PanoTools NG:
Re:CS2 to CS4? or CS4 Ex?
Paul Fretheim 2009-Apr-16 11:36:47
Don't waste money or time on the 3D "functions" of CS4. They are
pathetic and unusable. If you want to map your panoramas to geometric
shapes, which is what I use 3D software for, you need a full powered 3D
package. I use Maya 7. You can find older versions of the software on
line for < $300. The latest version of Maya new is $1200 or so now.
Just a few years ago Maya was $7000 so it is much more affordable than
it used to be. You can't control the lighting with CS4's 3D
capabilities, and it does not allow you to use standard skin textures
that are an essential part of making 3D objects look real. Images
mapped to cylinders are great for printing on product packaging, they
are eye catching at a web site, and very useful in interface design for
buttons, but the 3D capabilities of CS4 are too limited to create
professional looking 3D objects.
I have had trouble with the clone tool in CS4. It may be something
related to my specific system or graphics card, but I have found the new
clone tool buggy and unpredictable. Despite this I work mostly with CS4
in 64 bit mode now and just revert to CS2 when the clone tool gets
really buggy or if I am working on my notebook computer that has only .5
gig of RAM or other limited 32 bit machines.
The plus side of CS4 is its ability to take advantage of the processing
power of your graphics card and to utilize RAM in excess of 4 gigs when
it's running on a 64 bit capable machine running on a 64 bit system like
MS Vista. Your graphics card must be OpenGL enabled for it to work with
the features of CS4. I find that CS4 running on a 64 bit system and an
OpenGL video card with 1 gig of VRAM is more than twice as fast as CS2
on a 32 bit machine when working with files that are small enough to
manipulate in RAM with either system. When you get into bigger files
the capacity to utilize large amounts of RAM makes CS4 on a 64 bit
machine massively faster than CS2 on a 32 bit machine that has to spool
out to a hard drive to complete manipulations. I have 8 gigs of RAM in
my main workstation, but CS4 can address much more than that in 64 bit
mode. My motherboard can address 32 gigs of RAM, but I have found 8
gigs adequate for the files sizes I commonly work with now.
There is an Nvidia card that retails for about $1,800 that is
specifically designed to work with CS4. You might gain a few features
with that card, I think it is from the Quadra or Quadro series or
something like that. But the key feature to take advantage of 90% of
the capabilities of CS4 is OpenGL, and an OpenGL card with 1 gig of VRAM
can be found for about $150 or less that will work almost exactly the
same as the $1,800 card as far as speeding things up and moving graphics
processing off your CPU and onto the video card's board. I bought an
Nvidia 98000 GT series card from 2007 for $150 for my workstation and
CS4 recognizes it just fine. But I do have those bug issues with the
clone tool that might be related to the video card. It could be my
motherboard too, as it is one of the first quad core enabled A2+ AMD
boards. I really need to upgrade my board, and I suspect it's the
chipset on the board and not the Nvidia 98000 GT based OpenGL enabled
video card that is the culprit.
You need a power supply capable of 600 watts output to run everything
dependably when you start using big video cards like the ones that
enable the features of CS4. I toasted a 485 watt power supply that was
in my box when I upgraded to the new video card. I do have 4 hard
drives in the system, so I am taxing the power supply heavily and am
planning at some point to install a RAID box with its own power supply.
The interface has been significantly changed between CS2 and CS4. The
windows and docking features are somewhat different and take some time
to get used to. I don't really see much difference as far as usability
once you get used to the changes.
All in all, the upgrade is worth it because of the memory and speed
advantages. I would download both the extended and regular versions and
try them out for free and see if the extended has features that make it
worthwhile to you. I am using the extended, but I found the 3D
capabilities disappointing.
Paul Fretheim
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