ExtractoR - MultiLayer EXR - Extremely slow on PC vs MAC - Network

[TannerW]

We have recently transitioned some workstations over to Windows from OSX and noticed compositions using the Extractor Plugin on both CC2014 and CC2018 are very slow to work with on the Windows side. These are Multi-layered EXR's with 40+ channels so they're certainly heavy files.

Simply adding the extractor plugin and selecting a channel can take 3+ minutes to preview in the composition window. Once it loads after 5 minutes it works as usual.

Has anyone encountered this issue? It could be a difference in the network share working better on MAC vs WIN but it's astounding how much slower the plugin works on Windows (seconds vs minutes). Copying the files locally makes a big difference and alleviates the problem; but that's a cumbersome workaround with a network based pipeline.

I've messed with the preference settings for EXR caching but nothing seems to reduce the 3+minutes of load time when switching channels in the composition. CC2018 has v 1.9 Apr 2 2015 in it. Is that the most updated version?

Thanks for any help.

edit: I downloaded the version from ProEXR and it's older than the one that ships with AE. Worth a shot.

edit2: RLE compression seems to be much faster than ZIP in most cases skipping around frames and pulling channels out with ExtractoR. Zip is taking 1-2min to skip around and change channels. RLE is 20-30. Overall stability seems better in 2018 than 2014. Previewing 2 seconds at full rez takes 1:11 using RLE vs 6:13 using ZIP compression. ZIP16 wont even work on CC2018 windows from what I can tell.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Tanner,

Is there a question here or are you looking for opinions on your workflow from others?

Thanks,
Kevin

[TannerW]

Hi Kevin,

I asked if anyone has encountered a massive slow down and lag using Windows, After Effects, Multilayered EXRs, and a network connection?

I'm looking for anyone's experience with EXR workflows off a network using Windows and After Effects, and how to potentially fix the slow down we are experiencing. I can't speak to the specifics of the network, but its SMB is up to date and very fast otherwise.

The difference between OSX and Window's loading and usability is staggering with a 40 layer EXR file. Seconds vs minutes to skip around the timeline.

Obviously it could be a network setting or OS level setting; but I'm finding absolutely nothing online other than a few select posts on places like The Foundry saying "Don't use multilayered EXR's in After Effects" and "Render out separate passes because it's not multithreaded".

We are going to do some speed tests, try dual fiber connections, and things like that to figure out what the difference is between WIN and OSX but I was hoping a dev or someone would have suggestions where to look first. 

[Chris2hoch2]

We have the same problems here. It is nearly unusable. But with older version it worked flawless

[TannerW]

Thank you for the confirmation. Have you tried rolling back the version of the ExtractoR plugin to see if that helps? It's something we haven't tried yet.

[Chris2hoch2]

So i have 1.9.1 i bought a while ago. But did not try this old version...

[Chris2hoch2]

Tried 1.9.1 Not better at all.

[timlitos]

I have the same issues. No solution yet.

[j_long]

Same issue here.  I have EXRs with 30 layers, all matte passes so the files are small (700kb), however loading each channel through EXtractoR is exponentially slower, making it virtually unusable since the overall render time for the sequence becomes astronomical.

I might try the RLE compression, but it doesn't sound like it will help enough, so I think I'll have to go back to not combining the AOVs, which was ironically done to be more efficient and save time.

AECC 2018 (15.0 build 180)  EXtractoR v2.0 - Apr 16 2018

[fnordware]

Hey guys, ProEXR 2.0 was released today. It addresses some speed issues, hopefully including the ones you're complaining about. Try it!

http://fnordware.blogspot.com/

[j_long]

Thanks fnord, I'll give it a shot when time permits.  For the record, I'm not sure if the speed issue isn't also a limitation on Adobe's end (?).

[gatz]

I gave the new version a spin. The version that came with CC 2019 would spawn dialogs that couldn't be canceled or confirmed. EXtractor 2.0 doesn't appear to work. Applied to a layer, the "click for dialog" doesn't do anything at all.

Just confirmed this is same behavior for just released AE 16.0.1 which included EXtractor 1.9. Replaced with 2.0. Same behavior.

[Multipasser]

Sooo annoying!  It boggles the mind that these errors still occur!

Does nobody test beta's anymore?

This is the basic compositing plugin and nobody noticed?

[Dave_LaRonde]

Multipasser  wrote

Does nobody test beta's anymore?

I'll assume you're unaware that an Adobe Creative Cloud rental also comes with membership in the Adobe Unpaid Beta Tester Program.

[Multipasser]

Oh, that is right. I kinda feel like a betatester everytime I download an 'update'.