Product commentary / Suggestion

Help & Support
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  1. Commentary: I've been using DOpus for many years. While I don't make it Windows' default "explorer", I use it regularly and value its power & versatility greatly. Keep up the good work.

  2. Does (or can) the "Convert Image..." function-set accessible from the context menu (in the context of a Lister window when the mouse pointer is floating over an image file) support and use acceleration via a Window's system's discrete graphics -- e.g., popular NVIDIA graphics card(s) -- if the system has such graphics properly installed? If that DOpus function-set currently can support use of such discrete graphics, what if any DOpus-side settings must be changed for such support to be activated? If not, I suggest GPSoft (or any graphics engine developer GPSoft partners w/for this function) consider adding such support into a future build. While the "Convert Image..." function-set is intentionally and appropriately limited, its accessibility from w/in DOpus is a boon, and users like me could still benefit from substantially greater conversion speed if use of discrete graphics is currently unsupported but could provide that additional speed if supported.

Thx,
Mike

P.S. I'm currently running DOpus on a Samsung Model NP500P4C-S02US laptop running Windows 8.1 Pro w/Media Center. The laptop contains a Core i5-3210M CPU w/Intel HD Graphics 4000, Ivy Bridge Chipset 8 GB of installed physical RAM, and an NVIDIA GT GeForce 630M dedicated graphics. I have GeForce drivers installed, with associated NVIDIA Control Panel & System Tray GPU Activity Icon activated. I see no evidence in the icon's appearance and associated tooltip text that DOpus is using the GPU either generally or during a "Convert Image..." function-set task I frequently perform ("Rotate"). Furthermore, within the program-specific settings available from within NVIDIA Control Panel, I see a long list of programs in the applicable drop-down list -- a subset of all applications I have installed on the system -- but no evidence of DOpus within that list. (Corresponding default setting for graphics hardware is "Auto-select" via NVIDIA Optimus Technology.)

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  1. Thanks. :slight_smile:

  2. Parts of it may, depending on Windows and the graphics drivers, but I would not expect basic image conversion to have much need for GPUs. Most of the time is taken up by decoding and encoding the images, and AFAIK there are no libraries for e.g. PNG compression using a GPU. Rotation in Opus is limited to 90 degrees (or multiples) and that kind of rotation is incredibly quick via a CPU and has no real reason to be done on a GPU. Scaling can benefit from a GPU, and the GPU may be used to scale images if Windows decides to. (This may also depend on the type of image, as different image data is passed through different scaling APIs. e.g. Images with alpha channels need to use a more advanced scaling method.) Even if the GPU was used there it would only be used for a split second, and most of the time would still be spent reading and writing the files, so you would not see much GPU activity in your meter.

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Thx for the ~immediate reply!

After I posted, I realized that the slowness I'm experiencing associated w/rotation task probably is unrelated to the graphics hardware allocation. I also see that text in the DOpus's progress Window indicates that the actual operation consuming the vast majority of time is the File Save operation following the Rotation operation.

Here's a sample rotation+saving speed comparison -- same image, 90deg clockwise. In DOpus, "Total" time reported is time to complete entire Rotation+Save task; in the other apps, "Total" is sum of times for discrete Rotation and Save tasks (w/the latter to a new file name, in an attempt to avoid providing the other apps w/a potential "unfair" advantage). I determined completion of the Save task in the other apps based upon in-progress updates in a DOpus Lister / Viewer Pane.

  1. DOpus: Rotation...0:01.96 ; Total...5:43.
  2. Hyperionics HyperSnap v8.06.02 (64-bit): Rotation...0:05.04 ; Total...0:52.
  3. Kolor XNView v2.3.3...0:02.56 ; Total...0:57.

FYI, original test file is 65.4 MB PNG comprising 10057 x 6458 x 32-bit-depth image. In each test, target file format is also PNG (i.e., no transcoding should be required, and "Convert:" is unchecked -- as is every other Option except for "Rotate:" -- in "Convert Image..." dialog). Original and target file locations are identical -- a folder on a SATA3 SSD in a SATA3-to-USB3-external enclosure, attached to one of the laptop's USB3 ports via a USB3 cable.

Any idea why Save associated w/DOpus rotation operation appears to be so much slower than corresponding discrete (post-rotation) Saves from the other two apps? Any idea how I can enhance DOpus' performance?

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What are the filesizes? Opus may be compressing the PNG more.