Support for Apple M1 Processor

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NikonZ
Posts: 1
Joined: 21.11.2021 23:29

Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by NikonZ »

I recently upgraded my laptop to an Apple Macbook Pro with the M1 PRO processor. Helicon Focus seems to work, but it is incredibly SLOW. Definately slower than my old 2012 Intel based MBP. Since I have one of the faster laptop currently being made I expected the performance of Helicon Focus to improve, not degrade. I was wondering if there are any plans to make Helicon Focus M1 compatible?
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Catherine
Posts: 1163
Joined: 29.04.2019 22:38

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by Catherine »

It's very odd for your M1 Pro system to be slower than a 2012 MBP, I'm inclined to say this can't be (certainly not unless there's a malfunction of some kind). Did you actually compare the speed using the same images, or are you comparing your current work to the MBP speed you remember from a while ago? In the latter case it's likely that your images were smaller and did require fewer CPU cycles to process, but either way Helicon Focus shouldn't be slow on your new system. First of all, please run the benchmark (menu - Preferences - Performance) and let us know the score you get. And then, get the Helicon Focus 8 beta which does support M1 and M1 Pro, and turn on OpenCL acceleration. But before that, it might be interesting to see the non-OpenCL benchmark score from the version 8, too. I certainly hope it's faster.

https://www.heliconsoft.com/downloads/H ... s8Beta.dmg
RCinNJ
Posts: 5
Joined: 07.11.2021 20:49

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by RCinNJ »

I'm not the original poster but seeing this I did what you asked and the results do not look very good to me-- unless shorter is better. I recently upgraded to a new MacBook Pro 16" with the M1 Processor, 10 cores, 32 GB of Ram. New to HeliconFocus, but I did recently purchase a license. It was very slow on my old MacBook Pro and I was hoping for a big improvement. It is faster, but not that fast. However, I had nothing to compare it to. A score of 212 doesn't seem that good to me.

I attempted to attach a .pdf of the results but I get the message this is an unsupported file format!? What is supported?

I had posted another question some days ago, that has not been answered yet, about getting a message that "The cache folder could not be created" and asked what I should do to create one. I don't know if performant would improve if I can solve this.
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Catherine
Posts: 1163
Joined: 29.04.2019 22:38

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by Catherine »

Try running the benchmark on a cold computer, I mean literally - turn it off and let it cool down and then turn it on and run the benchmark (try it first thing in the morning, for example). And don't open any other applications. The score is low either because the hardware warmed up and reduced the operating frequency (in order to stay cool), or because other applications are consuming some of the resources.

We've allowed attaching PDF files (previously, image files and archives were supported). And I've replied to your previous post, sorry it's a late reply - forum is not the best way to get tech support quickly (the best way is sending a bug report from the software itself, or using the contact form on our website).
Phil_Soon
Posts: 1
Joined: 08.06.2021 19:45

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by Phil_Soon »

I was getting very slow stacking performance from my M1 Mac Mini when I exported from LR as DNG. But when exporting as TIFF the speed change is night and day.
Here’s my figures: 48 NIKON Z5 NEF files, each file approx 27MB
Exported to Helicon Focus as DNG, rendering time - 3mins 54.09sec
Exported to Helicon Focus as TIFF, rendering time - 16.10sec. That about 14x faster. I ran the tests again after a reboot of the computer and the results are consistent regardless of whether I start the test with TIFF or DNG.
So if I want to only work in raw then I have to export as DNG to be able to save the output as DNG and have to put up with the performance penalty?
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Catherine
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Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by Catherine »

You can only save the result as DNG (which is a raw format) if all the sources are in raw format. But you don't have to export your photos to DNG using some other software, you can directly open NEF files in Helicon Focus.
Raw processing is always slower, but 14x difference seems a bit too drastic. Make sure that parallel image loading is enabled (preferences - Performance), and that both the source folder (where the source images are) and the cache folder are on an SSD drive. If you're loading from HDD, from network, from a slow thumb drive etc. - the slow media speed will limit how fast the input files can be read and decoded.
olfu42
Posts: 3
Joined: 08.08.2023 10:46

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by olfu42 »

Thanks @phil_soon . Tried rendering with TIFF files instead of DNGs and it is really more than 10times faster. Retouching still slow as h*ll. (M2 MAX).
shutterbug
Posts: 39
Joined: 17.12.2022 15:14

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by shutterbug »

When using RAW files as a source you have to consider that Helicon needs demosaiced files to work with, so the RAW files are prerendered via the Adobe DNG Converter when you initially start the stacking process.
You'll see the Adobe DNG Converter pop up in the dock for each conversion that's taking place.
The higher the resolution of the RAW file the longer it will take for each individual RAW file to be rendered and that can add up quickly. It's less noticeably for smaller resolutions but for bigger files you'll notice that it slows down.
But once pre-rendered and in the cache the stacks are extremely fast, you can change the parameters around and it'll render within seconds.

Personally I have found that I don't need to convert the files to DNG before stacking them. I just drag the RAW files directly into Helicon Focus and it works. They have to be rendered with the Adobe DNG Converter either way and the results are actually noticeably sharper.


Keep in mind that Adobe DNG Converter gets updated about 4-5 times a year but doesn't notify you about updates. So you should check whether your version is the most recent, that too will make a difference.


The only "issue" I notice is that Helicon Focus seems to send the images in batches of 6 (?) and then it takes the program a few seconds to send the next batch. At least that's what it looks like, maybe that could be changed/improved/sped up.
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Catherine
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Joined: 29.04.2019 22:38

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by Catherine »

The batch size is determined by the number of CPU cores available.

There was definitely an issue with retouching that we have fixed in the latest update (8.2.7). Although one person reported that they still experience slow retouching, we're not yet sure what's up with that, waiting for more info.
shutterbug
Posts: 39
Joined: 17.12.2022 15:14

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by shutterbug »

Catherine wrote: 25.08.2023 12:31 The batch size is determined by the number of CPU cores available.

Ah!! That's good to know! Thanks for sharing that!
The only potential issue I could see in that is the difference between performance cores and efficiency cores because I'm "only" seeing between 60% and 80% of CPU load during those rendering phases and most of that is at 62-75% range. Maybe the two efficiency cores aren't tasked?

I'm not sure whether that's possible but perhaps the GPU cores could also be used for that?
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Catherine
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Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by Catherine »

You'd have to ask the Adobe DNG developers whether they can support GPU for raw conversion.

As for CPU utilization, it's hard to get right because each instance of the DNG converter is not entirely single-threaded. Also, the last time we've had really good CPU utilization people were complaining about the UI being unresponsive.
shutterbug
Posts: 39
Joined: 17.12.2022 15:14

Re: Support for Apple M1 Processor

Post by shutterbug »

Catherine wrote: 25.08.2023 17:29 You'd have to ask the Adobe DNG developers whether they can support GPU for raw conversion.

As for CPU utilization, it's hard to get right because each instance of the DNG converter is not entirely single-threaded. Also, the last time we've had really good CPU utilization people were complaining about the UI being unresponsive.
Excellent points, well taken!
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