PSP Ultimate 2018 New Image Dialog

[JoeB]

I have no idea if both the 32bit and 64bit versions must be installed for the update to work. However, most of us install both versions because most available plugins are only 32bit and therefore won't work with the 64bit PSP. I would suggest you start over, completely uninstall PSP2018, reinstall with both versions, and then install the latest update.

[hartpaul]

Where all else fails, go back to the instructions and use the recommended settings.

[Keith99]

Good morning Kathy

I have now got the correct version running - V20.2.0.1 x64 (I re-downloaded the update and it worked. the first update must have got corrupted).

Unfortunately, although the clone does work a little better, there is still a delay of about one second between doing the clone and the clone actually happening. It is impossible to clone a line because I can have done the line before the clone kicks in and does it very quickly on screen, not creating a straight line of clone but missing bits as it speeds along. There is still a small delay between clicking on 'Clone' and the circle appearing.

Oh, no!! I have just opened up PSP to try the clone again so that I can give you accurate information and the program has frozen again. Something is definitely not right.
Let me try again....
I have just gone back to the frozen program and it is working again. What on earth is going on???

Hope you can help
Keith

[theavy]

More than one person has complained about the delays in this version, so unfortunately, you are not alone!

Tom

[Kathy_9]

Hi Keith,

Glad you have the correct version installed. Just a thought; do you have the Smart Edge button checked? If so, un-check it and see if there is an improvement in the performance. If I have that button checked the clone brush is very slow.

Click for larger view

[Keith99]

Hi Kathy

No, I have neither 'smart edge' nor 'show overlay' ticked. Must be honest, if you say (and you are running a faster machine than so many out there) that having 'smart edge' slows things down, then something must be very wrong with this version. Nothing should slow things down when you claim that the 2018 version has speeded things up... but I digress, sorry.

Something which came to light yesterday -

I needed to do some cloning on a picture which, for various reasons, I had reduced to 648Kb. Surprise!! Clone worked fine and as it should do.
I then loaded another picture which was a more normal 142Mb and clone was back to being slow and sticky.

Hope that helps
Keith

[hartpaul]

I really find it confusing when people talk about images that are 648 Kb or 142 Mb. It can be so meaningless and provide insufficient information.
648 Kb ? is that in memory or disk space when saved as a jpg, BMP, TIF etc.
eg an image that is 2000 x 1333 pixels occupies:

1400 KB on disk,
7816 KB in memory,
6920 KB on disk as a png
7394 KB on dik as a Tif,
7811 KB on disk as a Bmp
6782 KB on disc as a pspimage
Not to mention that the size of the jpg can vary depending on the compression.

So quoting image sizes in KB is pretty well useless.
All of those images when loaded into PSP however will occupy 2000 x 1333 pixels which provides more indication of the size of the image.

Now if I use the clone tool on an image that is 2000 x 1333 pixels then there is very little lag time.
If I use an image that is 5616 x 3744 then there is a slight lag.
If I enlarge that image to 12000 x 8000 pixels then there is a lot of lag .
All this is dependent also on the size of the clone circle area and also the Step . It gets terribly slow with a step of 1 or 2.

[Keith99]

Ooohhhh .... I think I've been told off

So, to put the record straight,

the 648Kb picture is Jpeg and is 800x800 pixels
the 14.2Mb picture is Jpeg and is 3960x3331pixels

Hope that pleases everybody

edit to say - and on my machine, at 3960x3331 the clone is pretty bad.

May I say, it always irks me to hear people, with very fast machines with expensive graphics cards and high end motherboards/processers, state that things aren't too bad for them .... and I'm not saying this is happening here, I don't know enough about which is best and who has what ... just saying that this sort of thing does happen only too frequently and often from the people writing the programs etc who then can't understand why others are having problems.

[hartpaul]

OK Now we are getting somewhere. I cannot help with the freezing of your computer except to suggest that you make sure you have only PSP open and running . ( I currently have PSP2018 (32bit), windows Explorer window and Firefox with this forum open. (Also background processes like virus, firewall and malware programs, and also other program helpers that periodically check for updates)

I have taken a large image and made a crop of 3960 x 3331 pixels.
Clone size set at 500 pixels, Hardness 25, Density , Thickness, Opacity set at 100, Rotation 0
Now with Step size set at 10 - no delay.
Step size 5 very slight delay.
Step size 1 and I can draw a full line and after a delay of about 5 seconds the line appears.
So I can duplicate what you are seeing with a low step size.

Note that setting the clone tool to default (recommended settings) the Step is 10, Hardness 50 and Size 100.

Do you get the slow down if you have the clone tool set to default? (Click the down arrow beside Presets and second button on right in drop down Reset to Default)

[Keith99]

Hi

First question, I am a little old fashioned in that I generally just have the program I am working on running, so, no, no other program was running except for antivirus, firewall, spyware, malware etc.

OK. Did what you said. I re-set the clone tool to default ........ and the program froze.

Ctl-Alt-Del and cleared PSP.

Re-started PSP. Clone re-set hadn't taken so did a re-set again, this time all ok. Tried the clone on the 3960x3331 picture and it was much better. Not perfect because even though the circle containing the area to be cloned moved smoothly, the circle doing the cloning was still slightly jerky.

Just out of interest, my step size was 5 when I was experiencing the delays.

I am using PSP 2018 Ultra (64bit) as opposed to your (32bit).

Surely the point of all this is that there should be no delays ....... regardless of settings ..... just like it was on PSP X8 Ultra.

[hartpaul]

And what size was your clone brush. A large brush slows things down , a small step slows things down. Both a large brush and a small step will slow things down considerably. You now have enough information to do your own experiments and work within the limitations of the program assuming it has been installed correctly and updated correctly. BTW I am still working 20.0.0.132 so I have not installed any updates as yet.

[JoeB]

First, when you say PSP Ultra I assume you mean Ultimate. Ultimate and non-Ultimate PSP programs are identical. Ultimate simply means that you can get some extra resources (brushes, etc.) to use with the program. But there is no difference in how the programs operate because they are the same program.

I just tried the Clone brush in both the 32bit and 64bit versions of PSP2018 with the latest (working) update installed. My system specs are in my profile.

The image size is 3960x3310, a PNG image. In both versions the first time I click on the Clone tool it takes one second or so for it to activate. After that it activates almost immediately. I reset the options bar and then set the step to 5 and brush size to 400, leaving everything else at default.

I I right-click on an area and it takes a fraction of a second for the X to appear in the brush circle indicating it has selected my source. I move the cursor to a different part of the image, hold down the left mouse button and drag the brush at a fairly fast speed, back and forth horizontally, moving down at the end of each line and painting back in the opposite direction, repeating the process until I have painted about 1/4 or so of the image with the brush. In both versions it paints almost immediately as the brush moves over the canvas, with the cloned image appearing under the brush as it moves. The brush might move about 1/5th of it's diameter before the clone appears but otherwise it's a smooth operation with no discernible delay other than the fact that the brush has to move just a bit before the clone appears on the image I'm painting on. The only difference between the 32bit and 64bit versions is that I seem to discern a slightly slower action while painting with the 32bit version, with the 64bit version painting the clone with even a smaller movement as the brush moves, making the operation appear slightly smoother.

Long story short, no appreciable delay in painting with the Clone brush in either version of PSP with the settings I've mentioned on my system.

[Nev]

Hi there,

A quick update that we still haven't found the cause for a laggy New Image dialog, yet. Long story short, there are two main branches to our testing:

1) Server Side - We've enlisted the expertise of another department to determine whether there's any impediment when the app is "talking" to the server. Nothing found.
2) App Side - We've surveyed many possible avenues but we're still unable to duplicate the lag reported here. Same story for pre and post PSP2018 Update 1.

The search continues.

Best,
nev

[Keith99]

OK, Good morning Karen ..... Edit, so sorry, I meant Good morning Kathy

Just wanted to return to say that the problems with PSP2018 I (and obviously many others) am still experiencing are -

1 - Random freezing of the whole program. I have tried waiting and found that it does eventually unfreeze itself after approx 2 minutes (on the occasion that I tried).
2 - Clone is unusable in some circumstances, ie. when 'Step' is changed, when 'Smart edge' is turned on, and various other combinations.
3 - Fit to page does not work when crop mode is active, regardless of which boxes are or are not ticked in the 'Docking' section.

I do not think, like others, that the program is usable if kept within certain constraints. If the program has to be used in this manner it defeats the point of having the various parameter changing utilities of a particular tool. It is pointless running a program which does not work as expected and as it should.

I will, of course, continue to check for updates but the program is so unreliable that I am now going to re-install PSP X8 which always worked perfectly (once it got started) and use that again until such time as you are able to solve the problems of the (so called) new, faster, all powerful PSP 2018.

Regards
Keith

[Nev]

Hi all,

Here's a quick update on New Image dialog issue.

We've completed very thorough and comprehensive tests and can conclude with +98% certainty that it has nothing to do with the server side of things. We haven't been able to locate the root cause of this issue on the app side either, though, the scale on the app side is much larger. The only thing we can do is report occurrences. This is the only way of confirming and fixing the problem.

Thank you all,
nev