Improved Caching for Longer Playback: A New Era of Composition Playback in After Effects

[Avi_AE]

Exciting news for After Effects users! Say goodbye to RAM limitations and hello to smoother, longer playback! 

We are thrilled to announce that Improved Caching for Longer Playback is now available for After Effects Beta users beginning in version 25.2.0.079. Gone are the days where you need to buff up your system with massive amounts of RAM to preview your comp. This exciting update transforms how playback works in After Effects, moving beyond the constraints of RAM Preview to a more efficient disk-based system. 

What’s New 

Improved Caching for Longer Playback enables you to render and play back your entire composition without being constrained by RAM allocation. By utilizing the disk cache more efficiently, After Effects can now: 

• Deliver longer playback durations 

• Improve performance especially on systems with lower specifications 

Why Does it Matter to You 

Previously, After Effects would stop rendering when memory was exhausted, resulting in partial composition playback. Now, with Improved Caching for Longer Playback: 

• After Effects will render entire compositions without RAM size constraints (4K? 60fps? You no longer need to render partial work areas!) 

• RAM is used more efficiently to render individual frames 

• The system dynamically cycles between disk and memory as needed

             

Getting Started 

Improved Caching for Longer Playback is activated by default from version 25.2.0.079 of After Effects Beta. No additional setup is required to start experiencing the benefits. 

If you need to disable Improved Caching for Longer Playback, please go to “Preferences” -> “Media & Disk Cache” -> “Advanced Options” -> Uncheck “Enable Preview from Disk Cache” 

We Want Your Feedback 

Test this feature with your projects and let us know: 

• How does the playback duration compare to your previous experience? 

• Are you noticing smoother preview/playback experiences? 

• The cache bar (the blue and green bar under your composition) behaves differently than before: is it distracting? Is it confusing? 

• Have you encountered any specific challenges or limitations? 

Share Your Experience - Leave a comment with the following information: 

• Your hardware specifications:  

• Total system memory (GB) 

• RAM available for AE (GB) 

• Maximum Disk Cache Size in AE Preferences (GB)  

• Available disk space (GB) 

• Type/make of disk 

• Your experience with Improved Caching for Longer Playback 

If you detect any problems with quality, submit your projects 

• Open your After Effects project 

• Go to File -> Dependencies -> Collect Files 

• Choose Collect -> Save As (Name Your Folder) 

• After Effects will compile your .aep file, footage, and a text report 

• Zip the folder and share the link with us in the comment section below (your projects will remain confidential and will be used for testing purposes only!) 

Known Issues and Feature Limitations 

The disk cache size and speed are limiting factors. The disk size limits preview duration. The disk speed limits the bitrate (frame size / FPS / bit-depth) of what can be previewed in real-time. 

Looking Ahead 

This is just the beginning of our journey to transform the way After Effects handles playback. Beta testing of Improved Caching for Longer Playback will last a little longer than some of our other features because it fundamentally changes how preview works on After Effects and we want to get it right! 

Internally, we have been testing a representative sample of projects with a suite of hardware configurations, and we are excited to finally put this feature in your hands and get your feedback. Test your unique projects on your hardware so we can ensure that our performance updates benefit all customers and meet quality metrics before launch. 

Your feedback during this beta phase is crucial in helping us refine and perfect this feature before its official release. We are excited to see how Improved Caching for Longer Playback enhances your creative workflow and look forward to your valuable feedback! 

[Manaus]

For real, I'm testing with previous builds of After Effects and I cannot belive how fast it is
The timeline, for once, doesn't lag, feels very crispy

Goddammm this is awesome.

[mezdzn]

Does this only work with actual clips? Because when i try it on my composition (just an animation all made in AE), i doesnt work, playback is still very laggy. i have 64GB RAM and ive allocated 800GB for disk cache.

[Avi_AE]

Hi mezdzn! Improved caching should work with all types of compositions, including animations created entirely in AE, not just imported clips.

With 64GB RAM and 800GB disk cache allocation, your system should definitely handle this well. Few quick questions to help troubleshoot:

1. Which version of After Effects are you using?
2. Is "Enable Preview from Disk Cache" checked in Preferences > Media & Disk Cache?
3. Could you please share a screen recording of your playback experience? 

This will help us figure out what might be causing the continued lag.

[mezdzn]

Im using the latest After Effects, i believe its v25.2.2 

Yes, as seen in the video, its enabled. 

[Graham Hutchins]

Couple things.

First, if you can move your cache drive to somewhere other than the drive your OS is installed on, preferibly a dedicated SSD or NVME drive, that would be good place to start.

Second, and I'm assuming you're referring to what's happeing @ 0:22 in the video you posted, playback looks fine until you hit the unrendered portion of the comp, at which point, your machine needs to start rendering those frames.  You usually won't get realtime playback on unrendered frames on anything other than very simple scenes (which is also dependent on how fast the clock speed on your CPU is).

[Avi_AE]

Thank you for sharing this mezdzn. As Graham pointed out, the improved caching really kicks in once all frames in your comp have been rendered, i.e., if you let the playback needle pass through the entire comp after hitting playback and you see that the cache bar is a combination of blue and green (no black uncoloured portion), subsequent playbacks should happen smoothly.

Also, I reccommend you switching to half resolution for previewing (i.e., updating the drop down under the comp window where it says "full" now).

[mezdzn]

Also here is the performance of my PC while the comp is playing, im barely using more than 50% on any given component. 

[Mustafa_Yassin2529]

I have the same problem; my PC usage barely reaches 50% and the timeline is laggy. Did you find the reason for this?

[Avi_AE]

Hi Mustafa, thank you for posting your concern here. Can you please describe what happens when the timeline is laggy / share a screen recording of what you see? I'd be happy to set up a short video call to see the issue and help with resolution if we are unable to pinpoint to a cause here.

[Mustafa_Yassin2529]

Thank you for your response. The issue I'm facing is a bit complex to explain in writing. To make it clearer, I've recorded a short video demonstration. Would it be possible to have a brief video call so I can walk you through it in more detail?

[Mustafa_Yassin2529]

I tried pausing and then resuming the render, but that didn't work, and it's still stuck. (This was a step I tried after making the recording.) In the recording, the rendering was paused

[Avi_AE]

I have sent you a message. Looking forawrd to connect with you.