Max slows down in files with Proxies

[jonasa]

I have had this problem now for the last 3-4 models I have worked on - initially thought it was a Problem on my pc, but seems to be the same on other machines in the office.

Problem:
When selecting objects in the viewports - even with only few objects unhidden - takes up to 1 minute from clicking on a simple box to selection is complete. Meanwhile max uses 50% CPU and becomes unresponsive.
This only seems to happen when I have scenes with a high number of proxies (50-100) - even if in box mode and even if they're hidden.
If I merge the objects I'm editing into a fresh scene (without any proxies), I can select and move about easily.
It should not be a material / shading problem either, since it reacts the same way using wireframe viewports. And I have checked all paths are ok!

Anyone else experiencing this?

[DaForce]

are you proxies all instances of one proxy?

[paulison]

similar thing happens to me when ive got a scene where the proxy is accidentally loaded from a computer at the other end of my VPN connection...so in my case its a networking issue where the object takes a while to transfer to my machine. generally only happens once though when the scene is loading.

Listen to daforce though...if they arnt instanced, then its going to load the object for every copy and that will totally slow things down...especially if its through the network

[jonasa]

All the proxies are instances (although we have 6-8 different types)

Thought it might have been a network issue, for same reason we changed all our bitmap paths to a system of mapped drives. Still has'nt resolved it.

[DaForce]

Mapped drivers are bad!
Far better to use UNC paths such as
\\server\textures\blah.jpg
instead of
k:\textures\blah.jpg

I have found that generally with max once you have a lot of instances of one object it tends to run bad. Not usuaully in the viewport but when moving the objects around or creating further instances.

I have a small scene here with similar numbers of proxies to you 66 to be exact, of which there are 4 tree species so about 16 or so instances of each type of tree. I am able to click away till my hearts content without and problems there is perhaps a 0.5 seconds wait before it selects the tree.
Even instancing those again is fine.
BUT this is all local drive stuff.. not network. Which is where i think your problem is steming from.

As a test, try copying the appropriate proxy files to your machine off the network, and then update the proxy files within max to point to the local copy of the mesh instead of the network copy.. should only take a minute or 2 as it you only need to update one type and it will affect the rest of the instances.

See if that makes a difference. If it does try changing your paths to UNC

[vlado]

I think it is more of a viewport performance issue; the drawing of the proxies in the viewport is probably not as optimized as it can be. We will be working on this.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jonasa]

Mapped drives are bad!

We used to use UNC paths but with two offices running each their individual servers we chose to revert to this setup. Also some of the render farms like res-power prefers mapped drives. BUT would love to get rid of them for good.

As a test, try copying the appropriate proxy files to your machine off the network...

Thats a brilliant idea - will try.

I think it is more of a viewport performance issue

But all the proxies are hidden or boxed... they shouldnt affect viewport speeds, should they?

[RErender]

Probably not related but yesterday one of our guys was getting a 1 to 2 sec delay when selecting some objects with the modify panel open. Turned out he had installed the latest logitech drivers for his mouse/keyboard combo, rolling back to the original drivers fixed it. Just a note that it is not always Max's fault.

[jujubee]

I've been experiencing the same issue. I had extreme slowdowns at one point then I removed all unused scripts and plugins - and things seemed to clear up a bit better.