Cura 3.5 Performance

[wildjokers 0]

Cura 3.5 has some great features that I am pretty excited about (being able to have separate speed on the overhangs is worth an upgrade by itself). However, there has been a terrible performance regression on 3.5. It is so bad I am having to downgrade to 3.4.1. The settings area takes several seconds to scroll and trying to zoom or move the model area is pretty much impossible as it takes many seconds for any movement to happen. 

 

I do have an older machine (2007 iMac 2.8 Ghz dual core) but Cura 3.4.1 and prior was perfectly usable.

 

Does anyone else have this issue?

[treegemmer 0]

I'm having the same issue. Everything past 3.4.1 is unusable. I'm on a mid-2010 macbook pro - 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 on High Sierra. Please let us know if there is a fix. 

[ahoeben 1,760]

Could you check something for me? Does the Layer View legend show "Compatibility mode"?

 

Both the 2007 iMac 2.8 Ghz and the mid-2010 Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz seem have GPUs that don't support OpenGl 4.1. Whereas Cura 3.4 used to fall back to OpenGl 2 in such cases, it may be that the newer version of Qt that Cura uses (the UI framework, not QuickTime), results in a software-emulated OpenGl 4 context which would definitely explain the slowness of the user interface. This is just a hunch though, based on seeing something similar happen in a virtual machine.

[treegemmer 0]

Hi ahoeben,

 

It doesn't show compatibility mode but it does feel like the entire program is running in an emulator. Even the slicing is very slow. 

[ahoeben 1,760]

1 hour ago, treegemmer said:

It doesn't show compatibility mode

 

There lies the problem. It should only be able to show compatibility mode, because your hardware does not support the normal  mode.

 

Can you post a cura.log (Help -> Show configuration folder)? I would like to see if it is possible to detect the software rendering.

 

@nallath, perhaps there should be a way to force an OpenGl 2.0 context on OSX. Apparently with the currently used Qt version, OSX will create a software backed OpenGl 4.1 context, instead of failing to create that context.

Edited January 6, 2019 by ahoeben

[treegemmer 0]

Attaching my log from Cura 3.6.

cura.log.zip

[ahoeben 1,760]

Thanks, this confirms it:

- DEBUG - [MainThread] UM.View.GL.OpenGL.__init__ [99]: Initialized OpenGL subsystems.
- DEBUG - [MainThread] UM.View.GL.OpenGL.__init__ [100]: OpenGL Version:  4.1 APPLE-16.7.4
- DEBUG - [MainThread] UM.View.GL.OpenGL.__init__ [101]: OpenGL Vendor:   Apple Inc.
- DEBUG - [MainThread] UM.View.GL.OpenGL.__init__ [102]: OpenGL Renderer: Apple Software Renderer

 

[wildjokers 0]

In Cura 3.4.1 I do show Compatibility mode on my 2007 iMac. I don't have 3.5+ installed anymore but I could reinstall to confirm/deny in those versions.

Is there a workaround or are we just SOL?

Edited January 6, 2019 by wildjokers

[ahoeben 1,760]

You can make layer view a lot faster by turning on the "Force compatibility mode in layerview" (or something similar) setting on General pane of the preferences. A real fix will have to be made in Cura (rather Uranium) in Cura 4.1 I think.

[ahoeben 1,760]

See this thread with a link to a test-version that hopefully fixes the slow performance in Cura 4.0

 

[treegemmer 0]

@ahoeben I downloaded the linked version, but got an error when trying to launch on my mid-2010 macbook pro. “Ultimaker Cura” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash."

[ahoeben 1,760]

Ok, thanks for testing. Something must have gone wrong while signing the patched application. I’ll create a new build tomorrow.