Rendering the same model in multiple WPF Viewports

Question

I am working on a WPF application which has 4 viewports. I build a 3D model which is fairly complex and contains 50,000-100,000 Triangles. I then want to display the same 3D model in all 4 viewports. The way I am doing this, it takes about 10 seconds for the model to display in all 4 viewports (which are actually HelixViewports, from the Helix 3D Toolkit for WPF). I have never used multi threading, but I am thinking this may be a good idea. I need the models to render in all 4 viewports in less than 2 seconds. I am probably writing my code inefficiently as well, a sample is below. Thanks for your help!

Render() function (C#):

//Each Viewport must have it's own ModelVisual3D
        ModelVisual3D renderModel = new ModelVisual3D();
        ModelVisual3D renderModel2 = new ModelVisual3D();
        ModelVisual3D renderModel3 = new ModelVisual3D();
        ModelVisual3D renderModel4 = new ModelVisual3D();

        Model3DGroup modelGroup = new Model3DGroup();

        //Here is an example of the 2 different ways 
        //I add components to the Models:

        //Add the cylinder to the viewport 
        if (isCylinder)
        {

            //Each viewport must have its' own 
            PipeVisual3D ballBat = dO.getRound();
            PipeVisual3D ballBat2, ballBat3, ballBat4;
            ballBat2 = new PipeVisual3D();
            ballBat2.Content = ballBat.Content;
            ballBat3 = new PipeVisual3D();
            ballBat3.Content = ballBat.Content;
            ballBat4 = new PipeVisual3D();
            ballBat4.Content = ballBat.Content;

            this.mainViewport.Children.Add(ballBat);
            this.mainViewport2.Children.Add(ballBat2);
            this.mainViewport3.Children.Add(ballBat3);
            this.mainViewport4.Children.Add(ballBat4);
        }

        //OR this way:

        //Add inner top wane to the viewport
        if (isTopWane)
        {
            modelGroup.Children.Add(dO.getTopWane());

        }

        //Add inner bottom wane to the viewport
        if (isBottomWane)
        {
            modelGroup.Children.Add(dO.getBottomWane());
        }

        //Then, at the end of all my IF checks, this is how I
        //'Draw' the models into the viewports:

        //Each ModelVisual3D has the same content
        renderModel2.Content = renderModel.Content;
        renderModel3.Content = renderModel.Content;
        renderModel4.Content = renderModel.Content;




        //"Paint" the viewports
        this.mainViewport.Children.Add(renderModel);
        this.mainViewport2.Children.Add(renderModel2);
        this.mainViewport3.Children.Add(renderModel3);
        this.mainViewport4.Children.Add(renderModel4);

Also, it may help to know that I am testing this app on a laptop with 16GB ram, a core i7 processor, and an NVIDIA Quadro 3000M graphics card. I have been searching for ways to speed up my app and will continue to do so, if anyone has a suggestion or can point me to useful information it will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Why don't you put your entire model in one GeometryModel3D? You have 35000-40000 triangles, it means that you have 35000-40000 GeometryModel3D!? That's huge...

You should have one Visual (which equals a scene or a model containing multiple parts) containing a Model3DGroup, containing as many GeometryModel3D as you have models (and not triangles!). Each GeometryModel3D containing a MeshGeometry3D which contains all the triangles, indices, normales, uv coords of one model.