Execution time - workflow efficiency

[tomczak]

There are transformations that are more computationally intensive than others. But how much time/memory is spent on switching between transformations: saving previous output, loading new transformation, opening the previous output, and probably something else), versus executing transformations themselves?

Is it faster to run a single somewhat complicated transformation than several much simpler ones?

[jsachs]

Switching between transformations is fast. Executing a transformation takes the bulk of the time, although in some cases there can be a performance hit from color management. Disabling color management of thumbnails definitely makes updating the image browser much faster.

All other things being equal, a single transformation that does the same thing as several simpler ones should be faster.

[tomczak]

Disabling color management of thumbnails definitely makes updating the image browser much faster

This is an understatement - disabling colour mgmt for thumbnails speeded things up exponentially! Thanks!

Plus the new recalculations fix adds to it. Awesome.

[tomczak]

I'm still amazed by how much turning off colour management for thumbnails improved the speed of recalculations. I tried other things to accomplish that, but their effectiveness pale in comparison.

I was thinking that it may be worth pointing it out for posterity by either adding a note/warning in the Colour Mgmt Settings and/or emphasizing it in Help.

[jsachs]

For the next release, I changed the default setting of Color Manage Thumbnails to No, although this will not affect current installations. I also added an entry under General Tips in the help file.