AE CS6 vs AE CC

Heya folks. In last couple of days I switched from PC to Mac. My Production Premium 5.5 is now useless because it’s for windows only, so I had to get CS6 upgrade for Mac. I ordered one via reseller here in Sarajevo and I’m waiting for that. Since I wanted to test out the Mac and I still didn’t receive my CS6 package I downloaded AE CC to test it out.

Man it’s slow. Sure, cache is a great thing, but working in it, for example, zooming with camera, or moving 3D layers, horrible! And, no, I’m not in raytraced comp, just normal 3d comp. Not to talk about raytraced stuff, that’s horrible. Then, when you want to use multiprocessing, you have to switch off all the effects and stuff which are not supported by it, and once you do that, multiprocessing needs quite some time till it starts working, then it goes pretty well. Although, the RAM previews are not as much as a problem as workflow is. Just painfully slow. I’ve also read some forum threads on adobe’s website, people having same problems.

Now, what I need to know, since I ordered already my CS6 package, is AE CS6 also like this? Please, anyone who has CS6, could you tell me more? Thanks in advance.

Classic 3D shouldn’t be any slower, although because the frame-caching now reads ahead for the whole comp, interaction can be somewhat scuppered by the global cache, that’s designed to speed everything up. One way to overcome this is to turn Show Cache Indicators off in the comp settings. This is annoying if you’re used to working with them, but I generally work with them off these days.

As for ray-traced. It’s fundamentally slow. There’s a very specific way to work with ray-traced to get it to work decently fast.

Check out my Overview tut for Awesome text presets. There’s some stuff about working faster with RT in there. Even so, I do find that if you split RT into two segments with a 2D breaker for instance, everything starts to crawl.

I’d love to see Adobe optimize the ray-tracer. There’s tons they could do to speed it up IMHO. Simple stuff like back-face culling / non-self-shadowing / self-reflecting option etc.

Felt, you are talking about CS6, right?

EFEKT_Studio said

Felt, you are talking about CS6, right?

CS6 and CC. The global cache and ray-tracing both work more or less identically in both.

I’ve noticed that. I’m a big fan of the old ‘page up’ and ‘page down’ action… although there’s easier ways to do it, if I want to move forward 20 frames then I’ll just tap page down 20 times. That’s the way I like it.

In CS6 I’d tap it 20 times, wait half a second or so and then the time indicator is where it should be. Now in CC, I do the same thing and I’m waiting about 5 seconds or more for everything to update. Also, there can be a second or so from clicking on file/edit/window etc for the menu to open. Sure, 1 second is no big deal, but it can get a bit frustrating when you’re pressing something and waiting for stuff to happen.

This happens in a standard comp, 2d or 3d, no plugins, minimal layers/effects etc etc. Just seems really sluggish.

StencilMedia said

I’ve noticed that. I’m a big fan of the old ‘page up’ and ‘page down’ action… although there’s easier ways to do it, if I want to move forward 20 frames then I’ll just tap page down 20 times. That’s the way I like it.

In CS6 I’d tap it 20 times, wait half a second or so and then the time indicator is where it should be. Now in CC, I do the same thing and I’m waiting about 5 seconds or more for everything to update. Also, there can be a second or so from clicking on file/edit/window etc for the menu to open. Sure, 1 second is no big deal, but it can get a bit frustrating when you’re pressing something and waiting for stuff to happen.

This happens in a standard comp, 2d or 3d, no plugins, minimal layers/effects etc etc. Just seems really sluggish.

Same advice: Turn off “Show Cache Indicators”.

felt_tips said
StencilMedia said

I’ve noticed that. I’m a big fan of the old ‘page up’ and ‘page down’ action… although there’s easier ways to do it, if I want to move forward 20 frames then I’ll just tap page down 20 times. That’s the way I like it.

In CS6 I’d tap it 20 times, wait half a second or so and then the time indicator is where it should be. Now in CC, I do the same thing and I’m waiting about 5 seconds or more for everything to update. Also, there can be a second or so from clicking on file/edit/window etc for the menu to open. Sure, 1 second is no big deal, but it can get a bit frustrating when you’re pressing something and waiting for stuff to happen.

This happens in a standard comp, 2d or 3d, no plugins, minimal layers/effects etc etc. Just seems really sluggish.

Same advice: Turn off “Show Cache Indicators”.

Where is that exactly?

EFEKT_Studio said
felt_tips said
StencilMedia said

I’ve noticed that. I’m a big fan of the old ‘page up’ and ‘page down’ action… although there’s easier ways to do it, if I want to move forward 20 frames then I’ll just tap page down 20 times. That’s the way I like it.

In CS6 I’d tap it 20 times, wait half a second or so and then the time indicator is where it should be. Now in CC, I do the same thing and I’m waiting about 5 seconds or more for everything to update. Also, there can be a second or so from clicking on file/edit/window etc for the menu to open. Sure, 1 second is no big deal, but it can get a bit frustrating when you’re pressing something and waiting for stuff to happen.

This happens in a standard comp, 2d or 3d, no plugins, minimal layers/effects etc etc. Just seems really sluggish.

Same advice: Turn off “Show Cache Indicators”.

Where is that exactly?

On the right-hand-side of the timeline, there’s a little triangle which brings up a drop down menu. It’s in there.

That helped in scrolling trough timeline, great tip! But, I still have problems. I’ll record and post here, so you guys can see what’s the problem.

I recorded a video so you guys can see whats going on… any help would be much appreciated.

It’s hard to know, not having seen how CS5 runs on your computer.

CS6 can be a bit slow for stuff, and ironically enough, I think it’s because of the global-cache. Every frame needs to be checked for whether it has been used before. In that instance, it may be that if you are using a slower disk for your disk cache that this is taking the time. (I’m not sure about this though). Have you tried turning disk cache off and seeing if that improves anything? Did you have fast draft on in that shot? Could you make the project available so that other people can test it out. Or feel free to email it to me… you’ve got my email, I think.

I must say though, that I don’t usually get a MAJOR slowdown in CS6+ (apart from in very specific circumstances).

felt_tips said

It’s hard to know, not having seen how CS5 runs on your computer.

CS6 can be a bit slow for stuff, and ironically enough, I think it’s because of the global-cache. Every frame needs to be checked for whether it has been used before. In that instance, it may be that if you are using a slower disk for your disk cache that this is taking the time. (I’m not sure about this though). Have you tried turning disk cache off and seeing if that improves anything? Did you have fast draft on in that shot? Could you make the project available so that other people can test it out. Or feel free to email it to me… you’ve got my email, I think.

I must say though, that I don’t usually get a MAJOR slowdown in CS6+ (apart from in very specific circumstances).

By the way… how about trying switching the comp to ray-traced and fast-draft. Ray-traced is faster than Classic in some situations.

had I long chat with adobe support. The guy even connected to my computer. He told me to use draft resolution. When I told him that I prefer not using it, he said that that’s the only way to make it work faster because ae cs6 and cc are designed differently.

"**: CS5.5 and CC are very much different you will face the similar issues in CS6 too as it will also work like this. It is not the problem with the machine but the design has been changed. So now every frame is assigned a different memory so if you notice in activity monitor there will be multiples of AE files that will be running.

**: So if you want it to move fast then you have to check it on draft quality or lower the resolution to quarter.

Mirza: that’s what I was afraid of

** It is not slow but it will save the project because lots of load on memory makes program to crash.

**: So the load is divided on to different slots and …

felt_tips said
felt_tips said

It’s hard to know, not having seen how CS5 runs on your computer.

CS6 can be a bit slow for stuff, and ironically enough, I think it’s because of the global-cache. Every frame needs to be checked for whether it has been used before. In that instance, it may be that if you are using a slower disk for your disk cache that this is taking the time. (I’m not sure about this though). Have you tried turning disk cache off and seeing if that improves anything? Did you have fast draft on in that shot? Could you make the project available so that other people can test it out. Or feel free to email it to me… you’ve got my email, I think.

I must say though, that I don’t usually get a MAJOR slowdown in CS6+ (apart from in very specific circumstances).

By the way… how about trying switching the comp to ray-traced and fast-draft. Ray-traced is faster than Classic in some situations.

tried already.

felt_tips said

I’d love to see Adobe optimize the ray-tracer. There’s tons they could do to speed it up IMHO.

We’re working on that right now, as it happens.

EFEKT_Studio said

had I long chat with adobe support. The guy even connected to my computer. He told me to use draft resolution. When I told him that I prefer not using it, he said that that’s the only way to make it work faster because ae cs6 and cc are designed differently.

"**: CS5.5 and CC are very much different you will face the similar issues in CS6 too as it will also work like this. It is not the problem with the machine but the design has been changed. So now every frame is assigned a different memory so if you notice in activity monitor there will be multiples of AE files that will be running.

**: So if you want it to move fast then you have to check it on draft quality or lower the resolution to quarter.

Mirza: that’s what I was afraid of

** It is not slow but it will save the project because lots of load on memory makes program to crash.

**: So the load is divided on to different slots and …

That’s an odd interaction.

Would you mind giving me the case number for that interaction so that I can follow up with that Adobe Technical Support agent?

StencilMedia said

I’ve noticed that. I’m a big fan of the old ‘page up’ and ‘page down’ action… although there’s easier ways to do it, if I want to move forward 20 frames then I’ll just tap page down 20 times. That’s the way I like it.

In CS6 I’d tap it 20 times, wait half a second or so and then the time indicator is where it should be. Now in CC, I do the same thing and I’m waiting about 5 seconds or more for everything to update. Also, there can be a second or so from clicking on file/edit/window etc for the menu to open. Sure, 1 second is no big deal, but it can get a bit frustrating when you’re pressing something and waiting for stuff to happen.

This happens in a standard comp, 2d or 3d, no plugins, minimal layers/effects etc etc. Just seems really sluggish.

How large is your monitor?

My reason for asking is that I’m suspecting an issue with the OpenGL pipeline on Mac OS, which has been known to have some problems when drawing to the screen on large monitors.

ToddKopriva said
EFEKT_Studio said

had I long chat with adobe support. The guy even connected to my computer. He told me to use draft resolution. When I told him that I prefer not using it, he said that that’s the only way to make it work faster because ae cs6 and cc are designed differently.

"**: CS5.5 and CC are very much different you will face the similar issues in CS6 too as it will also work like this. It is not the problem with the machine but the design has been changed. So now every frame is assigned a different memory so if you notice in activity monitor there will be multiples of AE files that will be running.

**: So if you want it to move fast then you have to check it on draft quality or lower the resolution to quarter.

Mirza: that’s what I was afraid of

** It is not slow but it will save the project because lots of load on memory makes program to crash.

**: So the load is divided on to different slots and …

That’s an odd interaction.

Would you mind giving me the case number for that interaction so that I can follow up with that Adobe Technical Support agent?

Why do you find it odd Todd? The person was very helpful, I wouldn’t like to make problems for him :slight_smile:

The technical explanation is somewhere between nonsense and incorrect.

ToddKopriva said

The technical explanation is somewhere between nonsense and incorrect.

:slight_smile: Well, could you please try to shed some light? Any ideas?

Here is a video I recorded explaining my issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhbVRSoFTWE&feature=youtu.be