Tech specs of Anime Studio Pro...

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Darramouss
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Tech specs of Anime Studio Pro...

Post by Darramouss »

Hey there, long time reader, first time writer.

From what I gather AS doesn't make use of multiple processors when exporting. Logically I would think that the more RAM you have the faster it will be, but life doesn't always follow logic so I'm throwing this question out to the pros, i.e. you guys.

At the moment I have 4G of RAM. How much of a difference will 8G make over 4G?

(I know that this may seem to be a silly question to some but I'm not a tech head, and my kindergarten teacher told me the only silly question is an unasked question.)

Many thanks!!!
Sheer will is my greatest talent - Sledge Hammer!
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andyriley
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Post by andyriley »

It depends on what operating system you're using combined with how AS Pro was compiled.

You need a 64 bit operating system to access more than 4Gb of RAM, 32 bit OS's such as Windows XP can have a maximum addressable limit of 4Gb.

Similarly, if a 32 bit compiler was used to create the program (a compiler is the program that converts the lines of programming into an executable file on a computer) then, again, it won't be able to access more than 4Gb.

If you can borrow the 4Gb of RAM then I would give it a go but I would not expect you to see a noticable change.
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Darramouss
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Post by Darramouss »

My setup is 64 bit. (Mac Pro, 2 x quad core 2.8Ghz processors.)

Guess it comes down to what compiler was used to create AS Pro. How would I go about finding that out?
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moorsel
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Post by moorsel »

Hi there,

I am not sure if a 4-8Gbyte setup will make a difference for the rendering speed in general. Useally slow downs due to memory problems occur when the overall memory consumption on your computer exceeds the physical available RAM. At that point the OS starts to swap data from memory to disk and vice versa and this impacts the performance.

I have a 2GByte set up and in the past I monitored the amount of memory AS required during rendering (using XPs task manager). The highest amount of memory AS claimed on my machine was approx 1.5 Gbyte. The amount of memory needed by AS depends on the complexity of the animation. The 1.5Gbyte claim was for rendering an animation that used a lot of large bitmap images (A4 size png files). I suspect rendering an all vector based animation or using smaller images requires less memory.

In order to avoid performance issue dues to memory consumption you should avoid your OS starting to swap. Having a lot of programs open during the rendering also reduces the amount of free memory and could cause the OS to start swapping while rendering (photoshop, video editor, mail, etc....).

As the rendering is a CPU and disk intensive, CPU and disk speed influence the render performance as well. Rendering involves "calculations" and for complex animations these take time, the faster (in terms of CPU cycle per second) a processer is able to calculate the fast a frame is rendered.

What could help is:

Start 2 instances of AS each rendering a half of your animation (so if your animation is 100 frames: instance 1 renders frame 1-50 and instance 2 renders fram 50-100). Never tried this but it could work whenever you have enough memory to hold 2 rendering AS instances without the OS having to swap, so it might work....

Hope it helps a little....

Gr,
Frank
Last edited by moorsel on Fri May 23, 2008 1:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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jahnocli
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Post by jahnocli »

I don't know if this is out of line, but I'm going to say it anyway (story of my life...). I wouldn't try and anticipate every possible problem before I started animating. I just like to see things move. If there's a problem down the line, I try to fix it then...
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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Rasheed
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Post by Rasheed »

BTW It is possible to create your own renderfarm, because AS has a commandline option for rendering. Basically, you run several instances of AS on several boxes in your network. Of course, you'll need a license per box, or get a special deal for unlimited seats from Mike (don't know if he does that). And you'd need to write your own system (series of scripts) to implement it.

I could imagine an eight-core physical server running multiple virtual servers in threads, to optimize rendering. In that case, you'd need only one license for that server, I guess.

BTW I believe the limit of 32-bit Windows is 3 GB, instead of the theoretical maximum 4 GB addressing space.

Furthermore, I don't believe AS is optimized for concurrent operation, and doesn't implement the modern concept of transactional memory.
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Darramouss
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Post by Darramouss »

I was wondering about the speed up as I was doing a very high def render with 900 particles. Took a fair while to render although I later learned that when you have heaps of partices in the middle of the animation AS Pro will leave the layer on even when the particles are no longer needed. Switching them off after they're needed speeds up everything after you no longer need the particles.

I have 4GB RAM on my 32-bit Windows machine and when I check out its available RAM it only ever reads about 3.2 to 3.3 GB RAM.

Thanks for your help, guys!
Sheer will is my greatest talent - Sledge Hammer!
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Rasheed
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Post by Rasheed »

Darramouss wrote:I have 4GB RAM on my 32-bit Windows machine and when I check out its available RAM it only ever reads about 3.2 to 3.3 GB RAM.
OMG, MS has dumbed down Windows even more than I imagined! 3 GB, base 1024, is 3.22122546 GB, base 1000.

If you can, dump that OS! No one really wants it (zero growth) anyway.
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synthsin75
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Post by synthsin75 »

I've thought about changing from Windows myself, but there are just one too many reasons to stay with it, IMO. I thought about going to Linux, but software developement for it is lacking. Also I'm not enough of a techie to want to go through all of that. And I've read too much problems with the Mac OS's, mostly in this forum.

If I ever change, it'd be on a second machine, with my Windows as backup. :wink:
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Post by NetGenSuperstar »

That's why I like my Mac. I have Windows and Mac OS X on the same machine, and I can use them both at the same time. Windows apps act like they were built for Mac OS X, except for a slight performance hit. And if I need full speed out of my Windows apps, I can just restart fully into Windows Vista. But even so, I can even play games like Counter-Strike full-speed in Mac OS X, which is nice.

I don't mean to sound like an Apple fanboy, so I'll list the negatives, too. That whole thing about Macs never crashing is a load of crap. Applications crash constantly, and if the OS ever crashes, it just politely asks you to restart the computer -- in four languages. So Macs crash just as much as Windows, but at least they're polite.

Also, iTunes is the RealPlayer of the 21st Century.
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Darramouss
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Post by Darramouss »

Does Boot Cap allow you to run both OS X and Windows at the same time or is it another program that allows you to do that? I've been thinking of creating a partition to put Windows on my Mac but with most things I tend to procrastinate...
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Post by NetGenSuperstar »

Boot Camp only lets you install Windows on a separate hard drive partition. The program I use to run Windows on top of Mac OS X is called Parallels Desktop. I've heard good things about VMWare as well, but I couldn't get the demo to work on my computer for some reason.

One thing to note is that, although Parallels will automatically detect and set up a Boot Camp partition, in order to use Boot Camp and Parallels on the same computer you will still probably need two Windows license keys (on Vista, anyway). I was somehow able to get away with only one, but I can't guarantee the same results for you.

Just for fun, here's what an example Parallels setup might look like.
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

For years now I have a Mac and a PC. I would like to run Parallels when I get a new Mac someday. For now though, having a cheap workable PC next to the Mac is actually better even if it takes more room.

At the end of the day you are still stuck with the same issue... buying two copies of everything. I have to have two versions of Powerpoint... I do the "fun creative stuff" on the Mac... and then make sure everything is working correctly for my client on the PC.

I wish software developers would offer a discount for both versions, some kind of developer bundle.

p.s. I noticed a very funny subtle joke about Windows vs. Mac on the show "NCIS" the other day. The operative form Israel working with NCIS was banging at the keys on her locked up windows computer complaining that they used Mac's where she worked before and never had these problems.

-vern
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Post by NetGenSuperstar »

Some companies will let you install two different versions of a program on two different computers. Usually though, it's software that uses a dongle, so they at least know you're not violating the EULA.

I don't have many problems with needing both versions of software, though. I only have one computer, so if I can get either one of the versions to work, I'm happy. Also, I don't usually do much that requires testing on multiple systems; my work is mainly video, audio and text. If an MPEG, MP3 or PDF works on my Mac, it will most likely work the same on Windows. Programming, on the other hand, is an entirely different issue.

I do wish I could have Windows versions of some of my software without repurchasing it, though. If I want a laptop someday, it would have to be a Mac, and Apple laptops are expensive.
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Darramouss
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Post by Darramouss »

Forgive me for steering the topic away from AS Pro, but I have more questions!!

(So many things to do and learn, and so little time...)

I was looking at running Windows at the same time as OS X so I could use my Belkin USB transfer cable to stream files from Mac to PC and back, mainly sound files of voices altered by Morph Vox Pro. I'd be happy to not use Morph Vox Pro but I can't find a good voice alteration package on Mac. (Any suggestions anyone? Only ones I've found do robot voices only.)

Didn't realise that I'd need another licence for Windows but it makes sense that I would and getting one for that purpose alone isn't really cost effective. How do you transfer files from your Mac to PC and vice versa, Vern?
Sheer will is my greatest talent - Sledge Hammer!
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