Plugin loading slowing down program initialization...

Hiya folks...

Using XX5 here.

Was just noticing lately how long XX5 takes to load in and initialize completely. It's a LONG time in comparison. In comparison to what? you ask... In comparison to not using any external plug-ins.

I'm curious to know if there's a reasonable cap on plug-in usage or not?
And if it's at all possible to get XX to simply 'index' a person's plug-in list/paths and load that... then, if needed, the actual plug-ins can be initialized. I don't always use plug-ins. Is it really necessary to have XX initialize ALL the plug-ins BEFORE the program can be run?

I think this is an important issue to make note of. Because as it is, XX5 takes several minutes to start up and initialize for me. It's starting to annoy me i don't mind saying. Is it just me or is anyone else having an issue with this?

Any thoughts/help on this would be muchly appreciated.

Thanks folks.

Mark...

HI Mark, I've got XXP5 and it doesn't load live effects until I click on the icon and the 'new' button (I've got loads of 3rd party plug-ins btw). Are you sure it's LE loading causing the delay?

I confirm this too. The LE's and plugins I setup in the program options are not loaded until I select the plugin icon and the the 'new' button.
At this point there is a delay which corresponds to the qty of 3rd part plugins I have asked Xtreme to load.
There is no difference with the time it takes for Xtreme to open in the first place.

Well that's strange then... i'm gonna have to look to see if there's a setting in the page options that makes the app not load plug-ins upon initializing.

Guys i just started XX and it opened in less than 5 seconds... now i understand fully what the issue here is... the app is only pre-initializing plug-ins when it's opening an existing Xara file... i.e. it's simply scanning the file to see if there are any plug-ins that it needs to load to render the contents of the file.

Krap! That pretty much then means there's nothing can be done about this... even though the files i'm opening don't HAVE any plug-in effects in them.... Xara still has to read through the file to find that out. And that's where the long delay is taking place.

Aaah well... maybe one day soon Xara will address this issue with a simple reorganization of the code... like putting this info at the head of the code so Xara doesn't have to search the entire file. If that makes any sense.

Thanks for the input anyway guys, it helped me realize where i was 'assuming' incorrectly.

Have a good one.
Mark...

I'm not sure that's right either Mark.
Opening a .xar which has LE's (or used thrid party plugins) will cause a delay while the LE's used in the file are loaded and the effect re rendered, but opening file which does not is much much faster.
Also note that if you have closed the application with opened galleries, it will re open them on start - so a scan of gallery content also takes place.

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Aaah well... maybe one day soon Xara will address this issue with a simple reorganization of the code... like putting this info at the head of the code so Xara doesn't have to search the entire file. If that makes any sense.

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I think we can assume that the Xara developers know a little about what they do Mark ;)

Mark the registry entry is
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Xara\XtremePro\5.1\Opti ons\Plug-ins\ParseAtStartup

Change the value from 1 to 0 and Xtreme 5 will not read the plugins during initialization.

Yes I also saw that Bill, but it seems to make no difference though.
Plugins are not parsed until you press the 'new' button after selecting the plugin tool. You can see the action in the status bar (especially if you have lots of plugins).
On or Off the load time of Xtreme remains the same as far as it is possible to tell.

Perhaps the default template or one of the files in the Brushes directory is using one or more live effects?

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Originally Posted by sledger

Yes I also saw that Bill, but it seems to make no difference though.
Plugin-ins are not parsed until you press the 'new' button after selecting the plugin tool. You can see the action in the status bar (especially if you have lots of plugins).
On or Off the load time of Xtreme remains the same as far as it is possible to tell.

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That is one of several registry keys that seem to be ignored by Xtreme. :(

Another victim of deprecation.

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Originally Posted by sledger

Another victim of deprecation.

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LOL:D
How can something, that was never even officialy announced, be deprecated? ;)

Internal deprecation. Gives you developer type people legacy compatibility while bringing new some code into compliance ;)
( I make this stuff up as I go along John :p :D )

Ha, ha! Indeed. :D
Well, the registry keys may have or have not any meaning for users. Anyway, they are not documented so you should not generally assume what are they supposed to do. In many cases they are not what they look like. ;)

Hi again guys...

Thanks a lot for all this attention to my issue. I appreciate it.
And thanks for John taking the time to check this out too.

Guys i know the issue lies with the plug-in effects because the application tells me so. While loading, it says in the bottom left corner of the status bar that it's "gathering list of live effects". This is where the long delay occurs.

The .xar file is 8.5 MB. It's a Website. Maybe it's just a case of this file being very large for a Xara file and i'm not use to waiting that long for a Xara file to be opened? I think i'm spoiled from the old days. LOL

Mark...

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Originally Posted by Mark (theKeeper)

The .xar file is 8.5 MB. It's a Website. I think i'm spoiled from the old days. LOL
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Xtreme wasn't a WYSIWYG Website builder in the 'old days'.
I should think any 8.5mb .xar file would have loaded slowly in the 'old days' too.
Would you like to attach the file so we can check which/if LE's are being used?

Mark, does it take as long if you open small files? Or is it that long only with this, or similarly large designs?
Plug-ins initialisation may take a lot of time indeed. But it has to be done.
You may notice this process on opening Photoshop. Takes ages to initialize all of them.

Hello,

did you ever though it may be the "check for internet updates" for Video help library or program itself ? :eek:
Try with an internet connection prober to see if the application is searching for somthing on a remote site...

Regards

antimix

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Originally Posted by covoxer

Mark, does it take as long if you open small files? Or is it that long only with this, or similarly large designs?
Plug-ins initialisation may take a lot of time indeed. But it has to be done.
You may notice this process on opening Photoshop. Takes ages to initialize all of them.

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No, you're correct John. It's mainly with larger files i've come to notice now. And yes, it IS an unfortunate necessary evil. I'm OK with it now.

sledger ::

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Would you like to attach the file so we can check which/if LE's are being used?

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It's not using any. But you're spot on about an 8.5mb Xara file taking a little longer to open... old or NEW. LOL

antimix :: it's nothing to do with the update checker. I can see the app telling me it's trying to find any applicable plug-ins when it loads the file. But thank you for your suggestion just the same.

I appreciate everyone's time in sorting this out for me.

Have a good one peeps.

peace