Display Optimizations in 6.17

Just in case you’re unsure how to do that…

Hi Steve, sure.
Could you give me an email? The file is too big for the message…

Petr

Hi Petr - you can use steve@mcneel.com

Also, you can upload large files on https://www.rhino3d.com/upload
There, you can use that address as the Recipient e-mail address. Also make sure to add a link to this thread in the Comments field.
-wim

Hi wim, thanks for your help :slight_smile:

Thanks, I received your file. I’ll see what can be done to improve performance for these heavy polyline type models.

Steve,
It looks like there might be also a bug with the technical view style. Edges and Creases are treated the same. It seems like it doesn’t matter if I turn off Creases or Edges. I see the same lines displayed. I’d guess its the Crease option thats broken since edges are shown regardless if creases or edges is on.

Ian

Hi Ian - thanks - it looks to me like Edges is the one - I can’t turn them off.

https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-54193

-Pascal

@pascal please make a YT for me with a model to repeat this. I need to get this fixed before the final 6.17 is released

@Jarek, @vittorio and @NavArch The 6.17 release candidate that was released today (Aug 6) for both Windows and Mac contain new display optimizations based on your feedback. Thanks again everyone for testing these out.

Thanks @NavArch and @pascal; I already found and fixed the bug. It should be fixed in tomorrow’s internal daily build and in next week’s 6.17. If you need a build with this fix before next week, just let me know.

@petumatr I added an optimization for models like this today that will become available with our first 6.18 release candidate (hopefully next week). The optimization will also be available in next week’s V7 WIP.

Hi @stevebaer, glad to hear :slight_smile: I will definitely try it out. Is there still some space for performance optimization for mac? Or does the performance tweaking hit the illusionary border? I just wonder why is the R6 performance so behind the R5…

Hi - most (ideally all) of that is due to the fact that the display quality is much improved in RH6. With default settings, it’s comparing apples to oranges. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible that there are cases where, for the same quality, Rhino 5 outperforms Rhino 6. We have been, and will continue to look into reported cases where that seems to be the case.
-wim

There’s always room for performance improvements. Some may require a large rewrite of code and some are relatively easy tweaks.

We switched to “modern” OpenGL in V6 which has been the recommended approach (until the release of Metal). It was a large rewrite of the display code. This worked great on Windows, but unfortunately I’m seeing Mac OpenGL drivers are just not performing as well as I would hope under the new system (insert conspiracy theory here… :slight_smile: ). So far, I’ve been able to make large improvements in performance in 6.17 and 6.18. It will be good to get your feedback when you try 6.18 to see how things compare. Maybe there will be some other things we can tweak.

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I should also mention that I do have one more optimization that I want to try for 6.18 that may help with models that contain a lot of curves. Won’t know if it will help until I actually get it typed up.

Hi @stevebaer

One thing I can think of from my experience with display speed is something I think I mentioned before:
Dispay modes that use both Skylight and Cast shadows are quite slow with default settings and where the shadow quality is set to medium-high range. This is due to the fact that in order to get sharp and nice looking cast shadows, you need almost full quality setting whereas for Skylight, much lower values still look ok, but when they get high, there is a big slowdown. Ideally there would be a separate setting for Skylight and Cast Shadow, but I realize this is a UI rewrite and not likely to happen or quick fix.
I am just letting you guys know that average Rhino user will not dig into these settings too much and just experience Rhino display being slow.
The quick workaround and default setting we use as a partial remedy is to set the Skylight Degradation in Advanced Options 1 level lower (So Static=2, Dynamic=3 vs. 1 and 2 default). This somehow helps if you want better cast shadows but I don’t expect average user to ever find these.
My suggestions for you would be to make 2.3 setting default, and in a long run implement separate settings for these 2 shadow types quality.

thanks,

–jarek

Point taken. At the moment I focused on wire frame, shaded, technical style displays in 6.x. Anything involving shadows/skylight requires quite a bit of a display rewrite.

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Hi @wim,
I am sure that everybody appreciates the better quality and new display settings options. Undoubtedly really cool. Anyway, in terms of working with files, I just find very frustrating when you jump into the new software and the working environment is many times slower than the previous version (now I compare the default wireframe display mode). These issues lead to much longer working time etc. In other words, the R6 must allow us to work at least at the same performance level as R5 there, where display modes are comparable (for a common user without any visible significant difference) and then it is totally understandable that the new arctic, render mode with skylight etc. are slower, because it offers something new.

On the other hand, I am aware there could be some glitches in the mac platform matrix (as I understood from other threads).

Thank you @stevebaer for looking into this and enlightening the problem. I will definitely keep posting the regular reports as I predominantly work on mac platform these days.

Steve,
Did last week’s build ever get pushed out? I keep checking for a new release and Rhino Keeps saying I’m running the latest release from 8/6/19 6.17.19218.13231
Thanks