Photo 2.1.0 gradient tool crashes

[totjoss]

Hello ! I'm trying to make a simple gradient picture, but every time I try, Photo app crashes.

Step to reproduce:
- Launch Photo and create a transparent document;
- Create an empty canvas;
- Select gradient tool;
- Make a gradient, and edit break points colors, then it will crash at some point (sudden app close, no error).

Actual settings:
- Display quality as "Nearest Neighbor"
- Dither gradients checked
- Retina Rendering as "Automatic (best)"
- Hardware Acceleration (OpenCL) unchecked (as my GPU isn't compatible / GTX 780)
 

[RichardMH]

Might be worth posting some crash reports.

 

 

[stokerg]

Hi @totjoss,

I've not been able to replicate a crash using the gradient tool as of yet.  

If you can follow the link posted by @RichardMH and see if you have a crash report you could attach, that will help.

[totjoss]

Hello ! Here is the dump for the crash.

I'm not sure but it seems to be linked to Retina Rendering as Automatic, as this settings sometimes made my Photo app freeze at some point on the previous versions (with no GPU devices).

cb79de49-80ba-4e54-9c5b-f8c44c740160-dump.dmp

[stokerg]

Hi @totjoss,

Thanks for the crash report.  Sadly it really doesn't really tell us why it crashed.  Myself and 2 other Tech agents have also tried getting a crash by making some wild look gradients and didn't get a crash once.

Does this happen for all of the types of gradients you can make or just one?  Can you just try going into Preferences for Affinity and on the Performance section is an option for Dither gradients, if thats ticked, untick it and then see if you can replicate the crash. 

[totjoss]

After testing a bit more, it has nothing to do with settings. Neither Retina Rendering nor dither gardients change anything.
However, I think I know how to make it crash every single time. This is what I'm doing :

- Create a new document (2048×2048 72ppp RVB/8 sRGB transparent)
- Resize document to 256×256 (72dpi bilinear resample)
- Add an empty pixel layer
- Select the gradient tool
- Mousedown on the left edge of the document
- Dragging to the right edge perpendicularly until it snaps
- Hold the dragging and wriggle the cursor slightly as if you were trying to unsnap
- At some point it will crash. If it doesn't after 5-10 seconds, retry by making a new gradient again.

Weirdly if I don't resize the document, it doesn't crash.

[RichardMH]

Might be worth clearing the user defaults. Hold Control when you start Photo and there's the option in the menu.

I tried your recipe and it didn't crash for me.

[Ron P.]

I also could not replicate the crash. I'm curious, why not just start a new document with the size of 256 x 256 ? It just does not seem logical to resize the document immediately upon creation.. 🤔

[totjoss]

This is really insane. 😅
@RichardMH I've reset everything, but unfortunately the issue is still there.
@Ron P. I agree with you, it's pointless of course. But in any case it shouldn't crash. I could have loaded a picture and resized it.

The crazy part is that it only occurs with 256×256 and after a resize, or maybe around this area. I tried bigger or smaller or even not squared and I have no issue. It looks like a floating equation makes it fail - I don't think it'd be an infinite loop as it would freeze the app and not crash instantly.
I tried on other computers and I can't replicate the crash either.

As it only occurs on my desktop, I tried to test again with most of my background apps killed, still the same. Thus it might be linked to my config which is very old now (13 yo, 1st gen i7 860 + GTX 780). Fortunately it seems isolated and I can use my laptop anyway.
Thanks for having tested on your side, but now I don't think it's worth trying to debug it. Except if someone else get the issue someday. 😅