Jumpy mouse with VRay + Photoshop CS

[cgrant3d]

Ok, VRay is incredibly good at utilizing every single last megahertz of cpu power, but sometimes it seems to take over my system even when assigned low priority... The mouse will get jumpy and I won't be able to work at all...

However this is seemingly intermittant and most of the time I just deal with it, and go get a coffee or something. But lately I've been trying to get to the bottom of it as it's quite annoying to not even be able to browse the web because the cursor doesn't move smoothly and the pages load too slow.

So, i've noticed the problem manifests itself when I have two instances of max running (only one rendering) AND Photoshop CS open (though nothing going on in it). If I go ahead and close Photoshop my mouse gets smooth again and programs open quickly - like they're supposed to.

So my question is whether this is some sort of strange interaction between vray and photoshop cs, if photoshop is just a cpu pig even when not doing anything, or if its some sort of windows issue...

Any thoughts?

For reference, I'm on a Dell Precision 470 - dual Xeon HT, 3GB RAM, nVidia Quadro FX4400. My previous job had a different station but exhibited the exact same problem...

[Morbid Angel]

I'd have to second that....when ever I set a render, which is a pretty heavy surface and takes long to calculate, it seems that vray eats all of the cpu power, which is good in one respect, but makes the computer useless for that time being.

[percydaman]

FIRST thing I do after opening up max, is open up task manager and set the 3dsmax process priority to "below normal" never have a hitch after that...

[flipside]

FIRST thing I do after opening up max, is open up task manager and set the 3dsmax process priority to "below normal" never have a hitch after that...

Yes I also do that, but often forget it ... I also use network rendering on a single machine to act as a batch renderer, and then it is very annoying because every X minutes I have to rush to the task manager to change the new max process to low priority.

[plastic_]

yeah lowering cpu priority is the way to go.
you can auto-start max in lower priority mode by using this command for the shortcut:

@start /BELOWNORMAL 3dsmax.exe

this also works for backburner server.exe

you can also start backburner with /LOW instead so that max still responds faster when it runs.

[flipside]

yeah lowering cpu priority is the way to go.
you can auto-start max in lower priority mode by using this command for the shortcut:

@start /BELOWNORMAL 3dsmax.exe

this also works for backburner server.exe

Where do I add that code?

[plastic_]

you can point the shortcut icon to start.exe but i think it's easier to create a batchfile, because shortcuts are easily confused with parameters.
just create a textfile called like runmax.bat and paste that code inside.
it should be saved in the max directory, otherwise you have to point to 3dsmax.exe using the full path, like:

@start /BELOWNORMAL c:\3dsmax7\3dsmax.exe

[siliconbauhaus]

photoshop grabs a huge chunk of ram when you start it even if you havent opened a file but like the others I'm always changing priorities.

[cgrant3d]

FIRST thing I do after opening up max, is open up task manager and set the 3dsmax process priority to "below normal" never have a hitch after that...

I also set the max process to low, however, it's just not enough. Funny thing is that on my system Photoshop is nearly always running in the background. Though I close all documents when not in use, I keep photoshop up as I am using it so frequently. So, even when in low priority, a vray render will bring my computer to its knees UNLESS I close photoshop... It's really weird and its not entirely predictable. So far though, closing Photoshop always makes all the difference in the world and the computer works like it should...

[percydaman]

ya, I also try and keep photoshop from running in the background unless I really need it. Force of habit i suppose.

[cgrant3d]

yeah lowering cpu priority is the way to go.
you can auto-start max in lower priority mode by using this command for the shortcut:

@start /BELOWNORMAL 3dsmax.exe

You can also use maxscript to set the process priority of max... Here's a simple script that will always set max to low priority...

http://www.scriptspot.com/download.asp?ID=3043&inf=1

It's a pretty easy change to make the script only set priority to low for netrenders but i'm hammered at work and can't make the change. There is another script on scriptspot which does exactly that but i've just sent an email to the author - he rearranged his site and the maxscript is currently lost somewhere with all his new site code...

[baumgore]

Hi,

I'm simply using "ProcessSwitch", a small shareware. You simply tell it which programs you need to run "below normal" or "low" and it keeps them from the start on the right priority. Simply put "server.exe" to "low", and so every netrender-max is running with "low".