PSP 2021. Have they fixed the problems?

[hartpaul]

Here we have a difference in opinion on when PSP has loaded. Some say when the splash screen disappears and others say later.

I would suggest that PSP has fully loaded an is ready when you can get a response from the program. Now none of the tools can respond unless there is a document on the workspace, likewise none of the Adjustments Effects or other will work unlit a document is present. I propose that testing ready times should be done by double clicking the icon on the workspace and starting your timer (stopwatch on smartphone) then hovering over the New Document icon just below the File menu (in the default complete workspace - some people customise and change the workspace so that it is difficult to assume that that part has been untouched so that's why I suggested the default complete workspace ).

I tested each of my versions of PSP and timed the start up 1st time and startup second time and then the close / lag (C/L) time for how long the PSP version took to disappear from the Task Manager. All were done with only Task Manager and the PSP version opened as I only have 8 GB RAM so did not want to have any other program interfering. I also have the free versions of AVG, Zone Alarm, Spybot Search and Destroy , Malwarebytes and Cybereason Ransomfree running in the background.

Jasc PSP8 - this was out of the version I have unusual in that you could have multiple versions of the program running at the same time.
1) 9 sec 2) 5 sec C/L none even while closing you could restart.

Corel PSP X2
1) 9 sec 2) 5.5 sec C/L does not appear in task manager which means that after clicking close and the workspace disapears , you can immediately reopen the program.

Corel PSP X3
1) 11 2) 7.5 C/L again does not appear in task manager which means that after clicking close and the workspace disapears , you can immediately reopen the program.

Corel PSP X4
1) 18 2) 11 C/L 4.0 can restart almost instantly as 4 sec zips by quickly.

Corel PSP X5
1) 19 2) 14 C/L less than 1 second so effectively no lag time and can start almost immediately.

Corel PSP X6
1) 12 2) 10 C/L less than 1 second so effectively no lag time and can start almost immediately.

Corel PSP X7
1) 14 2) 11 C/L 10 sec so delay til restart

Corel PSP X8
1) 12 2) 11 C/L 11 sec so delay til restart

Corel PSP X9
1) 20 2) 14 C/L 13 sec so delay til restart

Corel PSP 2018
1) 31 2) 15 C/L 16 sec so delay til restart

Corel PSP 2019
1) 21 2) 12 C/L 6 sec so some delay til restart.

Corel PSP 2020
1) 18 2) 14 C/L 15 sec so some delay til restart

From this it can be seen that as Corel continued to add extra bloatware features it takes a bit longer to start and allow restarting. I don't know when the ability to have multiple versions running at the same time was lost (Jasc PSP 9, X or X1) but was gone by X2. However 8 up to X3 allowed almost immediate restart, X4, X5 and X6 effectively allowed almost immediate restart. X6 was the first with both 32 and 64 bit versions and quickly disappeared from the Task Manager in less that 1 sec.

X7- 2018 had lag times in the teens so could not be immediately restarted, 2019 seems to have been the best of the most recent versions with only a 6 second lag time.

But I had a question puzzling me, how many times in a day do you close PSP and then want to immediately restart? Is this because you are disorganised or just trying to check out odd combinations looking for faults.
Also suppose corel got the lage time back down to say 5 seconds from say 16 seconds - what are you going to do with that 11 seconds you saved at some expense by Corel in adjusting the programming?

In starting up times, a 31 second delay is acceptable - I can start it and go get a drink while waiting for it fully open (if I walk briskly to the fridge and back).

[LeviFiction]

My old laptop is very slow on loading PSP by comparison to others and yet because other programs like GIMP, Photoshop, etc have similar start up times for me that suggests PSP has inefficiencies but isn't bad. My computer can only do so much so quickly because I'm poor and take what I can get.

Like hartpaul I judge final load time by when I can create a new image. This does slow down PSP as mentioned in my very first post, the New Image dialog takes a few seconds to load the very first time.

GIMP: 1 minute 10 seconds to start
Photoshop: 2 minutes
Affinity Photo: 1 minute 20 seconds
PaintShop Pro 8 - 41 seconds
Paintshop Pro 2020 - 1 minute (Included moving from Home to Edit)
PaintShop Pro 2021 - Last test was 1 minute 40 seconds. (couldn't test again this morning as it was already open, though second load time was down to 21 seconds.)

And these are all mostly consistent with the last time jungleexplorer reported extreme lag and slow startup times with PSP2020. They claimed they could barely use their computer while PSP struggled to load and it took a while to do so. On their computer there was a definite problem. While PSP is bloated and takes longer than absolutely necessary to load based on how they've designed the software with all of their additional plugins, libraries both self-made and licensed, PSP loads slower than is absolutely necessary. And PSP 2021 has added a Chromium web browser for its new Photography and S2S UIs as well as a new AI processor adding to that bloat.

Point is no one doubts PSP loads slowly, but how slow is sluggish and unacceptable is personal and a perception and will undoubtedly depend on the machine you're on. You're all getting these sub-minute load times I am not, and I am content because everything is slow on my computer. xD PSP loading doesn't slow down other programs, I often have it load while recording video or animating in Moho(1 minute load time by the way) without issue.

But looking back at jungleexplorer's posts on the matter they have a much larger problem and whatever was causing that is most likely different from just "PSP is inefficient in its load times." And the best way for them to test whether or not Corel has done anything to deal with that is for them to test it for themselves. Corel, in my opinion, has not addressed slow load times for people like myself, but that doesn't mean they haven't tweaked or undone something to make it run at least slightly appropriately on jungleexplorer's computer. So there is no decent way for us to answer the question short of having the exact same setup and the exact same problem with PSP 2020 as mentioned in their previous post.

[lata]

I was the person that mentioned the splash screen however the difference in accessing the program was 1 second

so PSP 2021 fully loaded and able to access File Menu in 13 seconds

[hartpaul]

PSP in its earlier versions for me took approx 10 seconds in the earlier versions without all the bells and whistles.
It again became a bit more efficient about X6,X7, X8 then with the introduction of X9 + it became bloated and slow.

You can check what changes occurred with each level up to 2020 here:
http://web.archive.org/web/201909061627 ... o_releases
This is no longer supported on Wikipedia and only available as a snapshot on the web.archive site (wayback machine)

I would prefer PSP to go to a complete modular arrangement so that only the features you use are installed eg a cut down version which does not include Manage or Adjust and which loads much like PSP8-X3, manage and adjust being available as modules that can be installed and loaded as required. Same with the Photography workspace.

[migf1]

To me, the main thing is how long it takes to launch PSP compared to functionally similar programs. Just saying it starts extremely slowly doesn't really make sense (extremely slowly compared to what? to Notepad? to 3ds Max? to Firefox? :p)

Then in general, launch times of all applications depend heavily on users' hardware specs and software settings (both for the operating system and for the application itself), along with any background activity taking place -or not- during the tests (anti-viruses, OS services, etc). Even the number of fonts installed on the OS can often make a difference.

Not sure how much they affect the launching time of PSP, but the figures I posted in my previous posts include a good bunch of PlugIns (Ultimate default ones across several versions, plus Nik Collection, Topaz Studio, nVidia Tools, etc) and a hell lot of script, fonts & asset files, scattered in various folders all over the hard-disk. On the other hand, I use neither the Organizer (always closed) nor the Adjust and Manage tabs (disabled in the Preferences). The Complete workspace is set as my default one. The Photoshop versions I compared against PSP in one of my previous posts load the same external PlugIns, with their Essentials workspace set as the default.

FWIW, among the 3 image-processors I have always installed on my system (Ps, PSP, Gimp), Gimp 2.10.20 has the fastest launch-times atm; always around 6 secs. But it's also the one I rarely use, set with only just a few external PlugIns (G'MIC, Resynthesizer and ShellOut)

Btw, I considered them loaded as soon as I see the workspace and I am able to use the File->Exit menu (for Ps 2018 this can mean another 5-6 secs after seeing the workspace).

[LeviFiction]

migf1 - if you look at jungleexplorer's post history you'll see they have a previous post about the extreme amounts of lag they experience on their computer when attempting to load PSP 2020. https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 56#p375556

They don't give actual numbers until they talk about moving back to X9 but they do talk about the loading process severely hampering use of all other programs and give a comparison to rendering video at the same time as playing a graphically intense game. X9 for them loaded in 10 seconds. So that gives a baseline. They don't mention how slowly 2020 loads, though when another user complains about 32 second load times they agree with that. Kids today, always needing things fast.

As for program usage being sluggish they also mention that it took them 30 seconds to change tools. There is something seriously wrong with the latest versions of PSP on their system, but not universal. They appear to have simply gotten enough consensus from people complaining that 30 seconds was unacceptably slow to be convinced it's a wide-spread problem that everyone knows about and agrees is a huge problem. But their own experience is way worse than everyone else's.

As another data point, the surface pro 3 tablet I use at work, starts PSP in 16 seconds and I'm able to move to Edit mode and create a new image in 32 seconds. The slowest response loading a tool for the first time on both computers is 2 seconds with most showing a slight delay but no more than a single second and rarely that long. Jungleexplorer has a legitimate problem with PSP, on a system that should handle it fine the newer 2020 was horrible for them. While older versions were fine. It's just not widespread. Slowness people don't like is widespread, but not the extremes they are experiencing.

[migf1]

Thanks for the link Levi! I even saw I have a reply in that topic too lol.

Not sure what is going on there, since I cannot replicate it on my system. One of the suggested solutions in that topic should have worked.

PS. Btw, I have also expressed in several other topics my big disappointment about how badly written (maintained) the PSP code must be, and that I've lost hope it will get addressed anytime soon or ever. It is not like I am a Corel fan boy or anything (or of any other maker for that matter). I just don't have the dramatic launch-time issues I read other people have. It could be that my workflow doesn't involve PSP for cataloguing system wide images and such.

The best suggestion I could offer to jungleexplorer has been already offered by others: D/L the PSP2021 trial and check for yourself

[jungleexplorer]

Thanks for all the good insight guys.

@migf1 "Oh boy! Not sure why you get like that."

Watch this video, and if you still don't know the answer to your question write back.

https://youtu.be/ePl6eT0Uu7o

[jimkirk363]

I can honestly say i havn't suffered any of these issues with 2021. The previous version was extremely slow starting taking about 8 - 10 seconds for the front screen to dissapear.

[Jean-Luc]

The previous version was extremely slow starting taking about 8 - 10 seconds for the front screen to dissapear.

Try this (uncheck):

[jimkirk363]

The previous version was extremely slow starting taking about 8 - 10 seconds for the front screen to dissapear.

Try this (uncheck):
splash_screen.jpg

I was unaware u could do this, where in the options is this setting?

[Kathy_9]

File - Preferences - General Program Preferences - Miscellaneous

[jimkirk363]

File - Preferences - General Program Preferences - Miscellaneous

Thanks for this guys.

[Ken Berry]

I'm not sure this does anything positive to improve opening times. I just tried it and it took a colossal 47 seconds from pressing the desktop icon to PSP opening and becoming usable. I'll go back to using the splash screen since that at least gives me hope that the program will in fact open some seconds later and become usable a few seconds after that.

[jungleexplorer]

I'm not sure this does anything positive to improve opening times. I just tried it and it took a colossal 47 seconds from pressing the desktop icon to PSP opening and becoming usable. I'll go back to using the splash screen since that at least gives me hope that the program will in fact open some seconds later and become usable a few seconds after that.

LOL! My feeling exactly, Ken. Took the words right out of my mouth.