Re: [Gimp-user] Tweaking performance

[GSR - FR <famrom infernal-iceberg com>]

Hi,
jfrazierjr nc rr com (2011-11-16 at 1144.40 -0500):
> 4) Other?  

You forgot: reduce tile cache (so you have free RAM) and use zram
(Linux 2.6.37 or newer) to create a compressed memory based block
device, to be used as partition where gimp writes own cache. The
problem is the partition will be fixed size and not huge, so it could
fill up and cause a mess.

Or do not reduce the tile cache, but still use zram as high priority
swap device so gimp use lots of "memory": part real, part swapped to
the compressed zone, and as last resort, part disk based. This way
lets you increase swap size manually, as needed, by adding new
partitions or files to cope with overflow of memory + zram-swap +
current disk-swap. The important detail is setting the priorities (and
maybe the kernel swap settings) right so data is first put in the
fastest place avaliable.

BTW, I checked your original mail again. As much as possible, crop
layers to the real contents (leave some work margin and you can always
add more later). This is one reason why having user controllable and
visible layer edges is useful: you can discard zones as you need, and
no matter what you do, they will never pop back (no silly "paint by
error, notice an hour later so no undo possible, delete with eraser
tool to not destroy smooth gradients around" and have crap wasting
resources).

So the compass rose, all the labels or separate mountains or forest
zones that can be described as non overlapping rectangles (per
continent, for example) can be small layers.

GSR