Photoshop CS5 Very Slow Liquify

[zBoson]

I've noticed that in Photoshop CS5, Liquify just works terribly slowly. When I click and drag to distort an image, the image gets distorted sometimes even 10 seconds after I've lifted my hand. Sometimes I have to wait 30-40 seconds for the distortions to happen before I can regain control of Photoshop.

Also, panning is a bit more choppy than in CS4, which annoys me a lot, as it was the case with CS4 compared to CS3, etc... I predict that panning in CS7 will look like a slideshow.

And another thing, when you Flick-Pan, and release the mouse, the canvas flies across the screen, and during that flying animation, in CS4, you could still zoom in and out with the keyboard. In CS5, you have to wait until the canvas has slowed down to a stop to be able to zoom. This is also a strange feature.

Adobe said CS5 will have performance improvements, and I can see filters, adjustments and brushes perform a tiny bit better, but basic things like panning, zooming and liquify got MUCH worse and less responsive, and this is not worth the tradeoff for me, since I use these features very frequently, many times a second.

I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet most of the time, and I noticed that Liquify is much faster (although still too slow for me to use it) when I use my trackpad instead of the pen.

I'm using the Photoshop CS5 trial now, and I have Photoshop CS3 and CS4 both installed on the same computer, so I can tell that CS3 ran much faster, CS4 was a bit slower and CS5 is a LOT slower. I'm using a late 2008 15 inch Unibody MacBook Pro with 9600M / 9400M graphics, 4GB RAM and 2.53 GHz CPU, and speed gets a bit better when using the 9600M.

Here are my questions:

• Has anyone else had any of these problems, especially Liquify?
• Has anyone else used CS5 and noticed that Liquify runs just fine?
• Does anyone have any suggestions of what I could try to cure any of these problems?
• Is it possible that this is the way Photoshop CS5 should run on my computer, due to my hardware limitations and bloated software?

[MeredithStotzner]

@chazzcron  You certainly did bring up a slowdown in the Save/Load Mesh; I missed it. Thanks for following up.

We're able to reproduce the issue with Save Mesh and are now working on a solution.

Thanks for the helpful information, everyone.

[chazzcron]

Thanks, M.

Everyone is entitled to mesh up once and a while

Now about that option key...

[le masurier]

While we are on requests, how about a brush size shortcut in liquify. Apologies now if there is one that I don't know about.

Cheers

[signature edited by host]

[MeredithStotzner]

Hi Philip,

The square brackets should work to increase ( ] ) or decrease ( [ ) brush size.

Shift + [ or ] will increment in 10 pixels instead of 1 pixel.

Let me know if that's not what you're looking for.

Thanks,

Meredith

[le masurier]

Hi Meredith

Thanks, the shift key I didn't know about, that will help a bit. What I was hoping for though was an control/option method like the regular brushes have. Where you can drag the brush to whatever size and softness you like. Makes using a tablet so much quicker, as you don't have to put the pen down. Also you can see the brush size right next to the target area.

Cheers.

[signature edited by host]

[sean-gloss]

just upgraded cs5 and still having the mesh problem. Takes a long time to save out a mesh. Liquify works great when I don't want to save a mesh, though. Back to cs4 for me.

[MeredithStotzner]

The 12.0.1 update only addresses the slow brushing in Liquify, it does not address the performance  issues for Save Mesh. 

We're able to reproduce it and are working on a solution.

Thanks,

Meredith

[731C4]

Thanks for the info. Has anyone else had a problem with zooming in in liquify? For me both CMD++ and CMD+- zoom out. Tool works. Shortcuts works otherwise in PS, just in liquify that odd thing going on. CS5 problem naturally, CS4 ok.

[Big_Jimm]

QUESTION:

I have the plug-in and I guess it’s working fine but I don’t do big volume work so I'm not a good tester. But, how is liquify suppose to work? When I put the bulge + over an eye, for example, and click, shouldn’t I see a tiny increase in size immediately each time I click? I can never see any increase as I'm doing it but when I leave liquify and go back to “regular” PS, the eye jumps bigger.

Shouldn’t I be able to see the size jumps each time I click? Maybe I need to set a brush size, or something, bigger.

Thank you.

Jim

[731C4]

@Big Jimm Yes you should see what you're doing. You don't have backdrop visible and similar layers behind/front? I have no other ideas for now.

[chazzcron]

I mentioned this years ago, that bloat and pinch and others do NOT work with pressure sensitivity as they should. Not since the first version of Liquify have they had any subtle variation from stylus pressure. There is no way to do any fine tuning. I haven't used them at all since they were broken. Can anyone get any subtlety from them? I just barely touch the tablet, brush rate at 1 (out of 100) and using very little pressure, it goes right out to useless full bloat. I should have to nearly put a hole in my tablet to get that result with it set at brush rate of 1. I use the Push left tool exclusively (its function is uniquely awesome), and to good use, but even THAT is set at brush rate of 1 and if any real pressure is used, it does the same thing.

Chris, Meredith, shouldn't there be a HUGE effort required to push, pull or smear on a Wacom when brush rate is set at 1?

If I could fire up the first version of PS with Liquify and screencap a movie, I would. Can you do that at Adobe? If you could do that, and compare it to all subsequent versions (granted the largest brush size was tiny, like 64 pixels or something) and report here that I am wrong, I will shut up forever about it.

[Mike_Ornellas]

I find it mildly amusing when you have a feature being slow gets tons of attention, but when a feature just is flat out broken, it gets ignored.

interesting....

[MeredithStotzner]

Hi chazzcron,

The Brush Pressure value is what will impact stylus pressure, and we've verified that's working correctly in-house in Photoshop 12/CS5.

Brush Rate (not an option in Photoshop 7, introduced in Photoshop 8) is not affected by the stylus pressure.

Here's a snippit from the user guide:

Brush Pressure: Sets the speed at which distortions are made when you drag a tool in the preview image. Using a low brush pressure makes changes occur more slowly, so it’s easier to stop them at exactly the right moment.

Brush Rate: Sets the speed at which distortions are applied when you keep a tool (such as the Twirl tool) stationary in the preview image. The higher the setting, the greater the speed at which distortions are applied.

Stylus Pressure: Uses pressure readings from a stylus tablet. (This option is available only when you are working with a stylus tablet.) When selected, the brush pressure for the tools is the stylus pressure multiplied by the Brush Pressure value.

Let me know if that doesn't help and we'll work on troubleshooting the issue.

Thanks!

Hi Mike O,

Do you know of something that is flat-out broken in Liquify that needs attention? I'm here to help.

Thanks,

Meredith

[Mike_Ornellas]

Hello Meredith -

Thank you for the concern, but my issues go way beyond Liquify.  Some may say self inflicted issues, but in any event, I have experienced quite a few holes within the application that just go unnoticed. Seems that the list is long and is always evolving with each release as expected.  I understand that all things can not be addressed due to priorities and how deep the issue may be. I just find that with the implementation of new features, some features just go unfinished, half baked or just forgotten about. I'm just pondering the reasons why and how to go about working around said problems that affect my work and everyone else's that I have to fix.

The industry that I work in is a complete mess and I wonder if anyone is paying attention to how files are being built for web or print. The quality is pretty much out of control and doing things over and over again is the norm. By having holes in the applications serves me and the artist absolutely no good and am wondering if Adobe really has the depth and or scope of the real world issues that they create or need to address in each individual industry they affect.

Anyways - enough of high jacking this thread. I'm actually tired of hearing myself complain for the past 12 years to your company.

best

mo

[chazzcron]

Thank you for replying, Meredith.

Yes, I meant  brush pressure there.

Technically, I guess it isn't broken.

My frustration comes from the bell curve of the some of settings. While you do have 1 - 100, I have always had to set it at 1 and press lightly to get any subtlety out of mirror or push left. Generally I use a 100 to 300 pixel brush.  Forward warp and twirl appear to be the only tools whose 1 -100 range is properly calibrated. This means that when set to "1" there is very little movement, no matter how hard you press on the tablet. For bloat and pucker, I don't believe there is any noticeable difference between a setting of 1 or a setting of 100.

Try it and let me know if you can get any noticeable difference in how fast pucker and bloat go from unaffected to whacked out at "1" and "100".

Certainly not the amount of subtlety that forward warp has when set at "1"

I stopped even using pucker and bloat  when this subtlely disappeared, probably from PS 8 to PS 9. Maybe it was from 7 to 8, even without a tablet.

Also, it's OK to just tell me that it is impossible to code the app to have the last applied warp mesh load automatically when the option key is invoked, as do most other filters, and I will let that go.

Oh and giving the option to unlock transparency in Liquify's transparency warning dialog box. Heck, even the option to cancel the operation in said dialog box.

Thanks again,

Charlie

P.S., Mike, when they ask, always go with specifics. I do relate to that building sense of frustration with various little things in PS. I tend to lose perspective on how, on the whole, PS is an awesome app, even if there are many irritating irregularities that are hard to pin down when asked what they are.

[Mike_Ornellas]

It's not just the bugs, its some key functionalities that assist users in making bad decisions, not good ones.  The real issue is core ideologies that perpetuate the creation of garbage art that is passed onto others, which in turn gets watered down into more and more trash on the net and in print.  Go look in any publication, PDF or web page.

Adobe products are geared towards individual user use and not group or world sharing use.  This is where the lack of industry research on Adobe's part is evident.

Having really bad bugs just compiles the problems.

[Chris Cox]

Mike - stop hijacking a thread.

If you want to create a philosphy discussion in another thread, go ahead.

But this thread/topic is about specific issues in Liquify.

[Mike_Ornellas]

I will stop when you start to listen.

deal?

[Mike_Ornellas]

The bottom line Chris  - in programing language it's domain knowledge. That of which you guys are grossly lacking in experience. Until you come to realize your short comings, you shall continue to develop Photoshop as a 2nd rate image processor and miss the point of controlling the worlds monopoly of image editing. Im not bullshitting you Chris. You just don't understand the product you are developing which is not uncommon for a programmer. All respect given to you and your team...

Show me you really care and embrace me or continue your corporate plight into retirement - satisfied with functionality over performance.

[elyeilde]

So now it's April 2011, I have just installed CS5 and all updates on a brand new MacPro with no other software installed and Liquify is UNUSABLE. Pretty inconvenient for someone who makes a living retouching photos.

Will there ever be a solution to this? or not until CS6 and I'll have to shell out several hundred dollars to upgrade?

[thenewfishdog37]

Still crappy on my 3.06ghz 12gb RAM iMac but oddly enough works fine on my 2.66 MBP. That makes no sense. I've given up trying to use it.

Sent wirelessly

[mybrotherbob]

you guys might want to check out the dear god thread, its

evolved from a rant

[J453]

I hope to have some information to share in the very near future that should improve Liquify mesh performance. Stay tuned.

[elyeilde]

near future as in "before i rip my hair out on a job that won't nearly be worth the time i end up putting into it" or near future as in "coming in CS6..."?

if i sound frustrated it's because I just spent a good chunk of change on a top-end workstation, and I can't even use the most essential of my tools.

[J453]

Days/Weeks as opposed to CS6.