Zbrush 4- How much computer power?
Hello everyone.
I will be cheeky and repost my question from another forum, since the more feedback the better, hope you don't mind
I have started playing with zbrush about 2 weeks ago. I have been following various tutorials online and in the beginning it was fine - then once I hit a total of 15 mil points in w/e project i'm doing, stuff starts to go down. Lag, crashes, 5 sec delay on clicking anything etc. Basically it looks like my computer is not handling it too well.
I would just blame it on the comp but i noticed that people in some of the tuts are working with much higher resolution models without such problems (and often those are videos released few years ago).
so here are my comp specs:
Dell, inspiron 560
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Ram: 6 GB
System type: 64bit
gfx card: NVIDIA GeForce 550 Ti
I have of course tried to change Memory allowance options in preferences but no results.
I have tried assigning separate cores to zbrush only, switching all programs while using zbrush etc, but the moment i hit around 15 milion points across all subtools - that's it.
I do try to lower subdiv leveles to minimum, or work in solo mode etc but again, unless I;m in solo mode (which helps abit) its terrible, god forbid I try to merge 2 subtools which have anything between 3-4 mil polys together and work on that.
Is there anything else I can do or should I toss the comp out of the window and think about getting a new one?
any help much appreciated!
I will be cheeky and repost my question from another forum, since the more feedback the better, hope you don't mind
I have started playing with zbrush about 2 weeks ago. I have been following various tutorials online and in the beginning it was fine - then once I hit a total of 15 mil points in w/e project i'm doing, stuff starts to go down. Lag, crashes, 5 sec delay on clicking anything etc. Basically it looks like my computer is not handling it too well.
I would just blame it on the comp but i noticed that people in some of the tuts are working with much higher resolution models without such problems (and often those are videos released few years ago).
so here are my comp specs:
Dell, inspiron 560
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Ram: 6 GB
System type: 64bit
gfx card: NVIDIA GeForce 550 Ti
I have of course tried to change Memory allowance options in preferences but no results.
I have tried assigning separate cores to zbrush only, switching all programs while using zbrush etc, but the moment i hit around 15 milion points across all subtools - that's it.
I do try to lower subdiv leveles to minimum, or work in solo mode etc but again, unless I;m in solo mode (which helps abit) its terrible, god forbid I try to merge 2 subtools which have anything between 3-4 mil polys together and work on that.
Is there anything else I can do or should I toss the comp out of the window and think about getting a new one?
any help much appreciated!
Replies
i suppose I should consider just general upgrade of the comp?
1) In the preferences under "mem" is the allocated memory which should be jacked up all the way to 3000 or morel. By default its on 256... I have no fucking clue why.
2) Also in preferences under "undo" is the undo history number which should be around 200-300. I think by default its set at 10,000 or something stupid like that. Also under undo is the save undo history thing which I turn off personally to keep file sizes way down.
Since I am still learning, I so far understood that in order to preserve details and reduce polys I should retopo my models and reproject details on low poly meshes and then i can keep on sculpting to refine the model even further - hence retopology subject is next on my to do list
BUT
I still would like to understand how come the people who do tutorials are able to somehow view their models with all subtools on highest subdivs without so much lag :S
They most likely have a top end i7, such as 2600/2700k or 3770k, and a high end graphics card like GTX 680. They are doing this for their living, so obviously they have the proper tools to do their work.
You're able to reach your machine's maximum limit with each individual subtool. My computer is 5 years old and trying to go past 4million points on a subtool is rough. But I can still have six subtools or more with 4 million points each.
Otherwise Zbrush probably wont care too much with your RAM because it's 32bit, and as far as I know it cares more about your CPU than it ever did your GPU.
15 million points for a single subtool is too much. Don't bother overclocking your shit, you just need to use your geometry more efficiently.
and if you plan on using the HP for a bake you will just have to decimate it lower anyway to get it inside max.
When I said 15 mil polys I did not mean on a single subtool -but across all the subtools I'm using.
But from what you guys are saying I'm assuming I should not bother with upgrading hardware untill Zbrush 5 - instead need to take better care of managing/displaying subtools
And once the polycount is too high for the machine to handle I should just retopo the sculpt , project details and keep going from there?
(Sorry about all these questions just really want to make sure I'm doing things right )
I was able to do my Comicon Entry well enough with Zbrush and I'm on WinXP 32-bit with 4GB of DDR2 RAM that way. Though since you are on a 64-bit OS you really have no excuse to have such low RAM I think. RAM is pretty cheap nowadays so you could probably upgrade to 12GB or more RAM based on what your motherboard can handle.
I was always under the asumption that it's a good idea to leave about 2GB of RAM for just the OS in terms of breathing room. Also if you have lots of programs installed with background tasks that can easily take away from the RAM you could be using with ZBrush if you just have 6GB. If you can't afford 12GB for some reason even just 8GB could do you well. I don't know if Dell has any sort of limitations on adding your own RAM or not though.
This is what my Comicon Entry's sculpt looked like, not the most detailed but that was more of the smooth style than anything else. Lots of sub-tools too.
The ZBrush title bar shows your currently active/free memory and your scratch disk. When zbrush starts to have problems what do those numbers look like?
What else do you run with zbrush? When you look at your total system memory usage in task manager with your model open what does it look like?
IF memory is indeed your problem then you can try this:
- Set your undo history to 10. (note: this is in the "Undo History rollout, NOT the Mem rollout.)
- When you switch and begin working with a different subtool, compact your memory.
An 18 million point mesh in 3 x 6m subtools is only 2~ gigs of memory in ZBrush. The number slowly goes up as you sculpt (as of R4) while ZBrush builds undo history.. But if you set your undo history to 10 (the minimum) then on 3 subtools you'll peak at 2.5 gb, reducing back down when zbrush compacts.
Retopo as soon as you have your major forms sculpted in, if you wait until you can no longer subdivide because zbrush crashes then when you go to reproject your topology, zbrush will probably crash..
If you want a good example how to organize your mesh effectively then download Dmitry Parkin's Imrod model and take a look at it, it's 7 million points spread out in multiple subtools and is packed with detail.
Well I never really did any 3d modelling so 6gb of ram was fine for 2d art .
And on pixologic site it says Zbrush cant utilise more than 4 gb anyway (on a 64 bit system)
When I run zbrush I switch off everything else. the 2nd think on the process list will always be skype, I even try to avoid opening chrome when digging into something more detailed.
However i'm still learning, like I said i have no 3d experience and I have only been using zbrush for about 2 weeks so everything you guys say is helpful.
As for retopology - I havn't touched on that subject yet, I understand WHY but when I tried to manually retopo one of the characters I made it ended terribly xD More practice and tutorials required :P So being scared of retopologising again after my awful first try I ended up digging into a model which resulted in 40 mil polys (img below) across all subtools.
I guess I really need to suck it up and learn to retopologise.
And thank you for the model link will definitely be helpful!