Performance problems when moving canvas

[NitroNitrous]

Hi

I have Corel Painter 11 running on Windows 7 Ultimate x64. The specs of my laptop:

MSI GT627
Intel Core2Quad Q9000 2.1Ghz 6mb
2x2048mb DDR2 800Mhz
nVidia 9800m GTS 1024mb
WD Scorpio Black Series 7200rpm 320Gb
15.4" 1680x1050

I can work with Photoshop CS4, Alias Studio, Rhinoceros, 3DSMax, ArtRage, any game or benchmark... everything smooth. But not with Painter. I don't have lag when using the brushes, they work like a charm, my only problem is when I add about 10 layers or more to my drawing, then I zoom/move/rotate the canvas and it's very slow, like 1 frame per second, very annoying to work like that. Does anyone have an idea?

I've tried it in a virtual machine with Windows XP and didn't solve it. Painter X is the same.

Thanks :asspat:

[ikken]

That's the way painter is -__-''
you might want go to edit-> preferences-> general and disable both advanced brush ghosting and draw zoomed-out views using area averaging, it will give a minor speed-up, and set memory usage to 100 % of available in memory/scratch preferences (since you have about 2x more memory than painter can make use of)

[NitroNitrous]

Thanks for your reply :)
I've made that change with no sucess. I also read the thread about how to improve performance in Painter (I think it was in this forum) but most of the tips are for improving the brush response, which works perfect in my case and is not the problem I have.
I was at school having a Painter lesson and I was the only one with that problem. People using crappy computers could move the canvas at a reasonable frame rate (we all were doing the same drawing) so even if Painter sucks, I think I shouldn't have this problem :(

PS: I've found if I merge all the layers I can move/rotate/zoom the canvas smoothly again. Obviously this is not a solution, but I guess the problem I have is related to layers
PS2: When I use painter the memory and cpu usage is just ridiculous

[fes]

Painter is notorious for it's large cpu usage (no-one knows they answer why). I assume you've applied the first patch to Painter 11 just in case?

Not that I really think it will help... but what tablet are you using? If it's a Wacom check that you have the latest driver (version 6.12-5) because the others for Win 7 had some bugs relating to Painter.

[ikken]

PS: I've found if I merge all the layers I can move/rotate/zoom the canvas smoothly again. Obviously this is not a solution, but I guess the problem I have is related to layers

every layer you're adding to the document will slowdown the general perfomance; I don't know the exact math but I assume it a document with 2 layers will use 2x as much memory as a single canvas (plus you'll add an extra alpha channel for transparency), 3 layers = 3 x, etc.,
and painter can only take a limited use of your machine's resources

so yep, try to keep layers to the minimum if you really can't stang the lag

[NitroNitrous]

Painter is notorious for it's large cpu usage (no-one knows they answer why). I assume you've applied the first patch to Painter 11 just in case?

Yeah I did. I'm running the 11.0.017 version. This is the last one, right?

Not that I really think it will help... but what tablet are you using? If it's a Wacom check that you have the latest driver (version 6.12-5) because the others for Win 7 had some bugs relating to Painter.

I have Wacom 6.12.4 installed and I'm using a Wacom Intuos 3 12x9. I don't think this is the problem since the tablet works well and I have this issue even using the mouse, but I'm updating to 6.12.5 right now anyway.

every layer you're adding to the document will slowdown the general perfomance....and painter can only take a limited use of your machine's resources

I understand your point, but some guys use it with Pentium Dual Core 1.6Ghz and 1Gb of ram and they don't have this problem :needle:


so yep, try to keep layers to the minimum if you really can't stang the lag

No I can not stand it, it's too much. I think is not more than 3fps, is not possible for me to work like that. Keeping the amount of layers is my temporary solution, but there is a problem somewhere which I like to find, hardware compatibility or something.

With the file we did during the lesson the CPU usage is 0% when I don't move the canvas and no more than 40% when I do it. The memory used by Painter is just 195mb...

Thanks for all the replies :wink:

[Arshes Nei]

Yes, you have the latest version.

Also make sure you have the Virtual Wacom HID Driver disabled. Make sure you're in Standard Mode and not Recognition Data on your tablet to see if that helps performance.

[NitroNitrous]

I don't even know about that driver lol I think I haven't installed it... Where can I change the mode?
I updated to 6.12.5 and also the nvidia driver from 195.55 Beta to 195.62 WHOL (released yesterday for notebooks). The problem remains...
Thanks for your patience

[ikken]

wacom hid driver is installed by default when you install your tablet drives;
you can change your tablet mode from default to recognition data (or vice-versa) by double-clicking the tablet icon in wacom driver preferences:
http://i45.tinypic.com/2rh4sps.jpg
(mine is in Russian but you get the idea)

your nvidia driver update probably won't affect painter at all, it's more about ram/cpu

by the way, what resolution are you typically working with?
because it's possible that those guys with worse specs are working with documents, that don't exceed 1000 - 1500 px on the largest side
if yours is larger, you'll have that lag with fewer number of layers added

[NitroNitrous]

Thanks a lot man ;)
I disabled the Wacom service (tablet doesn't work anymore), changed the mode (it was in recognition data) but nothig changes. I'd say the tablet is not the problem since this happens even using the mouse and the brushes work perfect.
The excercise we were doing during the lesson was 2250x1389 200ppi. I tried to resize to 1680 100ppi as soon as I noticed the lag when moving the canvas, but didn't help too much. Now I've changed to 1000 and 72ppi and it improves a bit, but still impossible to manage. Everyone was working on the original file at 2250x1390 200ppi with no problem :upset:

[Arshes Nei]

Just FYI the VIRTUAL wacom driver is not the same as the other Wacom driver. One is made by Microsoft which can cause conflicts.

To disable it, you go to System - Hardware and you'll see it in the Human Interfaces in the device manager.

[NitroNitrous]

I can not find that in device manager... but anyway, do you think it affects even if the tablet is not pluged?