Photoshop bug for files with 1000+layers?

Okay so... shortly after i passed over 1000 layers in photoshop CS3 my color previews didn't show. I use the pen tool religiously and can't finish my work without seeing the color... The picture below is what i mean... Why i have over 1000 layers is another question... Lots of time goes into my pictures as you can see... is there something i can do or should i just cope? This has happened before in another picture i made.. When i restarted my computer it fixed itself for about 20 minutes then did that again... Does CS4 do this? If it addresses this problem I'd upgrade in a second...

Only photoshop guru can go a thousand layer. i will advice you log this Error on Photoshop website if not already noted.

seriously...a THOUSAND layers? i can't see any situation where you'd need that many, especially for the pic you're displaying. if i were you i'd think more about your working method than trying to upgrade teh program.

hi,
now this is my opinion and you may want to get different view on this...
but i think maybe it a issue or ram and pc maintenace....

when i do my large video and audio projects i always do a defrag... that makes the system more efficient and programs run better.... but also i turn off all my startup background programs (which can interfer with your main program...... that also makes things faster, you have more ram avail for your project .. in fact.. i would disable permenently any needles startup program.... a lot of people will disable all startup permently except the virus scanner ... but that a user decision....

in addition i always do a fresh boot.... a fresh boot clears the buffers and caches... over time garbage accumulates and can effect (generally a slowdown of the system) not just the main program but system overall..

now.. you don't mention how much ram you have presently.... if you only have 512 or 1 gig I do suggest (if it a 32 bit sytem) to put in at least 3 gigs or 4 gigs....
note: it would have been helpfull i think if you included your system stats)

also take a look at your photoshop..and see how much ram is set aside for it use.... you may want to increase the amount... in my cs1 it specifically located in edit>preferences>memory.... also take alook at those levels that assigned...

ideally you like to have your whol project in ram.. when it not then part of the project will be in the swap file or scratch disk on the drive and that can make things slower and more diffiucult... that why you want as much ram as possible and in PS assign more ram to PS ...
note: scratch disks ... you may want to take a look at the scratch disk... go to your help menu and readup on that... I am not that savy.. about it... you may want to create one on a different drive if you have one avail.... ....

now as far as cs 4 .... now i am thinking that it a memory amount issue.... and hense i don't think upgrading to cs4 will solve the issue... however ........ upgrading the operating system can make a difference if you have a 32 bit system... ram limit is 4 gigs... a 64 bit system now your limit is up appx 128gigs!!!!!!! although windows will recognize that you must make sure the motherboard will support.. right now... many boards will support at least 8 gigs but otheres that will go up to 12-20 gigs... and if you add that to maybe using cs4 performance would be greatly improved...

well those are some of my thoughts..... i hope there helpfull...

Astray said:

Okay so... shortly after i passed over 1000 layers in photoshop CS3 my color previews didn't show. I use the pen tool religiously and can't finish my work without seeing the color... The picture below is what i mean... Why i have over 1000 layers is another question... Lots of time goes into my pictures as you can see... is there something i can do or should i just cope? This has happened before in another picture i made.. When i restarted my computer it fixed itself for about 20 minutes then did that again... Does CS4 do this? If it addresses this problem I'd upgrade in a second...

I agree with Killerwolf, 1000 layers is un-necessary for that image. Bert Monroy's works exceed 15000 layers but they are huge and very detailed with hundreds of individual parts, not just one.

haha thanks, i have a 32 bit os, 3ghz and 4 gigs of ram and tried putting more of it towards PS. I can use other methods and merge anything I'm done with to make it half the size, but i make a lot of changes throughout the time and make many improvements. That's not even half the image shown and there's lots more to work on. It sure doesn't look 1000+ but there are many small details I had to zoom 1200x to do. But I'll try what you suggested Jerrylb. If it is a memory problem which it most likely could be, I'll see what i can do.

EDIT: yea that didn't work haha.. What I'm going to have to do is make separate files for sections of it. Then combine when done =/ Aw well...

putting more memory to PS can actually be detrimental. there's a bunch of topics on this on various PS forums etc, but generally you want less than 2gig allocated. certainly don't leave your OS w/ anything less than a GENREOUS amount. i know for a fact that some filters in PS will not work w/ larger amounts of RAM allocated than lesser...it's an odd situation but true.

your details...if you have to zoom in 1200x, are they even going to be visible in print/on screen to a normal viewer?

as for layers...Bert's work is pretty good, but 15000 layers is beyond ridiculous, i don't care who you are. how you even begin to manage a document like that is beyond me.

jahtex said:

Only photoshop guru can go a thousand layer. i will advice you log this Error on Photoshop website if not already noted.

Lol, you're true...I just can't imagine how does he manage all those layers. And what must be the size of that image!?

Hey may I have that pic? It's marvellous! What character is it by the way? Some transformer?