Better performance, less resource usage

6.5 has the windows 9x/Me performance improvements.

Richard

3DC uses to many windows resources so that it is unusable on Win9X/ME. andnbsp;Other similar apps (trueSpace 3.2, Anim8or, Milkshape) use less windows resources and perform better.

I use 3DC on Win98. andnbsp;

I’ve tried it on both Win98SE and WinME. andnbsp;The Win98SE system has a 64MB Radeon 8500 card with Catalyst 3.6 drivers. andnbsp;The WinME system (which has been reinstalled with WinXP since) has a 16MB GeForce2 Go. andnbsp;On both Win98SE and WinME, 3DC would start out okay and slowly bog down with every new operation until it would take 5-10 seconds just to refresh the views and buttons, etc. andnbsp;Wheneven I moved an object in one view and then move the mouse to another view and zoom-in or whatever, there would be a 3-5 second lag between when I click-drag the mouse and when the app starts to respond to my mouse drag.

Amabilis suggested to try WinXP because it has andquot;unlimitedandquot; windows resources. andnbsp;So far, 3DC seems to run great on the 16MB GF2Go system with WinXP Pro. andnbsp;Same hardware… runs great. andnbsp;Must be the OS…

I have actually had sessions where 3DC ran okay on the Radeon system with Win98SE (didn’t start bogging down and getting non-responsive), but I’m not sure what is going wrong. andnbsp;I’ve tried running 3DC after a fresh reboot, and 3DC runs like a dog almost immediately, but then I have the machine up for 3 days straight and run 3DC and it runs terribly. andnbsp;Hard to say what’s wrong exactly.

The workaround of running 3DC on WinXP is unacceptable for me since probably half my software won’t run on XP (old games made before WinXP existed, and other stuff like that that only runs on Win9X/ME and the company that wrote it is either out of business or doesn’t care about WinXP at least for their older product that they made a few years ago) and that’s a pretty hefty chunk’o’change to just andquot;throw to the windandquot;. andnbsp;I’d like to run 3DC on my Win98SE system with the Radeon 8500, but I can’t reliably. andnbsp;Other apps run fine. andnbsp;Tons of 3D games run great. andnbsp;3DC is the second app I’ve tried that runs andquot;crappyandquot; (the first being Tribes 2 which runs great for the most part but occasionally crashes – but then again, it crashes the same way on EVERYONE’s system, poor programming and lack of support).

Oh well… I’m probably just stuck with running it on the crappy system with WinXP… since noone else has any problems running 3DC on Win9x/ME…

This subject has been talked about in detail in a number of other posts. Unfortunately, the windows resources issue will never be resolved. It is just the nature of the design of 3DC that it requires these windows andquot;resourcesandquot;. Basically older versions of Windows bog down if you use too many andquot;iconsandquot;. Also, there is a known bug in Windows 9x/Me relating to opening picture files that I’m pretty sure Microsoft will never resolve. Within the next year you may see andquot;slightandquot; improvements in the Windows resource issue as I will be opening less picture files.

The reason you don’t hear many complaints about this issue anymore is that the vast majority of 3DC users use XP (or w2k). In fact, a large majority of the people [b:3jdx2kl0]visiting[/b:3jdx2kl0] the site are now 2000/XP users (75%).

Have you considered a dual-boot system? I know it is a hassle, but you can then use XP for your day to day stuff and boot to Me when you need to use andquot;legacyandquot; software. This is an option for some, but people who have to re-boot frequently don’t like this option much.

I suppose none of the andquot;Compatibilityandquot; features help for your older software?

Richard

Better than 6.0.1.1? andnbsp;Is there a specific change between the versions that’s causing the difference?

Also, try running version 6.0.1.0. It supposedly works better with WinMe: [img:2jgduavd]http://www.3DC.com/downloads/3DC6010.zip[/img:2jgduavd]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC6010.zip">http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC6010.zip</a>&lt;!– m –>

Richard

Thanks for the explanation. andnbsp;And those are good suggestions (the dual boot stuff). andnbsp;Eventually, I won’t have a choice I expect, as apps start andquot;requiringandquot; XP (hopefully not soon).

I have tried the andquot;Compatibility Modeandquot; stuff… and I’ve yet to have any success with it… every game I’ve tried that has problems on XP doesn’t work any better with CM. andnbsp;Typical Micro$oft… but very unfortunate.

Richard,

Any progress on the cause of the slowdown seen after upgrading from 6.0.1.0 to 6.0.1.1+ seen on some Win98/Me machines?

6.0.1.0 still chugs along just fine on Win98 here, unfortunately 6.0.1.1+ doesn’t.

I’ve looked at the changes made between 6.0.1.0 and 6.0.1.1 and there is nothing that indicates there should be a problem. But, I have set up 3DC and the development environment on an Me system and am looking at what could be the cause. Nothing so far. In fact at this point I can’t be certain that it’s slow on all Me systems or just yours. It would be nice if I got some more input from other Me users, but there really aren’t many people left using Me for serious purposes like 3D modelling.

Richard

My main system is Win98SE. andnbsp;I don’t have WinME on the laptop any more… since I installed XP to solve the sluggish performance problems. andnbsp;I’d be willing to run a profiling/debugging version of 3DC if you like. andnbsp;I also have Visual Studio 6 that I could install if that would help track down and/or report aspects of the problem(s).

Richard,

My Win98se system is available to run any experiments you may devise. I haven’t seen any significant difference in real or virtual memory usage between the versions.

The version that improves the peformance on 3DC on Windows 9x/Me is available here: [img:zf9dbf3o]http&#58;//www&#46;amabilis&#46;com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB&#46;cgi?board=3DCProGeneral;action=display;num=1064351465[/img:zf9dbf3o]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=3DCProGeneral;action=display;num=1064351465">http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Ya … 1064351465</a><!– m –>

It does nothing about resource usage.

Richard

Can you point me to the version that has better performance on Win9X?