TheBrain 12 - Beta Testing Started

Posted by Skywatcher
Nov 21, 2020 at 11:58 AM

@ Harlan :
- You’re right regarding the note precedence behavior. I got confused in between the moment the feature was removed from v12 and ithe moment it was reinstated.

- In regards, to performance : The speed issue doesn’t just affect animation. I set it to maximum, and even just resizing the window’s application is very sluggish. It’s a matter of processor consumption.

I’ve run some tests this morning. My Mac’s configuration is stated in a post above.
Tinderbox actually has animated views, the Hyperbolic view moves and shuffles figures and notes around as much as TheBrain does.

I put the Activity Monitor beside it , and what it shows is that being idle takes around 4%.
Clicking on another note sends the processor around 24% during the animation then quiclky goes down again to around 4 or 5 % as soon as the animation is over.
Clicking fast and continuously from one note to another to keep the animation almost constant sends the processor to around 54 % . It alsmot immediately goes back to around 4% as soon as I stop.

In contrast, doing the same thing with TheBrain : being Idle takes also around 4 or 5 %
Clicking on another thought sends the processor immediately to around 70 or 80 % . It remains there for more than 10 seconds before returning to 5% , as if it is wasn’t aware yet that it being in idle state.
Clicking continuously on various thoughts ( in a slower rate than Tinderbox, maybe 1 second between each thought ) sends the processor consumption through the roof , well over 100%, usually around 120 to 140%. The Macboook’s fans hit full speed, gets very hot. Going back to idle state, the processor remains at well over 120% for almost up to a minute at times before going back to the usual 4%. Meanwhile, the fans are blowing like crazy and the Mac is becoming an oven.

In many years of using Tinderbox, Curio and others, never did they get the processor to the point of launching the fans even once. Unless it is because they are optimised to use the graphics card ? I doubt it though…

The most disturbing thing for me, is that Cinema 4D , the 3D software I use, doesn’t actually use the graphics card on the Mac. It’s purely a CPU modeler. And slow at that. Only the PC version uses GPUs because it it built around some specific features of NVIDIA graphic cards ( CUDA ), while the Mac only uses AMD Gpu ( and very anemic ones). In fact I’ve just ordered a custom configured PC with an Nvidia RTX 2070 specifically to continue my 3D work on a faster level.
Now , continuing on my tests, and opening a complex scene on C4D , moving and orbiting around the objects in real-time, my processor sits constantly at… 70 to 90 %. We are tallking thousands of polygons, on a software that is purely CPU based on the Mac version.

Once again, it is very hard for me to believe that animating a rectangle containing a couple of words inside it should send the processor and the fans thru the roof, while animating thousands of polygons , with textures sometimes, is less processor intensive.

I don’t think I’m the only one having an issue with this aspect of TheBrain. You forum has plenty of people , both on Mac and PC complaining about it, for almost as long as I remember ( I’ve been using Brain on and off since version 8 ). There is a real optimization issue with it, that has never been solved.
While I’ve commited myself to other apps like Tinderbox, Devonthink, Curio, etc with thousands of notes , I’ve never been able to do that with TheBrain. I don’t even think twice renewing my update for those apps even though they are priced similar to the Brain.
I’ve skipped the yearly Pro Combo a few times since V8, and only my CRIMPING gets me to payup for other years as I never been able to trust the app enough to really commit my notes to it. I don’t think I’ll renew my license this year, as I have no hopes this performance issue will ever get resolved .