Performance compromised when working in Cloud

I'm currently testing out the cloud workflow on multiple projects ranging anywhere from 1min highlight reels to a 90min documentary. As larger the project gets, as slower the response time is when loading my database from the cloud vs locally. Switching complex timelines, going in and out from the program are some of the things that I notice are being slower. I'm not referring to any render / GPU tasks.
I'm on hard wired and on a fiber connection. I'd be interested to see whether other folks made the same experience and if this is something that can be improved in the future or if this is a comprise we have to live with when working in the blackmagic cloud

[Peter Chamberlain]

can you tell us where you are physically located, and which BMD cloud server location did you select?

Loading a project/timeline etc will take some time as you need to copy all the project metadata from the cloud into your local machine. Once there, the operation should be quite reasonable and renders should also not be any longer as you have the project in your local machine.

for reference, it would also help us to know for the 90 min doco, how many unique clips are there and how many timelines, and how many items on each timeline.

We have tested with a very larger number but it maybe not as many as you have so the details will help.

also, please note.. if this project has been upgraded from 17, it will not have 50% of the gains we have implemented in a project that has started in 18. Can you confirm your 90 min project is started in 17 or 18.

You should also update to 18.0.1.. lots of bugs fixed since beta 4 that u have listed

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Hi Marvin

Can you create a local project library, export a DRP (or use the copy project) to make a copy in the new local projet library and check how the performance compares? This can help rule out project-intrinsic causes of delay.

A link to a copy of your logs would help. If you're able to provide a DRP export in addition to the logs and Peter's requested info, that would also help us take a look. If you have concerns on sharing the link in a post, you may consider messaging Peter or me the link to the DRP.

Thanks
Shrinivas

for reference, it would also help us to know for the 90 min doco, how many unique clips are there and how many timelines, and how many items on each timeline.

It has around 42 timelines at this point including multi cam sequences, constantly growing.

also, please note.. if this project has been upgraded from 17, it will not have 50% of the gains we have implemented in a project that has started in 18. Can you confirm your 90 min project is started in 17 or 18.

This is interesting, I did not know that. We started on 17 and upgraded the database, currently working in 18.0.1

Loading a project/timeline etc will take some time as you need to copy all the project metadata from the cloud into your local machine. Once there, the operation should be quite reasonable and renders should also not be any longer as you have the project in your local machine.

Loading takes a bit longer than from the local database but it's manageable. Said operations such as duplicating timelines, switching between them, jumping back into the software from the finder, etc. do take longer. I get the spinning wheel for about 10-20sec and the time is getting longer as more complex the project gets. I do see that general behavior in smaller projects as well, but we're talking more like 2-5sec.
I did a test to compare this with the local database and I do not see the issue. Duplicating timelines is the major operation I notice this behavior with.

A link to a copy of your logs would help. If you're able to provide a DRP export in addition to the logs and Peter's requested info, that would also help us take a look. If you have concerns on sharing the link in a post, you may consider messaging Peter or me the link to the DRP.

I can't share this publicly. Not sure how to contact you guys directly?!

I am having the same issues.

I am in California, Northern CA to be exact, and this also will be a long doc, 60-90 min. We have something like 100-120 timelines due to heavy interview content, and over 20 production days all broken down into daily stringouts then selects, etc...unique clips are in the thousands, like 6k or better. It's a monster, and we specifically went to DaVinci Resolve due to multiple remote editors and their touted cloud-based workflow.

The project was started in v18 and will end in v18 to avoid issues changing versions and we are on the last version 18.6.6 Build 7. I am hardwired on a small 10G network, and my internet is copper co-ax cable-based to the house, cat 6, 500mbps down and 20 up, and quite consistent at that. I use both an older upgraded Mac and a newer much more robust PC and both have the same issues. Trying to load keywords and search keywords is painfully slow and the project is of course slow even working in proxy mode.

+1 here

When I first started using Cloud Projects in the beginning of the year I did not notice the performance issues so clearly or rather thought their cause was somewhere else in the chain.

Recently when working in a remote location on a festival production I had to transfer the cloud project to a local project and noticed instantly how much snappier the whole experience was. I had forgotten how nice everything felt before "going cloud" and had just gotten used to waiting 20 seconds or so when duplicating timelines, copying and pasting clips, grouping clips in the color tab etc.
That specific project had around 90 timelines with mostly Sony 4k XAVC-I Footage ca 700 short(5 to 45 sec) clips, no effect usage or crazy edits.
Same problems occur in smaller projects with 8-15 timelines and roughly 1000 Clips.

My Location is Hamburg, Germany, usually our editing stations are hardwired 10g to a local NAS and connected to the internet with 1G download through copper coax, with more users connected to it. We use resolve 18.6.6 studio on Mac (mostly silicon but also i7 iMac 2020)

Added to these performance issues is the problem that there are no cloud backups and Timelines have happened to revert to an old state upon restart of resolve (started a separate thread on this).

+1 here

When I first started using Cloud Projects in the beginning of the year I did not notice the performance issues so clearly or rather thought their cause was somewhere else in the chain.
...
Added to these performance issues is the problem that there are no cloud backups and Timelines have happened to revert to an old state upon restart of resolve (started a separate thread on this).

This is my exact situation. I wonder if there is any way to encourage BMD to fix this issue by allowing local caching on cloud projects that are periodically sync'd back to the cloud enabling a faster workflow (no idea if that's what needs to be happening, just throwing something out there). The fact that a small project has the same issue as a big one is a huge problem, not to mention that there is no easy or safe way for that matter to copy the cloud project locally, work on it, and then somehow seamlessly merge that back into the online project is another massive issue. The entire cloud architecture is flawed. The other fatal flaw is that there is zero offline workflow. I live in a somewhat remote location and while the internet is typically good, if there are any issues and the internet goes out, my project is jeopardized. More often than not the project freezes and winds up crashing. I am working on a full-length documentary with over 15TB of 4k footage, and well over 150 timelines. Yes, we have 4 copies of our projects in multiple locations so that isn't a concern, but 6 months of work being corrupted is, there has to be a better way to make this all fluid. Couple that with the innate lack of backup options and you have a serious likelihood of a major catastrophe. I WISH this issue were being dealt with, especially since this is the new workflow and that sooooo many people are having the same issues with this. One final thing, When I travel I like to be able to edit, especially on long plane rides, an offline option would be massive, as it stands, if the airline has wifi it's not really a viable option as I have recently discovered, Upload speeds of at least 3-6Mbps are really the bare minimum, I don't know that that is possible on an airplane.

BMD if you see this, PLEASE (Not shouting just pleading) please help us!

Same here.

I wish there would be a way to work offline and later sync the changes so that other project collaborators could see them.

I also work sometimes on the move and if the internet is not optimal - Editing is noticeably slower. Or if I get offline - I can't edit the project at all.
I also had a collaborating Editor from India - while I'm in EU and Davinci server in EU. His experience was also too laggy to be acceptable.

P.s. our lag issues are on a small test project.

+1
BM, fix this bug
Not only working in Resolve becomes impossilbe while my clips are being uploaded to BM cloud, my whole PC basicly becomes laggish. In resolve whatevr operation, like switching between timelines takes around 10 sec.
Upload speed to cloud is also a disaster - rarely goes higher than 2 MB/s, on everidge around 1 MB/s.

I'm experiencing the same issues! Please help BMD!

Just switching from one bin to another takes ages for me here ! I don't know why. Can someone please explain if there is a solution for this?