RAW load slow

[jeoz]

I'm currently evaluating the trial version of Affinity Photo and have a few questions I'll post during that process.

 

First question is about opening RAW files (Nikon D800). It takes 20 seconds to load. Most of this time nothing is displayed, then in last final second the photo will appear gradually (in square blocks).

In comparison the same photos on PhotoShop takes about 5 seconds.

Noted my machine is well above the required. 

 

Is this normal, and if so, is something Serif is working on to improve?

 

 

Machines Specs:

OS: masOS High Sierra

Processor: 1.7Ghz i7

RAM: 8GB

DISK: SSD

Graphics: Intel HDGraphics 5000 1536MB

 

 

 

[Gabe]

Hi @jengel ,

Welcome to the forums. 

In your Develop Assistant ( tuxedo icon ), what RAW engine do you use? 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[Johann Kott]

Hello, that's a big problem with Affinity Photo. From the beginning, the opening of NEF files takes a long time. To date, no update brought an improvement. It is mentioned that it is worked on this problem - but without effect.

[R C-R]

@Neubiberg If you tell us what RAW engine & which camera model you are using, someone might be able to offer a suggestion about how to improve opening times. The camera model is important because not all Nikon cameras use the same RAW format.

[jeoz]

1 hour ago, GabrielM said:

Hi @jengel ,

Welcome to the forums. 

In your Develop Assistant ( tuxedo icon ), what RAW engine do you use? 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

At first I dismissed that because one could only adjust the settings after the file opened. I realise now it then becomes default for the next file. Should't this then be a preference setting? Feel a bit counter intuitive to have to suffer through a slow load first to get to the settings.

Anyway, Using Apple RAW open the files in about 9-11s. I further played around with the settings with the serif processor and found by disabling lens correction I shave about 5 seconds of the open and disabling all the processing brings it down 9~12 seconds, similar to Apple. 

Still much longer that Adobe, but a great improvement. Though I cannot apply lens correction after the fact, right?

 

[jeoz]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

@Neubiberg If you tell us what RAW engine & which camera model you are using, someone might be able to offer a suggestion about how to improve opening times. The camera model is important because not all Nikon cameras use the same RAW format.

Camera quoted in original post (Nikon D800). RAW engine the default AP (I'm using the trial as a newbie so most things are default) .
See my reply to Gabriel on the effect of changing the settings.

 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, jengel said:

Feel a bit counter intuitive to have to suffer through a slow load first to get to the settings.

You don't have to do that. You can open the Assistant Options window even with no document open if you have customized the toolbar to show the button to open it, & from that window click on the Develop Assistant button at the bottom left.

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, jengel said:

Camera quoted in original post (Nikon D800).

Yes, I saw that but I was asking @Neubiberg for the same info.

[jeoz]

13 minutes ago, R C-R said:

You don't have to do that.

[facepalm] thank you. I'll claim newbie as excuse for not thinking about that

Really though once I opened a photo the first time after opening the application and close the photo, then there is no toolbar.

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, jengel said:

Really though once I opened a photo the first time after opening the application and close the photo, then there is no toolbar.

I think what probably happened is you closed the app window (using the red 'traffic light' button at the top left or the keyboard shortcut equivalent after the last document was closed). That closes everything in it (which is pretty much everything unless you have dragged out one or more Studio panels to undock them from that window).

That is a quirk of how the Affinity & some other apps are designed. The app is still open so you can access anything on its menu bar, but that means you won't get the app window back until you open another file or create a new one. Some apps mitigate that by including a 'new window' item on the File, Window. or some other menu but the Affinity apps do not.

In practice, it is not a big deal because you need to open an existing or create a new document to do anything with the app but I know it can be confusing until you figure that out because that is exactly what happened to me when I first started using the apps.

[jeoz]

49 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I think what probably happened is you closed the app window

Indeed I did and yes, confusing at first. 

 

 Now, back to original topic. Slow file load. Any solution with that?

[cmffm]

Hi guys,

 

same problem here :) I use an Olympus OMD-E 5 Mark II with a Macbook 1,4 Ghz i7, 16 gb ram (2017). Seems that the Olympus file type .ORF is the problem, cause I tried .dng and it was a lot faster to load (5-7 sec.).. The time to load the .ORF file was round about 15-20 sec .But thats not the only "problem", if I use multiple tools the workflow slows more and more down. as further I usw the Develop Persona. Hope there is a chance to improve that. Anyway I love Affinity Photo its a great tool!

 

greetings from Germany :)

[Gabe]

Our developers are constantly working on improving loading time for RAW, and we hope to get better loading time in future updates. In the meantime, I will log this an improvement. Thanks

[jeoz]

5 hours ago, GabrielM said:

Our developers are constantly working on improving loading time for RAW, and we hope to get better loading time in future updates. In the meantime, I will log this an improvement. Thanks

Thank you Gabriel.

[cmffm]

For the meanwhile I found a workflow which helps me a bit with the problem of the slow develop. I load the RAW file in Affinity and save it as a affinity project file. By using the pixel layer and clicking on the development persona I develop the .RAW as I want. Its a way much faster than working with the (in my case .ORF) original RAW format. But as a warning, I´m a total beginner with Affinity, maybe there is a better way, or my "alternative" way is not the best for an optimal result. 

Would be great if there is a possibility to update affinity for a better performance. By the way, great support and thanks for the fast replays. I really appreciate that

[Johann Kott]

 

I am working on a PC with Windows 10
Photograph with a Nikon d5200. In Affinity Photo I use RAW Engine Serif Labs (others are not offered).
Opening a NEF file (24MB) takes about 30 seconds ...
This is much longer than with other software (sometimes 3-4x). Why?