Photo: Focus stacking does not work properly + constant crashes while using Develop Persona with a single RAW

[bestvibration]

Hello everyone.

I intend to end Adobe's subscription solution after years, so I downloaded the current trial version.
The program reacts very strangely:

    -> if I open any RAW (Canon-CR2) and want to develop it, Affinity crahes without an error message. It doesn't matter whether the RAW has been edited 
       or not.

I photograph wildlife but also macro. That's why I tried focus stacking. The success seems quite random:

    -> if I see the image before batch processing starts, there's a good chance that the image will be sharp at the end. However, this image 
       immediately becomes pixelated as soon as I click the Stock section anywhere during editing. The effect is irreversible for me.
    -> if only a hatched area is displayed from the start (picture 1), there is no chance of a sharp image. It just shows a horribly pixelated 
       image once the layers are clicked (picture 3).

My system is an i7 with Win11, lots of disk space, 48GB RAM, graphics card is an EVGA RTX3080TI. I've already reinstalled, installed to a different 
disk and turned off hardware acceleration. The errors occur with or without hardware acceleration, regardless of which disk Affinity is installed on. 
The behavior is reproducible.

I am adding a couple of pictures that show the behavior described. The last image (picture 4) is the result developed with LR and PS.
Anyone know advice?
Many thanks for every tip!

Edited May 26, 2022 by bestvibration
breaks added

[NathanC]

Hi @bestvibration welcome to the forums,

18 hours ago, bestvibration said:

if I open any RAW (Canon-CR2) and want to develop it, Affinity crahes without an error message. It doesn't matter whether the RAW has been edited or not.

What Camera model do you have which the .CR2 RAW files originate from?

18 hours ago, bestvibration said:

if I see the image before batch processing starts, there's a good chance that the image will be sharp at the end. However, this image immediately becomes pixelated as soon as I click the Stock section anywhere during editing. The effect is irreversible for me. -> if only a hatched area is displayed from the start (picture 1), there is no chance of a sharp image. It just shows a horribly pixelated image once the layers are clicked (picture 3).

I'll try and re-produce your issue with the focus merge, could you provide me with your sample images used? Below is a private drop box link if you wish to upload them there.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/14uL4mFFNvE42XtmvFfn

 

[bestvibration]

1 hour ago, NathanC said:

Hi @bestvibration welcome to the forums,

What Camera model do you have which the .CR2 RAW files originate from?

I'll try and re-produce your issue with the focus merge, could you provide me with your sample images used? Below is a private drop box link if you wish to upload them there.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/14uL4mFFNvE42XtmvFfn

 

Hi Nathan,

thanks for the reply and the willing to help. I use a Canon 5D3 and the pictures from my post are in your Dropbox within some minutes.

Thanks a lot!

Joachim

[NathanC]

8 minutes ago, bestvibration said:

I use a Canon 5D3

The EOS 5D Mark III is a supported RAW camera so opening the file shouldn't be causing any issues, do you mind also uploading a .CR2 file which is causing the crash? Many thanks 🙂

Nevermind, I've just seen that the images you have now uploaded are .cr2 files, opening these images in Photo aren't causing a crash for me on a similar setup on Windows 10, do you have any recent crash reports? the below thread details how to find these.

 

[bestvibration]

1 minute ago, NathanC said:

The EOS 5D Mark III is a supported RAW camera so opening the file shouldn't be causing any issues, do you mind also uploading a .CR2 file which is causing the crash? Many thanks 🙂

Of course I will. But I tried it with many files and AP crashed every time. CR2 is coming...IMG_4206.CR2 was one of the crasher

[bestvibration]

30 minutes ago, NathanC said:

The EOS 5D Mark III is a supported RAW camera so opening the file shouldn't be causing any issues, do you mind also uploading a .CR2 file which is causing the crash? Many thanks 🙂

Nevermind, I've just seen that the images you have now uploaded are .cr2 files, opening these images in Photo aren't causing a crash for me on a similar setup on Windows 10, do you have any recent crash reports? the below thread details how to find these.

 

I found a bunch of reports. Don't know, which one you need

c53417f6-f6e9-4555-8d17-d651362f309e.dmp d36e7e45-a675-43de-8ea5-05ac5918d11c.dmp 5d806d77-882b-4109-993f-63ff2df77fd3.dmp 8f84809d-38e9-4efd-bc72-315726f8eaf1.dmp 48d37d04-ce33-432b-94df-28b266e13b45.dmp 991e9b6b-f2dd-4a55-8c94-477eb232769c.dmp 3238b818-8e57-4c7b-b611-50ecdd7fba04.dmp ab0fa8de-26c6-4100-9a3e-6906b8a158a5.dmp acd65efb-eecd-4d04-9f96-5d664f39ed64.dmp bcd2af02-0bf5-4556-86f6-b512abd0d4bc.dmp

[NathanC]

This was my final result from focus merging your images which was similar to the auto blend in PS, I didn't experience any pixelated/quality issues. I started with a random blank/transparent canvas open and went to File > New Focus Merge > Add Images > Ok This then creates a new untitled file containing my final merge and original source images for previewing. If you're following a different workflow to this, could you provide a screen recording which results in the poorer quality image?

[bestvibration]

35 minutes ago, NathanC said:

This was my final result from focus merging your images which was similar to the auto blend in PS...

 

Nice, would love to have this result regularly I made two recordings.

"AP crashing" shows, how AP shuts down when developing a CR2
"AP stacks" shows two trials. The first shows the issue and the second brings the same result as yours. Everytime, I see the batch starting with a white/transparent canvas, the result is bad (9 out of 10 trials). If it starts with the first picture of the stack, like the second trial, the result will be fine.

"AP quality issue..." shows what happens, when I click on "Stock". That effect is not reversible.

These were my first recordings...so have mercy

AP crashing.mkv AP stacking.mkv AP quality issue clicking Stock.mkv

[NathanC]

Thanks for sending them over, it does appear to be quite random as to whether or not it focus merges correctly/If the RAW files develop.

One Crash report came back with a DirectX issue which can indicate problems with the existing GPU driver, I would advise using Display Driver Uninstall to remove your existing GPU driver (cleans off potentially corrupted files), reboot and go through with a re-install of the latest drivers:

Display Driver Uninstaller: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

Nvidia Drivers: https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/drivers/

I'd then see if this has made any difference on your three issues after a clean driver install 🙂

 

[bestvibration]

5 hours ago, NathanC said:

Thanks for sending them over, it does appear to be quite random as to whether or not it focus merges correctly/If the RAW files develop.

One Crash report came back with a DirectX issue which can indicate problems with the existing GPU driver,

 

Hi again,

I made a clean re-install as you suggested. Unfortunately, no change. Within the last hours, I had only a very few successful trials. If it works, I like AP really a lot. But I fear the issues. I had just two or three crashes, but lots of other stuff. For example: I got a really good focus stack, sharp as hell. A little bit here and a little bit there, removing dust. I was really happy. And then: pixelated after zooming in and out for a last check. Not reversible -> two hours spent for nothing. This is a really hard proof of patience.

8e9065d3-a8c0-4945-90ab-2e0e8ae993c2.dmp

Edited May 27, 2022 by bestvibration
Report added

[NathanC]

On 5/27/2022 at 6:40 PM, bestvibration said:

I made a clean re-install as you suggested. Unfortunately, no change. Within the last hours, I had only a very few successful trials. If it works, I like AP really a lot. But I fear the issues. I had just two or three crashes, but lots of other stuff. For example: I got a really good focus stack, sharp as hell. A little bit here and a little bit there, removing dust. I was really happy. And then: pixelated after zooming in and out for a last check. Not reversible -> two hours spent for nothing. This is a really hard proof of patience.

The Crash reports are still showing a DirectX related issue, to confirm if this is GPU related, could you try changing the Renderer Setting to WARP and ensuring Hardware Acceleration is Disabled Under Edit > Preferences > Performance? After this, try running through any of the pixelation issues you've been experiencing to see if they occur again.

You will find that Photo will be running slower after changing to WARP since this is using the software to Render instead of the GPU.

[bestvibration]

On 5/30/2022 at 11:42 AM, NathanC said:

The Crash reports are still showing a DirectX related issue, to confirm if this is GPU related, could you try changing the Renderer Setting to WARP and ensuring Hardware Acceleration is Disabled Under Edit > Preferences > Performance? After this, try running through any of the pixelation issues you've been experiencing to see if they occur again.

You will find that Photo will be running slower after changing to WARP since this is using the software to Render instead of the GPU.

 

maybe you have overseen my post yesterday

 

Hi again,

maybe we come closer to the problem. With WARP and without acceleration: no Problems found. I tried focus stacking and developing single cr2 for round about 45 minutes without any issues. And yes, it is really slower.

Double-checked with WARP and acceleration -> problems as usual
                                     GPU without acceleration -> problems as usual
                                     GPU with acceleration -> problems as usual

However, I would appreciate a solution to my problem.

[NathanC]

Hi @bestvibration,

Apologies on the late response, Since changing the renderer to WARP(Software) prevents the issue but enabling H/A or changing the renderer back to your GPU causes the rendering issues again along with the crash reports indicating issues with DirectX, it's difficult to identify what is the exact cause of the in-app rendering issues.

Though this may sound strange, to completely rule out any influence of 3rd party apps, could you try creating a new temporary Windows user with no additional apps running in the taskbar and see if any of the problems occur with the renderer set back to your 3080 ti (Keep H/A disabled).

[bestvibration]

10 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @bestvibration,

Apologies on the late response...

Though this may sound strange, to completely rule out any influence of 3rd party apps, could you try creating a new temporary Windows user with no additional apps running in the taskbar and see if any of the problems occur with the renderer set back to your 3080 ti (Keep H/A disabled).

Hi Nathan...or may I say "Master"?,

sorry, I didn't want to push. I thought, you do not see my answer, if I don't quote.

I made the new user and was so anxious, that I let the standard settings in AP -> 3080TI with H/A on. First made the well known stack. Great on the first trial. Then stacks, single cr2, clicked wildly in development and other options. AP was totally stable and showed no problem at all!

I don't want to stress you more than I had, but do you have any clue, how I can find the problematic app? If not, i think I will make a user for AP and will be happy

Greetings,

Joachim

[NathanC]

Hi @bestvibration,

Happy to hear it's working on a new user 🙂

I've linked the forum thread below which details a list of known third party apps that could be causing issues.

 

[bestvibration]

On 6/6/2022 at 9:33 AM, NathanC said:

Hi @bestvibration,

Happy to hear it's working on a new user 🙂

I've linked the forum thread below which details a list of known third party apps that could be causing issues.

Thanks a lot, Nathan. I tried the solution for NVIDIA-GPU, but it was for another architecture. I think, the problem is somewhere deeper in the system and I think about a complete new installation of Win11. Maybe, I shouldn't install any sh**t

Thanks so much for all the help! I wish you a good time.