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Custom Brush preview is very slow and jerky on a 5400 x 3200 drawing.

In Mirage 1.5 it flies - it moves instantaneously - if you check "Use Software Acceleration" on Preferences\Display\Direct Draw.

Similarly, Filling Shape Polygon and Freehand Tools trace very slowly in
TVPaint 8 / 1.0, as opposed to very fast in Mirage.

Can you fix this ?

In any other respect, (the left behind) Mirage is no match for the new TVPaint.

Hi Nicolae,

The CustomBrush is streched, rotated and anti-aliased in real time in TVPaint Animation (that is not the case in Mirage) that's why its preview is less quick in this version. If you want to optimize it, don't check the 'Subpixel' box in the 'Options' Tab of the CustomBrush.

All Brush functions are fully multi-threaded so you will have faster results with an activated multi-threaded CPU (P4 with hyper-threading activated or multi-cores).

Plus if you use an Anim CustomBrush from the 'Bin' Tab click once on the 'Optimize' Button in order to put the animation into the memory. So the CustomBrush will be faster.

Hi ,

I was wondering if this subject is being adressed in future updates,
or perhaps (even better!) someone could point out some mistakes i made;

because despite of the major custom brush improvements, i find it to be a
big setback not to be able to draw in realtime. The delay on my (simple) brush is significant
So significnt i had to go back to mirage for some shots.
(shots with no thin lines but rather large animated custombrush spaces)

I don't use the subpixel button because i understand it slows things down.
I optimized my brush with the appropriate button.
i emptied my custom brush bin (i read somewher a full bin could cause delay), to the point
i lost all my custom brushes(even those that came with tvpaint).(Big Bummer)--

I still have the dip files but not the settings
(they were attached to a custompannel button,
but since the deletion the buttons no longer respond)

Do i have to remake them entirely or is there an easy way to retreive my brushes?

i also have this pop-up: 'unknown file format' every first time i open the custom brushes bin
after starting the program.Only after ok-ing the window the brushes in the bin appear.
(what's left of them anyway)


to pin it down:

1.) How can i make my custombrush faster up to the point that i can comforably draw with them?
or is it not within reach right now and do i have to wait for updates of some kind?
2.) Is there a way to easely retreive my foolishly (mea culpa) lost brushes,
or do they reside in walhalla?
3.) Does the pop-up indicate anything that could have to do with the slowing of the brush?


I understand i have numerous questions, but if anyone could spare me some time i would be very gratefull!

thank you very much,
and may your days be filled with wonder and joy.
(and chickens if you like 'm)

AH. I get that bizarre file format error to. I though it was just me.
MrC

yes, i forget to give you more info.
here it goes

Windows xp professional service pack 1
amd athlon 64 processor 3000+ (2.00GHz)
2.00 GB RAM
HD for temp files (and backup) is an external Lacie firewire 250MB d2 extreme
HD for Storage is an internal maxtor sata 120 gb
My c:/ drive is also separate

Hi people,
Can you tell us what is the config running the software please ?

@A1 :
regarding speed : You may try to enable the Step option in your Custom Brush option panel to improve the speed of your drawings.
Is the lack of speed appearing when you use both AnimBrushes and simple Custom Brush ?
You may also try to optimize the brush just before using it (because the optimize also preload the brush in the memory)

regarding your popup, have you tried to reset your config ? don't forget that you may lose your presets so save it before if you need it. You can backup the file which is in the directory :
for windows: C:\Documents and Settings\[YourSessionName]\Application Data\tvpaint animation\default
for MacOSX: [your home]/Library/tvpaint animation/default

regarding updates, did you try the 1.0c update ? watch the website in the Download section if not.
regarding your brushes, if you remove them from the bin, i'm afraid that they do reside in walhalla unfortunately.
If you removed them from a custom panel, there are stored in the bin and you can retrieve them from the bin.
Next update will separate the Custom panel bin and the Custom brushes bin.
regarding the popup, try to reset your config (see above).
It may be due to a Custom brush that has been removed from your config and which is not "read" correctly from the bin.

ok, here it goes.

This is what i've done:

The 1.0c update was already in place.
all my drivers already were the latest.
I deleted the config and i reconstructed my brushes.
The smal ones work fine now regarding speed, the bigger ones still have a little delay. But a lot less, why? I do not know.
I know that using the step will make things faster, but the setting i need is very small, small enough to not make a difference. Optimizing also doesn't make a difference (it is not an anim brush). So the delay is on a simple Custom brush. (But it is managable now, and i do have a tendency to draw fast lines)

Something interesting: there used to be a lot of delay on the buttons of my lightable too. That is pretty much gone now. Why?not a clue.

The pop-up window is still there.

and great idea to seperate the custum panel bin and the custom brush bin!
A simple way of backing them up would ease the mind.

So although it is already a lot better (for whatever reason),
i still have a little delay on the bigger brushes but it is very manageble.
so all that's left is the pop-up window, but it doesn't bother me that much,
i'll regard it as a friend , give it a name and love it for it's sillyness.

thx for the input.
cheers!!

oh and a tip to anyone who backs up the config. do not back it up in the same folder because resetting means deleting all the .ini files in that folder. (or at least it deleted my backup)

the delay on my lightable all of a sudden was back.
I believe it is the size of the project that causes the delay.
But it does not affect my brushspeed.
is that possible??

What is the size of the project you are working on ?
Is the Light Table enabled on a layer which is actually not preloaded ?

Have you customized the size of the cache or is it still on 'Auto' ? (see the Memory & Cache tab in the Preference panel)

Finally would it be possible to take a look at your project to do some test at the office ?

Regards,

N.

Hi again,

The size is 1828-1101 /almost 50 layers/ about 5 seconds long/ 12f/s
There are no dependencies in the project. only in program animation.
I tried all cache settings but i detect no real difference
The size of my project is 150 mb--how do i send it?

The light table does the same thing in Mirage.

Hey A1,
I'll send you an email soon to see how we can proceed.
Regards,

N.

take your time,
the brushes were the main thing, and that's pretty much solved.
If i am the only one experiencing this problem with the lighttable it's perhaps hardware-related.It's not a biggie.

cheers

Maybe you can try with a disabled proxy (or at least in Render mode).
The proxy uses to render the preview in background thread.
It's also possible that your firewire driver uses too many CPU power and it can cause your system to slow down significantly.

Let us know.

Regards,

N.

I tried with and without the firewire, there is a very small improvement.
The lighttable buttons do peak the cpu usage. In an empty project up to 70%
(if i clickdrag all buttons ) but then there is no delay.
in a worked project up to a 100% and there is delay. The bigger the project the bigger the delay.
Proxy verses render makes a difference in both cpu power and projectsize
for the better. But it has no big influence on the lighttable issue.
If i had a stronger processor, would that solve the problem? Or a different one , not AMD athlon but intel Pentium or something?
Thanks for all the help!

As a matter of fact, using the lighttable multiplies the number of frames that are displayed at the same time.
At your resolution, 1828*1101, it's obvious that enabling the display of 10 frames before and after the current one increases the amount of data to process, which is approximatively 160MB per layer using the lighttable.

In order to work correctly with the maximum comfort, you need a fast CPU and a fast RAM.

When you drag any button from the lighttable, the whole frame is re-built by the software. When this is done, it shouldn't slow down your drawings at all.

Maybe you can try to disable some images that have to be displayed by the lighttable.

Regards,

N.