Vista Slow to browse

[glorybound]

Hello-

I am using UNC network paths and it takes my Vista 64 workstation minutes to find all my slave machines. Has anybody came across this? When I need to add a bitmap I can sit for 3 minutes for computers to start populating the window.

Thanks,
Bobby W Parker

[rmejia]

Are all the paths set up in the Asset Tracking?

[glorybound]

Vista

No.I manually browse. this is independent of MAX or V-Ray. It is slow in explorer too.

[voltron7]

default printer

I had a similar sounding issue and it was because my default printer was shared. After choosing a non-shared printer as the default, the problem was gone, not even a restart needed. I don't know your net/printer setup, but it's worth a try.

HTH

[rmejia]

Yeah, Vista sucks that way. Windows 7 is a little better in that regard, but still when I open the explorer, sometimes it takes a while to populate and for the green progress bar to run it's full course.

[glorybound]

Vista

Nope. no shared printers here. Any more ideas?

[voltron7]

well, could there be a problem with some other machine on the network?
Is there on place in particular that takes longer?

[glorybound]

slow

Possible, but my other 5 workstations (winxp64) don't have any issues. I'll look into it Monday.

[jujubee]

If all you have on your network is Winxp64 comps - then you'll probably run into issues even over shared drive.

A few things to note:
1) Not a good idea to distributed render on the same machine you're file sharing with. Not sure if you are, but...

2) actually, the best option is to create a folder on every computer locally - I call mine "collected 1, collected 2, etc." depending on how many projects I'm working on at the same time. I drop all my texture assets when I'm ready to render in there that way sending all the files at once over the network avoids bottlenecks. I have a .bat file which automatically copies all the images to every computer using the same directory name. Same applies to put lightcache and irradiance maps in that sucker.

3) Make sure your Max paths only need to see the texture folders, otherwise it tends to search a whole entire drive if specified otherwise.

4) Make sure you are using a network switch between the comps - not a router. Router degrades in speed whereas switch doesn't.

5) Make sure all your cables are the same - CAT 5e or 6, etc.

6) Consumer level network switches aren't meant to handle large loads cause of the memory and processor in them. I recommend something more professional like a Dell Business class - makes a huge difference although pricier - but no headaches.

7) I write all my computers in the hosts.ini file. Located (I think): \\Windows\system 32\drivers\etc\hosts.ini

Then in that file with Wordpad specify your computer at the bottom and IP address for it. Add all of your computers on the network there. Then have the same hosts.ini file on the rest of your comps.

Use an older, junkier machine as a dedicated file server which runs on something like a linux install. All my problems seemed to have ended as soon as I had done that. You could also run Windows server and that even works well, although it costs some $.

9) Obviously, a gigabit network is more efficient.

10) Check your cables too - I was experience network slowdown on one computer - was running at 10/100 even though should have been gigabit. After tearing apart my network, I discovered one of my guinea pigs bit the edge of a cable that ran near their cage. Small little nick I would have never though would do anything, but ended up killing a week of rendering.

12) Use UNC.

13) Swap out local network card too - see if that speeds things up.

14) Check to see if simple file sharing is checked either on or off all of the computers. My network seemed to run much better with it off. Go to your folders, at top \tools\options - something like that.

15) Make certain no conflicting IP address.

16) Specify your IP addresses locally on each machine. I wouldn't do dynamic.

17) Also make sure your addresses also contain the same Preferred DNS (something like 192.168.0.xx)and Alternate DNS (4.2.2.2).

1 And lastly, run a virus and spyware check just in case.

[glorybound]

I unplugged my data cables and rebooted the router; the work group that VISTA was hanging on is now gone!

[Polygonstate]

Probably dumb question but are you running Aero on your machines?
All my problems with vista, networking, max and etc vanished once I turned that off.

[glorybound]

I turned that off as soon as I installed Vista. I wasn't going to waste resources on bells-n-whistles. I did notice that my graphics have greatly improved when I switched to Classic from Basic.