Moho Forum

Hi Vern,
If anyone would know you would... Is AS7 finally thread safe so that my multi core CPU can use all its horsepower to render?

rogermate wrote:Is AS7 finally thread safe so that my multi core CPU can use all its horsepower to render?

Let me answer that one!

I rendered a file, rather complex one, saved in 6.2 with these setting.

File settings:
72 frames
720X538 resolution
TGA format
Basic settings

System:
AMD PhenomII 965 quad cores
8 gigs of ddr3 1800 mhz

The 72 frames rendered in...
13 minutes 41 seconds in 6.2
2 minutes 24 seconds in 7.0

6.2 uses only one core while 7.0 renders a diffrent frame on each core.

Only slightly faster on one frame files.

7.0 render seems very stable, rendered several files with it.

G

rogermate wrote:Hi Vern,
If anyone would know you would... Is AS7 finally thread safe so that my multi core CPU can use all its horsepower to render?

I know, you can


PD: Oh, GCharb won me

GCharb wrote:
6.2 uses only one core while 7.0 renders a diffrent frame on each core.

Only slightly faster on one frame files.

7.0 render seems very stable, rendered several files with it.

G

"Schwing"


...... maybe I should upgrade my PC from a Quad core to a Quint core?

I only have one teeny tiny itsy bitsy core my fine friends.

My only experience with dual cores was using a friends dual core macbook recently during beta testing and on a big AS project. While doing tons of rendering I kept noticing that "double bar" at the top. I had no clue what it was... until now. I thought maybe it might be a bug in AS 7 or possibly some freaking weird widget my buddy installed on his mac I didn't know about.

All I know about "thread safe" is..

1. Never flame people in a forum.

2. Keep your fingers away from the needle on a running sewing machine.



-vern

Wow, I was away from here last months and what a surprise when I received an e-mail telling me that AS7 is here !

What a hell to get the trial... ( I don't have my bank card here now, I'll try tomorow. ) And by the way, what a shame there is only a Debut trial and no Pro trial.
The demo videos can't load here, maybe too many people are watching.

This looks interesting to me, but I don't know, I was half-disapointed by the v6 so this time I won't buy until I tried and decided it worths its price to me and according to the way I use it.

Is there a complete list of changes from v6 to v7 ? If not, please someone tell me :

Is the v5 Sketch Effect back ? It was removed in v6 but several people asked for it to be back...

I read about brush improvement ? Where can I see a picture or a video ? Can we get credible pastel looking strokes and such ??? I am veeeryyy interested if so !

I am very excited about the 3d thing ! Points now have a z value isn't it ? I was asking for it.

Are style slots still limited to 2 ?

Can particles emiters now be something else than a square ?

Was swf export improved ? I always found it so bad that you can't use point-motion when aiming a swf export...

Is SVG import/export here ?

(sorry if there are many questions, I am nervous...)

It seems single core computers might render slower on AS7 than AS6, so far I have tested 2 renders on my wife's single core and it was slower. I might be posting this too soon but i will double check and see if all the preferences are set the same and test a longer animation.

Please, lets keep the forum clear. If there is any bug, report it on the bugs section.

Here is a screen grab of the render window with 4 cores.



G

selgin wrote:Please, lets keep the forum clear. If there is any bug, report it on the bugs section.

LOL huh?

Many applications optimized for multiprocessors can suffer on machines with only one processor. Make sure you compare "apples to apples".

Is the one processor exactly the same and just as fast as one of the multiple processors on the other system? Is that machine made by the same company using the same chip? Does it have the same ram? Same hard drive? What system apps are running in the background? Is AS using 100% of the one processor or only 50% or 20%?

You would need two identical machines one with single and one with multiple processors to make a realistic comparison. Even then a multicore machine will still probably run faster even with just one processor for AS due to the OS using the other processors. You would have to disable the other processors totally to compare them. Hobble the multicore machine entirely.

It's hardly worth the effort.

-vern

heyvern wrote:Many applications optimized for multiprocessors can suffer on machines with only one processor.

I'm pretty sure that the poster was referring to the same machine, and that for him AS7 rendered slightly slower than AS6.

While it could certainly be true that a later version of any given application may be slower than a prior version, I would not necessarily attribute the entirety of the slow down to thread safe coding. There could be lots of changes in AS7 which require more steps in rendering, even if such features are not used in a given anme project file. Someone mentioned that AS handles larger files / more complex scenes better. There can be a performance hit for that benefit, for example.

While Thread safe coding's main advantage is taking advantage of multiprocessor machines, but an added benefit is how it enforces best programming practices which can be observed by fewer bugs and crashes.

We could likely expect optimizations down the road perhaps in 7.1

At any rate, multi core was "the leading edge" several years ago so imho AS was certainly due for it. Any performance hit to single core PCs should be harder to perceive than the dramatic improvement to multi cores.

By the way, I think I saw an AMD quad core (CPU only) for retail recently for $100. How much would a 4 PC Anime Studio Pro render farm be worth to you? How about if that same render farm had zero administration setup for you to always have to deal with, not to mention fitting in one box?

heyvern wrote:Many applications optimized for multiprocessors can suffer on machines with only one processor. Make sure you compare "apples to apples".

Is the one processor exactly the same and just as fast as one of the multiple processors on the other system? Is that machine made by the same company using the same chip? Does it have the same ram? Same hard drive? What system apps are running in the background? Is AS using 100% of the one processor or only 50% or 20%?

You would need two identical machines one with single and one with multiple processors to make a realistic comparison. Even then a multicore machine will still probably run faster even with just one processor for AS due to the OS using the other processors. You would have to disable the other processors totally to compare them. Hobble the multicore machine entirely.

It's hardly worth the effort.

-vern

I did use the same machine to test it and AS7 does render slower than AS6 for me (on my single core) but its no big deal and its only about 20% slower and I never do more than a few seconds at a time before I render a scene any ways.

Sorry selgin if you thought this was for "glitches or bugs", as the few post above mine was about render speeds. I was just staying on subject.

But I am happy with the upgrade and look forward to learning more about it.

Just bought it! I am exited to see it at work!

No Demo?

Is that a good marketing plan?

Well it looks excellent, great stuff Mike.
If I could, I would buy 7 without question, sane people might want a demo