Impressionist plugin: Troubleshooting

[Ken45140]

Craig: thanks. Yes, the Preview button does show a preview. It was completely grey and did not seem to show anything but in fact displayed a tiny portion of the full image. Almost useless unless there is a way to increase the size of the little box that you steer around in the image.

Ken

[DannyRaphael]

[the preview is]...Almost useless unless there is a way to increase the size of the little box that you steer around in the image.

I can sure understand how not having much preview flexibility would be frustrating at this stage while you're trying to absorb all the installed presets and options.

For what it's worth this plugin was developed by Microsoft over 10 years ago for FrontPage 95 and it never received any functional updates. So the preview function is what it is, unfortunately.

There is hope, however. If it turns out you start using Impressionist on a regular basis, quirks and limitations are easier to overlook and results are easier to predict, hence less of a need for the preview.

Something to try: Experiment on relatively small, low-res images, say in the ballpark of 8"x10" and 72-120 ppi or so. Rendering times should be fairly short, which should make the discovery process a more pleasant experience.

[mdijb]

Impressionist crashes

I am using impressionist in Elements 2, on a mac and virtual PC. My file is 18mb, 7x10 inches at 300dpi. When selecting aportion of the image, running a filter is OK, but when trying on the whole image, the sytem repeated freezes. I tried reducing to 200 dpi, and decreasing to 4x5 inches, but still get freezes. Any solution? Is there a size or dpi limit I am exceeding?

MDIJB

[Craig Walters]

ken,

yes, you only get a small portion of the main window showing in the preview box. you also have to update the preview manually each time you make a change. you can move what portion of the preview shows by moving the little blue box outline in the other window and then hit preview again. but, if there is any 'fault' with impressionist, this is it, the preview window stuff. it needs to be bigger and in real time.

craig

[DannyRaphael]

I am using impressionist in Elements 2, on a mac and virtual PC. My file is 18mb, 7x10 inches at 300dpi. When selecting aportion of the image, running a filter is OK, but when trying on the whole image, the sytem repeated freezes. I tried reducing to 200 dpi, and decreasing to 4x5 inches, but still get freezes. Any solution? Is there a size or dpi limit I am exceeding?

MDIJB

On a 7"x10" 300 ppi image Impresisionist chugs along pretty slow on a PC, but it does eventually finish.

I would surmise the freezes you are experiencing are caused by an "out of RAM" condition that is causing Mac OS and/or Windows under Virtual PC to choke.

Things to try if you haven't already...
* If you're running other applications, shut them down before launching Elements.
* If you can adjust how much RAM a program can use under Mac OS, you might bump that value up.
* Keep experimenting with image resolution and dimensions. (I'd start with 125-150 ppi and keep notching it down from there.) When you find a combination that survives, up-res the image in steps after applying Impressionist to your final print resolution. What will make this a little hit-and-miss is the resources (CPU, RAM) Impressionist uses is a function of which options are specified during a given run.

Keep us posted if any of this helps.

~Danny~

[mdijb]

Continued frustration with Impressionist

Thanks Danny for all your suggestons. I allocated the maximum memory to Virtual painter and PSE as possible and made a little progress but then the freezes keep occuring. I also tried all the hints for given to keep strokes small, and the time required to process was forever, and the results are still too destructive for my tastes.

I guess I stick to the painting software I have and try to get success with that.

Thanks for your help.

MDIJB

[sylvia1065]

Try this:
Ctrl Alt Del, Processes, select Photoshop, right-click on it and select "set priority: high, OK.
That will give much more power to Photoshop.
Good luck,

[DannyRaphael]

Try this:
Ctrl Alt Del, Processes, select Photoshop, right-click on it and select "set priority: high, OK.
That will give much more power to Photoshop.
Good luck,

This is facinating, so I had to give this a try.

I applied a custom preset that I know runs real slow multiple times against the same. Here are the results. Times at each setting are averages of 3 runs on a PC with 1.4 Mhz CPU and 1 GB RAM, running Windows 2000 SP4, Photoshop 7 and a few inactive sessions of Internet Explorer:
...Time...-.Priority Setting via Task Manager
* 78 sec - Normal
* 75 sec - High
* 73 sec - Realtime (note: PS get priority over moving mouse!)

I was hoping for a bigger improvement than 4%-6%, but it is what it is. Everyones' system is going to be different, so results will vary.

It was fun experimenting. You learn something new everyday. Thanks for sharing this tidbit.

~Danny~

[sylvia1065]

Hi Danny,
Well, I suppose it depends on how many programs are running in the background. I always have at least 4 or 5 programs open at the same time, and giving Photoshop priority over all of them does make a difference.
Sylvia

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Danny,
Well, I suppose it depends on how many programs are running in the background. I always have at least 4 or 5 programs open at the same time, and giving Photoshop priority over all of them does make a difference.
Sylvia

I'm not disputing your report at all. My tests confirmed your suggestion: Raising Photoshop's priority does make a difference.

In my case the difference wasn't particularly significant. In your case it is, and that's terrific. Under the right circumstances your suggestion will surely benefit many folks who surf here.

re: Well, I suppose it depends on how many programs are running in the background.

I was talking this over with a tech-jock friend. Here's a paraphrase of how he explained it to me. Keep in mind this a 30 minute techno-babble discussion summed up in a few paragraphs.

To some degree the number of programs running in the background can be a factor, but what usually eats your lunch is all those other processes [tasks] such as spyware and virus watchers which continually utilize processor resources and incur Windows overhead.

If you open Task Manager when you're not doing anything, the CPU utilization should be fairly low. [In my case it bounces between 1%-4%]. You will see the value change as Windows services the running tasks and chews up some resources for itself. When you launch a CPU intensive process such as Impressionist, CPU utilization pegs at 100% until the filter completes doing its thing. Photoshop is getting most of the CPU, but not all of it. Windows gives a little to all the other tasks as well.

Increasing Photoshop's processing priority starves the other processes and at the same time lowers Windows overhead, including things like task switching, memory management and what's known as paging.

Your [my] unscientific results indicate when given more CPU resources, Photoshop got the job done in ~4% less time, which correlates to system idle resource utilization on your [my] PC.

The most benefit from raising Photoshop's priority will most likely be seen on systems with some combination of low RAM in terms of Windows' and/or program needs (more paging = longer wait time), relatively slow disk drives (slower throughput), fragmented disk drives (slows down Windows paging and PS swap file activity) and/or a lot of concurrent background processes.

That and three bucks might get you a latte at Starbucks.

In any event your suggestion was a good one, Sylvia. It sure can't hurt to try it.

~Danny~

[sylvia1065]

Hi Danny,
It looks like you had a "good time" with that technician friend of yours!

Here's a paraphrase of how he explained it to me. Keep in mind this a 30 minute techno-babble discussion summed up in a few paragraphs.

lol
Sylvia

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Danny,
It looks like you had a "good time" with that technician friend of yours!

lol
Sylvia

Actually my head hurt when we were done. I get pretty numb after a few minutes of such one-sided conversations. I was surprised that I wrote semi-made sense (to me) when I finished! (LOL)

[Janet Petty]

Re: Impressionist plugin: Troubleshooting

This might be the wrong place to post this; but I thought I'd jump in with a tidbit I've discovered.

I've not been around much for a few months for several reasons, not the least of which is that my old computer (and good friend) was slowly dying.

Now with its death and subsequent replacement, I find that the Impressionist plug-in no longer works in Photoshop CS4 on a 64-bit machine running Windows Vista.

Also be aware that the lightening fast 64-bit computers that run this new Photoshop will also make obsolete a lot of the other plug-ins we all know and love to use.

Sign me still getting used to a machine that actually performs well, doesn't hang up for hours, and a monitor without huge white holes all over it, a sound system that actually produces sound (quite a shock I might add), and lots of little differences I'm still getting used to. I'm also poorer that I used to be (oh yeah).

Merry Christmas all.

Janet

[Alcar]

Re: Impressionist plugin: Troubleshooting

Janet, I've been thinking of upgrading my computer, but your post now has given me second thoughts. Do you think the culprit (re Impressionist Plugin) is with Vista, CS4, or simply both?
Alan

[DannyRaphael]

Re: Impressionist plugin: Troubleshooting

I find that the Impressionist plug-in no longer works in Photoshop CS4 on a 64-bit machine running Windows Vista.

I had a report that Impressionist under CS4 under Vista (32-bit) works fine; now we know for sure 64-bit is a problem for my favorite plugin.

FYI: It's been reported elsewhere that Paint Engine has issues with Vista, too.