Panels auto-updated today and i really like what you’ve done, especially the uncropped cover art, the sorting choices, etc. However, my 270GB library used to scroll by smoothly. Now scrolling is jerky. “Laggy” might be a better word. I swipe up or down and the scrolling action “sticks” with each swipe as it scrolls. I tried changing settings to see what might be causing this and in Settings/General/Library I found that of the four options, the only one that had an impact on the problem was when I turned off “Show Small Grid.” This allowed the library to scroll more smoothly, but no completely so. There was still that jerky delay happening, just not as bad. I assume this was because turning that setting off cuts the number of items being displayed at once. I did restart my iPad, and try again, with the same results. I am using the latest 12.9 inch iPad with a TB of space.
Also, I found that Panels now has trouble much more frequently than before with the pinch-to-return-to-main-level gesture. This is the gesture that gives the illusion that you’ve pinched a layout of comics back into pile. This gesture causes a freeze - with the comics not quite forming a neat pile. The freeze lasts a few seconds - perhaps four - before one is returned to the library. This used to happen only occasionally. Now it happens very frequently.
Thanks for the feedback @joecunningham. We’ll try to do some testing with and improve performance in libraries such large as yours.
We are releasing a new build shortly fixing some crashes, but the one after that will be tested and polished for large libraries.
I’m glad to know that large libraries will be fully supported. I use my iPad for other things, of course, but when I bought it I chose the 12.9” because it’s primary function in my mind was as the perfect comic book reader, and for that reason I chose the full terabyte option. The 270GBs of comics that are currently in my Panels represents about half of my digital collection. I’m organizing (and hunting down missing issues) as I slowly fill the tablet so in six months my on-board collection might look more like 650GB, and once the entire collection is loaded it doesn’t stop there. I’ll always be adding the latest month’s issues to it. It will someday hit the 1TB ceiling, and then I’ll remove everything I’ve read and continue collecting, naturally. Will a library of that size or close (800GB perhaps) see performance issues? Or will everything still be smooth as silk?
Yesterday I was talking with @victor and 1.10.2 will be 100% about performance. We want to fix the issues adding and keeping large amounts of comics in Panels. We are releasing 1.10.1 in the next couple of days. The following release will be 1.10.2.
Once we fix the performance issues, it shouldn’t be much difference between 100GB, 270GB, or 800GB.
Data is loaded on demand so adding more comics shouldn’t be translated into degrading the performance.
Are you participating in the Testflight beta? It would be amazing if we could send you beta builds so you can test them with your collection.
We’ll do performance tests adding large amounts of comics, but we don’t have as many as you
Yes, I have more comics than I’ll ever have time to read. This is simply because it is as much fun collecting them as it is reading them, and for years I collected them in anticipation of getting a tablet someday (for whatever reason, I dislike reading comics on a Mac). During those years of gathering, I paid special attention to the all-time greats: Kirby, Moore, Miller, Crumb, Moebius, Corben, Wrightson, Allred, Ellis, Aragones etc. etc. I knew I was creating an ocean to swim in and I wanted that ocean to be highly representative of greatness in the field. So it’s been a self-taught college course in the history of comics, whereby one learns as one gathers.
I’ve never beta tested anything in my life, but it clearly makes sense that I my outsized collection would be useful to stress-test Panels, and it is very important to me that Panels continues to succeed and remains capable of presenting a vast collection without breaking a sweat. So yeah, I’d be happy to participate in your beta program. Just let me know what I need to do. We can move this conversation out of the public sphere. Contact me at joecunningham@gmail.com to discuss the details.
