using the gpu, a faster graphic card would speed up things

repete

WarrenM wrote: »

Experience. :P

+1

a fast cpu + gpu and modo 801, sorry could not resist:)

Shadownami92

I think what he's saying is that his workflow may be slowed down by his hardware and is asking for suggestions on what to do about it.

I imagine without a graphics card that can comfortably handle real-time shaders in viewport, he's using software rendering to preview his models which takes a lot more time to render.

Which if that is the case he would need a graphics card that could work to have the viewport shaders running well.

However I don't think that is that big of a factor until you get to the texturing part of making a 3d model.

But even then if he is talking about workflow how most people see it, you can easily work around that limitation since you can generally view a simple shader with spec and normals in any modeling application fine, which should be enough for a large portion of the creation process.

In that case it would definitely be all down to experience, and if you need to speed up more after getting said experience it will be about studying your workflow and seeing where it can be improved such as which tasks do you commonly do over and over and finding ways to automate tasks or simply making it easier to access tools that are used more commonly and setting them to more comfortable hotkeys. Along with that you can search for tools that fit specific needs that would also further improve efficiency in your workflow.

RobeOmega

My workflow I think is slowed by 8 gigs of horrible RAM and a terrible GPU when your high poly is so choppy you need to hide some parts and when Cryengine is running at 50 fps in a scene with hardly anything in it on low

manilamerc

Shadownami92 wrote: »

I think what he's saying is that his workflow may be slowed down by his hardware and is asking for suggestions on what to do about it.

I imagine without a graphics card that can comfortably handle real-time shaders in viewport, he's using software rendering to preview his models which takes a lot more time to render.

Which if that is the case he would need a graphics card that could work to have the viewport shaders running well.

However I don't think that is that big of a factor until you get to the texturing part of making a 3d model.

But even then if he is talking about workflow how most people see it, you can easily work around that limitation since you can generally view a simple shader with spec and normals in any modeling application fine, which should be enough for a large portion of the creation process.

In that case it would definitely be all down to experience, and if you need to speed up more after getting said experience it will be about studying your workflow and seeing where it can be improved such as which tasks do you commonly do over and over and finding ways to automate tasks or simply making it easier to access tools that are used more commonly and setting them to more comfortable hotkeys. Along with that you can search for tools that fit specific needs that would also further improve efficiency in your workflow.

When I say workflow I was referring to the lag I get when there's lots of polys in Max or Zbrush. I want it to be smooth when I rotate the camera around my character. I bought a new graphics card and I'm not sure how good it is. It's a Zotac Nividia Geforce gt 630. Theres a refund so I can return it. To view my maps I'm using the Xoluil Shader which is designed to view the maps that look already in game. So I guess that's a real time shader? It's just laggy. The main thing I want to do is get rid of my lag.

this is my processor

MDiamond

How poly-heavy is that scene/character?
I still work at home with my ancient GeForce 250 and 6 Gbs of Ram and use all the applications with no issues whatsoever. I'm building a new and more powerful rig this year though.

manilamerc

11,000 polys and 22,000 tri

I tried something else though which got rid of the lag. I switched my driver to Open Gl and it was quite smooth. But my textures are gone and turned into black.

manilamerc

I think it has something to do with the Xoluil Shader and how it works. My Ram is 14gb I was told my graphics card is good. Every time I set my driver to Open Gl the lag goes away but my textures are gone. When I set back to Direct 3D the textures are back but lag comes back. The Xoluil guide tells me to set to Direct 3D so thats what I did.

Now I wonder if all Xoliul users deal with this.

manilamerc

Well I figured it out, It's because my decimated high poly mesh that I used to retopo was in the scene but hidden. When you hide objects the lag becomes less laggy. But if you delete them then the lag is totally gone.

So basically I bought a 110 dollar 8gb of ram 100 dollar graphic card for no reason

Eric Chadwick

More RAM is always a good idea for 3d artists, especially if you are using Zbrush, Photoshop, and a 3d app like Maya or Max. Not a waste!

manilamerc

perna wrote: »

If you're experiencing problems with 22k tris, it has absolutely no connection whatsoever with how powerful your hardware is. You're experiencing software issues.

22k tris will run fast on pretty much any hardware in existence, including certain old type writers, soda machines and those little metal lid things on top of the bit at the end of rubber hoses.

My character was 11k polys but what I had hidden was my decimated meshes I used for my retopo. So everything in the scene was about 280,000 polys and 292,000 tris. Hiding things help the scene move smoother but deleting them is better. I don't know... does 280,000 poly seem too little to lag?

passerby

perna wrote: »

If you're experiencing problems with 22k tris, it has absolutely no connection whatsoever with how powerful your hardware is. You're experiencing software issues.

22k tris will run fast on pretty much any hardware in existence, including certain old type writers, soda machines and those little metal lid things on top of the bit at the end of rubber hoses.

Would you recommend a render farm of typewriters and soda machines than?

Nam.Nguyen

Of course the more powerful machine, is always better

but my opinion, practice and EXP make you work faster, more Ram, fancy GPU, CPU, . . . just make your computer run faster, not you

manilamerc

I'm not worried about workflow in terms of how I get things done in a specific order or using hot keys. I was mainly talking about the laggy camera rotations I get when I'm in 3ds max and Zbrush.

Shrike

GTX 630 is a very cheap budget card that is definitely the bottleneck here , its just weak and needs replacement

Also always try updating your drivers first. Are you using a laptop ? Is it possible your program runs on the CPU integreated GPU ? (Intel HD3000/4000) Is your laptop connected to the energy network ?

In general a SSD is also a great workflow enhancer, but it looks like GPU / CPU is the issue here.

Also run the windows performance check in system control panel.

manilamerc

I'm using a desktop computer. I called a computer store and he said that they changed the naming scheme from the hundreds to the thousands for ex: GTX 6000 to GTX 500. So he said the hundreds are better. I'm not sure if he's being a prick or if that's the case but I had a feeling that what I bought wasn't too good

iconoplast

Each set of nvidia cards is grouped by the first number. (They were indeed numbered by thousands back in the day, and they've been on hundreds for quite a while now. That said, I believe the integrated mobile cards are still numbered in the thousands.) The problem in using that as a guideline as to how 'good' the card is, though, is that a higher-end card from an earlier series can be better than a lower-end card from a newer one. The best breakdown of what graphics cards you should get in different price ranges is here: http://www.tomshardware.com/t/graphics-cards/ If you look around there, you'll note that (for example) my GTX 550 Ti is ranked as having better performance than the 630.

Now that we have that out of the way, you badly need to update your graphics drivers. February 2012 is a wee bit out of date.

EarthQuake

Go here: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Get the best one on this list that you can afford. How the model numbers work is:

560
5 = generation
60 = model

So as above, a 560 can be better than a 630, in this case it is by a huge amount. The 630 is a really low end card. Pretty much any *60 or *70 nvidia card will be better.