Optimizing ArcGlobe

The performance of your ArcGlobe document will vary depending on many factors, such as the volume of data you are displaying, the symbology options for one or more layers, your application settings, or the hardware you are using. In all likelihood, it will be a combination of these issues that is slowing ArcGlobe performance.

The most effective way of improving performance to meet your needs is to optimize the layers within the 3D view. For information on how to optimize layers, see these topics:

• Optimizing raster and surface layers
• Optimizing 3D multipatch layers
• Using cache consolidation in ArcGlobe

You can also improve the performance of ArcGlobe by adjusting application and machine settings. Important optimizations include the following:

• Increasing the virtual memory size
  • When your machine runs out of physical memory, it starts paging to virtual memory on your disk drive. ArcGlobe may need to consume this virtual memory, and enough space needs to be allocated for its use.
  • The virtual memory size should be at least twice as large as the physical memory. For example, if you have 512 MB of physical memory (RAM), you should allocate at least 1024 MB of virtual memory.
  • You can access your virtual memory settings on the My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab.
• Allocating memory to suit this particular 3D view
  • You can define how memory is assigned to different ArcGlobe tasks. If your document has a lot of draped images, reallocate memory from other categories into the Images/rasterized category.

    Learn more about memory and cache settings

• Improving the hardware
  • The most effective hardware improvement is to increase physical memory (RAM).
  • Another effective hardware improvement is to upgrade your graphics card.
• Suspending tile fetching while navigating
  • ArcGlobe uses two concurrent threads—one for rendering and one for calculating, storing, and retrieving the disk cache. This option suspends the tile fetching thread and allocates all resources to the rendering thread, thereby providing a smoother navigation experience.
  • When the suspend tile fetching option is enabled, the following are true:
    • Tiles that are already in memory continue to be used in the display.
    • Additional tiles are only calculated or loaded when the camera has stopped navigating.

  • The tile fetching thread is reenabled when you stop navigating, at which point the 3D view will start downloading and displaying data appropriate to the current level of detail.
  • To enable this option, click Customize > ArcGlobe Options, click the Level of Detail tab, then check Suspend tile fetching when navigating.
  • This option should not be used when exporting an animation file because only data currently in memory, most likely a small subset of the data required, is used in creating the output video.

• Temporarily improving display performance using draft mode
  • This decreases the quality of the display, thereby reducing memory usage and improving the interactive speed of the 3D view.
  • No existing data caches or layer properties are impacted.

  To check your computer's compatibility to run ArcGlobe, see Can your system run ArcGlobe? and run a free utility to analyze your system.