3ds Max 2009 Slow loading

If I run Max 2009 with no internet connection it stalls for a long time just at the point where it has no drawn the viewports. It waits for maybe 1 minute.

Now I think it detects this machine has internet, but its actually an intranet , because changing the proxy settings in IE can cause it to load normally (and then ie fails on the intranet). Also machines with internet+intranet work fine.

I did do a quick search around the net, but have not found anyone with the same problem. Could be that its unique to our network system. Maybe someone here knows whats going on and how we could disable what max is trying to do or another fix.

Thanks

i’ve heard max2009 has a ‘call home’ feature that tries to connect to the autodesk website like you expected. I’m not sure if that is true, but that could be it…

Comm-Center has been there since i believe Max 9, it calls home for some subscription info and news etc. (theoretically)

If you dont want this and want to get rid of it:

  1. in your stdplugs folder move “InfoCenter.gup” in to some Backupfolder so it doesn’t get loaded…

  2. move “AdInfoCenter.dll” in your Max’s root to some BAK-folder too

  3. in your “Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared” - or wherever it might be on your system, rename “WSCommCntr1.exe” to something like “WSCommCntr1.exe_BAK”

the above steps should kick out the Comm-Center completly, of course do it only on your personal system, and if your are aware of the fact that i cannot take any responsibilty for anything

There is another functionality in Max, that might call home, it’s the ADESK CIP programm. You should have been asked if you want to take part in it or not after installation ASFAIK.This can only be disabled via some registry keys read the whole thing here


This text mentions ACAD, but it is there in Max too…

This is was ADESK wants to tell you about CIP and your privacy…

http://www.3dspeedmachine.com/News/compare/compare3.htm

not just slow loading… from the results of this test…and my god vista is bad.

Thanks guys for the info, I used spacefrogs suggestion - I only needed to do step number one - Seems to solve the problem, I just renamed the extension.

Brad - those tests are interesting, but nothing like real world situations. Ironically
its a test not done by 3d artists on a site which claims to be about tests done by 3d artists :slight_smile:

http://www.3dspeedmachine.com/News/compare/compare3.htm

Please do not post links to those Tests anywhere, they are heavily flawed !!

Those are VERY staged to make XSI look best and Max look worst
I am arguing via email about this with Testauthor Jon Peddie about the Tests
but got only one responce till now…
You can DL the test-scenes yourself to see the faulty setups, and ALL of them
are favoring XSI via various settings in the scenes. Well Softimage commissioned
the Benchmark, but i don’t believe they really wanted risk their good name for such tricks.

Here’s a list of flaws i found till now:

* General Flaw for all Tests:
Max’s Viewport poly/vertex counter causes a performance hit if geometry
reevaluation is required somewhere in the modifier-stack (skin in this case)
The hit in “jogger” is at least 20% on my System. Just toggling poly/vtx
display to OFF, leaving only the FPS counter will show that immidiatly…

* “a 1000 cubes” - Flaw 1:
XSI performance is measured in BOUNDINGBOX mode, whereas Maya+Max are
in Wireframe. Result: XSI is 20% faster. If you turn on Wireframe in
XSI too, its actually 20% slower than Max (on my machine) with Maya
being fastest. Boundingbox in Max is nearly double the Speed of XSI

* “a 1000 cubes” - Flaw 2:
XSI + Maya uses optimized rotation-keyframes ( 1 key per 40 frames)
Max has set a key per frame, which causes a viewport hit because
of additional interpolation overhead. Additionally Max+Maya’s keys are
set to smooth interpolation, whereas XSI’s are set to linear.

* “Particles_with_4_goals”
In XSI’s + Maya’s scene, particles are NOT moving towards their goals as intended.
They simply move up vertically in one solid stream and converge to a point.
In the Max scene they stream is actually splitting and moving towards the 4 goals.

* “Particles_Along_Curve”
It’s statet that Max can not perform a simple “Particle along Path” anim with PFlow,
but that’s totally untrue. I’m rather unfamiliar with PFlow, but in 10 minutes i got the
solution for particles following the path (same particlerate as XSI)…
Result: 5 secs in Max, 8 secs in XSI on my System

* Massive_Urching_Twisting"
Of course the XSI-ICE Twist method is faster than the good old
“Twist-Modifier” in Max. But looking at the Maxscene, you will find several keys hidden
in Maxs “Edit Poly”-Object and the “Twist-Modifier” besides the animated twist and
rotation keys. Of course performance is slower in Max, if you set some keyframes
on Softselection-Falloffs in Editpoly, animate the Twist-Modifiers Center and several
other keyframed animation going on in the Max-Scene. Again all Keys in Max are set up
on a “one key-per-frame” base, whereas the XSI Scene only has two animated parameters
(twist + rotation) and this on a “one key per ~40 frames” base

Come to your own conclusion about this Benchmark. It’s really hard to defend Max in these days,
but in this case i feel the strong urge to do so.
I will open a thread on cgtalk in the Max section to discuss this matter, because i find this degree
of bias absolutly unacceptable…

Wow spacefrog, those tests really got your back up. Just skimming it made alarm bells ring in my head. Looking at it again, I see it was comissioned as you say by Softimage. Its written by someone who is competent at relaying technical information, but you can tell they dont understand it much deeper. It is very flawed.

Max was not slowest in all cases, Vista Vs. XP was interesting. The outside company that did the tests want more tests done and help but as they said, finding people that were no biased in one software or the other was hard as was finding some one that knew all 3.

If XSI was ment to look good in all cases, then Maya won in several areas. I think once they move xsi skinning over to a full ICE solution that XSI will be much faster at the animation playback.

And I am glad that you are helping them make the tests better. you seem to have a lot of info on how the tests were done that would be good to know… thank you.

*vista- I had to turn off the “user program control” under vista to even get motionbuilder to launch and run under about 10 min. then it would pause and hang every time I just clicked in the software… so might get a bit of a speed up if they turned that off? not sure.

They couldnt find anyone who was not biased? They couldnt find a professional so they took it upon themselves to do tests that arent really relevant. There are a number errors in this “whitepaper”, nothing to do with bias to one package or another. This made me dismiss the whole thing, how could I trust the result they give if they dont even understand what they are doing?

There is a simple solution now, Autodesk can release some benchmarks, how can they be biased? :slight_smile:

Over the weekend i run some benching sessions on my own, modified the Max scenes to come as close to the XSI scenes i could get them, rerun them and compared…
After that i opened a thread on Cgsociety, if you are interested, here’s the link:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=6&t=693979

Where can I download 3D Max for free not trials please the full version? Where can I download 3D Max for free? Thanks fire dart: D I’ve had it for about 4 weeks but I’m looking for 3D max I heard its great thanks though.

sounds good to me

[QUOTE=mikiex;1829]If I run Max 2009 with no internet connection it stalls for a long time just at the point where it has no drawn the viewports. It waits for maybe 1 minute.

Now I think it detects this machine has internet, but its actually an intranet , because changing the proxy settings in IE can cause it to load normally (and then ie fails on the intranet). Also machines with internet+intranet work fine.

I did do a quick search around the net, but have not found anyone with the same problem. Could be that its unique to our converged network system. Maybe someone here knows whats going on and how we could disable what max is trying to do or another fix.

Thanks[/QUOTE]
Yes, it could be unique to your system. I’m not sure how to disable but you could try contacting a professional.