# Viewport in Material Editor do not work correctly **URL:** \ **Category:** Rendering\ **Tags:** viewport, unreal-engine, editor, question\ **Created:** [March 9, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164 "2015-03-09T16:41:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![himein](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/himein/32/720139_2.png) [@himein](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/himein)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/1 "2015-03-09T16:41:49Z")
**Branch:** Binary **Build:** 4.7.2-2467323 **Detail information** Viewport in Material Editor shows default gray grid instead of previewing the material, no matter how much time need to wait. The few ways to see the preview is to minimize the UE4 window or open any external window over UE4 for a few seconds. Saving material make also preview visible and also until any parameter will be changed. Happening without exception. [YouTube Example](http://youtu.be/zZcDkTbTkGw) **System information** CPU: Core 2 Duo E8600 @ 3.33GHz GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT SPD: 2 GB DDR2-800 (x2) OS: Windows 8.1 Core ---
**Author:** ![normal\_ST](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@normal\_ST](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/normal_ST)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/2 "2015-03-09T16:56:35Z")
I have the same problem, with a bit diferent system spec through. ---
**Author:** ![Lovecraft\_K](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Lovecraft\_K](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Lovecraft_K)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/3 "2015-03-09T17:46:33Z")
Hey normal\_ST - Would you mind posting your DXDIAG? Thank You Eric Ketchum ---
**Author:** ![Lovecraft\_K](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Lovecraft\_K](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Lovecraft_K)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/4 "2015-03-09T17:57:46Z")
Hey IneCmb and normalST- We are looking into this issue, but looking at your system specs, your PC is extremely under powered when compared to our minimum recommenced specifications, which can be found **[here](https://www.unrealengine.com/faq)** and **[here](https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/GettingStarted/RecommendedSpecifications/index.html)**. While we do not have a minimum required spec, we find that using below the recommended specifications can result in issues like you are experiencing. Thank You Eric Ketchum ---
**Author:** ![normal\_ST](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@normal\_ST](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/normal_ST)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/5 "2015-03-09T17:59:50Z")
Yes, and I want to mention that on version 4.0.2-2034640 preview material is updates in 2-4 sec after changing any node parameter, without any alt-tabs to different window.link text ---
**Author:** ![himein](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/himein/32/720139_2.png) [@himein](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/himein)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/6 "2015-03-09T20:52:00Z")
Known about system specs. Reported only because of the strange of this issue. Also binary build 4.0.2-2034640 seem to work good with previewing. On the top UE4 have better performance and faster tools than UDK, so looking forward to use it. Unreal Tournament 4 also giving 40~70 fps on the medium settings. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Lovecraft\_K](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Lovecraft\_K](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Lovecraft_K)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/7 "2015-03-09T21:19:01Z")
Hey - I have entered a bug to continue to investigate the issue, for reference UE-11528. As soon as I know more, I will post back here. In the meantime, I would recommend turning down the Scalability settings and see if this clears up the problem for you, [https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Performance/Scalability/ScalabilityReference/index.html](https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Performance/Scalability/ScalabilityReference/index.html) Thank You Eric Ketchum ---
**Author:** ![himein](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/himein/32/720139_2.png) [@himein](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/himein)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 7:00am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/8 "2015-03-10T07:00:46Z")
Switching the Scalability settings to the lowest, did not fix the problem. Another interesting thing that I found in 4.0.2 that if material editor is extended and not a part of main window (not a tab), than material preview won’t work, but if I connect material editor back into main window, all start working. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_2ed5b4c7](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_2ed5b4c7](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_2ed5b4c7)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 7:39am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/9 "2015-03-10T07:39:37Z")
I read about many issues with TeamViewer and graphics system. Black screen, black windows, BSOD, crash, etc. Especially when there is a card that does not support hardware DirectX 11. ---
**Author:** ![himein](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/himein/32/720139_2.png) [@himein](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/himein)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2015, 7:49am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/10 "2015-03-10T07:49:59Z")
TeamViewer was used only for recording a video. ---
**Author:** ![normal\_ST](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@normal\_ST](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/normal_ST)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/11 "2015-04-06T18:14:20Z")
I have an assumption, that maybe this is happening because of 2 cored cpu, when I look in the task manager, the CPU loaded on 80% by the ue4 editor, and when I open material, it’s on 100%, 80-90% is used by editor itself, and shader compiler is using about 0-10%, but when editor window is inactive, the CPU consumption by editor is getting low(about 5-10%), and shader compiler is on 50%, and after that material is loaded quick and correct. So yeah, better cpu(and probably a quad core) is equal to fast(and possible) material loading. But I still hope that you will fix that, because it is really annoying to switch between the windows just to relax CPU use for editor, so that shader compiler can actually work. ---
**Author:** ![himein](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/himein/32/720139_2.png) [@himein](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/himein)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 9:06am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/viewport-in-material-editor-do-not-work-correctly/310164/12 "2015-12-15T09:06:33Z")
Engine: **4.9.2-2707645** ```   Operating System : Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 10240) Processor Type : Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8600 @ 3.33 GHz (2 CPUs) Speed : 3333MHz System Memory Type : 2048MB Kingston @ 800Mhz (2 Planks) Speed : 6400 MB/s Display Device Card : Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB 256-bit Driver : 15.200.1062.1003 (2015/07/28) ``` Preview window is work faster on the new hardware, but still not so fast as when any window is opened above unreal editor. Found that this is strongly associated with **Use Less CPU when in Background** option of the editor.