Program Loading Speed-Up Request

[Koyaanis]

I've noticed that the main and probably ONLY reason for huge delays in PL's start-up time is due to the number of plugin folders that it has to search each time it loads.

It would be nice if there was an option to manually trigger a plugin search after we have installed new plugins.

Couldn't this all be solved with a simple "Scan for new Plugins Now" button in the options menus, and then what it found was saved in some default configuration file? This way it would know what ones to load and where they were instead of scanning hundreds of megs of files each time it starts up. That seems like an awful lot of useless searching each time when we haven't installed any new plugins for a year, but it keeps looking for them every time. My PL32 now takes maybe 1.5 minutes to start up, just due to it scanning for plugins.

Another plus, if that plugins.cfg file also contained the plugins' name, we could edit those to something that are easier to recognize. Sometimes I hunt forever trying to remember if Andromeda, HumanSoft, Flaming Pear, or ImageNomic or hundreds of others of menu entries was the author of a plugin that I'm trying to find. I SO F***ING HATE that they have to put their plugins behind their company advertising name in a menu. Like I care what their company name is? Fine, then I don't use their program at all if I can't remember what menu it is under. Their loss AND mine. If we could edit our plugins menu then that would be solved. Then I could edit PhotoWiz to "ColorWasher" and know right where it was among the many dozens of other useless company names.

[Hoogo]

Are you sure it is because of the search for plugins? Once I had such a problem with the browser when a drive was gone.

[Koyaanis]

Yes, because if I rename the main folder under which I keep all my graphic-editors accessories (plugins, masks, frames, etc.), then any version of PL32 loads up in under 5 seconds.

Because I use (or test) so many other editors to see what's best, I keep all my commonly used "accessories" in folders like:

..\GraphicsLibrary\
..\GraphicsLibrary\Frames
..\GraphicsLibrary\Masks
..\GraphicsLibrary\Palettes
..\GraphicsLibrary\Plugins
..\GraphicsLibrary\PluginsBackups
..\GraphicsLibrary\Tiles

Then I just point each graphic editor to the right folder for each program's feature that needs them. (The plugins folder again having multiple subfolders for each plugin or set of plugins from each company. When it comes time to update, or remove a plugin, then I know exactly where it goes or what folder to move to the Backup folder.)

[Hubbabub]

I have noticed that if I use the portable option with PhotoLine
the program start faster, compaired to starting PL as a installed program

[lutz]

Koyaanis,
I had asked for it on the german forums already. Same observation:
PL by itself starts faster than almost anything else .... but ..... PL plus a bunch of plugins is starting slower than almost anything else.
I believe, it would be nice if the plugin loading process could progress in the background while allowing to use the main PL program already.
Currently, you can trigger the plugin loading manually by going to Edit>Options>Extended>Plug-In Modules and then selecting active - however this only shifts the waiting period from the startup to, perhaps, the coffee break.

[lutz]

Having the plugins loading slowly in the background would still my preferred solution to the startup delay.

Another option would be to give the plugins their own menu (in my opinion they should be seperated from the built-in filters anyhow and would herewith de-clutter the "Filters" menu; [ it would also be nice to have the plugin organization customizable ]).
In this case the comparatively slow plug-in loading procedure would only be started when the user actually visits the "Plugins" menu.

[Koyaanis]

The "what's new" info says this was made better in the latest build of PL, but I don't see any difference. It loads up fast if I close PL then open it a short time later, that info that the program needs still saved in RAM, but it's always been that way in all previous builds. If I boot up PL at a later time or the next day, it's the same 1-2 minute delay, even though I've not added nor changed any of the plugins.

[greenmorpher]

A while back I remarked on the slowness of PL32 loading and Gerhard told me the way to speed it up was to deselect plug-ins in the preferences.

Right now -- I don't seem to have any plug-ins loading at all, regardless of the preference selection. I just tested this, although I actually hadn't missed them since upgrading to v.14 since I don't use esoteric filters much; I almost exclusively edit photos for straight commercial use.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[greenmorpher]

Forgot to mention -- I'm on an Intel Mac, OS X.4.11.

Cheers, geoff

[Gerhard Huber]

We speeded up loading of Plugins in Windows.
My tests with about 200 plugins had no relevant delay and I think there are no good 200 plugins on earth.
So I won't suggest to turn off plugins, but setup only the usefull plugins and loading will have no problem.

Gerhard