low spec version

[YamSoup]

Many people like me concentrate their funds on their desktop and their laptop is low spec

It pretty pointless buying 2grand worth of laptop as it will be obsolete and lose an enormous amount in value

Saying that I would still love to sculpt on my portable machine

From what I can see most of the open gl features are to do with the real-time rendering of mesh

I run a Fujitsu st5111 which is massively outdated I know (but the processer is still surprisingly powerful and i've loaded it with 4 gig of ram) The reason I run this is it has a Wacom pen.

I'd love to use 3d sculpt on the move but won't ever bother spending money on a portable system.

Are the open gl calls just for the rendering? or are they used in part for the interface also?

I know its a long shot, i'm not expecting shader support or anything and I know this program works fundamentally differently from zbrush (which when I last checked didn’t even use the gpu) but what are people thoughts? am I alone on this?

Edited November 23, 2013 by YamSoup

[AbnRanger]

It's far easier, from the user end to upgrade your hardware than it is for a developer to re-write the whole app to work better with outdated hardware. On my current desktop machine, I just bought the best CPU value in my budget, one generation back...used on eBay. It was an i7 970. I thought about the i7 3930 (both are 6 physical cores/12 threads with Hyperthreading), but it was still somewhat new and still a bit too pricey for me. Nevertheless, it works really well on 3D Coat...and it's a 3-4yr old model. So, you don't have to break the bank, or buy the latest/greatest...cause oftentimes, there isn't a huge gap in performance between the model sold 2-3yrs ago and what is sold today.

 

I knew that CPU advancements had grinded to a halt when AMD publicly stated that they were going to quit trying to compete on the high-end/enthusiast market, a few years ago. Intel has really put on the brakes, performance-wise since then. Knowing this can save you a lot of $$$. It did for me.

 

As far as sculpting is concerned, there are a LOT of features in place to make your usage of your hardware resources more efficient. One of those has been in place for years. That is to save all your uber-high resolution detail work....like super fine wrinkles, pores, cracks, scales, etc....for the paint room, where you can use image-based sculpting to do the work. That's where it really, really shines. Then, in the Voxel Room, you can split your model up into layers, and cache the parts you aren't actively working on, or move them to the Models pallet until you are ready to work on them. Then you have the Multi-Res workflow, and LiveClay...to work efficiently with the resources you have.

Edited November 25, 2013 by AbnRanger