Drag-lag in 10.3

Am I alone?

When mouse dragging clips in 10.3, there is a pretty hefty lag.

This is consistent when doing the following:

- Scroll timeline
- Click'n'drag a clip = lag
- Further dragging of clips after scrolling have less lag
- Scroll timeline a little or a lot = lag when dragging a clip

You can check it out in this video



Is anyone else experiencing this behavior?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
2,5 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

Media is on a Sandisk Extreme 900 SSD over USB3 - so no speed issue there (300MB R/W)

Nope, I'm actually having better performance on a 2013 Mac Pro (maxed out), 2010 Mac Pro (maxed out), 2013 iMac (minimal config), and a 1st gen rMBP.

I am seeing this on a timeline with 4 stacked clips each with Hawaiki Auto Split applied. If I disable those clips then dragging is fine. With them enabled it seems like FCPX is trying to update the viewer causing a lag. I will be submitting feedback once I have experimented a little more. This is not what I expected to see because overall the response in the timeline has been pretty smooth and seems improved.

I just checked disabled vs enabled, and it's the same lag for me.

I have no filters on my clips, and this is an 1080 project.

I've noticed this is only a "bug" on connected clips. Dragging clips around on the main storyline doesn't suffer from the same lag.

Experiencing the same lag here too on connected clips.

I'm not getting drag lag but i am experiencing slip lag. Slipping footage using the Trim tool is very jumpy and imprecise.
Also when using the blade tool on clips that have LUT's applied, when i make the cut, the LUT information momentarily dissappers showing only the raw unedited clip.
Finally and i've mentioned this previously on these forums. The Audio Meters refuse to remember how they were saved in my user workspaces so i constantly have adjust them to make them as thin as possible when i'm working on my MBP.

MacBook Pro
Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Maybe if you would disable snapping?

Don't have it here though.

Even though snapping is on in the video, it should be quite evident that dragging a clip to the clip responding is way off.
Besides, behaviour is the same with snapping off.

I will try and do a clean install of OSX on an external TB SSD in the coming week or two, to see if the issue persists.

you are not alone! general performance has increased for me but dragging on the timeline is laggy. i reported it to apple, seems like not every system has been optimized yet - i tried it on two machines, one has just been through a clean el capitan install.

OK, I do have a lag with the Trim tool doing slip edits.

chrisb wrote: I will try and do a clean install of OSX on an external TB SSD in the coming week or two, to see if the issue persists.

I would suggest trying to clear FCPX preferences before going thru the process of reinstalling OSX. And, are you seeing that behavior with different projects?

dgwvideo wrote:

chrisb wrote: I will try and do a clean install of OSX on an external TB SSD in the coming week or two, to see if the issue persists.

I would suggest trying to clear FCPX preferences before going thru the process of reinstalling OSX. And, are you seeing that behavior with different projects?

Already did that

I have also noted that the lag issue affects audio clips as well.

If you I am moving clips using the keyboard (punching in TC offsets) there is no issue to speak of.

Again, I won't be reinstalling my computer, just creating a new clean OS for testing purposes on an external disk

Yep, I've got drag lag on connected clips not experiencing it on the time line clips.

Its not a particularly big lag, but it is definitely noticeable.

Of course make sure you update any plug-ins, including audio.
There are issues with some 3rd Party Mice/pointing devices. Logitech has had reported issues; lag jumpiness and erratic behavior, and others so check drivers.
If using built-in track pad for a laptop, this should not be the issue. If using a BT device, check drivers, try removing BT device in System Preferences and then turn off device and BT on computer, wait a minute and "Re-discover" the device.
Not sure this is the issue, but just something else to check.

Best of Luck,
Greg

Thanks for the tips.
I don't have any such drivers installed, so shouldn't be an issue.

Things I've tried so far:

- Remove Cuda driver (I have the 2014 Nvidia MBP)
- Remove all effects and transitions
- Deleting windowserver.plists and resetting PRAM
- Using Etrecheck to see if there was something "strange" on my system
- Disabling A/V output (BMD ultrastudio 4K) and using the MPB "isolated" (as in not connected to external screen or I/O device)

...and still lag + occasional beach-balling when dragging any clip above or below primary storyline.

Furthermore, I also get the same behaviour on my MPB 17" 2011 running FCPX 10.3 on OSX 10.11 (workhorse is on 10.12.1) leading me to think that there is a good chance that this is an FCPX issue - but still, it doesn't seem to be something that many others are experiencing in the same manner..

I started some new projects over the past couple of days and I am flying. No lag even with multiple layers and 3rd party plug-ins. I was seeing lag before but maybe that was just something to do with those being previous version projects. I'm getting used to the new interface and where things are. I was using a lot of keyboard commands anyway and I've added a few more to make access to different areas easier. I'm happy.

Hey Chris,

i had some lag issues with markers in projects upgraded from FCP 10.2. Have you tried creating a new library in 10.3 and see if the problem occurs there too?

So, I got around to trying 10.3 on a fresh Sierra install.

Setup:
Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
2,5 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

Macos Sierra *ONLY* (no java, no flash, no drivers, *nothing* but Sierra and FCPX)
Installed on Samsung EVO 750 via thunderbolt 2

Library and media is on Sandisk extreme 900 SSD (1.82TB) via USB 3 (Speedtest about 330MB R/W)

Timeline stats:
Length: 26min
Resolution: 1080p
Number of video clips on timeline (from timeline index): 488
Number of audio clips on timeline (from timeline index): 230

I can conclude that the drag lag is *still* there and comparable to lag in the video I originally posted!

For those *not* experiencing this kind of lag when dragging clips above or below the main storyline, what is your setup and how long are your sequences?

For something as essential as moving clips around on a timeline, I will say that this is pretty bad! It really messes up the workflow. Dragging and moving a clip should pretty much be instantaneous in an NLE.

I have also tried this timeline in Resolve and Adobe Premiere (same setup, same machine) , and I can tell you that this is not a problem in those two programs - so there must be something amiss in 10.3.

I have made some comparison videos for you to check out, showing that it's only FCPX 10.3 that has this abysmal behaviour.

Clip dragging in Resolve 12.5




Clip dragging in Premiere Pro




Clip dragging in Final Cut X 10.3

dschaek wrote: Hey Chris,

i had some lag issues with markers in projects upgraded from FCP 10.2. Have you tried creating a new library in 10.3 and see if the problem occurs there too?

Yeah, I've tried creating a new library and project in 10.3, then copy and paste from timeline in converted library. Same result and no improvement in timeline behaviour whatsoever.