Rant: uninstalling Affinity v2 due to performance problems

[lord darkul]

Starting up Affinity Photo was horror. Even after opening an image Affinty Photo's tools won't open immediately.
Example Startup with Ryzen 7 5830 and 32GB of RAM (Affinity is allowed to use 16GB if needed):
- startup time 20-50 seconds until the new image dialog appears (and yes, hardware acceleration on or off does not matter)
- after that opening an existing .afphoto image seems to be ok in my case
- circle tool: then I want to click on the small icon near the rectangle tool to draw a circle ... pause, thinking, 5-15 seconds ... oh yeah, circle tool appears.
- this worsened from version update to version update since the beginning of 2.2 or 2.3 I guess

I tried what almost every IT affiliate tries to do and wanted to reinstall Affinity (in this case Photo 2.5.2) from scratch after reassuring that not anything else on my computer is slow or has the same behaviour.

And what do I have to experience? Affinity does not uninstall properly.
Many residues of directories and files in many places still existed and I had to delete and look for them manually.
Hundreds of registry entries still existed and I had to delete and look for them manually.
WHY?

WHY IS THAT WITH ALMOST EVERY SOFTWARE?
I'm pissed because this is not in the least how it should be done.
Quality management seems to be non-existent.

I learned two things in the beginning of my long forgotten programer's career:
- the user has to be able to "quit" a program (without memory leaks and without any temporary files still existing)
- any uninstall procedure has to leave no trace that this program ever existed on a computer

WHY IS THAT NOT A CREDO FOR MOST SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS ANYMORE?
 

[Callum]

Hi Lord Darkul,

I'm sorry to hear you are having performance issues with the Affinity apps. Please could you confirm if you were using the MSIX or MSIEXE versions of the apps? Please could you also confirm if this only happens when trying to open an image in Affinity? If it does please could you tell me if this happens with all images such as small jpegs or just large raw files etc. 

If you aren't using it already I'd recommend trying the MSIEXE version of the app found using the below link to see if it helps at all.

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/windows/photo/2/

If you continue to have issues please could you also provide a copy of your log.txt file by following the below guide?

Please open Windows Run (Windows Key + R) then paste the following string and press OK, depending on the Affinity app and installer type you are using:

Affinity Store (MSIX) & Windows Store:
Photo -
%USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Photo\2.0\
Designer -
%USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Designer\2.0\
Publisher -
%USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Publisher\2.0\
Affinity Store (EXE) :
Photo -
 %appdata%\Affinity\Photo\2.0\
Designer -
 %appdata%\Affinity\Designer\2.0\
Publisher -
 %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\2.0\

In the window that opens, please select log.txt, then upload this to your reply here.

Thanks
C

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, Callum said:

Publisher -
%USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Publisher\2.0\
…
Publisher -
 %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\2.0\

Not that it matters for practical purposes (because folder names and environment variables in Windows aren’t case sensitive) but it would be more consistent to present the above information as:

Publisher -
%UserProfile%\.Affinity\Publisher\2.0\
…
Publisher -
 %AppData%\Affinity\Publisher\2.0\

[James Ritson]

On 6/16/2024 at 10:18 AM, lord darkul said:

Ryzen 7 5830

@lord darkul just to check, by 5830 are you referring to a CSL Sprint 5830 which comes with a Ryzen 7 CPU and integrated graphics? If so, do you know the model of the integrated graphics? Do you have a discrete GPU in addition?

[lord darkul]

So, first of all .. correction: CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, and I do not use integrated graphics but NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4070 Super.

I used the MSI-Installation first but after my manual uninstallation and cleanup of each an every residue in registry and on harddisk found with a reference to Serif or Affinity and a restart of my PC I reinstalled Photo/Publisher/Designer 2.5.2 with the MSIEXE-version. Good to know is that you can choose your installation directory.
So far it seems ok, but startup of all those apps is still relatively slow. The tools still dont open immediately there can be a delay between 1 and 5 seconds. I wonder why.

"Please could you also confirm if this only happens when trying to open an image in Affinity?"
Nope, it happens BEFORE opening an image. Just the startup process until the standard new/open/recent dialog appears.
Just tested it again: 35-50 seconds.

And the delay on the tools is on every image, RAW or JPG, although more if bigger files are in use.

Wintab32.dll missing a problem?

[2024-06-19T21:25:28.339+0200] Affinity Photo 2
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.339+0200] IsSandboxed: No
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.339+0200] AppDataPathForCurrentUser: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.339+0200] AppDataPathForCurrentUserPersisted: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.340+0200] AppDataPathForAllUsers: C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Photo\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.340+0200] CommonDataPathForCurrentUser: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Common\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.340+0200] CommonDataPathForCurrentUserPersisted: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Common\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.340+0200] CommonDataPathForCurrentUserPersistedBuildInvariant: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Common\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.340+0200] CommonDataPathForAllUsers: C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Common\2.0
[2024-06-19T21:25:28.340+0200] TempPathForCurrentUser: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\2.0\temp
Begin check for updates...[DXCore] Found 2 adapters
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER
    Version: 32.0.15.5599
    IsHardware: Yes
    Supports D3D12 Feature Level 12.0: Yes
    HardwareID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_2783&SUBSYS_18CA10DE0000&REV_A1
    LUID: 0x10A01
Microsoft Basic Render Driver
    Version: 10.0.22621.3672
    IsHardware: No
    Supports D3D12 Feature Level 12.0: Yes
    HardwareID: PCI\VEN_1414&DEV_008C&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00
    LUID: 0x1185A
[DXGI] Enumerating adapters
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER
    HardwareID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_2783&SUBSYS_18CA10DE0000&REV_A1
    LUID: 0x10A01
Microsoft Basic Render Driver
    HardwareID: PCI\VEN_1414&DEV_008C&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00
    LUID: 0x1185A
[OpenCL] Found 1 platforms:
Name: NVIDIA CUDA
    Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    Version: OpenCL 3.0 CUDA 12.5.78
[OpenCL] Found 1 devices for platform NVIDIA CUDA:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER
    Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    Version: OpenCL 3.0 CUDA
    Integrated: false
    Detachable: false
[2024-06-19T21:25:33.604+0200]     Installed
[2024-06-19T21:25:34.239+0200] ...check for updates completed
[2024-06-19T21:25:34.243+0200] No update is available.
[2024-06-19T21:25:40.129+0200] Wintab: Failed to load Wintab32.dll
[2024-06-19T21:25:40.129+0200] Wintab: Failed to create tablet context

Thx for your help.

[RandomBits]

This won't read well... but I think it's your system?

I just moved from Photoshop to Photo v2 on an older Windows 10 PC with an integrated graphics unit (Intel HD 4600 on motherboard... EEeeek!). 
Where Photoshop has been warning me and suggesting my system is crap, and was getting noticeably a few issues with various speed and use issues deteriorating over time...  Photo v2 is like it's super-charged again and happy with my old PC gear. 😅

Not experiencing any loading issues, waiting issues, delays... and I have a poor Windows install where things are a bit broken in the system.

Just saying, it would seem to be something specific to your "loading" (disk) aspects based on the slow start up?. Which seems odd nowdays?

Could it be a temp folder or cache space issue?

 

[lord darkul]

Really strange.

First of all I guess that wintab32.dll is a problem on startup.

I checked my temp-folders and my disk space which are both ok, meaning, almost empty and disk space enough.

Then I changed my Pagefile from 1GB to 4GB but I think this isn't necessary with M.2 and SSD disks.

Counted again the startup times. Nag screen appears immediately, then 10 seconds until the first windows appears, another 20-30 seconds until the image opening dialog appears. And then after opening an image and clicking on a tool it also needs 5 seconds more to open the subtools ...

I don't think it is my PC. Maybe the combination of drivers. But first ... wintab32.dll ... and if that is solved again a test.

Anyone anything on that error except the first few google-hits? (They all don't work because those downloadable wintab32.dll cannot be registered to the system (c:\windows\system32)

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, lord darkul said:

First of all I guess that wintab32.dll is a problem on startup

You don't need that for unless you have a tablet (Wacom, etc.).

[lord darkul]

Then this is definitely a programming issue. It should not even try to load a tablet driver if the windows device is not in tablet mode. A simple readout of a registry value would be enough. But I leave it at that now and try to find some other settings which could lead to that behaviour.

Is there a log for the whole startup process? In the above lines you just see 12 seconds of those roundabout 40 seconds.

An I have another idea. Since a few weeks I have a 4K monitor and another monitor with 2k resolution. Could this lead to such behaviour?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, lord darkul said:

Then this is definitely a programming issue. It should not even try to load a tablet driver if the windows device is not in tablet mode

It's needed for support of tablets attached to Windows, not just if Windows is in tablet mode.

I wouldn't worry about it, as it probably won't be related to your problem.

[Affinity-Inspiration]

I don't see anywhere where the actual specs for the computer are listed. The Ryzen 7 5830 is a good chip, but it's not an i7. However, this is obviously a Windows machine.

What version of the OS is running.?

What year is the Motherboard and CPU?

Are the Drives SSD or HDD, and what are they, and what size are they?

 

 

[lord darkul]

Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631, Microsoft Corporation, x64
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., B550 AORUS ELITE AX V2
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor, 3801 MHz, 8 Kern(e), 16 logische(r) Prozessor(en)
BIOS-Version, LLC. F17g, 20.09.2023, UEFI
RAM 32,0 GB, Pagefile, 8.00 GB, C:\pagefile.sys (on M.2) and D:\pagefile.sys (on M.2)
Affinity installed on M.2-SSD, Samsung SSD 980 Pro
No antivirus tools present except Windows Defender. System completely up-to-date (including drivers, patches, software, except BIOS)

So, I added some screenshots with stopwatch on the left top corner of the screen. I did no restart and had Affinity Photo open a few times in this session (without editing anything).

First 4 screenshots:
startup screens until open dialogue is ready to use.

Last 3 screenshots:
opened an empty new image and tried to click on the rectangle tool to find the subtools. In this case it needed an additional 11 seconds as you can see to be able to work with a circle tool for example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lord darkul]

So, feedback on my own deeds:

I have a SpyderX to calibrate my monitors. Had problems to calibrate those monitors with the original software by Datacolor, so I thought. I uninstalled SpyderX, replaced it with DisplayCAL and needed to replace the SpyderX driver for that reason with some Argyll SpyderX compatible one. This just worked by allowing the operating system to use UNSIGNED drivers. Ok, I did that risky thing and calibrated my monitors to almost no avail. One greenish, one too cold. Cannot tell which one is better calibrated.

BUT ... Affinity Photo runs like hell now ... no waiting times anymore, open in 5 seconds, ready to work in 1 more second. Hmmm.

That should mean that this has something to do with unsigned drivers? What drivers does Affinity Photo need? Which secrets are locked from us?

[Affinity-Inspiration]

59 minutes ago, lord darkul said:

So, feedback on my own deeds:

I have a SpyderX to calibrate my monitors. Had problems to calibrate those monitors with the original software by Datacolor, so I thought. I uninstalled SpyderX, replaced it with DisplayCAL and needed to replace the SpyderX driver for that reason with some Argyll SpyderX compatible one. This just worked by allowing the operating system to use UNSIGNED drivers. Ok, I did that risky thing and calibrated my monitors to almost no avail. One greenish, one too cold. Cannot tell which one is better calibrated.

BUT ... Affinity Photo runs like hell now ... no waiting times anymore, open in 5 seconds, ready to work in 1 more second. Hmmm.

That should mean that this has something to do with unsigned drivers? What drivers does Affinity Photo need? Which secrets are locked from us?

I solved most windows problems by not running anything that wasn’t explicitly made by Microsoft or for Microsoft Windows. Unsigned drivers are a no no.

[lord darkul]

Your answer has nothing to do with my situation. But for what I understand you're right. No unsigned drivers should be installed.

But nevertheless what is Affinity Photo doing with "unsigned drivers" and why is it running better now?
The only unsigned driver on my system is this SpyderX driver which is needed if you want to use DisplayCAL with a SpyderX.
I don't think this driver has anything to do with Affinity Photo, so there must be something hidden.
It was pure coincidence that I discovered this behaviour.

Additionally I used "sigverif" and this tells me there are no unsigned drivers on my system. Hm ... that cannot be true as I was forced to do so.
Checked again with powershell and found that the Argyll driver is not INBOX which means not signed.