Background Image Problem

When using a background image zoomed in, blender slows down significantly, almost to the point of being unusable.

The image size is 3033 x 2020 (3,261KB File Size) so its a fairly high resolution photo.

When zoomed out, the 3D view port does not lag or run slow, but when zoomed in to, for example, outline the eyes of my reference image, my view port starts to lag. The more i zoom in, the worse the lag becomes.

I’m using blender 2.5b and would like to know if anyone else is experiencing this problem or if it has been already resolved.

That is a large file. Did you try reducing the image size and see if it run ok?

Works okay here, but I just used a block. maybe your model has a lot of details.

I tried using a different image, it was a PNG 541 x 433 (5.95KB). It wasn’t the same image i used before, but it didn’t lag at all zooming in. I guess I just need to use an image with lower resolution or file size.

@ridix, I havent tried reducing the file size yet, but that should work. Thanks

@FloridaJo, Only 87 verts, but my computer can run fine with 20k+ verts. my model isnt very detailed yet. Thanks though

I have had a similar issue with using images in the viewport - an image that size almost always ends up causing some lag, but I have wondered if it is the graphics driver ability to use that image drawing with opengl that causes the lag, because reducing the images to half or more tends to get rid of the issue in the viewport. Basically, I snap a picture with my digital camera, then reduce it in half with irfanview and load it in viewport.