Rendering time for christmaslights.sh3d is 7:30min in 400x225.
I'll have to give that a shot when I return home shortly. (The PC I'm using currently -- even more antiquated than the other -- decided at some point to stop running SH3D, and I've not been able to figure out why. Seemingly, any time the app updates the 3D window, it crashes. As I intend to retire the PC, soon, I've not spent many cycles trying to figure out what's wrong.) Off-hand, though, that seems seriously wrong....
I can only guess that the problem is, that I only use the internal graphics of the i3. I can try if I can speed it up if I only use one monitor, but 1280x1024 should be no problem, even if it is displayed on two monitor.
I doubt that's an issue, either -- mainly because Q3 and Q4 rendering are handled (Emmanuel, correct me if I'm wrong) entirely by the CPU: There's no use of the GPU or reliance upon OpenGL/DirectX (that is, none tied specifically to Q3/Q4 renders).
For that matter, the old XP system I use drives three monitors, two from a relatively old Nvidia card and the third from integrated graphics (Intel) on my Gigabyte(?) Supermicro(?) motherboard. There's definitely something amiss with the latter display -- if the 3D window straddles the second and third monitors or the program is configured to open the 3D window on the third monitor, either the application crashes or the system blue-screens. As long as I keep that in mind, though, everything seems fine.
Let me hasten to add I don't want to deprive you of the joy of new hardware!
It's just that I've not found many systems (besides the one I'm currently using, of course) that won't run SH3D with at least usable friskiness. (My initial exposure to the program was on a 2.6 Ghz P4 that predated hyper-threading, and while I wouldn't want to return to it for my development machine, I didn't find myself cursing at it, either.) For you to be hitting performance issues on an i3 -- even an old i3 -- when rendering essentially an empty scene suggests something else is an issue. And should that something be environmental, a peripheral-related hardware issue, or caused by conflicts with an essential piece of hard- or software, it could easily continue to be problem after the upgrade.Maz
