Global Mapper v24.1

3D view in Global Mapper 19.1 very slow

sphillips
sphillips
in Support
Hi,

We have upgraded to Global Mapper 19.1 but I have found the new 'Show 3D View' to be incredibly slow to load. To load a like-for-like extent in 17.2 takes 1-2 seconds but will take 55 seconds in 19.1; in fact nothing is display for around 20 seconds (even with Enforce 2D bounds enabled). I understand that the quality is lot poorer in 17.2 by comparison so not a perfect comparison.

Also there are tiles missing and is generally very disappointing and slow. It also seems to struggle once you add aerial imagery.

Is there a way to improve the speed via the configuration settings or some other options? Or maybe a way to reduce the quality of the render to at least make it a bit more usable?

My desktop has a very good spec and should render the view a lot quicker:

Windows 10 64-bit
64.0 GB RAM
Intel Xeon W-2133 CPU @ 3.60GHz
NVIDIA QUADRO P2000 (GPU Memory 5 GB GDDR5)

Answers

  • JeffH@BMG
    JeffH@BMG Global Mapper Developer Trusted User
    Answer ✓
    Hi Steve,

    It's hard to tell from your description what's going on; seems like you have at least a couple of issues (non-displaying data and slow performance). Aerial imagery is part of your data set; are there other data types that you're using that could be the cause of slowdowns? Are you using online data sources or locally stored data? We're always interested in finding out ways to improve our performance and usability. It's probably best to contact Blue Marble Geographics Support directly via email (geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com) and have them work with you to help to identify the problem areas. If you are able to provide concrete data scenarios, that can really help, too.

    Thanks,

    ~Jeff
  • sphillips
    sphillips
    Hi Jeff.

    Thank you for your quick reply.

    The data I am using is SRTM and United States Elevation Data with World Imagery downloaded via 'Connect to Online Data' button. I am currently testing GM, and my workspace is stored locally. Do you think the issue could be caused by the fact I am using the online data and not data saved locally?

    As a side note, I just tested this theory with some saved SRTM (*.hgt) in the 3D Viewer and saw this:



    The same file in GM 17.2


  • sphillips
    sphillips
    I have tested the same data after it has been exported to files and re-imported and have found it to be much quicker. I have concluded that the 3D Viewer just can't display the 'live' online data as well as data stored locally. 
  • JeffH@BMG
    JeffH@BMG Global Mapper Developer Trusted User
    Answer ✓
    Hi Steve,

    Online data is typically going to be slower since we need to fetch it from the online source as needed. Once fetched, it's cached locally so subsequent accesses should be faster (though perhaps not optimally so). As you probably already know, online data is often supplied in multiple resolutions, and the 3D viewer is constantly trying to gauge what resolution is best according to your scene; it's a balance of resolution vs. performance, since high resolution data is usually slower to display than lower resolution data. In 3D, data closer to the camera would need to be higher resolution than data towards the back of the scene. So if the online source has multiple resolutions, the 3D viewer may need to pull from different resolutions in the same scene, and that may lead to more .fetching of data from online (you can often see the quality of the 3D view improving as higher res data streams in).

    So short form: if you are interested in a particular area, then yes, export it to a local file and use that. It should be faster.

    Cheers,

    ~Jeff

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