export with liquify mask very slow

[hisuku]

Hi there,

this may be less of a bug but a hardware problem but I want to mention it anyway.

With Affinity Photo 1.9, exporting an image seems to be incredibly slow with liquify masks applied.

 

The two devices I have and I have tried with are:

iMac mid2011 21" quad 2,5GHz i5 16GB RAM with High Sierra 10.13.6 (yes, its incredibly old and I am working on replacing it. But its still my main device for now and it runs incredibly smooth with everything).

MacBook Pro start2015 13" dual2,9GHz i5 8GB RAM with Catalina 10.15.7 (not really a workhorse but my little pal in the field).

Exporting images without liquify masks is still fast as ever but as soon the smallest change with a liquify mask is applied the CPU runs on max for two or three minutes to export the image.

 

Does someone else has experienced the same?

Since its a very new feature I do somewhat hope that there is a more efficient way to implement that feature without requiring unusual more hardware specs.

[Chris B]

Hey hisuku, welcome to the forums.

Could you please attach a sample document? I've made my own but I can't really notice anything. I'd like to see if there's something else causing this. I'm testing on a new M1 MacBook Pro. I can ask someone to try with an older iMac if I get your file.

[hisuku]

Its actually not that hard to replicate.

Just take any image and distort the hell out of it.

 

I just created a quick example and included it in this message (please dont judge me for that image, its really just a quick and dirty sample file I created and not something to be proud of).

Even without any other masks beneath it: As soon as an liquify mask has to be considered during the export it gets noticeably slower (around 10 to 20 times of what it usually takes). If an more complex structure with further masks beneath it has to be considered it gets even much worse.

 

As I still think its not really a bug but just incredibly bad performance. I guess this can be easily solved by just slapping enough new hardware on it but this difference in performance for just a single feature (which is complex, I know) is really troubling. If the project is complicated enough I guess even more modern devices will easily go down at it.

2019_10_16_155139_test.afphoto

Edited February 5, 2021 by hisuku

[Old Bruce]

On 2/5/2021 at 3:36 AM, hisuku said:

I just created a quick example and included it in this message.

took about 15 seconds for a 16 bit RGB TIFF to export here on  Mac OS 10.14.6

[hisuku]

7 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

took about 15 seconds for a 16 bit RGB TIFF to export here on  Mac OS 10.14.6

Thank you for testing it.

How long does it take without the mask applied? Even with my old trusty device it would be close to a second (for the tiff).

And my example file is only 22mp and has still a very simple structure with only one group of layers. If that gets more complicated and huge the time needed will increase noticeably with the liquify mask applied.

[Chris B]

I've messed about with the file, changing bits, adding bits etc. using the Live Liquify filter and I'm not seeing anything above 10 seconds on the M1, 13 seconds on the older iMac and less than 8 seconds on my main PC.

I suspect the 2011 iMac is probably getting on a bit but the 2015 MacBook is a lot newer and not really that 'old'. 

Like you say, the file isn't complicated or that big... I assume if remove the Live Liquify it's seconds to export? How long does it take to rasterise the Liquify?

[hisuku]

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

I've messed about with the file, changing bits, adding bits etc. using the Live Liquify filter and I'm not seeing anything above 10 seconds on the M1, 13 seconds on the older iMac and less than 8 seconds on my main PC.

I suspect the 2011 iMac is probably getting on a bit but the 2015 MacBook is a lot newer and not really that 'old'. 

Like you say, the file isn't complicated or that big... I assume if remove the Live Liquify it's seconds to export? How long does it take to rasterise the Liquify?

Rasterizing left my iMac running for 2:30min (which left even me surprised and I was prepared!) and took 80 to 90% of the total CPU during that time (simply all it can get).

Exporting does take the same time (actually like 15 seconds less when I stopped the time, but the processor may just didnt have anything else to do at that moment).

Without the liquify mask its around 3-4 seconds.

 

On my MacBook its 27 seconds to rasterize, around 20 seconds to export and again around 3 seconds to export without the mask applied.

[Chris B]

That still feels like quite a bit of time. I'll give this some time soon and make some time recordings from my older iMac and newer MacBook Pro.

[hisuku]

Thank you. I am looking forward to your results.

If there is anything else I can provide: Please let me know.

[hisuku]

Since 1.9.1 is out I did test again. No changes so far with export taking 2:07 minutes for my example file.