Gasman Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Hi guys Been patiently waiting to see if any updates forthcoming to increase Raw load speeds.My copy of AP launches fine in less than 4 secs but Raw`s (NEF`s) still taking 12+ seconds to load on my i7 desktop :( . regards Steve Jamesbuh and BradleyTer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanSG Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Are you storing your RAW files on HDD or SSD? I'm getting comparable load times with my DNGs, but my processor's nowhere near i7 speed. AP, AD & APub user, running Win10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasman Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 Hi Ian On my HDD. The same raw`s load instantly in Paintshop pro x9 and also a few other apps I have,- Aftershot Pro 3 etc. Its just making AP a bit of a pain to use and I tend to use other quicker apps first, guess its the speedy times we live in ;) . Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falaffel Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Hy, there are much people saying, that AP is very slow, especially when loading Pictures/RAWs. For me this is the main reason to use other Programs and I hope they will work with high priority, to make AP as fast as it's competitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted February 8, 2017 Staff Share Posted February 8, 2017 Hi Steve, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) The dev team is already aware there's some issues loading/opening RAW files (slow loading times). We are looking into ways to improve this. A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasman Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 Thanks for the welcome MEB, look forward to using AP more when the raw loading speed is sorted! ☺ Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jojoba816 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 New to the forum, so hopefully this comment will add to the conversation. I was surprised to see the comments regarding slow RAW loading and thus went back to AP to see how I compared to the results posted. I have a Pentax system and have shot recently in DNG format. Loading time was from library display was close to 23 seconds (i5 processor). I was flabergasted. I then tried loading the Pentax native raw format PEF and loading was about 14 seconds. Not good for professional processing, but ok for me as I do onesy/twosey stuff for pleasure. What I was not happy with was that my raw library displays DNG, and JPG mini previews, but my PEF's were only icons - not previews. My camera (K-3) is listed amongst the models that are supposed to work with the software. Is this a fluke? or a bug? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanSG Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I'm a Pentax user too - AP has no problem processing PEF files but the icon / thumbnail display seems to depend on whatever the OS will display natively. I had to install an additional codec to get DNGs to display in either AP or Windows Explorer. I stopped using PEF when I realized that Light Room was just converting them to DNG, so I've never bothered with PEF, but I'd assume the solution is the same. <edit> The assumption was correct! I use the Fast Picture Viewer codec and get thumbnails for both DNG and PEF - without it I get icons. AP, AD & APub user, running Win10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Reeder Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I stopped using PEF when I realized that Light Room was just converting them to DNG Lightroom would only do that if it was set up to do it, Ian. Keith Reeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Reeder Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 What I was not happy with was that my raw library displays DNG, and JPG mini previews, but my PEF's were only icons - not previews. My camera (K-3) is listed amongst the models that are supposed to work with the software. Is this a fluke? or a bug? As Ian suggests, it's an operating system issue, not an Affinity Photo issue. Keith Reeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_K Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 As Ian suggests, it's an operating system issue, not an Affinity Photo issue. Correct, we openly provide thumbnails for afdesign and afphoto files. We rely on Windows explorer to provide thumbnails for any other image format, and Windows has limited native RAW library. Serif Europe Ltd - Check the latest news at www.affinity.serif.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Reeder Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Windows has limited native RAW library. Yep, painfully limited - which is why some of us elected, many moons ago, to bite the bullet and buy the Fast Picture Viewer codec, since when I've never had a bit of trouble with any thumbnails. Keith Reeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasman Posted February 28, 2017 Author Share Posted February 28, 2017 Any sign of that speedy Raw loading update yet Chris? ☺ Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankT Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 It is hoped that for the opening of an RAF file that now 17 seconds a solution can be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mplay Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 I'm not sure I understand, will the fast picture viewer codec speed up loading times in affinity? Mplay 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Reeder Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 I'm not sure I understand, will the fast picture viewer codec speed up loading times in affinity? No - the codec pack fixes the Operating System preview thumbnail issue Jojoba complains about. Keith Reeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mplay Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 Thanks for your reply! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasman Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 Tried 1.5.2.62 today hoping that the raw speed loading times might have improved but seems to have maybe knocked a second or two off so not there yet but going the right direction!. I tried the Affinity Designer trial and loaded the same Raw file in 4 secs as opposed to 11 secs with AP?? . Any chance the Designer guys could chat to the Photo guys please ☺?. Regards Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrym Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Tried 1.5.2.62 today hoping that the raw speed loading times might have improved but seems to have maybe knocked a second or two off so not there yet but going the right direction!. I tried the Affinity Designer trial and loaded the same Raw file in 4 secs as opposed to 11 secs with AP?? . Any chance the Designer guys could chat to the Photo guys please ☺?. Regards Steve That's really interesting, couple of things I'd like to know Is this a fair apples to apples comparison ? Could someone try this comparison with CR2 files please ? (I don't have AD) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlainP Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Tried 1.5.2.62 today hoping that the raw speed loading times might have improved but seems to have maybe knocked a second or two off so not there yet but going the right direction!. I tried the Affinity Designer trial and loaded the same Raw file in 4 secs as opposed to 11 secs with AP?? . Any chance the Designer guys could chat to the Photo guys please ☺?. Regards Steve I made a similar test. Loading a CR2 file in AP latest beta took 18 seconds. Opening the same file in AD latest beta took 8 seconds. But in AD there is not much I can do with this RAW file. -- Window 11 - 32 gb - Intel I7 - 8700 - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 -- iPad Pro 2020 - 12,9 - 256 gb - Apple Pencil 2 -- iPad 9th gen 256 gb - Apple Pencil 1 -- Macbook Air 15" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasman Posted March 24, 2017 Author Share Posted March 24, 2017 That's really interesting, couple of things I'd like to know Is this a fair apples to apples comparison ? Could someone try this comparison with CR2 files please ? (I don't have AD) Harry you could try the trial version of AD here https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/signup/trial/designer/ Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrym Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 Cheers Gasman, didn't realise that was available for trial thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithel Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 I'm sure the Affinity developers are working on this as they have said, but I'd like to chime in (and be notified when a fix is made) too. I use Nikon (NEF) raw files and load times (from SSD on a fast system) are about 10 seconds. All other software (Irfanview, Aftershot Pro 3) loads these in a "blink" (too fast to measure). This is an important concern for many users and potential users so hopefully it is getting a lot of attention. This is an operation that is done EVERY time a photo is worked on, any other feature may or may not be used on a photo but this is something we encounter 100% of the time we use Affinity (which I love). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asser82 Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 I have updated my system recently to a core i7 7700k with 3200Mhz DDR4 ram and my CR2 raw opening times dropped from 22 seconds to 5. A movement of the photos from HDD to SSD did not change opening times. So the bottleneck is not I/O, at least not when getting data from disk. It seems that the raw data processing algorithms are CPU heavy. While opening a raw file all logical cores are busy, so Affinity splits the job on all cores already. It feels like it does too much to set up its internal data structures compared to other tools or it does not use the preview which is stored in raw files to display an image fast and analyze the raw data in the background while the preview is visible. I have installed IrfanView just for fun. Displaying the RAWs there does not consume noticeable CPU time. On the other hand my CPU is not used fully when opening a RAW file in Affinity, while it is when I move the sliders after the file is loaded. So there is some other aspect. Analyzing the RAM usage I can see, that the software allocates 1GB(!) of RAM for each RAW file I open. Allocation of big buffers in a fragmented environment can cause big delays also. The memory consumption on opening the files in IrfanView is difficult to measure but not more than 100MB. But even if the allocation is not the problem, building a data model of the size of one GB can consume much time. This is not needed in IrfanView because you cannot develop RAWs there. Mithel and harrym 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrym Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Hi Asser82, do you feel then that the critical part of a machine spec would be the number of cores available rather than whether it's an i5 or i7 ? Looking at MEBs topic on performance I was kind of getting that feeling. Or is it primarily how the data model is getting built ? If it's the first at least I can factor that in to my buying decisions if it's the second then may as well hold tight and see how thing progress! Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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