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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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Hi all,
I have CrazyTalk 8. This weekend was the first time I've tried using it. I wanted to do a 2D actor talking head synced to a 4 minute song. I created a 2D actor from a picture. Then, I followed the lip syncing tutorial and ended up with the song as the background music and my voice-over controlling the lip syncs. I was disappointed with the performance. I could not properly modify the lip syncs because each time I hit play there was a delay with the actual animation preview. Basically, I hear the audio going, but the screen is frozen and delayed for a few seconds. It made figuring out where the vocals aligned with the actual frame difficult.
I'm not sure if there are any tips to optimize the performance, but I wanted to get a check whether my system specs are sufficient to be able to do a real time preview without any delays.
I currently have the following:
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version: 10.0.10586 Build 10586 OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation System Manufacturer: Dell Inc. System Model: XPS 8500 System Type: x64-based PC Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s) Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 12.0 GB Total Physical Memory: 12.0 GB Available Physical Memory: 6.69 GB Total Virtual Memory: 13.8 GB Available Virtual Memory: 4.99 GB Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes
Description: Local Fixed Disk
Compressed: No File System: NTFS Size: 1.82 TB (1,999,316,709,376 bytes) Free Space: 504.09 GB (541,259,653,120 bytes)
Adapter Type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor Adapter Description: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series Adapter RAM: (2,147,483,648) bytes
Radeon Software Version - 16.3.2 Radeon Software Edition - Crimson Graphics Chipset - AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series Memory Size - 2048 MB Memory Type - GDDR5 Core Clock - 1000 MHz Windows Version - Windows 10 (64 bit) System Memory - 12 GB CPU Type - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Are these specs sufficient? If they are, how do I improve the performance of CrazyTalk 8, so I can replay the animation, background music, and voice-over smoothly during preview? If these specs are not sufficient, would getting a different video card such as an Nvidia Quadro K2200 help? Thanks!
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By vidi - 8 Years Ago
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The performance depends on the GPU and the data size of the project
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By Snarp Farkle - 8 Years Ago
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These are the Recommended System Requirements for iClone that I have which should be good to go by for all Reallusion Programs.
NVIDIA AMD
GeForce GTX 600 Series OK Radeon HD 8000 Series OK
GeForce GTX 700 Series OK Radeon R5 M200 Series OK
GeForce GTX 800 Series OK Radeon R7 M200 Series OK
GeForce GTX 900 Series OK Radeon R9 M200 Series ?
Recommended System Requirements:
(iClone will have better performance in below recommended environment)
* Intel i5 dual core CPU or higher - or AMD equivalent.
* 8GB RAM or higher recommended.
* 10GB free hard disk space or higher recommended.
* Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher.
* Graphics Card: NVidia Geforce GTX 600 Series/ AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series or higher.
* Video Memory: 2GB RAM or higher recommended.
* Video card compatible with Pixel Shader 3.0 recommended for optimized visual performance.
So if your system falls into this category then also make sure all your drivers are up to date, if they are then submit a support ticket would be my recommendation.
I also reinstall the latest updates if I'm having multiple program issues, not sure if it does anything at all but it's just something I do.
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By Kevin.S - 8 Years Ago
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Your system specs are fine the problem you have is the lack of video memory" in short your video card is to weak to handle iclone. Any video card with only 2gigs of memory is not enough to run 85% of today's 3d software including games.the reality an 8 gig video card should be the absolute min required spec for any 3d software program. Unfortunately the only option you have is to upgrade your video card. I am not trying to be mean or anything just truthful.
Cheers
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By animagic - 8 Years Ago
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The OP is talking about CrazyTalk 8, which should have much less stringent requirements than iClone 6.
Minimum requirements (from the CT 8 FAQ page here):
Windows
64-bit Operating System: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7 SP1
CPU: Dual core CPU or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM or higher
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8 Series or higher/ATI HD 3000 Series or higher
Video Memory: 512MB RAM or higher
Display Resolution: 1024 x 768 or higher
Hard Disk Space: 5 GB free hard disk space or higher
In the CT7 FAQ it said something about Hyper-V, which should be disabled when installing. This may also apply to CT8.
This is known issue for Windows 8 in which the Hyper-V windows feature is turned on. You may have Hyper-V as part of the Windows Phone SDK or Windows 8 Pro version is turned on Hyper-V by default. Anyway, if your system has Hyper-V turned on, please help to disable it before you install Reallusion program & enabled it back after you've installed Reallusion program. You may verify it as per below steps: -
1) Disable Hyper-V, steps on how to,
2) Install Reallusion program.
3) Enable Hyper-V, same link as above on how to. Other than a possible Hyper-V issue, your system should be powerful enough.
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By vidi - 8 Years Ago
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but what is with the Project size ?
Szene + 4 min Background Music in HQ can be too much
Better would be to make only the Lipsync
and use a NLE for bring all thogether
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By Kevin.S - 8 Years Ago
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Windows 10 Evga and MSI both read on my system 1.5 gigs of memory usage just to open crazytalk 8. Add 1 picture and it jumps to 1.758 gigs of memory usage that's with absolutely no edits voices background etc. That's almost all your video memory used just to open crazytalk and add a picture. That leaves you with vary little video memory once you cap that 200ish free Megs your software will studder and chop badly. You can download MSI afterburner and monitor your video memory usage and see for yourself. MSI Afterburner https://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner.
If you want to know if it is hardware related or software just run MSI afterburner, if you are not using all your video memory and crazytalk8 is chopping and studdering then its a software issue of some kind drivers system etc, if you are at full memory usage then its hardware. Lack of memory.
my 2 cents cheers
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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Thank you all for the replies! First I will try animagic's suggestion of disabling Hyper-V and re-install the software. If that doesn't work, then I'll start shopping for a video card. I had my eye on a Quadro K2200, but it appears that this may not be the ideal solution as I also use Sony Vegas Pro 13.
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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It turns out that I have Windows 10 Home, so by default I do not have Hyper-V installed. I decided to try MSI Afterburner. When I played my saved CrazyTalk project, the card memory showed 1125 MB. However, this seems to be the capped and it did not go further beyond this value.If my video card has 2 GB of memory, then what would an additional memory get me if the usage only maxes out at less than the card memory?
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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Uploading a zoomed in version of the Afterburner screenshot.
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By animagic - 8 Years Ago
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If you are looking for a new video card, stay away from Quadro cards as they are not optimal for RL products. The game-related NVidia and AMD cards are better. There is an issue with Sony Vegas not supporting the latest NVidia cards with respect GPU acceleration; hopefully Magix will fix this in Vegas 14 (users should make themselves heard!).
I'm surprised CT8 would be so memory-hungry, as a scene is so much simpler than an iClone 6 scene, for example. I have plenty of RAM and VRAM so I didn't really check.
However, I loaded some projects I have and on average a project uses 300 MB RAM and 200 MB VRAM (difference of VRAM between running CT8 and not running it).
The size of your audio isn't really a factor for your card and is relatively small anyway: a 4-min WAV file at CD quality is about 41 MB. I can't imagine that the lip-sync data would take enormous amounts of RAM or VRAM. Just out of curiosity, what is the size of your project file?
I assume you use a 3D head. Does the project work with a 2D head? (You would probably need to create it; I'm not sure if the data form the 3D project can be reused in a 2D project.)
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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The size of my project file is 62 MB. For this one, I opted to create a 2D actor as my first try. Nothing fancy. I just took a front facing picture (JPG) of a person and followed the instructions to creating a 2D actor. I have an MP3 file of the song as my Music layer. The Voice layer is just my voice sync with the singer's voice, but at zero volume. This layer merely drives the lip sync, per the YouTube tutorial. The AutoMotion layer is set to Default2D(0)(Idle), so the only motion I see is the character's eyes blinking and mouth moving. Currently, my Time Settings is set to 16500 total frames with a Time Unit of Time (instead of Frame).
If I just click on a Timeline position, the performance seems to be fine. But once I try to hit Play from that position, the hourglass comes out (mouse icon indicating loading), but the Voice layer starts playing while the screen freezes. Three seconds later I see the character move and the timeline position bar move again. It doesn't do me any good since I can't tell what settings to set the Lips editor.
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By Kevin.S - 8 Years Ago
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When was the last time you defragmented your hard drives this is important for smooth file playback..? Have you updated your video card drivers? Have you tried to make a new test project to see if the same problem exits in the new test project? Cretin virus software can also interfere with files check it. Also have you checked for Malware? Does this problem exist in any other software you are using? Do you have some background programs running, Have you checked in the task manager to see what Processes are running when you have crazytalk open? You may see a list of background software running that does not need to be, Check the hard drive usage. Have you gone to HP website and run the system update for your model HP that updates sound drivers and all the other hardware? Have you check for windows registry errors? You will have to trouble shoot a little, I highly doubt it has anything to do with crazytalk 8.
Defrag
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17126/windows-7-improve-performance-defragmenting-hard-disk
HP
http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers
Tips
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3030200/windows/how-to-make-windows-10-faster-5-ways-to-speed-up-your-pc.html
A compute card wont work for you with iclone it may work great for other 3d software like maya, 3d max, cad etc, but not iclone unreal unity or games etc. A gaming card with lots of video memory :-) would be best.
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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I have Windows Defender running in the background. I also use a combination of CCleaner and MalwareBytes to monitor my system. These two programs do not run in the background.
In terms of defragmentation, my system automatically defrags the hard drive. I checked defrag and it appears my drives are in OK status. The two volumes with strange names refer to my system recovery files. From what I've read, I should not worry about them.
As far as I know, I have the latest updates to my video drivers. This is what I currently have.
Also, when my system is idle, this is what my system resources look like.
The only thing that I remember about my setup is that I have a 32 GB mSATA SSD along with my 2 TB mechanical hard drive. The SSD is used as a system cache, from what I've read. Here is Dell's snapshot of my system configuration.
Also, I tried minimizing the total frames from 16500 to 4000. It appears that it did not help. When I click play, there's still a lag - with the audio track playing first before I see the animation.
I also timed the loading time of this particular project. When I launch CT and open this project first, it takes about 70 seconds to load. The loading status bar gets stuck at 60% for a while before the project loads.
Thanks!
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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animagic (8/23/2016)
If you are looking for a new video card, stay away from Quadro cards as they are not optimal for RL products. The game-related NVidia and AMD cards are better. There is an issue with Sony Vegas not supporting the latest NVidia cards with respect GPU acceleration; hopefully Magix will fix this in Vegas 14 (users should make themselves heard!).
I have crossed out the Quadro cards from my list and have focused on the AMD cards more recent than my 7700 HD. I really do not play games on my system, so I did not even bother to look at the gaming focused cards. I'll also look for cards with high memory as suggested.
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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I was finally able to get a screen recording of the loading behavior. Here is the link:
The video compares my loading time with a 2D Actor model having an empty voice layer and with a 4-min voice clip. All I'm doing is switching the 2D Actor eye accessory. It seems like any action that I do when a 4-min voice clip is loaded has a significant pause. This is the same delay behavior when I do a real-time Playback of the model with the voice clip. The sound starts playing before I can do anything on the screen.
I'm still researching on my video card options, so I have not replaced my setup, yet.
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By Kevin.S - 8 Years Ago
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Here is a question have you tried to let someone else load your project? to see if they have the same issues you are having on their computer.
You could send reallusion or one of us other users the project files and see if the problem occurs on someone else's computer.. just a suggestion.
Have you tried to re-compress your mp3 sound files? Maybe try a WAV file?
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By qacer - 8 Years Ago
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I haven't gotten anyone else to try loading my project. I haven't approached technical support, yet, as I was not sure if this was a technical issue. I'd be willing to share my project to anyone trying to load it on their system. Thanks for the suggestion!
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