Render Queue Slows Dramatically when AE window loses focus

@JohnColombo17100380 I ran four tests on a small render on my Windows machine (2min, 1920x1080 24fps clip with a tint effect applied .. i ran the render twice for each scenario [window maximized, window minimized]).

With the AE window in focus, the render finished in 1min 4sec & then 1min 5sec .. With the window minimized, the render finished in 1min 45sec and 1min 50sec, respectively.

Multi-frame rendering is disabled.  Aside from this, I don't recall modifying additional global settings (I did also try one render each with project rendering setting as Mercury GPU Acceleration (CUDA) & then as Mercury Software Only - but this did not have a significant impact on this paricular render).  This is on AE v22.5.0

When using AE 17.1.1 on the mac, I didn't have the memory/performance option and am using what I assume would have been default settings. (fwiw, the issue didn't appear on my Mac until after an OS security update to Catalina 10.15.7 ... so on the mac, it's possible this is an OS related / compatibility issue).

I can also run a render on my Windows workstation tonight, and try to replicate.

@lfallo1,

Thanks for reporting this issue. Do you mind sharing what your settings were previously and what settings allowed you to render with After Effects in the background? If the default settings indeed don't allow After Effects to render while it's not in focus, that is something we would like to address.

Thanks for reporting this issue and for any further information you can provide, 

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

Thanks for the reply.  v17 doesn't have the Performance menu on mac, but got me thinking so i re-installed 22 on the mac (which does have the memory/performance options) and I was able to explicitly set the usage & that does seem to now allow background rendering again.

Don't know why/how that would've sporadically been affected in the version I'd been using, but in any case, seems to be working for the moment on the Mac.