Can't open large-ish PSD file

[Mloren]

I just bought Affinity Photo and I'm testing it out on some PSDs I have from Photoshop.

When loading small ones (2-3mb) it loads them but takes about 10 seconds to open them (which seems a bit long, they open in under a second in Photoshop), but when I tried to open a 10mb file it just didn't open at all.

No error, it just stays on the empty AP window with a little note in the top right saying "Loading 1 document" but it never loads. I waited to see if it was just taking a long time but after 15 minutes it still hasn't loaded.

I've attached a copy of the PSD I tried to load.

ProsperityMap After Battle.psd

[Mloren]

No sooner did I submit this bug than the file finally loaded, taking more than 15 minutes.

I guess the real bug here is: PSD files take too long to open.

Turning off hardware acceleration didn't make it load any faster.

Also while a file is loading I can't close the application, it shows an error saying "At least one file is currently being opened. Please wait for files to load before quitting the application." which is a problem if it takes more than 15 minutes to load the file.

I think AP needs to handle this a bit more gracefully: It shouldn't take this long, it should have a loading bar, and an option to cancel.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Mloren

[Joachim_L]

Welcome to the Affinity forums @Mloren!

Try to turn off hardware acceleration in Preferences >> Performance, restart and test again.

EDIT: I was wrong with my hint, there are lots of layers and FX in this PSD and AP really chokes on that file.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Joachim_L
Added more information

[Komatös]

Even Photoshop has problems here. Opening is still relatively quick, but accessing the layers is a game of patience. As I see it, each layer also has effects, everything has to be calculated, and with an average CPU you'll shoot your computer down.

[Mloren]

I guess that might depend on the CPU. I don't have any trouble opening or editing it in Photoshop but I may have an above average CPU.

But still, there's a difference between "takes 5 seconds to open and is a bit sluggish to edit" and "takes 15 minutes to open"

I was hoping this could be fixed because I work with illustrators and graphic designers and often deal with huge PSD files. I'd love to move away from Photoshop and use AP instead, but one of our PSD files is 1.8 GB! I'm not even going to try and open that if it can't handle a 10mb file.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Mloren

[Joachim_L]

4 hours ago, Mloren said:

I'm not even going to try and open that if it can't handle a 10mb file.

I think the problem here is not the file size, but the complexity. Less complex large files open for me quite fast on my average machine. And regarding moving away from PS: Only Adobe knows this format down to the bit, for other companies writing import- and export routines this is a challenge. Please note, that e.g. AP is not able to write back text layers to a PSD, it rasterises them on export.

[Chris B]

Joachim_L has a point here. Whilst we can open them, we cannot always guarantee accuracy or speed. However 15 minutes seems excessive. I tried a few times but I wasn't timing it accurately—I was seeing about the same regardless of hardware. I am happy to pass this to the developers to see if we can figure out what's taking so long  

[Mloren]

Hey just an update to this issue: a friend suggested I export the .psd as a .tiff file and try opening that in Affinity Photo because .tiff can keep the layers.

So I tried it but the same thing happens: It takes AP over 10 minutes to open the .tiff file and the colours are subtly wrong exactly like when opening the .psd.

So I don't think this is .psd specific but rather the way AP handles layers and colours.

[bt1138]

Something odd about that file. It's not a large file at all. Should open almost instantly. I can open a 120mb psd with many layers and objects almost instantly on my pc.

But your file did take a long time, 5 minutes or so (I didn't really time it).

It's not the software, it's the file.

But once you open it and save it as an Affinity File, it behaves normally.

[Mloren]

18 hours ago, bt1138 said:

Something odd about that file. It's not a large file at all. Should open almost instantly. I can open a 120mb psd with many layers and objects almost instantly on my pc.

But your file did take a long time, 5 minutes or so (I didn't really time it).

It's not the software, it's the file.

But once you open it and save it as an Affinity File, it behaves normally.

It's something to do with how AP handles layers. The file has a lot of layers and that seems to be the cause.

That file opens instantly in both Photoshop and Nomacs. Only AP chokes on it. AP also messes up the effects which look fine in Photoshop and Nomacs, but are wrong in AP.

[bt1138]

5 hours ago, Mloren said:

It's something to do with how AP handles layers. The file has a lot of layers and that seems to be the cause.

That file opens instantly in both Photoshop and Nomacs. Only AP chokes on it. AP also messes up the effects which look fine in Photoshop and Nomacs, but are wrong in AP.

Perhaps it's not the layers per se. I have PSDs with lots of layers that load fine.

I'd suspect it's the "effects" you mention, whatever they are... that look fine, which AP messes up...

And now I know about Nomacs. Thx for that!