What is the advantage of Nitrous?

[pixela]

Hi Everyone

Sorry if I am asking a very dumb question but I really don't understand much about hardware and drivers and all such stuff.
I am reading everywhere that Nitrous driver is causing many problems in viewports in 2012.
So I want to learn what the advantage is and why people would like to use Nitrous.
And what happens if Direct3D is used instead of Nitrous?

If someone can explain me basically, I will be very grateful.

[rivoli]

I guess that's supposed to be smoother, faster, and it gives much more shading options and previews in viewport.. but I wouldn't know for sure, on my aging card nitrous doesn't work that well, and so I'm still on direct3d. which may be not as good, but on my hardware is the only option. and well, compared to 2011, max 2012 has slightly better viweport performance even in direct3d mode.

[rikou]

In my opinion, there is too many things that make me stay out of Nitrous..I find more problems than advantages for the moment...
Yeah, it will be cool if you have better performance in viewport but It's not really the case for me... Nitrous doesn't work well even with my 460 gtx (not so old card) , I came back to direct3d
Be careful, perhaps I have to explore more deeply... I hope I'm wrong, I hope I can optimize and benefit of nitrous but for the moment, I'm still not happy with it...
Maybe we have to wait and see what will happen with max 2013 ! arrgh... always the same story...

[plastic_]

I have no problems with nitrous. it is a lot faster than previously with many objects, splines, groups etc.
But I don't care about shading quality in the viewport, as far as I'm concerned everything can be black and white, as long as it's fast.

[pixela]

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

I have no problems with nitrous. it is a lot faster than previously with many objects, splines, groups etc.
But I don't care about shading quality in the viewport, as far as I'm concerned everything can be black and white, as long as it's fast.

I agree with you Marc, I am more concerned about viewport performance more than anything. Usually I never use any lighting-shadow or AO effects on viewport.
But I hear people are encountering many problems with VFB and some other dialog windows.

In my opinion, there is too many things that make me stay out of Nitrous..I find more problems than advantages for the moment...
Yeah, it will be cool if you have better performance in viewport but It's not really the case for me... Nitrous doesn't work well even with my 460 gtx (not so old card) , I came back to direct3d
Be careful, perhaps I have to explore more deeply... I hope I'm wrong, I hope I can optimize and benefit of nitrous but for the moment, I'm still not happy with it...
Maybe we have to wait and see what will happen with max 2013 ! arrgh... always the same story...

Yes I read these problems on forums and was wondering if worthy.
And actually I didnt understand if these problems are related to the graphic card or the driver or anything else.
Though using same card, some people never encounter any problems when some others have big issues.

I guess that's supposed to be smoother, faster, and it gives much more shading options and previews in viewport.. but I wouldn't know for sure, on my aging card nitrous doesn't work that well, and so I'm still on direct3d. which may be not as good, but on my hardware is the only option. and well, compared to 2011, max 2012 has slightly better viweport performance even in direct3d mode.

What is your graphic card?
Mine is 580 GTX.
What kind of issues did you have with nitrous? Only speed of viewport?

[rivoli]

eh, I've got a geforce 7800 from the ages back.. that's why I'm stuck with direct3d. can't complain though, as I don't use vray rt, it still does a passable job with max.

[rikou]

I have to admit it... I need to investigate more deeply. I just upgrade (max/vray) a few weeks ago but I'm very busy at the moment... So a lot of new things (for me) have to be explore... I'm sure there will be a way to go with nitrous....

[pixela]

What I hear on forums is that people have strange problems with dialog boxes and VFB.

My graphic card is 580 GTX but I had better performance with 8800 GT. (3dsMax 2011- Direct 3D )
Maybe it is wrong to call it performace because what I am talking about is not the speed of viewport.
But with 580 GTX, some windows get disabled or freeze or become like a ghost and get enabled again when I minimise things to desktop and revert back to max or turning off/on those dialog boxes.
I can't understand where the problem is. Must be a better quality viewport with the latest graphic card but somehow it is not.
I wonder what the reason is. My knowledge about videocards is so little that I can't spot why this happens or even have a guess.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

try to revert to a more suitable graphics card drive Pixela.
I have to issues with the same card....not using the aero in windows.
turned off the progresive refinement in viewport
my drive number is:
275.33

[jozef_chvojka]

Pixela - as far as I know the problem you are reffering to ( very slow response and kind of cycling of VFB window after render stopped ) can be resolved very easily - turn off progressive quality in display performance tab iv viewport configuration. It helped me an from that time no problem.

Otherwise 2 of my colleague have some problems with restarting display drivers, but maybe they don't updated for a long time.

In my opinion it's shockingly faster than my old max 2010 with direct 3d, complex exterior scenes are now handled smoothly with proxies shown as faces and textures ON.
One of greatest things on max 2012 - workflow is much smooother now.

.j

[pixela]

try to revert to a more suitable graphics card drive Pixela.
I have to issues with the same card....not using the aero in windows.
turned off the progresive refinement in viewport
my drive number is:
275.33

Can you please send me this driver or teach me how to find ?

Pixela - as far as I know the problem you are reffering to ( very slow response and kind of cycling of VFB window after render stopped ) can be resolved very easily - turn off progressive quality in display performance tab iv viewport configuration. It helped me an from that time no problem.

Otherwise 2 of my colleague have some problems with restarting display drivers, but maybe they don't updated for a long time.

In my opinion it's shockingly faster than my old max 2010 with direct 3d, complex exterior scenes are now handled smoothly with proxies shown as faces and textures ON.
One of greatest things on max 2012 - workflow is much smooother now.

.j

Good to hear about this.
What is your card and which driver are you using for your card?

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-uk

just input your card tipe and hit search

[pixela]

Thank you

[pixela]

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-uk

just input your card tipe and hit search

One more question:
Are you on 64bit windows too?
Aero is on or off?

[rikou]

In my opinion it's shockingly faster than my old max 2010 with direct 3d, complex exterior scenes are now handled smoothly with proxies shown as faces and textures ON.
One of greatest things on max 2012 - workflow is much smooother now.

Wooo ! I really don't understand.... When I try to work with nitrous even if it's a small scene, I have so many problems/buggy shaded ! I don't understand, I have certainly made a mistake... so much laggy shaded in viewport ! All becomes slow or simply impossible to rool/pan/zoom... non-tile bitmap appears tiling in viewport, etc ...
Well, I've got some problems that I don't identify.. I can't imagine another way !