Apple MacBook m2 pro 2023

[jazzy1997]

Hello I've tried sending a email to support but not sure it sent correctly as the site glitched with an error.

Ive recently bought the above and ordered the helicon focus software, its all installed but it seems crazy slow, retouching is impossible as its so clunky moving the cursor, I've be into the performance setting and changed OpenCL to the M2 pro option in the drop down menu I assume that's correct?

Am I doing something wrong or missing something or is it that the computer just not up to it? photoshop and Lightroom etc run super fast with no issues I also tried a trial of another stacking software and that seemed to work with no issues

any advice appreciated please

[Rune Lind]

I have the same issue with a m1 mac
And I also see that Helicon runs as "Intel" and not Apple when I look in Activity Monitor which can explain the bad performance.

[Catherine]

Hello, yes, we've got your message from the website, not sure what's with the error message as it worked. We're investigating the problem you described.

And I also see that Helicon runs as "Intel" and not Apple when I look in Activity Monitor which can explain the bad performance.

We're still trying to find out what affects the problem and what triggers it, but this is definitely not the reason. We don't have any advice or solutions yet, but it seems that the issue only manifests on high resolution monitors. So working in reduced resolution might be a temporary workaround. We will fix the issue with high resolution as soon as we have enough information to understand what the problem actually is.

[jazzy1997]

Hello Catherine, I got your email and will send the info later when i get chance to test

[olfu42]

Agree, retouching is insanely slow. "Running" it on a M2 Max (38 Core GPU). Will wait to buy until it's fixed.

Maybe port it to Apple Silicon and replace OpenCL with Metal?

[Catherine]

The slow retouching issue should be fixed in the new version 8.2.7: https://www.heliconsoft.com/downloads/HeliconFocus.dmg

[olfu42]

I already used HeliconFocus version 8.2.7 and it is not fixed.

[bingalls]

I just upgraded my Mac from an Intel 2019 iMac to an MacBook Pro M3 Pro silicon. Doing a get info shows the app running as an Intel app, not Apple.

I have Helicon Focus Pro version 8.2.11 Pro
I have gone into the settings and chosen "Apple M3 Pro" for OpenCL. Restarted the app.
Then I am greeted by a dialog saying....

"Failed to initialize OpenCL acceleration. Please make sure to run the latest version of Helicon Focus and update MacOS to be able to use OpenCL hardware acceleration."

Thoughts?

Any plans to make a M silicon native version of the app?

Thank you.

[Catherine]

Yes, it is an Intel app. This is not related to the problem with OpenCL. We simply don't support M3 yet because it's a new GPU, not compatible with M1/M2. We will support it as soon as we get an M3 system.

Yes, we will also eventually make a native version, it will not bring any benefits, that's why we're not in a hurry to do that.

[webline]

I run an Apple M2 Max MacBook Pro and I'm using Helicon Focus for many years now. From my perspective the stability of the app has been better and it is giving me more trouble as before.

Currently (Mac Sonoma 14.4, but also with previous OS releases on my M2 MacBook) I'm not able to use OpenCL:

"Failed to initialize OpenCL acceleration.
Please make sure to run the latest version of Helicon Focus and update macOS to be able to use OpenCL hardware acceleration."

And so Helicon is very, very slow. I'm using Adobe DNG Converter Version 16.2.0.1763. If I use the DNG converter directly to convert the RAW files it takes less then a second for 10 files. Using Helicon and waiting for the start of the stacking process we talk about several minutes.

And then after a long, long time I run into:

"The save file operation failed.
The save file operation failed to connect to the open and save panel service."

I think currently Helicon is the most unstable app on my Mac and I really like the software.

[Catherine]

Hello,

Let me reply in order.
1. 14.4 just came out, and Apple very conveniently requires us to make changes to the software with every minor OS release in order for OpenCL to work. We have just updated Helicon Focus for 14.4 - please download and install the new version: https://www.heliconsoft.com/downloads/HeliconFocus.dmg

2. A couple minutes sound like a lot, but we do not control how quickly the Adobe DNG converter works. Also, when you just run the converter as a standalone application, I'm not sure that you get a linear DNG, i. e. after debayering. Helicon Focus requires debayering to be done and it can be a lengthy operation. Check the size of the produced DNG files. If the DNG files produced by standalone Adobe DNG converter in your experiment are significantly smaller than DNG file saved by Helicon Focus after rendering the same images, then indeed the DNG converter did not run debayering and that why it ran fast.

3. The new version should solve that as well, but if not - let me know.

[Klinke]

I run an Apple M2 Max MacBook Pro and I'm using Helicon Focus for many years now. From my perspective the stability of the app has been better and it is giving me more trouble as before.

Currently (Mac Sonoma 14.4, but also with previous OS releases on my M2 MacBook) I'm not able to use OpenCL:

"Failed to initialize OpenCL acceleration.
Please make sure to run the latest version of Helicon Focus and update macOS to be able to use OpenCL hardware acceleration."

And so Helicon is very, very slow. I'm using Adobe DNG Converter Version 16.2.0.1763. If I use the DNG converter directly to convert the RAW files it takes less then a second for 10 files. Using Helicon and waiting for the start of the stacking process we talk about several minutes.

And then after a long, long time I run into:

"The save file operation failed.
The save file operation failed to connect to the open and save panel service."

I think currently Helicon is the most unstable app on my Mac and I really like the software.

I am running the M2 Ultra and I am nearly satisfied with Helicon Focus.

The Adobe DNG Converter is what makes it that slow - and I do have the same problem here - but the advantage of DNG is too big to change to others.
All you can do is 'read' your files from a fast (build in) SSD ... that helps a little bit.

As Catherine mentored the do have to bring out an update after every Apple update to make Open CL work again - but normally that doesn't take longer than a day.

[webline]

14.4 just came out, and Apple very conveniently requires us to make changes to the software with every minor OS release in order for OpenCL to work

Sorry - this is no valid argument. Apple doesn't change the API of OpenCL with every release and you have access to the Beta release of each and every OS version. So no need to wait until the final is out.

Just tested with 20 NEF images (Nikon NEF, 8256x5504px) on my MacBook Pro M2 Max, 64GB RAM with a fast SSD - with OpenCL on (works!):

14s until the first image shows up in Helicon
2:36m for the rendering of 20 raw images using Adobe
1:58m using the OSX RAW converter
1:33m integrated draw-Loader

3sec if I convert them to tiff myself before importing them into Helicon. There is something wrong with your implementation. Helicon was much faster with my last Intel based Mac and I'm using Helicon since 2013 - so I do have some experience... Currently the only option to use Helicon is to convert the images to TIFF before importing them into Helicon. I need to adjust my workflow - the results Helicon delivers are still perfect.

[Catherine]

Comparing tiff with DNG is pointless. Convert the source images to linear (debayered) DNG and then time it, then it would be a correct benchmark. And select "DNG loader" instead of raw-in-dng-out as the decoder. A quick way could be to export images as DNG from Lightroom/Capture One.

We're not aware of any discrepancies in performance between Intel and Apple silicon systems, and have no reason to believe that performance is not where it should be (i. e. that it's bound by something other than the hardware). Were you processing the same 45 MP raw images on your previous Intel Mac?

[webline]

Hi,

I really don't understand what you try to argue for. The RAW file support is simply not working at all. I tested all different RAW decoder available in Helicon - not only one as you suggest.

If for your taste the "performance is where it should be" for 2:36 minutes with RAW files compared to 3 seconds with TIFF files ... ok - fine

However - it is very obvious that the performance of Helicon when using RAW files is not even close to be usable IMHO. Since I got a workaround I'm fine. And yes - I agree: using DNGs with Helicon on a M2 Mac is pointless. But I think this discussion is leading nowhere. I can not use RAW files with Helicon that's a fact and you try to convince me that everything is fine - if you have a M2 Mac running the 20 images in less then 10s there is something wrong with my setup. If you experience 2:36m as I do: there is something wrong with the app - simple.