Stacking takes very long

[Daishi]

Hi,

I am using a new 11‘ iPad Pro with 512gb and I am trying to stack several (Raw) images into one.

Stacking 10 images seems to take around 10 minutes, for me that seemed to be pretty long.

So I checked the CPU load when Affinity Photo stacks the images and my iPad is hovering at around 26%.

When idling it is at 4,5% (see attached image).

Is this normal or a bug in Affinity Photo for iPad?

Maybe the process is running on just one core?

 

Thanks

Mathias

 

[Chris B]

Hey Daishi,

It took me about 6 minutes to do 11 raw files but time could vary between the size of the raw files being stacked.

To compare, I used the same 11 raw images on my 2017 iMac and it took about 4 minutes. 

I'll run a few more tests but I'm not sure why we don't seem to be utilising what is available to us.

[Daishi]

Thanks for your help.

An iPad Pro 11‘ should be faster than an iMac from 2017, right? My guess is that the process only runs on one of the cores.

[p_mac]

And I tried to stack 2 - 43 mp images, that took too long as well.  When I was playing around with the different stack modes,

initially on Median,

merge visible,

changed to Mean,

merge visible,

then I shut those to merges off and was playing around with the perspective filter, just turning them on an off see what they do. (my photos were shot hand held and were not aligned),

I did a rename on the Median and Mean Layer

I think, not sure but I did a merge visible of the above layers.  

Then I started to turn layer and filters on and off. The idiot test and AP didn't like that

the app crashed.  

{"app_name":"Photo iPad","timestamp":"2019-08-22 14:38:57.67 -0700","app_version":"1.7.2","slice_uui.zip

[p_mac]

Everything was going well with timing?

Obviously I am no expert on either the iPad Pro hardware or software, and Affinity products, but just surmising, is the problem in the response to commands to the screen software to the iPad and/or vice versa.

[Chris B]

15 hours ago, Daishi said:

Thanks for your help.

An iPad Pro 11‘ should be faster than an iMac from 2017, right? My guess is that the process only runs on one of the cores.

Not sure about that. I can't see why it should. I will have to check. I've just done a few tests stacking 4 raw files:

1. 1.7.0 - 21.3 seconds
2. 1.7.2 beta - 12.0 seconds 
3. 1.7.2 release - 10.9 seconds

So it looks like it has improved since the first 1.7 updates. I then tried it with 10 raw files and it took 6 minutes. I'm not sure if it's the number of files we're processing or the size of them. Whilst I try some other tests, could you try stacking 4 and then try with 10 and compare the times. I can't see how stacking 6 additional images adds almost 6 minutes to the process.

 

[p_mac]

11 hours ago, Chris B said:

Not sure about that. I can't see why it should. I will have to check. I've just done a few tests stacking 4 raw files:

1. 1.7.0 - 21.3 seconds
2. 1.7.2 beta - 12.0 seconds 
3. 1.7.2 release - 10.9 seconds

So it looks like it has improved since the first 1.7 updates. I then tried it with 10 raw files and it took 6 minutes. I'm not sure if it's the number of files we're processing or the size of them. Whilst I try some other tests, could you try stacking 4 and then try with 10 and compare the times. I can't see how stacking 6 additional images adds almost 6 minutes to the process.

 

I haven’t had any processing done in seconds, even the one I described above with only 2 raw images   

Using 10 - 43mp Raw images, process took 8 minutes 16.25 seconds.

Took 2 screen shots one during processing and one as the image was created.

From this point on I screenshot the next 10 minutes 47 seconds that showed how unresponsive AP was for a great period of time, again with the CPU monitor.

if you would like to see the video let me know but I will describe it to you here as I am sure I won’t be able to upload it.

initial Stack Mode was set to maximum but it wasn’t Maximum Mode as

by scrolling thru modes there was no changes at all in the appearance of the image.

At 1min 50 seconds, I turned the layer off.

image obviously went transparent.  

[all this time the CPU usage and load was staying pretty steady]

Immediately tried to turn layer back on. ~1 min 55 sec was able to open up the layer to see the 10 images, without layer enabled.

At 2 min 17 sec was able to enable layer but still had transparent screen

at 3min 2 sec image appeared again with a change in the image, maximum mode (correct)

opened the Stack Mode at 3 min 11 sec

where I was able to scroll thru the modes with hesitation.

set mode to Mean

Merge visible at 4 minute 35 secs, [CPU range from ~14% with a few spikes max ~60%] 

Merge completed at 9 min 6 sec

Turned off stack layer at ~9 min 12 sec

renamed Merge layer process ~9 min 31 sec

turned off Merged layer, tried to turn on stack layer, transparent scree finally enabled at 10 min 2 sec.

scrolling through Stack Modes, very responsive as images changed quickly.

settled on Median 10 min 47 sec

I would say that this was a very long time.

i was also trying to see if a played around turning layers On and Off if it would produce a crash but I did it slowly to wait for reaction.  

What I described previously where I generated a crash was turning the perspective filters on and off.  

The whole process to this point took ~19 minutes.

then applied 2 filters

 Brightness and contrast

Curves

Both with halting responsiveness.

CPU load was pretty steady and with Avg Load (1, 5, 15 min) ~3, 3, 2.5)

iPad Pro (3rd gen) 1T 6GB: iOS 12.4

one app running CPU monitor, Bluetooth,  Screenshots taken, ScreenRecording enabled for ~10 minutes, WiFi disabled

enough time dedicated to this issue, 

Save took almost 5 minutes of the spinning stall ball.

 

 

 

[Daishi]

Well, at least according to Geekbench the iPad Pro 11 has a multicore score of 18395 and a singlecore score of 5031 and the fastest iMac 2017 has just a score of 14654 and 4968. But that’s just a benchmark.

I will try stacking 4 and then 10 pictures tomorrow.

 

[Daishi]

Ok, 

I tried stacking some raw images of the moon (21mp Nikon d500).

4 images took 14 seconds,

10 images too 5 minutes 31 seconds.

Thats quite a difference.

I think it was a little faster than my last test because most of the images was black, but there is still something weird going on.

[Chris B]

On 8/24/2019 at 1:54 PM, Daishi said:

4 images took 14 seconds,

10 images too 5 minutes 31 seconds.

This is what concerns me and I can't think of a reason as to why it takes so much longer with double the images. I'll log it with dev and see what is going on! Thanks everyone