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Hi I've just installed After Effects on a new computer and the playback is jerky at the start of the RAM preview and then fine after that. I've tried all the different settings and checkbox combinations under the Preview window, as well as turning of adaptive preview. This happens after the work area has already fully cached and doesn't happen on subsequent plays after it has looped.
The version I'm using is AE 2018 computer has 32 MB RAM running on Windows 10. It's a very powerful computer and much better than my old one which had no issues. Assume it could be something to do with my graphics card but can't find the settings to change to test. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Can you post a screen recording of this? What does your project look like, what resolution is your comp, and what resolution are you previewing at?
I'm assuming you meant 32 GB of RAM, but your GPU is likely not the culprit here. You might not have GPU-acceleration even turned on for the project, but Ae doesn't use it in the same way that Premiere does.
What is your source media and where is it being read from?
Do you have a fast SSD drive that you're caching to?
We need a lot more information to help troubleshoot this.
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Thanks for your help and sorry I meant 32GB RAM. I'm getting the problem regardless of the comp size and resolution, and it doesn't seem to matter what the content of the comp is. In the example screen capture I've uploaded I've just created 3 identical shapes with scale keyframes.
You'll see that there's a lag on the first one but the other two are fine, then when the RAM preview loops it's fine on the subsequent plays. Obviously it's only a minor issue but as a professional motion designer it's already been pretty annoying when I've never had any similar issues in the past.
I'm running AE off a fast SSD on C: and projects from another SSD, however I've tried saving on both drives and caching from both with the same result, but for such a lightweight scene I'd assume the speed of the drives wouldn't even come in to play.
I've tried turning off GPU acceleration and as you predicted it's not the culprit.
Here's a list of my hardware if this helps
Thanks again
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Thanks for posting that, I see what you mean now. You're right, that lightweight scene wouldn't even choke on a spinning hard drive.
It seems unlikely, but I would try updating your GPU drivers. Even without GPU acceleration enabled, bad drivers can still cause funky things to happen.
Threadripper doesn't have an on-board GPU, so you can't take it out of the equation.
Are you running the latest update of CC 2018? There was a patch released last month.
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Thanks for for the reply. The computer is only a couple of weeks old so I've got the latest version of AE installed. I also just tried uninstalling and reinstalling my graphics card drivers but still no luck.
No other programs seem to be having issues and Premiere runs perfectly on playback.
I've got a few plugins and UI scripts that I'm using but it's the same as on my old computer so I doubt that would be the issue.
Do you have any other ideas or tests I can do? Let me know if you need any additional info.
Thanks
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Creating a fresh user account is always a good troubleshooting step. It eliminates most customisation you've done. Also, don't sync your preferences. Additionally, you can try trashing your preferences. Weird things can happen when those get corrupted
-David
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I've just tried removing all syncing and clearing preferences but no luck. I tried to log in with a different Adobe account but it said authentication failed so I assume this is because I haven't purchased AE with this other account?
I also tried creating a new Windows user account and after logging in to this account and running AE I still had the same problem.
Finally I tried uninstalling and reinstalling AE and removing all 3rd party plugins and scripts but this didn't work either.
I'm wondering if this may be a hardware incompatibility? Perhaps with the type of RAM or config? Can any changes be made here which may fix the problem?
I've also used trapcode particular for the first time and while it renders fine there's a very long lag when changing any of the settings. I'm wondering if this is related? Perhaps there's an incompatibility with Threadripper?
Thanks
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I don't think your Threadripper is the problem here (although anything's still possible).
Unfortunately, I'm all out of suggestions on this one. It's worth filing a bug though and providing as much detail as possible, including your machine specs.
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After trying absolutely everything I thought I'd try a fresh install of Windows at it worked! It's a new computer but perhaps the guys who built and installed it put something on that conflicted with it or there was just some sort of bug. It's a hassle as I now need to set up everything again but I would recommend anyone else having the same problem to do the same as a last resort.
Thanks for all of your help and I'm glad it's not the hardware or AE in the end.
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Well that's a shame that you had to do it, but I agree, at least this one wasn't caused by Ae or your new machine.
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I've got exactly the same problem. In my case a reintall of Windows didnt help. It's still verry jerky playback.
Here are my specs:
win10 pro build 1803
64gig ram
Intel 6900k
Asus X99 Deluxe II
Asus GTX 1080
I've got the latest drivers and bios for all my hardware installed.
I'm using one 4k monitor at 150% scale and one 2,5k monitor at 125% scale.
My playback will only run at realtime when i make the comp window like 100x100px small so I can not see anything.
Is there anything else I can do?
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and in my case it won't playback at realtiome EVER, unless I resize the comp window very very small
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See my post below
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!@flowsnone,
Ok I have a solution to real time ram preview issues.
It definitely works, but you loose some screen real estate.
I assume this will work with Mac as well as PC (I am on PC).
If you are having this problem my guess it that you have a 4k monitor or screen on your system.
How I found out...
My PC laptop was flying until I plugged a 32 inch monitor into it and adjusted the application text size to the smallest size (right click on desktop > display settings > change the size of text). This made the After Effects panels (and all other applications) nice and compact and my stunning 4k monitor gave me lots of space for my timeline, palettes etc. But my RAM preview started to display the dreaded red letters telling me it wasn't playing in real time. And it was jerky and almost useless.
What I did (solution)...
I went back to the desktop > display settings and adjusted the text size to 150%. And restarted After Effects and there was a big improvement. I later tried 200% (more improvement) and eventually settled on an application text size setting of 225%. After Effects previews were fast and in real time again.
Why this is good...
It solves the issue, hurrah.
Why this is bad...
I bought a high spec PC , a 4k monitor and Adobe CC. This is all the highest spec gear. And After Effects can't handle it!!! Not because of any hardware issue, but because the Adobe software can't display ITSELF!!!! Literally After Effects breaks if it's interface text size is too small. No other application does this. So now I have to have stupidly large text on my screen which takes up loads of room and make my 32 inch 4k screen look like something set for toddlers or OAP (bless them all).
The real fix should surely come from Adobe with a software update please. I am so gutted
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Which GPU are you using? AE uses the GPU for its UI. Having said that, your issue may be related to the UI but there could also be other related/involved issues.
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Right - I'll check that out thanks...
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