Hello.
I’m trying to make a grid with the Array modifier. I have read it is recommended using Alpha Map to do this kind of grids. Anyway this is the file: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/5sydLMbF0Q/
If you open it and in the right panel on Array modifier you enter 50 in “Count” and apply the changes, the response in Blender is heavy and slow. I am using Linux 64 bit, and I have an i7-3770, 8GB RAM and a nvidia GT 430. This problem would not surprise me if I see that my system depleted of resources. But this is not the case. The system monitors indicate that the CPU and the GPU not being used intensively. The GPU memory is used about 270MB of 1000MB. Just noticed an increase of RAM, between 2GB and 4GB.
I have the feeling that the problem is because Blender is not properly using all of my system resources.
My PC also slowes down a lot so it is not that the problem…One think I did was to remove doubles and blender removed 276 vertices,but the computer is still slow…
First, your model is highly inefficient, with lots of geometry hidden and overlapping. I took one segment and cleaned it up to make it optimized (can be more optimized) saving a lot of geometry, and making it one mesh. I removed two side faces so you can look inside the object. This process will help a lot with performance alone, especially when you are adding it up to so many pieces (eg. an array).
Second, a good thing to remember with closed meshes, is to disable Double Sided normals. Nvidia GeForce gfx cards are bad when it comes to rendering double sided normals, negatively affecting performance a lot. Try with your scene and disable it, and then put the array count up to 50. The performance should be much better. This alone helps a lot, and combined with a clean, optimized mesh you will get good performance with a scene like this.
But yeah, my computer also became very slow (Linux 64bit, 16GB RAM). Weird thing is, even with double sided turned off, when I tried to split the 3D window, my RAM got filled up completely and I had to kill Blender! So maybe there’s something else going on. The Blender devs are working on modernizing the viewport and OpenGL performance, so it should get better in the future. It is still a very good idea to optimize your mesh under any circumstance.
@Stelios, san: Thank you both for taking the time to test this.
@san, Yes, I must admit that I had left the full Torus and I had not properly joined it to the planes. I guess it’s a typical newbie error to assume that Blender does not see what my eyes do not see, in object mode. I did what you said and now everything is more fluid. Now I can work with that grid in Blender. I can also apply Smooth Shading to the mesh and the result is very neat. Now I shall read more about all these issues related to cleaning mesh to that Blender does not suffer much because of an inefficient design.
Regarding the methods to do this kind of grids, I have been experimenting with Alpha texture map and I do not like the result. Maybe I’m doing something wrong with alpha mapping, but for now I prefer to do grids in this way, modeling them.
Me again.
I’m trying to make a torus grid, 40x40. Blender suffers very much, it is impossible to work with it. Is there a way to simplify/clean the geometry of a torus? What would be the most appropriate method to create a large grid of rings?
Start with the lowest amount of geometry you can, so the initial torus has fx. 6 major segments and 4 minor segments, instead of the default 48/12 segments. Of course remember to disable double sided shading. You should be able to work with a subsurface modifier at 2, but set it at 1 while working and render at 2.
Thanks san, you’ve been very helpful.
I think I’m understanding how should I work to optimize performance in Blender viewport.
Just surprises me as I have said before, that when Blender gets slow it is not using much of my hardware resources. I hope this will improve with the modernization of the viewport that you said developers are working on it.
Regards.
Well, this kind of metal grid is what I’ve been trying to do and why I was bothering you with the grids :
Blender was a little heavy when the grid was active, but I could work on it.
Thanks, I learned a lot with this (and Cycles).
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