Performance Issues - V.2 - lagging Brush flow/frame rate

[Graphicon]

I am noticing a significant lag in overall performance between V.1.10 of the entire Affinity Suite and V2 regardless of performance settings or checking hardware acceleration (on or off)
I've noticed this to be the most apparent using the brush tool(in Designer pixel persona as well as Affinity Photo) I have tried to reproduce the issue and screen captured the problem and attached below. I own a brand new Dell workstation with 16Gb of Ram... never had a problem with your software. I have made sure that in both examples the same brush, color, size, preset, etc is used... as well as the exact same Document size, DPI, color model, etc... I have also checked the performance settings to ensure they are the same. Thank you for your help.

[SKT7]

I am also facing similar lag. 
But not immediately after starting - after the file some content it the lag becomes noticeable - restarting the app also doesn't help. 
I am on Windows.

[affinian]

I'm in the same boat (so far, for Designer 2.0).

Without having time for deeper analysis it needs a certain (still small like 20-30 upwards) number of layers and the UX will start to become lagging.

This is most notable when navigating through the layer stack. For instance, after clicking on a layer there's always a small lag before the layer gets its selection highlight as well as its objects selected (with the move tool active).
Once this has happened to start, a brush move also starts to loose its smooth "flow", sometimes the frames drop to 0 fps (stuttering).

The usual recommendations (gpu rendering on/off etc.) don't have any obvious effects. It's no showstopper, as I can continue to do my hobbyist things - but it is obvious and reminds me of my past experiences 15-20 years ago when the machine was always to slow for nearly every non-standard usage scenario.

cpu: ryzen 2600x
ram: 32 GB
Win 10 2H22 (latest release)

[chessboard]

I can confirm @affinians description. Almost the same behavior here. I have not tested enough, but it seems to me, that Affinity Photo V2 doesn't have this problem. AP V2 seems to me to be more stable than AD all in all. But this may be related to the different kind of projects I use both for.

AD V1 doesn't show this lags either on my system.

My system: Windows 11, Intel i7 11370H, 32GB ram, Intel Iris XE Graphics/nvidia RTX 3060 TI Laptop

[affinian]

@chessboard
Now we have covered the whole ground: Win10 / Win11, AMD / Intel / nVidia - seems to be a rather tough one.

Maybe it's due to a somehow compromised migration of the V1 settings.

@affinity team: I'd like to offer my support for nailing this down even if it takes some time (reset settings, fresh install whatsoever) provided there will be appropriate guidance (and a debug version).

[Graphicon]

@affinian, You stepping forward is much appreciated... I was in the process of trying to uninstall V.1 & V.2 followed by a fresh install of V.2... But I have yet to discover any way to uninstall V.2 (at least not through the usual means) The program set doesn't even show-up in the program install list of the control panel in windows 10 pro.

[4dimage]

On my Windows 10 pro for Workstations i can see all v1 and v2 Apps: windows -> settings -> apps and features

 

[Kev Borg]

Hey guys,

I just bought the New

Quote

Affinity #2 Package and Designer and Photo 2 just keep Crashing

and I have tried everything I can think of. I have un-installed both apps spo many times.

I have un-installed a heap of my other apps but no luck.
I have changed hard drives as I have 5 SSD NVME SAMSUNG EVO 970 PLUS 2tb
which are very fast Drives, but still No luck.

MY COMPUTER PC WINDOWS 11

• I am running INTEL I9 9900X CORE X CPU WITH 10 CORES / 20 THREADS
• 64 GB of CORSAIR VENGEANCE RAM DDR3 3600,
• RTX2080 NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARD,
• ASUS RAMPAGE 6 EXTREME MOTHERBOARD
• CORSAIR HX1000 WATT POWER SUPPLY
• 5 x SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS SSD NVME SSD DRIVES ( very fast as well)

I just do not know what to do and I am so disappointing because I have waited so long for this new package
and thats why I bought all 3 Affinity Apps and Cancelled my Adobe subscriptions.

At this rate I will not meet my work deadlines because I am having to Re-Boot every 3 to 5 minutes if I am lucky,
and thats not an exaggeration.

If anyone has any ideas i am all ears Because I really want this package to work.

 

Thaanks

Cheers Kev Borg

[Kev Borg]

4 hours ago, Graphicon said:

@affinian, You stepping forward is much appreciated... I was in the process of trying to uninstall V.1 & V.2 followed by a fresh install of V.2... But I have yet to discover any way to uninstall V.2 (at least not through the usual means) The program set doesn't even show-up in the program install list of the control panel in windows 10 pro.

Hi, Yeah me too, I can not even find the affinity apps in my Control Panel to UN INSTALL them so i have to do it thru windows settings.

Why don't they show up in control panel?

I can only get a few minutes work done and then designer and photo 2 just hangs, so I have to shutdown thru task manager and start again.
Just this morning I have had 26 Crashes for Designer and 12 for Photo 2.

I have a Client waiting for his project and I am not going to make it at this rate.

We need help fast to be honest and it's areal shame because I was so excited to buy this new package 2.

I never had these problems version 1.

Thanks for nay help
cheers Kev Borg

[walt.farrell]

55 minutes ago, Kev Borg said:

Why don't they show up in control panel?

Because it's a deprecated way of doing things, and doesn't support modern functions?

[4dimage]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Because it's a deprecated way of doing things, and doesn't support modern functions?

Dear Walt, could you please explain this in more detail instead of just dropping wise one-liners here 😁 The bug situation with version 2 apps is really getting serious here 😔

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, 4dimage said:

could you please explain this in more detail instead of just dropping wise one-liners here

The Settings app is the more modern way of the user controlling the system, and is updated for more modern Windows technologies such as Windows Store and MSIX apps. Control Panel is old and not being updated. Just my opinion, based on what I've seen.

[Kev Borg]

8 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Because it's a deprecated way of doing things, and doesn't support modern functions?

Thanks Walt. Have we heard any more on What these Bugs are or When they might have a Fix for them?

I Have cleaned up my SSD Drives, Uninstalled many apps, clean reboots, etc, because I've been using Affinity for years now, and

was so looking forward to this Package so I could get off my addiction to Adobe Subscriptions.

Thanks anyone.

cheers Kev

[Dan Venn]

I have a similar issue with interface lag. It's stopping me getting into the flow of working. 
Is this the closest thing to a bug ticket posting? I'd like to keep track of updates regarding this.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X, 64GB RAM, 1080Ti

Edited November 26, 2022 by Dan Venn

[Graphicon]

Thanks @walt.farrell, Yes you are correct... the traditional control panel has depreciated... and thanks to @4dimage for reminding me of the change in location to remove software... All of that aside... this thread appears to have gone off the rails...

For those interested in my findings...
I have uninstalled all three programs V.1 and V.2... then restarted the ol' number cruncher... reinstalled the entire V.2 suite... did a check on the brush flow speed that I had found was lagging in the hopes that uninstalling/reinstalling would have had an effect... IT DID NOT...

What I am currently left with is that the software is either super complex and 16Gb of memory simply isn't enough for all tasks (such as even flowing brushes, without frame rate stuttering)... OR... there is something else going on under the hood (speaking of the software itself) and perhaps Serif will discover a way to fix it - if it is fixable - and release an update...

I do NOT feel that this is a deal breaker, as the software still kicks butt... it's simply that certain aspects/features are a bit lagged.

[walt.farrell]

@Graphicon: You might see if you have Hardware Acceleration (OpenCL) enabled in the application Preferences, Performance, and if so try disabling it.

[Graphicon]

59 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

@Graphicon: You might see if you have Hardware Acceleration (OpenCL) enabled in the application Preferences, Performance, and if so try disabling it.

Thanks @walt.farrell, that was one of the first things I tried... as well as testing various memory allocations, alternate video render engines as well...
I have tried all available performance considerations... at this point it's a stalemate until Serif offers an update, or I purchase more memory.

[Martynior]

Same here! My lag appears some time after using the App itself. Number of layers does not help as it seems the more you have, the bigger the lag. In my case the brushes work fine once activated, but UI is lagging 1-2 seconds between switching the tools. If I use pencil (N) and swap to move_node (A), it takes so long that sometimes I create extra nodes as I'm still in pencil mode, instead of nudging the nodes themselves. Same happens when I try to zoom and pane, it takes a sec or two for the tool to swap and activate itself. The software sometimes goes into freezing mode (not responding) and it takes 10-15 seconds before I can use anything again. 

I tried playing with settings, memory and disk space, hardware acceleration, even Undo Limit number. The issue still persist. Also, making sure evey time I experience the lag that "Windows Ink/Pen" is disabled on my Xp-Pen tablet drivers (as I heard this sometimes causes issues too). 

I use Win11, AMD Ryzen 9 (5900HS), 32 GB RAM & nVidia RTX 3060. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Martynior

[Graphicon]

Eureka! While this did not completely alleviate the lag... it did improve the flow significantly. I can not take credit for the idea... this article was posted in the Affinity Designer Facebook Group. I thought my system was completely up-to-date... turned out there is an option to update to 22H2... here's the article. Hopefully it's helpful for you as well.
Again... this did not resolve the issue completely... but it has helped enough to render it workable.

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2022/10/18/how-to-get-the-windows-10-2022-update/

[Axelxan]

For me, every time I use brush it starts to paint but after a second it kind of stops "updating" canvas and only after moving workspace or zooming in/out, it let's me see the results.

[Sonny Sonny]

Same here! Too laggy brush!

[Kev Borg]

Hi Designers,

it's the Kiwi here and I am sorry but I don't have any good news.

I turned off Hardware Acceleration, and I think it helps, but I am still crashing after only a few minutes of light basic use, and my documents are very small com oared to some I have seen. I have also found out why I can't see the apps in control panel, it's because it now runs off the Windows App Store, so each time it crashes I now go into Windows Settings, Apps and I reset It and also Reinstall the Designer 2 App, then I know the app is as Clean as I can get it, because the times I don't do it, it seems to crash faster.

Another thing I have done, is instead of running 2 browsers windows open, mine is Firefox, one on each display screen, I am only running 1 Browser display window open, and I make sure that it is on the display that Designer is not on. I know this may be pointless, but I am grasping at straws to try and get my work done as efficiently and fast as possible.

I have also cleaned up all my SSD Drives as I have 5 of them, so I have even moved the designer app on to one SSD Drive and I also moved the whole work folders to that same drive, and then defragged and got rid of as much junk on it as i could.

I have also looked every where to try and find an exact reason for what we are going thru, and i have had no luck, lots of ideas, but no definitive reasons as to why its happening.

Does anyone know if Affinity actually knows What the Exact Problem is? Because I still can not find a Reason for this happening, unless I missed it.

If I come across anything I will pop back and update you all, I am past complaining, because all i care about now is getting the problem fixed, period so we can all get back on time and targets.

If I don't see you all before Christmas, Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy new year for 2023.

At least my Stocks are in the Green today for a change, thats because the FED is not putting the interest rates up as high as the last few times.

Anyway take care and chat soon.

cheers Kev

 

[Panchdara]

Quote

It's been a couple weeks now since V2.0 was available.

I gotta admit: all I see here are problems and issues.

What I don't see are and positive responses from Serif. In fact, I have seen NO Serif replies.

Hopefully my observation is wrong, but, but Serif needs to answer - err - acknowledge these topics of concern.

Merry Christmas.

[Sonny Sonny]

It just the first launching version. I think they know it has bugs and they are working hard to fix them.

[Kev Borg]

Hi Designers,

Kiwi here, I just wanted to let you know I got a new Windows Update today and that has Helped quite a bit with speed and

Crashes and I've gone 2hrs at the moment without a crash and for me that is a very long time at the moment.

But now I have a new problem, I just went to open one of the updates to read the full description, firefox opened ok, but thats all it did,

Firefox Version: 107.0.1

The page was Blank and no new page or text appeared at all, so had to reboot as usual.

But Designer 2 is working better, although it's too early to tell for how long, will Report back when I have some News ok.

Cheers Kev