[disregard, mostly] bug: opening large files is slow in linx (but not windows)

[clepsydrae]

I inserted a 15GB file (24bit wav) in windows and it popped right up (the peaks weren't done immediately, of course, just talking about getting back to the arrange view). In linux it took several minutes before the file open dialog closed, apparently hanging while reaper scanned through the entire file.

Seems like a bug. Or is there some underlying OS reason this needs to happen?

edit: There is a test file here... it's only 16MB compressed, and 15GB uncompressed (it's just a silent .wav file, hence the extreme compression.)

[clepsydrae]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

A 15GB what? Video file?

Sorry, left out info -- edited first post.

15GB audio file (gigantic 24bit wav). I can check for difference re: peak prefs, but it shouldn't matter since they should be generated (or not) after inserting the clip, no? This freezes at the file open dialog (i.e. when you click "open" the dialog doesn't go anywhere, whereas on windows you go right back to the responsive arrange view while the peaks are generated in the background.)

[JamesPeters]

Peak preferences for video may matter and that's why I mentioned it. Yes that is a huge WAV file. I never deal with files that size, even video. I wouldn't be able to help test this as a result (sorry!)

[clepsydrae]

Yeah it's not like it's a common case :-), but wherever the bug lies it should be addressed...

In case you or anyone would like to try it, there is a test file here... it's only 16MB compressed, and 15GB uncompressed (it's just a silent .wav file, hence the extreme compression.)

[JamesPeters]

Confirmed. It's doing the same thing on my system, using Mint 20.04 XFCE.

I then turned off the option to show peaks for media items and tried importing the WAV file again. It doesn't help with the setting changed; this behavior still exists.

[clepsydrae]

Thanks for testing. Hopefully it's not an OS-level thing and it can be fixed in reaper...

[Soli Deo Gloria]

The same here, with Ubuntu Studio 20.04...


With an I7 3770K, it took approx. 6 minutes for the window to appear and a total of approx. 17 mins to be able to zoom in and out. The peaks need to be zoomed in very, very closely to be seen - I don know if it's the same in Win -. After a while, the peaks were rebuilt again (!), losing all resposiveness again. This is quite screwed up.



Does Justin ever fix things that are reported here? I sometimes see a Linux entry here and there in Landoleet, rather in a random fashion. Things would feel quite safer if we could get support for the Linux builds. That's another reason for my projects to be 100% compatible with Windows - you never know, at least by now -. I guess that if something is awfully broken in Reaper for Linux, Justin will intervene, but... that "experimental" status is a tad fearsome for my taste. For now, a Win install at hand will be necessary...

[clepsydrae]

I must apologize, this seems to be my mistake... the file silence.wav was accidentally rendered with "force WAV" on the render option, making it an invalid WAV file (>4GB but regular WAV headers). If you do this with a legit wav file (such as this otherwise very similar newsilence.wav, also in a zip file for downloading) it seems to open fine.

The "corrupt" original version does seem to open fast/fine on windows, but not on linux, so maybe there is some improvement that can be done there, but it seems like less of an issue than I thought.

Sorry for the time-wasting!

[clepsydrae]

Originally Posted by Soli Deo Gloria

The peaks need to be zoomed in very, very closely to be seen - I don know if it's the same in Win -. After a while, the peaks were rebuilt again (!), losing all resposiveness again.

Yeah it's funny how an improper file can screw things up... but glad it was my fault and not reaper's. :-)

Does Justin ever fix things that are reported here? I sometimes see a Linux entry here and there in Landoleet, rather in a random fashion. Things would feel quite safer if we could get support for the Linux builds.

I do see things get fixed now and then. It's clearly not top priority, but it's hard to blame them. I still can't even believe we have a linux version of reaper, so I'm not complaining. Hopefully the "experiment" part of the "experimental" build gets determined in favor of a full-fledged release. It feels pretty close to done already, to me.

In my secret heart, one of the devs has been secretly toiling away in the background for months developing a "miracle bridge" that makes windows VSTs work in linux with none of the current complexity and somehow-even-though-it-seems-totally-impossible-it-just-works. Foolish, I know, but a guy can dream. Either way, just having a fully-fledged supported release would probably go a long way towards inspiring VST developers to release for linux (and that would obviously be the better overall solution anyway). There's already a few good editors for linux (reaper, harrison mixbus, davinci resolve, etc.) and blender is seeing more and more uptake in the professional world, so hopefully things just keep trending in that direction and pretty soon we can kiss windows goodbye for real. :-)

I see a fair amount of comments from Justin re: the frustrations of microsoft and apple... I think most people agree that having a thriving linux multimedia ecosystem is a great idea, but there's only so much a couple/few devs can do, I guess.

[Soli Deo Gloria]

Originally Posted by clepsydrae

Yeah it's funny how an improper file can screw things up... but glad it was my fault and not reaper's. :-)

Good to know it, Clepsydrae!

Originally Posted by clepsydrae

It feels pretty close to done already, to me.

Yes, there are minor things here and there. More on the side of nitpicks, I think. I have found mainly UI things scattered around...

Originally Posted by clepsydrae

In my secret heart, one of the devs has been secretly toiling away in the background for months developing a "miracle bridge" that makes windows VSTs work in linux with none of the current complexity and somehow-even-though-it-seems-totally-impossible-it-just-works. Foolish, I know, but a guy can dream.

I'm not too optimistic in that regard (a native solution), but I think as time passes by and more people comes to this side of computing, VST bridging will be considerably eased and even more native options will appear. I have to admit that Linvst's way is not that hard if you compare it with other Linux things (but Wine itself can be tricky as hell, that's the point).

Of course, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful with the devs regarding things feeling safer with real support. I'm also simply amazed at the possibility of running so many things with a native Reaper. It's of course the anxiety of seeing Reaper for Linux on par with the other versions... Patience will be the key, it seems.

Originally Posted by clepsydrae

I see a fair amount of comments from Justin re: the frustrations of microsoft and apple... I think most people agree that having a thriving linux multimedia ecosystem is a great idea, but there's only so much a couple/few devs can do, I guess.

I think Linux is doing great advances. Part of the devs' community still needs to finally embrace the need of things being easier for the end user. I'm optimistic regarding that, though, given how easier are some aspects of the OS now, compared with not so many years ago.


Apart from some occasional rants, I 've just jumped ship and I'm not going back, except for those things that are still not viable with bridging...

[clepsydrae]

Originally Posted by Soli Deo Gloria

Yes, there are minor things here and there. More on the side of nitpicks, I think. I have found mainly UI things scattered around...

On windows, you can't use ESC to close the new project dialog that pops up on open, but on linux you can. It's one thing that makes me smile when I use the linux version. :-)

[karbomusic]

That should be a reaper oversight. How do you repro? I tried the option to prompt to save on new project but ESC worked there.

[clepsydrae]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

That should be a reaper oversight. How do you repro? I tried the option to prompt to save on new project but ESC worked there.

I'm talking about the dialog that (optionally) pops up on reaper open with a list of recent projects, templates, etc. I.e. prefs -> General -> Open project(s) on startup: Prompt. On windows it won't ESC away.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by clepsydrae

I'm talking about the dialog that (optionally) pops up on reaper open with a list of recent projects, templates, etc. I.e. prefs -> General -> Open project(s) on startup: Prompt. On windows it won't ESC away.

Got it, reaper oversight of some form and/or could easily make it work - occurring likely because it is a reaper custom dialog, the subsequent windows dialog (after clicking OK) closes with ESC because it is a windows dialog.

[Justin]

Fixing the slowness, though why it isn’t slow on that same file on Windows I have no idea...

[clepsydrae]

Sweet, thanks! Maybe it'll help someone in the future that makes the same mistake I did.

[Soli Deo Gloria]

Originally Posted by Justin

Fixing the slowness, though why it isn’t slow on that same file on Windows I have no idea...

Thank you very much, Justin!