XnView vs. ACDSee: Slow..? (High CPU & Memory)

[pic_viewer]

It seems you are using XnView in an untypical way but fail to mention this. If I want to browse a directory like any file manager does, then I use a file manager...so will do most others...

Please understand that for reproducing the issue it is necessary to know exactly what you do. Otherwise nobody will even start to check it.

[viking]

It seems you are using XnView in an untypical way but fail to mention this. If I want to browse a directory like any file manager does, then I use a file manager...so will do most others...

Please understand that for reproducing the issue it is necessary to know exactly what you do. Otherwise nobody will even start to check it.

Why do you think that I use XnView in an untypical way? There are two ways that I browse the images in a directory:

1. In the browser list I hit the arrow keys to look at different images in the preview pane (or use the mouse to select a file/image further down/up in the list).
or
2. I hit the enter key to load the image in full screen mode, and then hit the space bar to open and view the images in the order listed in the browser.

In full screen mode I can rotate and otherwise manipulate any particular image.

I have been using ACDSee for several years but am looking for an alternative for several reasons. XnView seems to be such an alternative except for the very slow image loading performance when the images are in a directory with many files.

Are you suggesting that I should use a file managers for this instead? Which one would be "better" than ACDSee and XnView for the above described purpose?
Note that it is also important that the application supports descript.ion (all my files have descriptions).

[Clo]

viking

Hello !

…Are you suggesting that I should use a file managers for this instead? Which one would be "better" than ACDSee and XnView for the above described purpose?
Note that it is also important that the application supports descript.ion.

• There are a lot of good ones around… Personally, I use Total Commander for ages.
- Powerful, highly customizable, settings and languages as text files…
- Cheap licence that you pay ONCE for life…
- The next version 7.5 is on the workbench, it will support Unicode.
- Of course, descript.ion is supported currently, and will be enhanced soon (lenght, wrapping).
- It supports XnView as an add-on to view images in its Lister and thumb nails in the lists…
- You may also find out others, gratis or shareware in the Miscellaneous section here…

Kind regards,
Claude
Clo

[viking]

I am not sure if I follow. Are you guys saying that if I buy Total Commander (or similar) and install XnView as a plugin, then XnView's performance issues may somehow be solved?

p.s. I am already using dopus filemanager, but it does not perform as well as ACDSee and also does not have the image manipulation capabilities.

[pic_viewer]

Don't get me wrong. What you do SHOULD work right in XnView. TC could be used for file browsing but the performance problem with XnView might be similar. Don't know, I try to find out.

[pic_viewer]

So I copied all my pics into one directory (9.500) and used XnView in both my way and the one that you described here. It behaves as usual, full speed and no CPU load and no problems...

[xnview]

Which sort setting do you have?
The delay is on first image loading, or on second?

Sort setting does not affect anything (e.g. sort by Name or sort by size).
Delay and high CPU is on every single image that I try to load.

To reproduce, place 10-20,000 images in a single directory on an NTFS partition. Then try to browse with XnView.
Impossibly slow and ridiculously high CPU utilization .

Very strange. I can't reproduce this problem.
No cache, no DB, sort by image, i open the browser, wait that thumbnails or info are retrieve (progress bar), and open a file => no delay.
Is it like that?

[viking]

Very strange. I can't reproduce this problem.
No cache, no DB, sort by image, i open the browser, wait that thumbnails or info are retrieve (progress bar), and open a file => no delay.
Is it like that?

Just to make sure that we are doing everything the same way :
1. Create a directory with 10,000 - 20,000 image files on an NTFS partition.

2. "Enable Caching: is not checked in the Thumbnail|Cash options. I assume that this is the same as "No cache"?

3. No DB? I am not sure what this is? Do I need to somehow disable this separately? Isn't this the same as no Cash? I have not disabled any DB.

4. Not sure what "sort by image" means? I sorted by file (image) name.

5. I am not creating Thumbnails or retrieve info (Scan file headers in folders = Never). Thus, no progress bar.

Following the steps above, I get the very long delays (10-47 sec) when opening an image in preview or full screen mode.

In contrast, If the images are in a directory with a only a few files (e.g. 10 files) there is no delay.

[pic_viewer]

Scan file headers in folders: the default is 'Always' which is what I used. All the rest was identical.

[viking]

Thank you both for testing!!
I just found out what is causing the issue. As I explained above, I am using descript.ion, and all my files have descriptions.

I am guessing that neither of you had any descriptions?

If I load all the files in the browser, and thereafter rename the descript.ion file (e.g. to descript_.ion), the descriptions still show up in the browser and file loading is fast!

I am guessing that XnView reads the descript.ion file each time an image is loaded and that causes the delay [especially in a directory with many files and descriptions, resulting in a large descript.ion file to read].

This may be an easy fix?
Maybe it is only needed to read the descriptions once when the files are loaded into the browser. Of course when files are moved or deleted, the descript.ion file must be read/written to again.

This must be the way that ACDSee does it; Just read the descript.ion file once when the file list is loaded, and not each time an image is loaded.

[viking]

Pierre,

Do you agree with my assessment? Were you able to reproduce this using descriptions (a descript.ion file), or do you know why this is happening now?

Is this an easy fix (avoid reading the descript.ion file each time a file is viewed)?

(I guess that I could always try to rename the description file each time after I have loaded the files in the XnView browser, and then rename it back when done. However, that is not very practical..)

[xnview]

I am guessing that XnView reads the descript.ion file each time an image is loaded and that causes the delay [especially in a directory with many files and descriptions, resulting in a large descript.ion file to read].

Ok, that's the problem... I'll fix it

[boourns]

Bump this up to the top, I have the same problem with this using 1.97.8 (dated 20 Sept 2010). Was this issue solved earlier and has possibly cropped up again?

I used processmon to check file accesses and when I select an image XNview will read the file and then *read the descript.ion* before displaying the image. Viking's workaround of renaming the .ion file does work, but it instantly removes any description information if xnview is open. This happens even when I turn off auto refresh and sync browser selection with current view.

I too run NTFS and am browsing through a directory with a lot of unsorted images with descriptions.

I tried to disable caching and image read ahead, sort order is by file name. Does not seem to affect things.

[xnview]

Bump this up to the top, I have the same problem with this using 1.97.8 (dated 20 Sept 2010). Was this issue solved earlier and has possibly cropped up again?

Which problem do you have? When you open a image file in view mode?

[boourns]

Bump this up to the top, I have the same problem with this using 1.97.8 (dated 20 Sept 2010). Was this issue solved earlier and has possibly cropped up again?

Which problem do you have? When you open a image file in view mode?

Both browse and view, when you select a new image or view next image it appears to always load the descript.ion