Space Nav/3ds max 2013/Forest Pack Pro plugin

[tudor]

Hi,

I know this is a long shot, but it might help people who have the same problem or maybe find a way to a solution.
I'm using 3ds max 2013, the Forest Pack Pro plugin from Itoo Software - version 4.0.3 and a space navigator with driver version 6.17.3 - all of this on a windows 7

Here is the description of my problem (i posted on the plugin's forum - http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=1534.0 as well, the answer they gave me will follow):

I have a scene in which all the trees were set to "auto assign to active view" - that way they where facing each camera at render time, while allowing me for a smooth navigation with the Space Navigator in perspective view - forest pack (before v. 4) wasn't considering the 3dxstudio perspective as an active view and therefore the trees didn't move (orient themselves).
Since updating to version 4.0.3 of the plugin and to 6.17.3 for the space navigator driver, my viewport became really slow with lots of lags, even when selecting objects. I didnt' realize at first it was related to the forest trees since they were on a turned off layer. Since max's behaviour was driving me nuts, I started to test everything and got to the trees - now they were trying to follow the active view - normal perspective with SpaceNav navigation (3dxstudio perspective) - and that took a looooong time. Apparently they tried to do the same thing even when the layer was off. Anyway, in the end I turned the "auto assign to active view" off and the perspective navigation smoothness returned to normal.

on the plugin forum I had this answer:

We use a Max event to detect when the active view changes, so Forest objects can update their references for "auto assign to active view".

I think for some reason the space navigator is triggering this event continuously, and therefore forcing to rebuild Forest.

Therefore I'm wandering if in the latest version of the 3dconnexion driver (plugin for 3ds max) something changed in the way it navigates the scene to make it act more like a camera...

Since we might be a minority using both Forest Pack and a 3d connexion mouse...we might never know what actually happened...

Hope it helps,

Tudor

[ngomes]

Hi tudor,

Can you try turning off the "auto rotation center" calculation? Open the popup menu and go to the "Rotation Centre" sub-menu to disable the feature and see if you notice any different in performance.

[tudor]

Hi,

Just did the test with all possible permutations - "auto" on, "selection center" off, both on, both off and "auto" off and "selection center" on - same thing - the "trees" keep seeing the 3dx perspective as a camera and face towards it while navigating.

Thanks,

Tudor