'Free Transform' performance crawls to a halt on large files when zoomed in.

[barrycraig]

When working on any reasonably large file the speed of "free transform" slows to the point that it wont even update the preview until I let go of the cursor. If I zoom out of the images and try the rotation it all speeds back up again. I have made a video of the problem here: Slow Free Transform - YouTube

Machine specs as below, using the latest version of CC 2017.

[JJMack]

I think you can install Windows on the machine to see in Windows CC 2017 works any better.

The devel made me write that

[barrycraig]

Update: Performance only drops on layers with an attached layer-mask.

[JJMack]

How big is that layer of yours.  With a 16MP  RAW File 16bit color depth Smart Oject layer with an added layer mask  Free Transform has no performance issue on my Windows 10 machine in CC 2017.

[Earth Oliver]

Yikes, that's a massive slowdown. I just tested this on a mac running 10.10.5 with CC17 and i see the same issue.

Zoomed out, i'm getting 50fps and when i zoom in, the fps drops down to 10.

I have an Nvidia card as well, so maybe someone with an AMD could test and see if it's the same.

[barrycraig]

So I just disconnected my Nvidia card and rolled back to my internal AMD Firepro D300s, I also cleared all of Photoshop's preferences and caches. No difference in performance.

This image is large, but I can see similar results on basically any image over 4000 pixels.

[JJMack]

All I can write is there is no CC 2017 free transform performance problem on my Windows 10 system Transforming a a layer 16,664px x 2416 px that has a layer mask.

[barrycraig]

Can you please try the following:

1. Duplicate the Image layer
2. Add layer mask to duplicated layer
3. Fill mask with black
4. Brush through a small area of white onto the mask
5. Try free transforming and rotating the layer again.

Thank you

[JJMack]

No performance problem

[barrycraig]

thanks for trying that, I suspect it's an issue with Sierra. I don't recall having this issue on El capitan.

[Earth Oliver]

>thanks for trying that, I suspect it's an issue with Sierra. I don't recall having this issue on El capitan.

well, the problem is there in Mavericks too, so i suspect it was there in 10.11.

[barrycraig]

Interesting, I wonder why I never noticed it before. I'm doing a clean install of Sierra on a Macbook later this week so I will try installing Photoshop first, leaving everything default and see if that changes anything.

[JJMack]

You wrote in the beginning when zoomed in.  When zoomed in I can not transform with the transform handles  for all the transform controls are off screen except the Tool option bar fields these can be used without performance problem however, you do not see the off screen layer area till you zoom out. Here is a screen capture of some transforms it took 79 second for a script to make the script duped the masked layer and rotated the duped with a transform, 19 times the whole process took 79 seconds. for a full 360 rotate.

[barrycraig]

I have the same issue if I duplicate a small section of the layer and apply the layer mask to that (see video). That way you can still see the transform handles.

Stamped area - YouTube

[JJMack]

I did not see any performance issue in your video??? At one point it look like the transform was not applied correctly  was not rotated when it should have been.

Try turning off GPU support.

[barrycraig]

In the video, whenever you see a circle around my cursor, that means that a mouse click is active. You can see at about 24 seconds in I try to rotate the free transform, but nothing updates, then about 2 seconds after I release the click the transformation jumps into place. When I zoom out, the rotation is instantaneous. The same is true with trying to move the layer, at 39 seconds I can freely drag the transformation layer but at 43 seconds, after zooming in the layer will not drag, it only jumps into place after a delay of a couple of seconds.

Have tried with GPU support off, but performance does not improve.

[JJMack]

I did what you seem to have done in the video.  I did not have any  problem with rotation performance.  However one thing I notice that happened  on my machine I did not see happen in your video was.  When I was zoomed way in if I rotated the layer with the transform with the mouse dragged the rotation wildly with the mouse not only would the layer rotate at time the image would also be panned some in the window frame

[Earth Oliver]

JJMack, yes, that's what he's been trying to troubleshoot. The performance is fine when zoomed out, but once you zoom in far enough, the frame rate drops quite severely.

[JJMack]

I would think the frame rate would drop for Photoshop seems to be doing more its panning the image and also rotating the layer. However I do not see the panning i see on my machine in his video.