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Support => Terragen Support => Topic started by: fleetwood on December 04, 2017, 08:16:15 AM

Title: Loss of node window contents during render
Post by: fleetwood on December 04, 2017, 08:16:15 AM
Running Terragen 4.1.18 64 bit under Windows 10.
During a several hours long render I have, a number times now with different renders, completely lost the ability to reopen the minimized node widow. In most cases the render completes and can be saved, but the small icon which normally shows a tiny version of the nodes, shows only white. It will not maximize again, only close. Terragen seems to have lost contact with that window over time for some reason. 

Anyone else experienced this?

I also get the impression that Terragen now holds on to more window resources or has different process priorities.
For instance if a render was running I used to be able to check my email without pausing the render or experiencing any delays. Now if I open a browser while a render is running, I may get intermittent delays of 5 to 10 seconds when I have no cursor available or cannot type on the screen.
Title: Re: Loss of node window contents during render
Post by: Oshyan on December 04, 2017, 05:51:47 PM
When you say "the small icon that normally shows a tiny version of the nodes", are you talking about the Windows "peek" feature that shows a small version of *any app's* windows contents when mousing-over the task bar?

As for CPU usage, what was the last version you ran where you feel Windows responsiveness was better while rendering?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Loss of node window contents during render
Post by: fleetwood on December 04, 2017, 07:09:12 PM
Oshyan, Yes, I mean the Windows peek feature when you hover the cursor over a minimized icon on the taskbar.

I didn't see any priority like problems or window content loss problems with the last public Beta (Frontier?).
Can't be absolutely sure about 4.1.17 as I didn't use it for much time before upgrading to 4.1.18.

Should point out that I use Firefox as a browser and it had a major upgrade very recently.
Windows 10 also had a major upgrade very recently so there are multiple variables in the soup.



Title: Re: Loss of node window contents during render
Post by: Oshyan on December 06, 2017, 12:58:56 AM
Mmm, good to know about the other updates. So, a couple things.

First, as far as I know we currently do not specifically utilize the "peek" feature. It is a thing the operating system automatically does to every application, at least at a basic level, and then I believe application developers can choose to take greater advantage of it. Again as far as I know we do not do the latter, and so nothing should have changed in that regard.

However the responsiveness of TG itself will no doubt influence whether the application state "screenshot" that the peek feature uses is made available in a timely manner to the OS. In other words if Terragen is working super hard and its own UI thread is not getting enough CPU cycles, it could fail to provide a thumbnail in an appropriate time frame. This goes back to the general performance issue you're seeing.

I would suggest that it may be at least as likely that Windows changed application priorities and/or threading behavior for CPU-demanding, foreground applications as it is that TG changed. I'll see if I can see anything in the change log that might have affected this, but certainly between .17 and .18 there should not be.

With that in mind I'd suggest simply changing the number of CPU threads that TG uses by default. You can do this in the Preferences. Set it to 1 fewer threads than you actually have in your system (remember that threads is not the same as cores though, with hyperthreading). Let us know if that helps.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Loss of node window contents during render
Post by: fleetwood on December 06, 2017, 10:04:22 AM
Thanks Oshyan,
I'll give Terragen one less thread and see how it goes.