A Flash Developer Resource Site

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 38

Thread: Flash CS4 for Mac is slow as fudge?

  1. #1
    Nose Picker
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    66

    Flash CS4 for Mac is slow as fudge?

    Some stuff is as fast as before, like scrubbing and playing and applying a tween.

    But other, simple stuff, like selecting frames, adding frames - regular or key - takes 2-5 seconds each. Really anything with the timeline is slow. This happens especially with long movies (1.5 minutes - 2500 frames). Which shouldn't matter. I had movies 5 minutes long working fine.

    Anyone else experience this yet?

  2. #2
    Teacosy is coming ranoka's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    123
    I'm interested in this, am about to upgrade to CS4 on the Mac.
    What spec is your machine, is it Intel or PowerPC?

    I'm using one of the new iMac 24" and would be disappointed if it ran slow like you describe.

    Looking forward to moving on from Flash CS3, as it's been the most crash tastic version release I've used.

  3. #3
    I am experiencing the same slowness. I have an animation that is around 4k frames and I get the "thinking beach ball" every time I try to do ANYTHING (like clicking on the screen)! I'm honestly shocked how slow it is. In fact as I am writing this Flash has been using 99% of my processor for about 30 seconds because I clicked on a symbol in my movie... It seems each release is slower the the last! I have a Macbook Pro with 3GB of memory and 2.33mhz processor. I have tested it and Flash MX 2004 ran faster on XP in Fusion vs. my Mac.

    Oh... and when you zoom in it STILL doesn't zoom to the center of the viewing area. Does Adobe actually care what it's customers think?!

  4. #4
    Nose Picker
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    66
    I have a perfectly adequate Macbook Pro 2.33ghz with 2gigs of memory. Flash 8 wasn't this slow under Rosetta.

  5. #5
    I agree. I think CS3 on the Mac is slow compared to XP, now this. I wonder if they even tested it on a Mac. How disappointing.

    It's also frustrating that all the reviewers don't even test the software, they just regurgitate Adobe's marketing.

  6. #6
    Teacosy is coming ranoka's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    123
    Yeouch! Thanks for the warning.
    I haven't used Flash CS4 yet, but I'm seriously considering getting the PC version, and using Boot Camp or Fusions instead of getting the Mac version.

    If anyone has a Mac licence for CS4, if you contact Adobe support, you can transfer the license over to PC...

    It's really a shame because I prefer using OSX to XP/Vista... Has anyone tested the performance of Flash CS4 with Fusion?

    BTW Mark, I love your website

  7. #7
    Nose Picker
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    66
    But, is this a Mac only problem? Any Windows users with more than 2000 frames in their movies want to chime in? Or has anyone used it in parallels/vmware/bootcamp? Because I'm really curious to see if this is just an overall problem, possibly with the new way to render stuff in the authoring environment.

  8. #8
    Teacosy is coming ranoka's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    123
    I know Chris Georgene has been putting CS4 through the works as a beta tester, and is writing a book on animating in Flash CS4. He uses the PC version, and hasn't mentioned anything about it running slow.

    CS4 is probably a bit slower than CS3 on the PC, but not as slow as you're describing. It wouldn't be the first time Adobe has delivered an inferior product for Mac users.

    I'm waiting for the demos to come out, and will test it on the PC and Mac (on the same system) and find out which runs smoother.

  9. #9
    I'll put some numbers to the slowness. Using OS X 10.5.5 I opened up a file in Flash CS4 that I have been working on in CS3 and the file takes 70 seconds to open. Then when I try and double click to edit my main movieclip — which has about 4k frames — it takes about 20 seconds to edit. In CS3 the same files takes 2 seconds to open and less than a second to edit any movieclip.

    I sent a support email to Adobe this morning. I'll let you know what they say.
    Last edited by Backbone Design; 10-20-2008 at 06:49 PM.

  10. #10
    Nose Picker
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    66
    BD, that's my experience. And I'm finding now that its not just a large amount of frames thing. I can have a single frame movie and if there's a lot of info on screen I get the same slowdowns. It seems CS4 cannot handle any type of normal use without crawling to a near halt. This is including drawing with the pen tool. I think I may be skipping CS4 the same way I skipped MX 2004 when they dropped object level undo (which almost seems to be phasing out again in this version with its new and incomprehensible incompatibilities with IK and the spray brush.

    It's true, reviewers shouldn't just talk up new features, they should talk about how the overall software works.

  11. #11
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    3
    True belivers the gentlemen above speak the truth Flash CS4 is by far the best of the versions in alot of aspects but is by far the most unstable release I have seen from Adobe yet you can start to notice slowdowns after adding more then 20 assets into your project and pardon my languege Admins of this site but that is **** I am a flash developer and have projects with hundreds of assets and when opening them in CS4 it comes to a screaming halt with times of 30 and more seconds to go into movie clips and god help you if you wanna make big changes to these files. Adobe has screwed us bad with Flash CS4 and is not responding to our cries for help so if your reading this DO NOT BUY or UPGRADE to Flash CS4 and this is coming from an adobe freak.

    They best fix this scam soon or I for one who paid for this CRAP will drop them like a ton of bricks.

  12. #12
    Teacosy is coming ranoka's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    123
    tetsuo, are you using the Mac or PC version?
    Also, are you talking about editing a CS3 document in CS4.
    Have you re-created a similarly complex project in CS4 from scratch, is it just as slow then? I'm wondering if it's a migration issue, or that CS4 is just slow in general. It's funny, but I posted a similar thread in Kirupa and not many of them are complaining about speed, but I guess most of them do everything in code...
    http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311761

  13. #13
    I returned my copy yesterday. Then I finally got a response from support and they recommended the following:

    Recreate preferences of CS4 ::

    Flash CS4 on OS X
    1. Quit Flash CS4
    2. Navigate to Users:USER:Library:application support:adobe:Flash CS4:en
    3. Rename the Configuration Folder to “Configuration old”.
    4. Navigate to Users:USER:Libraryreferences:
    5. Trash the "Flash CS4 preferences" file.

    Or to try a different CS3 file (did that), or reinstall Flash CS4 and directed me to this link: http://www.adobe.com/go/kb405535

    I didn't try to recreate preferences or reinstall because I honestly don't have time to beta test for Adobe.

  14. #14
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    3
    Guys it is both Versions MAC and PC alike, it happens with CS4 files to and not only CS3, I tried my friends PC version and it happened just the same it's not the computers its Flash what a F**king rip off dude.

  15. #15
    Teacosy is coming ranoka's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    123
    Damn, it sounds like by adding these new animation features they've made Flash so slow that it's not well suited to doing animation anymore... pretty ironic really. Probably doesn't affect website designers and coders much, but they're not the ones who would get the most use out of the new animation features.

    Hopefully they release an optimization update, otherwise a lot of people will be sticking with Flash 8 and CS3 for animation.

    I was so looking forward to CS4 because of all the new animation features...

  16. #16
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    2
    Well, I thought the slowdown was annoying to begin with, but now it's too much. I am going back to cs3.

    The worst part for me is that when I hit enter to view my animation the lip sync is not synced. I have to publish every time I wanna see any changes. Lol. And this release was supposed to be for animators. What a joke.

  17. #17
    Teacosy is coming ranoka's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    123
    Ghalgaryth, what's your setup?

    It's frustrating, because there's not much of an alternative for us other than stick with CS3/Flash8. Maybe in a few years after we upgrade our computers they'll be fast enough. lol.

    Please Adobe, keep Flash as a platform useful for more than just RIA.

  18. #18
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    2
    I am running Production Premium on a PC with win XP.
    Dual core 2.8ghz, 2.8ghz
    3 GB of RAM
    Radeon x1600 512MB video card

    I am leaning towards returning the whole creative suite now. I am way over the system requirements so I feel like a system upgrade would be a waste of money...it might still be slow. Although....dare I say it....maybe Vista might be the answer.

  19. #19
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    3
    Quote Originally Posted by ghalgaryth
    I am running Production Premium on a PC with win XP.
    Dual core 2.8ghz, 2.8ghz
    3 GB of RAM
    Radeon x1600 512MB video card

    I am leaning towards returning the whole creative suite now. I am way over the system requirements so I feel like a system upgrade would be a waste of money...it might still be slow. Although....dare I say it....maybe Vista might be the answer.
    Everyone with the problems has a good enough computer man it's the software that’s bad, I tried it on my vista computer and it still lags like a snail in a horse race.
    Adobe has not acknowledged that there is anything wrong with the release and when you call support they are on the phone with you trouble shooting and bull****ing you half to death with no noticeable results. Flash CS4 is nothing but an incomplete beta version of what would have been a great program
    and should have never been released as it is today.
    Adobe owes the Flash user community a BIG PUBLIC APOLOGY for letting the clowns at the flash labs do this.

  20. #20
    Senior Member flamedude's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Vancouver, BC
    Posts
    252
    Wow this is seriously disappointing me. I had a quick go on Flash cs4 on a vista 64-bit machine. It seemed ok to me, but I immediately thought that the new animation method is going to be way too slow to be productive with.

    Great thing about the classic tween is that its really quick to use I suppose, I'm really interested on hearing peoples thoughts on the new motion editor and tween method.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  




Click Here to Expand Forum to Full Width

HTML5 Development Center