xnview slows down on large folders

[loth]

hi all,

i have a folder with about 12000 pictues inside,
the folder is about 2gb in size.
the dimensions of the pics are from 400x400 to 1280x1280 +-
all the thumbs are generated.

if i rightclick in explorer on the folder and choose: "browse with xnview" it takes about 4 minutes that i can see all the thumbs and start working on it.
ok. its a lot of files, so i don't mind.
while working, xnview takes ALL the memory i got (about 500MB) and if xnview is ready, i got my ram back.
ok, no problem with that too, besides i cannot work in that time, because xnview takes all of my CPU.

so now, i see all the thumbs an can move inside the browser view.

if i now click a picture and view it in fullscreen mode *and* delete it, it takes another 10 minutes (ten!) to show the next picture.
this is definately NOT ok :-)

if i just scroll through the pics with pg-up/-down, no worth mentioning delay.

if i delete a file in browser-view, a delay about 1-2 minutes occour. after that, i can work again.


settings:
cache enabled with lossy - high quality.
[x] read one image ahead
[x] keep current image in cache

please let me know, how i can set xnview up to not take "ages" in such a constellation of files. (no, i cant split the folders :-) )

i set up xnview that it is not updating anything.

[Olivier_G]

This is due to the way XnView handles Thumbnails in memory: they are all loaded at once and kept in memory (which allow very fast browsing).
See the second note (arrow) in this message: http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=2895

When you have a lot of thumbnails (+large ones), all your memory is used and you start swapping to the drive a lot -> everything becomes very slow. Only solution: create new folders to reduce the number of files per folder; use very small thumbnails, etc...

I would prefer XnView to only load in RAM thumbnails that are currently displayed, in order to avoid that kind of problems.

Olivier

[xnview]

This is due to the way XnView handles Thumbnails in memory: they are all loaded at once and kept in memory (which allow very fast browsing).
See the second note (arrow) in this message: http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=2895

When you have a lot of thumbnails (+large ones), all your memory is used and you start swapping to the drive a lot -> everything becomes very slow. Only solution: create new folders to reduce the number of files per folder; use very small thumbnails, etc...

I would prefer XnView to only load in RAM thumbnails that are currently displayed, in order to avoid that kind of problems.

If thumbnails are not kept in memory, so there is some delay before to display next thumbnails

[Olivier_G]

If thumbnails are not kept in memory, so there is some delay before to display next thumbnails

I agree.
However, I remember using one Browser/Viewer (don't remember which one) which was loading/unloading thumbnails in RAM in real-time from Cache... and it was quite good (not as fast as XnView now, but you wouldn't really guess without direct comparison). And very low amount of RAM was being used .

It probably shouldn't be the default behaviour, but it could be an option.
Even better: you should be able to define the max RAM available for Thumbnails (ex:200MB), and XnView would automatically switch to this mode when: [number of files] x [Thumbnail width] x [Thumbnail height] x 3(colors) exceeds that number of bytes...

I don't think that it is a major issue, but it might be worth giving a try...

Olivier

[Clo]

Olivier

Hello !

…you should be able to define the max RAM available for Thumbnails (ex:200MB)…

- We have something like this in Total Commander as an extra INI-entry :
ThumbnailMemoryLimit=250

•This had strongly improved the thumb-nails display-speed while we where testing this new feature in TC 6.5. This tentative variable has been kept then …

K R
Claude
Clo

[Olivier_G]

Any update on this?
I now have several folders for which XnView freezes for 10+ seconds or more before displaying thumbnails... and requires 300MB+ of RAM just to show them...
(there are even some folders I wouldn't even dare to enter with XnView in Thumbnail mode... )

I believe the simple 'load only thumbnails currently displayed/unload others' would be worth experimenting.

[Olivier_G]

By the way, loading the 2000 thumbnails (271x271 pixels) of my previous example requires about 10 secs, which means that loading 1 row (5 thumbnails) would require 10s/2000*5=0.025s and loading one full page (20 thumbnails) would require 0.1s... not too bad!

And we could even consider some performance improvements: keep previous Thumbnails page in RAM, cache next page in RAM, etc...
(and one would not experience any delay, RAM excessive usage, slowdown/crash... when entering large folders in this mode => quite an interesting deal... )

I believe the simple 'load only thumbnails currently displayed/unload others' would be worth experimenting.

More opinions about that idea? Support?

[Clo]

Hello !

• Loading thumb-nails progressively -row by row- and using an independant data-base for them
is done in Total Commander for a good while…
- So, I guess that is a valid solution, indeed to adapt for XnView…

KR
Claude
Clo

[xnview]

Hello !

• Loading thumb-nails progressively -row by row- and using an independant data-base for them
is done in Total Commander for a good while…
- So, I guess that is a valid solution, indeed to adapt for XnView…

TC don't load all thumbnails??

[Clo]

Pierre, it can load the ranks while you scroll the panel… So, if I got it rightly, it can use a smaller buffer and much less memory…
- The number of thumb-nails loaded as one go according to the settings can be limited, and the pre-allocated memory defined too…

- All thumb-nails are saved in its own data-base, it doesn't use the Win thumbs DB. Its DB can be purged¦refreshed of course. This is done automatically if you change the thumb-nails size too.
- There are several methods to display the tumb-nails, including XnView of course, just give a glance in your TC, I hope you have an up-to-date copy ?

KR
Claude
Clo

[Olivier_G]

I have just tried Picasa2: it loads displayed Thumbnails on the fly... and feels very responsive.
Impressive application... although I don't think it's a very good Photo Browser/Viewer.

[JohnFredC]

2Olivier

although I don't think it's a very good Photo Browser/Viewer.

Give it a chance. There is a LOT more to it than first appears. It's a completely different way of working with images... representative of a new approach to image management I expect we'll see a lot more of. Everyone I show it to goes bonkers about it.

Editing is non-destructive. The image edits are stored in that "picassa.ini" file you will find in each image folder (interesting to look at one of those files). This means you can carry the image folder to another computer and the Picassa on that machine will have access to the edits done on the first machine. Original still not touched.

It's not a semi-pro tool like XnView. Not intended to be. Needs much more functionality to supplant XnView as my main browser. Doesn't have a full sceen mode, per se (though you can do a slide show of one image, which is full screen). But it IS faster for navigating my images than ANY other tool.

[Olivier_G]

Give it a chance. There is a LOT more to it than first appears. It's a completely different way of working with images... representative of a new approach to image management I expect we'll see a lot more of.

I did... and I kind of agree (that's why I said "impressive"). But it still lacks in many ways, including efficient organization (cf: folders list +Thumbnails display could be vastly enhanced). It could be THE right tool... but no (at least not for advanced organization). By the way: I think it's "good"... just not "very good"...

Doesn't have a full sceen mode, per se (though you can do a slide show of one image, which is full screen).

Try Ctrl+Alt while hovering the mouse on a Thumbnail...

[JohnFredC]

Wow!

That's a new one for me. Thanks!

[JohnFredC]

And just to maintain perspective. I am buried in 300+ images from a recent trip. Cleaning, rotating, resizing, etc.

What tool am I using for that?

XnView, of course.