Random crashes when using Affinity Photo 1.8.4

[Venyer]

Hello:

I am experiencing random crashes when I try to do panoramas or hdr images. I am using Windows 1903 and Affinity Photo 1.8.4. When I load the images the program starts to work but crashes unexpectedly.

I use ARW files. What could be happening?

[Aad Slingerland]

A lot could be happening  

How many images are you feeding into the panorama process, how many megabytes combined file size is that?

What is your computers RAM size?

When you convert the Sony RAW files to JPEG first and use those JPEG files for panorama stitch does it work or not?

And oh yes, How much free space on your hard disk partitions (C: and other partitions if applicable)

 

 

 

[Venyer]

Thanks Aad. Have you experienced something similar?

My computer is powerful enough to run the program. I have been using it with no problems so far. Anyhow, it is a Xeon 1240v2, 32gb of RAM, nvidia 1660ti and more than 200gb free in a SSD drive. Updated graphic drivers.

I usually do a three pictures panorama or hdr.

I am wondering what could be happening. Sometimes it crashes just loading images.

It is really annoying. Any suggestion?

 

[Venyer]

Is there any member of Serif who could give any insight?

[Aad Slingerland]

Did you try to convert ARW files to JPEG (or TIFF ) first. Your hardware specs sounds more than enough to me 🙂

 

[shooterguy555]

@Venyer @Aad Slingerland

Came to forums looking for this same answer too. Super buggy lately and honestly not even usable.

Random crashes with no log files being written and no history on my images either after reopening [despite changing the auto save feature to 5 minutes, 3 minutes, even longer].

Can happen when just working with live filters, opening TIFF/PNG/JPEG/RAW files, or just clicking in between images. It's set me back about 15 times now over the last week and it's honestly made me give up on editing because I'll just lose an hour of work or worse.

What I've tried:

• Rolling back and reinstalling Nvidia drivers
• Reinstalling Affinity Photo
• Cleaning computer
• Updating Windows 10
• Rolling back Windows 10
• Updating BIOS
• Reinstalling an older Affinity Photo
• Holding CTRL at start and resetting all custom settings during Affinity Photo bootup

System Specs:

• Windows 10: version 2004
• Intel i7 7700
• Nvidia Drivers: 451.67, GTX 1070
• Affinity Photo version: 1.8.4.693
• No custom fonts, plugins, etc
• No other system instability symptoms, HDD/SSD in good condition and plenty of space.

Any help or fixes would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Venyer]

I have tried updating Windows 10 to the 2004 version, trying different image formats, installing 1.8.3, reinstalling 1.8.4 and the same problems,... It crashes.

Sometimes the program stays open a few minutes other it closes in just seconds. This is really weird.

Let's hope to hear from Serif team...

[Venyer]

I tried with the game ready and studio drivers by nvidia with no luck.

Any idea about what could be happening?

 

[Venyer]

I have discovered that if you change your renderer settings in the performance box to WARP instead of NVIDIA the program works, but frustatingly SLOW. I post it just in case someone else is having a similar problem.

I really expected an answer from a Serif member to give some clarity on the problem. That is quite dissapointing.

 

[stokerg]

Hi @Venyer,

Which model Sony camera are your RAW files from?  We do have a an issue logged where switching to WARP stops a crash which seems to only happen with Nvidia cards, so this could be related.  

I would also suggest doing a clean install (not an update) of the latest Nvidia drivers and try stacking again without WARP enabled and see if there's any improvements.  Also could you check this location: %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\CrashReports for the latest crash report and post it here.

@shooterguy555 Could you also try the WARP setting in Preferences and also check this location: %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\CrashReports and post the latest crash report. 

[shooterguy555]

@stokerg Sadly the logs aren't even having a chance to be written.

The only log I was able to find was much earlier in the summer that may not be relevant to the recent consistent crashes. [Attached]

The renderer was already not using WARP and using the Nvidia GTX 1070. Would you like me to try enabling WARP instead to see if that works better?

Thanks again for the help so far stokerg. Really appreciate it.

 

89b4d39b-8c74-4988-a8e7-024f580152c1.dmp

[Venyer]

Thank you @stokerg,

I use a Sony A7ii. I did a clean install of the latest nvidia drivers using DDU but the problem persists.

I  have just tried again with the same results. Here it is the crash report as an attachment.

 

8250f0dd-5617-446b-b316-10ba9076cfe8.dmp

[stokerg]

On 8/14/2020 at 10:42 PM, shooterguy555 said:

The renderer was already not using WARP and using the Nvidia GTX 1070. Would you like me to try enabling WARP instead to see if that works better?

If you could try using WARP just to see if it works and let me know and thanks for the crash report  

@Venyer Thanks for the crash reports, i'll get them looked at to see if they identify the cause of the issue  

[Pratting_About]

Having the same issues trying to merge 5 HDR images.  Sony ARW files from a Sony A7iii; PC Specs: Windows 10 Pro fully updated / Ryzen 3900X / 32GB RAM / GTX 2070Super GPU.  No crash reports generated; Affinity starts the HDR merge then crashes back to desktop.

If change renderer mode to WARP from NVIDIA then no crashes.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Pratting_About

[Venyer]

I have just installed the new Nvidia Drivers 452.06 and the problem persists.

[stokerg]

Hi @Venyer Did you go for the Game ready or Studio Drivers?  I've had Dev confirm the crash is happening in the graphics card drivers.

From speaking with QA about this, they seem to remember an older version of the drivers from March didn't have this problem.  So it might be worth trying to install the drivers from March, to see if you still have the issue then.  Also could you attach a dxdiag report, to get the report follow the steps on this link

QA have been trying to replicate this problem but as of yet, haven't been able to   

 

[Venyer]

Hi @stokerg , I used the game ready drivers.

Do you know which is the last drivers version that works?

I'll do the dxdiag asap.

Thanks.

[Venyer]

@stokerg, I have just passed my computer the dxdiag test. Here are the results as an attachment.

 

 

[stokerg]

17 hours ago, Venyer said:

Do you know which is the last drivers version that works?

 

Sadly not.  The only information i have is it was ones from March.  From a quick check i can see version 442.59 came out at the start of March.

Thanks for the DxDiag, i'll also pass that on as well  

[Venyer]

Thank you @stokerg,

I would prefer not to install old drivers since they do not perform as well as the last ones with certain games and applications.

I have installed Nvidia Drivers 452.06 (Studio Version) and the problem persists.

Any news?

f605246d-ee5d-44d4-9f73-a9c559a4efd7.dmp

[Venyer]

In the end I had to revert my nvidia drivers to the 442.74 version so I could work in a project that couldn't be delayed more. Changing to warp is not an option because it makes the program frustratingly slow.

I haven't seen anything related to the nvidia drivers fix in the AP 1.8.5 update.

Is Serif going to address this big problem any time soon?

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, Venyer said:

Changing to warp is not an option because it makes the program frustratingly slow.

Hey Venyer,

This is absolutely a workaround and not a solution. I have been speaking with our developers regarding this matter for some time so I hope we can figure out what's going off. I'm really sorry that it has caused you and a number of customers a lot of trouble.

The issue we're having is reproducing the problem. When we are unable to reproduce something, it makes debugging it somewhat more difficult. We will endeavour to get to the bottom of it though—I just don't know when this will be.

I also appreciate rolling back to an older driver is not ideal and it can have an impact on other software. 

[Venyer]

Thank you @Chris B, I have also tried AP 1.8.5 with the latest nvidia drivers with no luck.

I will have to revert again to the previous drivers version next time I really need Affinity Photo.

Let's hope there will be a solution for this problem soon.

 

[Venyer]

Any news?

[Chris B]

I haven't seen any fixes but I think the developers have an idea of what it might be. I think the issue is that we cannot reproduce it and therefore it's more difficult to debug and fix.

Some people report fully uninstalling all the Nvidia software and reinstaling it works but it might be a timely process with no positive results after.

If a fix does appear, it would be in the beta and we've added some benchmarking in the Help menu. It might be worth installing that and running a benchmark and providing your results. The beta also includes hardware acceleration (OpenCL) from the Preferences > Performance menu. I'd be curious to see if that aids anything.

I'm not suggesting you test the software but to just see if OpenCL affects the panoaram/HDR features.