Rendering Speed FF5; iMac Retina

Does anyone other than me find many of the filters render unbearably slowly on Mac? I'm using the latest version of FF5, but this has been true for awhile through several versions. I guess I could name the ones that run reeeeeaaaly slowly, but just in general I find all but the most basic filters pretty slow. I'm not running slow hardware by any means - Mac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014); 4 GHz Intel Core i7; 24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3; AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB.

I know it's not the fastest but it's no turtle either. Does anyone have any suggestions. I guess I'm just frustrated because I love this pgm but use it less and less becasue of its (non)speed.

Or, maybe I'm just underestimating how long it should take to render. I do pretty complex graphics, I guess.

Could folks give me an idea of what they see as "average" rendering speed for a particular filter and whatever size file you want so I could compare my speed? I'd appreciate it

Jeff

Jeff, please take a look at the relevant forum thread:
https://filterforge.com/forum/read.php?FID=5&TID=11020

The most significant speed factor is suboptimal filter design. For common effects, you may be able to find filters that produce similar results but greatly varying render times.

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Thanks to both! Although I was a little put off by the "Refrain fr om bitching on the forums" comment, I will try the suggestions in the rest of the post.

haha. That doesn't apply here. There were really obnoxious people back then that would just write irritated responses and nothing could help them despite the best efforts.

The "combine in photoshop" technique is a very advanced technique which purposely pushes you to do part of what FilterForge may be too slow at.

For example, in some of my filters (see example image below), I apply a curves adjustment before outputting the result. This gives the filter a nice special touch of color. However, the truth is, it's absolutely unnecessary if you understand that you can do this in Photoshop alone. The point is, the basis of this entire filter is much complete at some stage, just enough so that I can ignore the rest of the filter and reapply the effects myself. Ultimately, this method lacks convenience, and it does take significant level of skill to understand what's happening... it may be hardly recommended for everybody. I'm just putting it down as an idea that can be explored regardless.

In the case with Artistic:Deep Cube 4, there are significant number of image processes going on. It isn't my filter, but as far as I've looked there are 4 particle bombers, a lot of bit-map based components (which tend to be slow), and some post processing via more bitmap components. The output is fantastic, but the overall filter will be slow. *Personal note: it seems like Ramyln (author) should add a bypass node somewh ere to help with the render times. I think some of the post-bomber phase can be done in Photoshop as well.*

Render times are relative to each system. However, I think the FilterForge library has a threshold render time for submissions. If it takes too long to render on the default 600x600, I think it bounces you back that it can't be submitted. It's been a while since my last filter upload... so I can't tell what the numbers were.

Personally, I never submit filters that take longer than 40 seconds to render on a default 600x600 machine. So that's been my benchmark that I think helps most people actually finish rendering even on a relatively large image. Then again, everybody else seems to have their own idea of how fast a filter should be. Part of it can't be controlled anyway due tot he software.

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So regretably you have to have a huge patience with FF with the filters that are more slow, and is not only to render the final image, also happens the same many times just for the 600x600 preview while experimenting with the settings

I feel like part of the "slow" issue is the way you use FilterForge. A lot of times, it becomes this one-stop-shop for effects and textures when it should be part of your workflow. It's not the end-all solution to your needs and wants. I argue that FilterForge is just part of the creative workflow. Although either way it's sometimes a sluggish program.

The ultra tip is: if you can do it manually, do it manually. Don't wait on things that you don't need to.