That's 3 computers I've tried this on and the physics simulation only works when set to "by frame" mode, which I notice doesn't seem to be your computer's setting. Any insight into what is going on?

(Graphics cards: 2GB Nvidia built into laptop; 8GB Nvidia Quadro M4000; whatever comes with Surface Pro 3)

Hi j-wag,

Interesting, almost all the machines you list are not main big box PC's.  A laptop with Nvidia graphics, but is it actually a separate graphics solution??, cause iClone under DirectX11 will not work with on board graphics properly.  The Quadro M4000 is a non gaming card GPU.  This is a known issue as Quadro's are not gaming cards and iClone uses DirectX11 gaming tech to do what it does, which is why they recommend certain cards none of which to my knowledge are Quadro's.  Again a Surface Pro 3 has on board graphics, this may well be an Intel Graphics chipset.  Again if you look at the recommended systems for iClone on their main page there is no mention of any laptop or otherwise that uses an Intel or on board graphics adaptor is not recommended.  The core thing to understand here is that iClone is like buying a game that uses gaming GPU's for what it does.  That is why it can do all this stuff in real time.  You have to use a system that meets their listed specs, which basically means a gaming card, they do support Radeon but at the end of the day my opinion is Nvidia is the best option when it comes to iClone, otherwise you will have issues.  And guess what!  PhysX is an Nvidia solution which is used for the physics in iClone so no brainer really.

So nothing wrong with iClone you just need to use a system that can handle the product if you want predicable results.

Here is their recommended system specs.  Note these are all non-mobile.
http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/iclone_requirements.aspx

However having said that you can run iClone on a laptop but you really need one with a separate mobile Nvidia GPU.  I have a friend who runs iClone without issue on a Dell laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX M970m and it kicks ass!!  But note, it is not a Quadro.

All the best





Alan M

The quadro 4000 specs list it as supporting directx11. Is there another parameter that might determine whether iclone will function properly?

I am afraid this is a question for Reallusion tech support, not me I am afraid, all I can tell you is my personal experience.

Just because a card says it supports Direct X 11 does not mean its supports it well.  I had this issue years ago with the 2000 series Quadro's and iClone.  I can tell you right now that in the last few months some of my contacts at Bournemouth University here in the UK tried to run iClone on their base professional workstations, guess what they where all Quadro 4000's and it was a mess.  They went straight to RL for support and RL said get a gaming card.  Our specs state that on our site.  They got gaming cards installed and all was good.

Sorry. but at the end of the day iClone is designed for the same type of cards that you play the likes of Counter-Strike and Battlefield on.  You will not likely find people playing those types of games on a Quadro.  Quadro card are optimised for professional CAD graphics and editing.  Totally different market to games.

I suggest you post a support ticket with Reallusion and see what they say.

I am not trying to be negative here, I am just trying to point out that Quadro cards are not supported by RL.  Full stop.  Does not matter if they claim to run DirectX11 or not.

All the best

Alan M

RL said to update the drivers and see if it works. It has worked so far until I got to the physics issues. Unfortunately I'm not in a position to make any hardare changes (the CPU won't support the recommended graphics cards as it's a workstation). Could you tell me what other things didn't work as expected on the quadro graphics cards?

Sorry but what do you mean by "bake the simulation"? Do you mean use Collect Clip?

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J-wag your Quaddro should be plenty strong. Yes, you do need to run in "By Frame" for many physics scenes. The why was actually mentioned earlier. It is because if the scene has slowed down the card a bit the real time setting skips frames to stay "realtime". It actually needs to have all frames drawn to calculate the collisions when they happen. If the collision happens between drawn frames, it doesn't really happen. So, by frame draws all the frames a bit slower. You have probably noticed that when you render your movie that it is running in "by frame" mode. It's normal.

As it turns out, iClone runs PhysX on the CPU, even if you have a Nvidia card supporting CUDA. This has been noted by myself (GTX 770) and a few people running the new GTX 1080.

I need to run in "by frame" with more than couple female avatars with long hair and dresses. I  actually looked up a comparison between your card and mine. http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=3413&gid2=881&compare=quadro-m4000-vs-geforce-gtx-770

Alan said that the raw specs aren't the issue with the quadro m4000; the problem is it doesn't run Directx11 properly.
I'm getting weird behavior when running physics so I can't reproduce what Alan has done in some of his videos, i.e he has a character toss a bowling ball at pins:
-ball is linked to character hand; ball physics are Kinematic
-at end of throw animation, ball physics change to Dynamic, ball unlinked from character, and ball hits pins, knocking them over.

I can do the last part of the animation, i.e. launch the ball with initial velocity and strike the pins, knocking them over.
What doesn't work is when I change from Kinematic to Dynamic at e.g. frame 300 (and unlink the ball from the character) in order to release the ball, the ball just drops straight down.

Simply put, the physics don't seem to be behaving the way they should be...

The first video is in Realtime; the second in ByFrame. In this case, the results are the same. 


ByFrame

Hi J-wag,

What was the second key frame at 115? Being that physics is actually running on the CPU, not the graphics card, I think something else might going wrong.