Maya doesn't utilize PC to the fullest.

Kligan

Hello!

I get pretty tired of Maya lagging when working with high density meshes decimated and exported from Zbrush.
Here's an example:

This is highpoly for baking. And whenever I select it, or if its just not hidden and on the screen, Maya starts to lag.

While yes, it is pretty HIGH poly. Still, here's my issue:


It rarely uses more than 50% of CPU resources available. And the video card doesn't go above 30%. Plenty of spare memory as well.

Is there a way to make Maya PROPERLY use resources available?

PolyHertz

Older versions of Maya supposedly had some issues on Ryzen CPU's, so might be worth looking into getting a newer version of the software. In the meantime you could simply turn off wireframe mode for unselected meshs to gain back some performance.

oglu

Nothing beside hiding the geo will help. 

Kligan

oglu said:

Nothing beside hiding the geo will help. 

Aw, that's disappointing.

Eric Chadwick

You could maybe decimate the mesh before sending it to Maya for baking.

There are likely sub-pixel polygons that are wasted detail, ballooning file sizes and baking times, which a little preprocessing can help reduce.

Kligan

Eric Chadwick said:

You could maybe decimate the mesh before sending it to Maya for baking.

There are likely sub-pixel polygons that are wasted detail, ballooning file sizes and baking times, which a little preprocessing can help reduce.

It is decimated. Zbrush just not very good at it sometimes. Flat surface is still tessellated to hell. And if I reduce geo even further on decimation, then there are artefacts on curved surfaces when smooth shading is applied to the mesh.

As I said before - it's just a highpoly for baking. But it's annoying that maya lags whenever I select it or make it visible, while there's still so much unutilized resources available for it. 

Firebert

May be worth looking into working with an updated version of Maya.  There are many performance issues addressed with more recent versions.  I doubt it will chew through your CPU and GPU the way you expect it to, but I normally use 2020 and noticed significant boosts to real time viewport performance after switching from 2018 for this specific task.   

I normally will work with multiple decimated ZBrush meshes inside of Maya, each of which are comprised of 200k-400k tris at a minimum.  Haven't had performance issues since moving to 2020 and I'm working on a Ryzen 5, 32GB, and a 3090 (previously a 2070). 

Another thing that might help, if you are directly importing the mesh, try creating a reference to the mesh file instead.  I've experienced issues with mesh normals becoming destroyed when directly importing high density decimation files.  This also keeps your local save file small for retopo and baking. 

Very sorry you're having troubles in Maya, but I'd definitely upgrade the software and see if it helps.  Your hardware looks solid and I can see why you're frustrated at not being able to utilize all that power. 

Kligan

Firebert said:

May be worth looking into working with an updated version of Maya.  There are many performance issues addressed with more recent versions.  I doubt it will chew through your CPU and GPU the way you expect it to, but I normally use 2020 and noticed significant boosts to real time viewport performance after switching from 2018 for this specific task.   

I normally will work with multiple decimated ZBrush meshes inside of Maya, each of which are comprised of 200k-400k tris at a minimum.  Haven't had performance issues since moving to 2020 and I'm working on a Ryzen 5, 32GB, and a 3090 (previously a 2070). 

Another thing that might help, if you are directly importing the mesh, try creating a reference to the mesh file instead.  I've experienced issues with mesh normals becoming destroyed when directly importing high density decimation files.  This also keeps your local save file small for retopo and baking. 

Very sorry you're having troubles in Maya, but I'd definitely upgrade the software and see if it helps.  Your hardware looks solid and I can see why you're frustrated at not being able to utilize all that power. 

Thank you for the advice.
I was postponing upgrading maya because I got used to 2018. Also, moving configs and plugins, and scripts, and whatnot, is a massive pain in the ass :P
But yeah, I guess it's time...

Alex_J

2023 is well worth the upgrade IMO. A few very nice features like Ctrl+F to search.

For retopo in maya I don't necessarily use the hi poly as live surface. Can decimate it considerabley or also break into several smaller chunks. So long as silhouette is not changed dramatically the lo-poly you create will still match. The actual hi poly for baking can just go straight from zbrush to the baker - doesn't need to enter maya necessarily.