Images becoming invisible on main canvas

[phfff]

I have an odd issue; individual images become invisible when moving a simple asset, zooming in/out, or even creating a box. See attached. I'm not doing anything fancy with the layers, aside from grouping them (although this happens whether or not I do that).

Note that the images are still there, they just won't display... in fact, there should be a third deck at the top of the image, yet only the little ship shows up.Now, all I did is select and move the bottom-right shuttle, and this happens -- this giant blank area.

And if I keep going, the whole thing might disappear. Zooming in/out sometimes fixes it, but usually makes it worse.

Also, as complex as this image appears, each deck is comprised of about 7 small layers; this should NOT be an issue for either this program nor my computer. I'm running the latest macOS 11.6 (on an M1, if that makes a difference) and I've a 16GB machine.

Help?

[phfff]

Here's the afphoto file, just in case.

Nasirnak.afphoto

[Hangman]

@phfff Try the attached version and see whether you experience the same issues or whether it resolves the issues for you?

Nasirnak v2.afphoto

[markw]

Hi @Hangman, that works, what was the fix?
I found the original would work in AD no problems and was about to start poking around with it in AP but you’ve found a solution already!

[G13RL]

Just for information, both versions work for me without problem with APhoto on W10.

[lacerto]

1 hour ago, G13RL said:

Just for information, both versions work for me without problem with APhoto on W10.

Same here, no problems on Windows.

As the image shows without problems also in the macOS Publisher and Designer (latest release versions on M1 chip), it would be interesting to know the cause of the problem, and only in Photo (I tried with all performance improvements turned off but they did not have any role in this) -- and whether this is just an M1 issue.

The problem itself can easily be fixed by rasterizing the three problematic pieces: two top Air Rafts, and Bridge (End) a bit lower. I could not find out what the actual problem with these images was, it was not in the file format, not in rotation, not in scaling, not in color profile, so it could also have been resolved by extracting the embedded images and placing them again exactly at same sizes and locations (not just replacing), as below.

Nasirnak_placed_again.afphoto

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Lagarto said:

As the image shows without problems also in the macOS Publisher and Designer (latest release versions on M1 chip), it would be interesting to know the cause of the problem, and only in Photo (I tried with all performance improvements turned off but they did not have any role in this) -- and whether this is just an M1 issue.

On my Intel iMac running Catalina when I first open the file in AP, everything is visible, but bizarrely the moment I do anything -- zoom, select a layer, toggle off the grid, whatever -- everything except the Air Raft - Closed #1 image layer disappears, & there is no way I have found to get anything else to be visible except for a very brief moment when I change the zoom level or toggle the visibility of any of the invisible layers.

5 hours ago, Lagarto said:

The problem itself can easily be fixed by rasterizing the three problematic pieces: two top Air Rafts, and Bridge (End) a bit lower.

That works for me as well but I have no idea why.

EDIT: I just noticed that setting those 3 layers to invisible in the Layers panel makes all the other layers visible. So maybe that is a clue 'for why this is happening?

[Old Bruce]

Every little tip here doesn't work for me. Temporary at best.

Export every layer and rebuild it. I think there is something odd happening with the rotations and resizes. Not all the resizes are proportional.

[Old Bruce]

The alpha channels for the image layers may be messed up somehow.

[Hangman]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

On my Intel iMac running Catalina when I first open the file in AP, everything is visible, but bizarrely the moment I do anything -- zoom, select a layer, toggle off the grid, whatever -- everything except the Air Raft - Closed #1 image layer disappears

It was the exact opposite for me, when I opened the file I had a completely blank canvas, only by Ctrl clicking invisible individual items on the canvas and then zooming in or out could I get that specific item to appear visible on the canvas... but then making one layer visible and zooming then made other now visible layers invisible again.

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I just noticed that setting those 3 layers to invisible in the Layers panel makes all the other layers visible. So maybe that is a clue 'for why this is happening?

That only partially works for me, I had a small handful of layers then appear plus a few where only half the layer became visible...

52 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Export every layer and rebuild it.

That's exactly what I did with my rebuild in the third post, I exported all layers as slices and then simply replaced through Resource Manager and transformed where required.

52 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I think there is something odd happening with the rotations and resizes. Not all the resizes are proportional.

Changing those on the original makes no difference for me... I had to 'reset' the relevant rotations and sizes to match the original in my rebuilt file... It seems somewhat odd that this is Affinity Photo specific and the same issue isn't presenting itself in Designer or Publisher.

44 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

The alpha channels for the image layers may be messed up somehow.

I don't think that's the issue because if you select any of the layers, and then do a 'New From Clipboard' to create a new file, I can't make that layer vanish regardless of what I do to it...

My only observation, which I don't think is relevant to the issue is that all the images in the original use GIMP built-in sRGB as their ICC Profile. By exporting and rebuilding the only thing I effectively achieved was to change that to native sRGB IEC61966-2.1 but that doesn't explain why only AP displays the issue or why the file is fine on Windows!

[lacerto]

For me the minimum worked: exporting the three image layers mentioned, then placing them (manually, not just replacing) in the exact locations and sizes that the original images have (they are still hidden in the fixed document I posted above). So no change in the images, not in the rotation, nor in color profile. So no explanation but that fixed it (as would simply just hiding these three images in the UI). But based on descriptions given above it seems that the problem might appear a bit differently on different systems so might also be get fixed.a bit differently... 

[phfff]

Man, you guys are awesome! I'll start doing all the stuff you suggested and tell you what works... first thing is to rasterize... one thing at a time!

Thank you all... keep the guesses coming! 👍

[Hangman]

Already done that for you in the file attached in my first reply so feel free to use that if it saves a bit of time 😊

[phfff]

18 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Already done that for you in the file attached in my first reply so feel free to use that if it saves a bit of time 😊

Yeah, it worked! Thank you! What did you do?

[Hangman]

Exported all layers as slices in the export persona using the sRGB ICC profile, then replaced each layer using the Resource Manager and then transformed any layers where adjustments had been made to either scale or rotation so they matched your original exactly and that’s about it...