After Effects 22.3 - Real-Time 3D Draft Preview greyed out

[mikolajkamler]

Hello,

I have a problem with Real-Time 3D Draft Preview on my computer. In my project, the button for Real-Time 3D Draft Preview shows up (my layers are all 3D) but is greyed out. When I hover over it, I get a message telling me to enable Accelerate Panels in Preferences-->Display - which I already have enabled. Is this a hardware issue? Are there any specific requirements to use this feature?

The lack of Real-Time 3D Draft Preview also disables other related features, like the ( new as of AE 22.3 ) extended viewer. There is no information anywhere on the Adobe page that you need to have a specific configuration or graphic card to use the new features of AE...

I have found a suggestion elsewhere on this forum that a "fresh reinstall" of AE might be the solution. So I uninstalled AE via Creative Cloud and re-installed it. Upon startup, I chose not to keep the settings from the earlier versions. It didn't work - but perhaps it wasn't a real clean re-install? Is there a specific way to do it? I would be grateful for an answer...

My configuration: MacBookPro 2015,  2,2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7,  16GB RAM, Intel Iris Pro, Mac OS Monterey ( 12.3 )

Thanks in advance for any help,

Mikołaj

[nishu_kush]

Hi mikolajkamler,

Sorry for your issue.

Were you able to use it in the previous version? Is there a dedicated GPU installed on your computer? Simply uninstalling may not remove all the After Effects files. I'd suggest using the Adobe Cleaner tool to remove After Effects and associated file and then reinstall. 

Let us know if it helps.

Thanks,

Nishu

[mikolajkamler]

Nishu,

Thanks a lot for your answer. I'll try using the Cleaner tool and see if it works.

To answer your questions - ever since Real-Time Draft 3D preview was introduced, I haven't been able to use it. I have even posted about it - without any answer at the time... I have a dedicated GPU installed - Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB.

I'll let you know whether the Cleaner has solved my problem.

Regards,

Mikołaj

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB might be your problem.  I believe "hardware excelleration" refers to using a dedicated GPU.  What you're using is an integrated GPU, not dedicated.

[mikolajkamler]

Thanks Gutterfish,

This is not very good news - I'd really like to use the extended viewer, as it looks pretty useful to me - though I've been using AE for the past 15 years or so without these new features, so I guess it won't be such a big problem after all... I just hope that for using the properties panel ( in beta as I'm reading on Adobes website ) I won't be forced to use a super-duper-dedicated computer configuration... 🙂

Anyway - thanks for your help,

Mikołaj

[P.M.B]

I'm just taking a guess.  I could be wrong.  Did some searching for the features requirements but couldn;t really find anything.  It's just you're saying your integrated gpu has less than two gigs of ram?  I don't understand how you can be doing 3d work with that but maybe I am misunderstanding.

[mikolajkamler]

Gutterfish,

The thing is, in the specs of my computer ( on Apple's page ), you can see it's a 256 GB graphics card, capable of driving several displays at once ( and indeed, I have two other displays attached to my MacBook Pro right now ). While in the System Profiler, there is only mentioned the 1536 MB. Probably I'm misreading what this 1536 means... 🙂 I'm not sure if this card is integrated or dedicated - I have been doing quite a few graphic-intensive things in AE since I have this computer ( also using three displays with it ), so I guess this should be powerful enough to make this Draft 3D work.

A lot of my work is using 3D layers ( and lights, cameras, etc ) in AE - and it has been going very smoothly, so Draft 3D et al shouldn't be too graphics-intensive for my machine. Perhaps there is a solution to this problem after all - one not meaning a change of computer 🙂

Mikołaj

[mikolajkamler]

No, I  was being too optimistic - or too dumb, for that matter 🙂 It turns out, I've really got 1,5 GB on this card... I also found the solution - in the Display prefs. It says I have not enough VRAM on the card to run Draft 3D.

So thanks for the help, but I guess it's just me being dumb 🙂

Mikołaj

[P.M.B]

Well I mistakenly thought the Intel Iris Pro was an integrated GPU but turns out you're right it is a dedictated GPU.  But as you've discovered it's vram doesn;t wuite meet the requirements of what you're trying to do.  That being said all of your specs are kind of the low to minimun end of the spectrum.  These newer features require more resources.  16 gigs RAM and a 2.2gz processor are also low.  Your computer barely meets minimum requirements to even run the app.  To boot I'm guessing you do not have a dedicated cache drive either?

Maybe time to invest in some better gear.  Unfortunately as this applications evolve so do the hardware requirements to use them.

[mikolajkamler]

Well, I do have several drives I use with AE: one for rendering ( other than the main one, where AE is ), one for storing and archiving projects and a separate one for the cache ( which I have to clean from time to time, as it's only 700 GB ). This, I think, is helping me a lot performance-wise. I remember working without a separate cache drive - and also a separate drive for the renders - was much, much slower... So, yes, I'm aware that not only my computer is quite dated ( 7 years already ), but also not as fast as it could be. But you'd be surprised what you can do in AE with it... 🙂

Mikołaj

[kalibahlu]

I have the same problem, all the buttons are grayed out.  I have Dual Intel Xeon E5-2699 v3.  Do you know if it should it be working with this processor?  Thanks!

[mikolajkamler]

Nishu,

I used the Adobe Cleaner Tool to remove AE, then re-installed. Nothing. Same as it was before - I have several 3D layers in my comp and, while AE should be able to turn on Draft 3D, it remains greyed out. When I hover it, a message (see my screenshot in the previous post) tells me I should have "Hardware accelerate panels" in the Prefs turned on - which I already have (and always had) on. I have a dedicated GPU - the Intel Iris card. What could be the possible cause to all this? It really would be awesome if AE could work properly at last...

Regards,

Mikołaj