Windows 8 issues - Hardware or OS?

dan.shivedan.shive Posts: 0
edited July 2013 in The Commons

I've read about people having issues with Daz Studio 4.6 on Win8 machines. I've also read about people NOT have issues with 4.6 on Win8 machines.

I'm interested in getting a new computer someday, and it's likely that it would come with Windows 8, so I have to wonder: What really determines whether Daz will run well on a Win8 machine? Is a good video card and plenty of ram all it would take to ensure success, or are there more complex factors to consider?

Post edited by dan.shive on

Comments

  • Midnight_storiesMidnight_stories Posts: 4,112
    edited July 2013

    Well I can give a definitive answer next Wednesday I pick a a new computer with windows 8 so I will be going from the whole process from scratch. I know you have to install and run it from the Desktop part of it, as it won't run it on the native window 8 apps as daz hasn't made one for it. I will post back and let you know how it goes and how to get it up and running in windows 8. Cheers

    Post edited by Midnight_stories on
  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Graphics card has little to do with it. Ram is for rendering. From what I have read W8 is a worse dog the Vista was, by leaps and bounds.
    I need to get a new comp, it will probably come with W8, but i will be installing the salvaged HDD from my last comp, and it has W7 on it. May almost be worth finding a copy of W7 to install ;-)

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Or do what I did and have the new machine built by a company that give you the option to have it with Win 7 installed.

  • Midnight_storiesMidnight_stories Posts: 4,112
    edited December 1969

    I heard it renders a lot quicker on W8 something to do with how it access the ram. I'm getting 32 gig with 670 nvidia GPU power is a must for the Octane render plugin for DS it's pretty close to realtime rendering but the mats are a bit tricky to set up. We'll see, I guess I might be running back to W7 with my tail between my legs LOL!

  • dan.shivedan.shive Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I look forward to your findings and hope you don't have to retreat with a griffin tail between your legs :)

    Although with a 32-gig system, your results miiiiiight not be typical. On the other hand, if I buy a new computer, it's going to have as much ram as possible, so I'm thrilled that you'll be trying it out with a truly high-end system.

  • daveleitzdaveleitz Posts: 459
    edited July 2013

    I bought a new HP laptop a few months ago. It came with Windows 8, of course. I got rid of the HP bloatware and set my preferred programs in place of the new 'apps' that Microsoft has designed for touch screen use. It operates pretty much like Windows 7. The Start Screen is different, and so are the 'charms.' I got used to them. Otherwise, it's a fast and stable OS. I did a clean install of DS 4.6 and all my content using the DIM. Everything works fine.

    I find 8 GB RAM to be plenty for most uses. Just avoid integrated graphics. My HP laptop has Intel HD 4000, but it also has an Nvidia GPU with 2GB of its own RAM. I can let the system autodetect which graphics chip to use or manually assign programs to use one or the other. Obviously, DS 4.6 uses the Nvidia GPU.

    Post edited by daveleitz on
  • Midnight_storiesMidnight_stories Posts: 4,112
    edited December 1969

    As promised here's my heads up report on Windows 8 and DAZ Studio 4.6.
    What I did first was download and installed the "DAZ 3D Install Manager "
    From there I downloaded DS4.6 64bit and it installed automatically.
    Then get the Genesis Starter essentials and the G2F pack.
    Icon on the desktop ran no problems only thing it didn't load genesis on start up.
    But I like that as I have many projects I'm working on.
    Tried the rendering wow so fast !!!
    I did a V6 with my new Xeon Suit plus V5 Ponytail and use Lantios lights 2.
    It took just under 5 minutes to render, On the old system Window 7 64bit 32 gig it took 40 minutes.
    So it's all thumbs up at my end. No troubles at all.

  • SiscaSisca Posts: 875
    edited December 1969

    I've been running Win 8 on my primary machine since release and haven't had any issues. In fact, Win 8 runs better than Win 7 ever did on the same machine.

    Of course, 99% of my time is spent in what Win 8 calls Desktop mode (what everyone else will see as Win 7 without the Aero Glass interface) and not the shiney new Metro UI since this is my desktop and I don't have a touch screen. In fact the whole Start Screen thing is just a glorified start menu for me. I pin frequently launched programs there so I can just hit the Win key and click the icon (single click launches from that screen).

    I also find it easier to launch programs I don't use that often using the built in search - just hit Win key and start typing the name of the program then hit enter when it pops to the top. Win key+calc+enter to launch calculator is much easier than digging through the menus. And yes you can do the same thing in Win 7.

    Thinking about it the only apps I run in Win 8 native mode are Netflix and Hulu and that's mainly because I'd be running those full screen anyway.

  • Midnight_storiesMidnight_stories Posts: 4,112
    edited December 1969

    One thing I like is the task bar is extended across multiple monitors so which ever monitor you click the icon in that's where it comes up. Nowhere near as bad as every one said it would be in fact I'm liking Windows 8 better !

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643
    edited December 1969

    midnight_stories, which processor did you get?

  • sfaa69sfaa69 Posts: 353
    edited December 1969

    I've been using Win8 on a HP i5 with 12 GB RAM for about five months. Other than getting used to the interface, no problems with Studio, and no problems with the OS. I recently did some troubleshooting on a neighbors Vista machine, and now I see why so many people hated Vista. Win8 so far is not much different from Win7 for me, and is certainly not another Vista from what I've seen so far.

  • Midnight_storiesMidnight_stories Posts: 4,112
    edited December 1969

    midnight_stories, which processor did you get?

    It has the following
    Intel S2011 Core i7 3930K 3.20GHz 6x Core CPU
    DDR3 32GB (4x8G) G.Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz Ram Kit
    2TB Seagate 3.5" 7200rpm SV35 SATA HDD
    NVIDIA GTX670OC 2GB ASUS PCIe Video Card
    LG 14x Blu-Ray Writer SATA BLACK OEM PN BH14NS40
    775 Watt Thermaltake Toughpower XT Modular Power Supply
    Microsoft Windows 8 PRO 64bit PN FQC-05955

    Have no idea what half of that means LOL :)
    all I know it's super quick bootup 5-10 sec
    improvements in surfing the net at least double.
    Man I must have had a heap of crap on my old system.
    DS 4.6 property editor works now without crashing the system.
    That's why I got the new system in the first place.
    So I should be able to start turning stuff out for DS and Poser as twice as fast " I wish LOL"

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643
    edited July 2013

    midnight_stories, which processor did you get?

    It has the following
    Intel S2011 Core i7 3930K 3.20GHz 6x Core CPU
    DDR3 32GB (4x8G) G.Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz Ram Kit
    2TB Seagate 3.5" 7200rpm SV35 SATA HDD
    NVIDIA GTX670OC 2GB ASUS PCIe Video Card
    LG 14x Blu-Ray Writer SATA BLACK OEM PN BH14NS40
    775 Watt Thermaltake Toughpower XT Modular Power Supply
    Microsoft Windows 8 PRO 64bit PN FQC-05955

    Have no idea what half of that means LOL :)
    all I know it's super quick bootup 5-10 sec
    improvements in surfing the net at least double.
    Man I must have had a heap of crap on my old system.
    DS 4.6 property editor works now without crashing the system.
    That's why I got the new system in the first place.
    So I should be able to start turning stuff out for DS and Poser as twice as fast " I wish LOL"

    Thanks for the info! You have a a good value processor that is 6 core and 12 threads. That's the one I hope to get in a few months and it's great to know it's fast with 3Delight. You probably also have added stability from the power supply. People laugh but flaky power supplies can cause crashes just as easily as a bug in a program. You more than likely have updated video drivers which can help usually with stability, and the fans and vents are probably all clean and working well which is good because heat can also cause flaky performance.

    Post edited by Kevin Sanderson on
  • elhectroelhectro Posts: 62
    edited December 1969

    Now that I'm reading this thread, I realize, that I've been unfair blaming daz for all the issues I'm having.
    these are some of my bugs..
    1. While rendering a heavy image, DAZ use too often to get FREEZED, and sometimes, even freeze the entire system. It's so frustrating to leave the computer alone, go to sleep and then wake up to realize that the render stopped in 58%........ and daz not responding.
    2. While I'm rendering, I always want to see the progress, and I use to navigate across the tab to see the progress. Now, it tends to freeze in this process..
    3. If I minimize while rendering, there's a big possibility that daz will freeze if I want to maximize....
    4. A funny one is that my icon tends to become invisible... so daz becomes impossible to work in....


    I'm using a dell laptop, i7 3rd gen CPU, 8 gigas ram, windows 8, and 3delight rendering.

    I have the impression that the fault for this bugs is DAZ 70%, windows 8 30%,

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643
    edited December 1969

    hectorblg said:
    Now that I'm reading this thread, I realize, that I've been unfair blaming daz for all the issues I'm having.
    these are some of my bugs..
    1. While rendering a heavy image, DAZ use too often to get FREEZED, and sometimes, even freeze the entire system. It's so frustrating to leave the computer alone, go to sleep and then wake up to realize that the render stopped in 58%........ and daz not responding.
    2. While I'm rendering, I always want to see the progress, and I use to navigate across the tab to see the progress. Now, it tends to freeze in this process..
    3. If I minimize while rendering, there's a big possibility that daz will freeze if I want to maximize....
    4. A funny one is that my icon tends to become invisible... so daz becomes impossible to work in....


    I'm using a dell laptop, i7 3rd gen CPU, 8 gigas ram, windows 8, and 3delight rendering.

    I have the impression that the fault for this bugs is DAZ 70%, windows 8 30%,

    2, 3 & 4 might be video driver or video memory related. 1 might be memory related... you might have too much in a scene. You can try reducing your textures or render parts of your scene separately and composite the renders into one.

  • elhectroelhectro Posts: 62
    edited December 1969

    hectorblg said:
    Now that I'm reading this thread, I realize, that I've been unfair blaming daz for all the issues I'm having.
    these are some of my bugs..
    1. While rendering a heavy image, DAZ use too often to get FREEZED, and sometimes, even freeze the entire system. It's so frustrating to leave the computer alone, go to sleep and then wake up to realize that the render stopped in 58%........ and daz not responding.
    2. While I'm rendering, I always want to see the progress, and I use to navigate across the tab to see the progress. Now, it tends to freeze in this process..
    3. If I minimize while rendering, there's a big possibility that daz will freeze if I want to maximize....
    4. A funny one is that my icon tends to become invisible... so daz becomes impossible to work in....


    I'm using a dell laptop, i7 3rd gen CPU, 8 gigas ram, windows 8, and 3delight rendering.

    I have the impression that the fault for this bugs is DAZ 70%, windows 8 30%,

    2, 3 & 4 might be video driver or video memory related. 1 might be memory related... you might have too much in a scene. You can try reducing your textures or render parts of your scene separately and composite the renders into one.

    Thanks for answering Kevin!. It's probable that my scene is too heavy, I've got 5 genesis, 3 robots BEO (which always make the scenes render slower)....This is too sad, I've bought 1 month ago the second best laptop available from Dell (i7 processor, 8 gigas RAM), and so the only possible way to use daz properly is to get the most expensive alienware?

    Now, I left the same image rendering, and selected "render to file". When I woke up, it was at 66%, so I selected cancel, and daz freezed........ After 5 minutes, in task manager, it said cpu for daz was at 0%. So I believe this has nothing to do with the video card.

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643
    edited December 1969

    hectorblg said:

    Thanks for answering Kevin!. It's probable that my scene is too heavy, I've got 5 genesis, 3 robots BEO (which always make the scenes render slower)....This is too sad, I've bought 1 month ago the second best laptop available from Dell (i7 processor, 8 gigas RAM), and so the only possible way to use daz properly is to get the most expensive alienware?

    Now, I left the same image rendering, and selected "render to file". When I woke up, it was at 66%, so I selected cancel, and daz freezed........ After 5 minutes, in task manager, it said cpu for daz was at 0%. So I believe this has nothing to do with the video card.

    You're welcome!

    I'm thinking it may be the scene and probably the textures. 3Delight converts textures to smaller versions with tdlmake for mip map purposes. It's a program designed for rendering animation. All the new textures are held in memory. Try rendering a robot by itself and see if it works. Do a smaller, lower quality test render at first so you don't have to wait all night. If it's taking that long to hit 66%, I'm thinking there may be more wrong as well with maybe your lighting and the render settings you've chosen. It shouldn't take that long with a newer i7.

    Some programs don't graciously exit when they've been making intensive use of resources and you decide to cancel the action, or they've frozen for other reasons and you are trying to exit. I have other programs that do the same thing.

    I think starting smaller and working up will show you where you are having issues. Can you add more RAM to that Laptop? And do you have a real video card in that laptop or is it using processor or motherboard video? Video can affect so much on a computer.

  • sinbadsinbad Posts: 22
    edited August 2013

    Well Studio Pro 4.6 isn't playing well with my Windows 8 machine.
    Install went fine and the program launches but all I get is an icon in the task bar.
    If I mouse over it, or Alt_Tab I can see a thumbnail of the app on the desktop. And when selected Windows changes focus like the app is on the desktop.
    But it never appears on the desktop.

    Uninstalled and reinstalled more than once with restarts in between and still no luck. :down:

    Update: After trying "taskbar" as a keyword in the forum search I found this thread which worked for me.
    Daz Studio 4 won’t open remains minimized in taskbar

    Should have searched better before I posted.

    Post edited by sinbad on
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