I created 7 characters and put them into one scene.  What was generally running good in openGL preview mode is now ccccrrrraaaaaaaaawwwwwwwling.  It is nearly unusable to move around and pose the characters.

I have Poser 7 on a 3.0 ghz DELL single processor.  What can I do to speed things up so I can work on the figures? I realize that the renders in firefly will be slower too so any suggestions there (i.e. what really slows things down) would be helpful.

Ultimately I will be creating a short animation using images rather than going to avi.  Your help is always appreciated. tks.

You have exceeded the laws of physics....add up the polys....if V4 or M3 for instance, times seven, plus clothes, perhaps props or a room?  Half a million polys, I bet.

This would choke 3DSMax 9. (I say choke in the sense of having to wait each time you move something around.) Max 2008 is about to come out with this problem in mind and if the hype is right, you'll have way way less lag in the viewport.

The only Poser advice I have is to turn off shading in the viewport. Use Cartoon or wireframe. This helps a little. The next suggestion is to to use lower-poly models.

You could also make some of the models invisible while posing others.

::::: Opera :::::

Thanks so much.  What exactly do you mean in turning off shading? Are you referring to texture filtering or something like that?

Do transparencies (as in hair props) cause things to be slower too?

I have thought about the invisibility issue too - i.e. turn off what you're not using, etc. or using the wireframe too.

Does it help much to use smaller resolution IMAGE MAPS as in 512x512 vs 1024 x 1024?  

And finally, I am using some noise generation on the fabrics to create rough texture. I know that all of this has to contribute to render issues with firefly but don't know to the extent it matter in Preview mode.  tks

Or, you could split up the scene into manageable chunks, now all the elements are in place.  I hardly ever render more than two figures at a time now.

With planning, you can get hundreds of figures in your final image with no compromise on render quality or detail level.

Yes good idea to composite this but that would require nearly 7 separate renders if I animated them by themselves.  The scene I am creating will have movement from all 7 but not exagerated mostly just standing around but definitely moving.  

If I could just get the Preview to behave I could start the MAKE MOVIE process and go away for several hours while it did it's thing. tks for the suggestion....

THAT, is why I love the low poly models.
Usability
And from a distance in the scene, who needs all those poly's?

I cleaned my Poser 7 some time ago.

All V's and other high poly garbage is gone.

If I wanted to do as you say Vilters how do you "clean" your polys? 

Yes thanks I found that too - all of this is very helpful....Still would like to know if hi-res materials cause substantial overhead in rendering vs lo-res.  I'm sure it does but is it very much?

For multiple figures in a scene use

P4-Posette
For more figures use the P4- Lo Res people

All those come with P4, P5, P6 and P7

"Clean " high poly figures is a disaster. So , do not use them.

Can we see the WIP?

What figures are they; how large are each's .CR2(their file when saved in the Figure library.) 

I've reduced my original V3 Character Study scene(just her without clothes etc.,) from 250MBs to 12MBs, by deleting all but 1 morph, per Part.  Imagine where I'd be trying to use multiple figures had I not...

The way to do it to this extreme is slightly complicated, but there is aneasier way, that would reduce each figure's size by %50-%75 fairly easy; just find the python scrit called removemorphs.py, in SVDL's Free Stuff.  When rn, what it will do is remove all of a figures morphs that are'nt in use(Set to zero.)

BTW - How much Physical RAM is in your system, and what is your Virtual Memory set to?  

Also How big is the whole scene; and in what format?

I have 3.0  ghz Dell with 1 gig or ram.  The pz3 file is 27 meg - these are all p5 and p7 figures not many morphs. 

Where is the WIP?

27MBs is still a relatively small file, are you sure it is a .PZ3, and not a .PZZ(Poser Compressed .PZ3); also check to see if there is also a .PMD(A seperate file for the  Morphs,) with the same name as your scene file, in the folder the scene is saved in?

O.K. 1 GB... that's 2 - 4 times what is required to surf around, but I bet your system would hold at least 2GB.   I bet you could find another 512MBs or 1GB stick cheap.  My buddy just sold a 512MB DDR PC3200 for like $20...Unless you've actually got two 512MB sticks, and not just a single 1GB stick...My point is that what it is you have is more than likeley two ports to put RAM sticks, but if they're both full then you'd need to sell one to upgrade ;  |.

How big is the Hard Drive?  Virtual Memory is located at Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Advanced.  They say you could/should have 1.5 - 2 X the amount of Virtual Memory as you have Phyisical Memory(RAM sticks,) as long as this does'nt equal more than 2GBs per open application(WIndows counts as an application,) and 4GBs per disk.  So you could set you Initial Virtual Memory to1500MBs - 2000MBs and Maximum to 4GBs.  After you've done so, rebooted, and opened Poser(and/or other applications) the place to see if when you Virtual Memory is kicking in is by htting CTRL-ALT-DELTE(Windows Task Manager) and then clicking the Performance tab; when the PF Usage Graph shows more Memory than the Physical Memory > System Cache reading you know you're using your hard drive as a RAM stick.

Also you're saying the Poser 7 figures do'nt have many morphs is'nt true...I just checked the .CR2 size of JamesG2 and it is 43MB!  The others are'nt quie as large, but I'll still wager there are planty of unused morphs dials clunking around in your render process; that would just go away with SVDLs script?

Has anyone had luck turning scenes into static .obj props for rendering? I have gotten breaks in mesh and trouble with materials.

momodot - Sounds like a good idea for a python, try the scripting forum; why do you want it?

I think Poser comes with it as a script, "mini me" which exports everything grouped into one .obj scaled to 10% or something. When you bring it back in it has basic textures but the transparency has to be reset... if things like figures share material zones the textures get confused. I have not had success with it because of some bad seams where vertices are not welded. I was wondering if anyone had had success with it. I actually would want to bring everything in scalled up so I can handle my cameras more easily in four walled interior sets.

Why is it you'd almost want to convert a .PZ3 to .OBJ?

To get everything but the mesh and textures out of memory for the render... is does the .cr2s etc not make a difference overhead wise? I used to export out background figures to bring in as props in my renders, does that not make sense memory use wise?

*"is does the .cr2s etc not make a difference overhead wise?"

*Not in any Poser vocabulary that I know of, where Posermatics are what I've paid to own Poser for.

*" used to export out background figures to bring in as props in my renders, does that not make sense memory use wise?"

*Absolutely, you're segmenting(divding the job into seperate smaller chunks,) I've always supported compositing in external 2D applications!

• Not in any Poser vocabulary that I know of, where Posermatics are what I've paid to own Poser for.

What is Posermatics? I find it only as a user/vendor name.

The Mini Me script has issues in Poser 7. I guess it's the same issue as what affects Clothing Creator ect. You must import any obj first with everything unchecked, it's like Poser can't clear the import box on its own any more.

BUT.. you can also simply export the characters as objs. I did that recently for a promo pic where I needed 6 V4's in the same picture. They retained all the textures just like with the Mini Me script :o)

Of course, since this is an animation it would be too much of  hassle to export all the single frames out as objs of course. But for static renders it's a great way of minimizing overhead.

:rolleyes: That is just a madeup word, referring to all of the proprietary mathmaics Poser has been stocked with, just for processing native technology; like your .CR2s.

I mean some of the money you've paid for Poser with was the cost of just this programming specifically, and we know it works fine, so leave the streamlining to Poser's Developers.   If Poser formats were too large, Poser would have never got off the ground and sold like it has. :ohmy:

What you are suggesting seems like a huge overhaul of Poser programming, that(I think) would happen to technology that came after the riginal .OBJ.  Which would be awsome, if you are correct, because then I'd say you should not only get a refund for your purchase of Poser, but then a job on it's Development Team :tt1:

I think trying to take that much of a shortcut, around native Poser files, is too much work; I'll just live with the Deveoper's current File Format System, becasue beween them and my$elf  it's all just number crunching. :scared:

If either of us would care to actually purchase Poser, from EF, and then Test...replaceing the Poser files with .OBJs(or whatever;) I'd say Godspeed to you, but then need add a few Hail Mary's :mellow: