Critical performance/resource exhaustion on x86 with PluginHEIF/SVT-AV1 and request for libaom integration

[lpierge]

While trying to save images in AVIF format, I've encountered a "dead end" regarding resource management and encoding speed. The current implementation of SaveProc in PluginHEIF.cpp not only ignores user flags but uses an SVT-AV1 configuration that is unusable for standard image saving on 32-bit systems.

The current hard-coded configuration:

"bool SaveProc(FreeImageIO* io, FIBITMAP* dib, fi_handle handle, uint32_t /page/, uint32_t flags, void* /data/)"
and
"libHeif.heif_encoder_set_lossy_quality_f(heifEncoder, 75);"

leads to:

• memory exhaustion: the encoder attempts to allocate massive buffers for video GOP structures (GOP size 321 in logs), leading to SvtMalloc[fatal]: allocate memory failed (at pic_buffer_desc.c:270).

• resource bloat: logs show over 70 threads and 15,000+ mutexes spawned for a single image, with memory allocation incorrectly reported (e.g., paradoxical "4 million TB" due to 32-bit integer overflows).

• CPU trashing: up to 45% of usage with the PC fan skyrocketing for a single static frame.

• the "Still Image" paradox: the encoder explicitly logs: "Only a single picture was passed in. Consider setting avif=1 for improved efficiency", but the current wrapper provides no access to this fundamental flag.

Now, considering that using ImageMagick on the same image results in a successful save in a few seconds with a minimal memory/CPU footprint, my question is: do you plan to migrate PluginHEIF to use libaom (or libavif), much better for pictures, instead of SVT-AV1, which is basically for videos ?
If not, and SVT-AV1 remains the only option, I think it is vital to expose and force avif=1, intra-period=-1, and lookahead=0 to stop the encoder from initializing its video-engine overhead.

Thanks, Luca

Environment:
Library: FreeImageRe (32-bit build)
Encoder: SVT-AV1 v3.1.2 (Visual Studio 2022 build)
OS: Windows 10/11

[agruzdev]

Thank you for the issue.
Yes, I'll check the quality flag and libaom integration.

[lpierge]

This is one of the logs I got, I tried to change various parameters but looks like the code in heif.dll completely ignores them.

Svt[info]: -------------------------------------------
Svt[info]: SVT [version]: SVT-AV1 Encoder Lib v3.1.2
Svt[info]: SVT [build] : Visual Studio 2022 32 bit
Svt[info]: LIB Build date: Feb 16 2026 18:35:35
Svt[info]: -------------------------------------------
Svt[warn]: Preset M12 is mapped to M10.
Svt[warn]: If you are using tiles with the intent of increasing the decoder speed, please also consider using --fast-decode 1 or 2, especially if the intended decoder is running with limited multi-threading capabilities.
Svt[info]: Level of Parallelism: 4
Svt[info]: Number of PPCS 59
Svt[info]: [asm level on system : up to c]
Svt[info]: [asm level selected : up to c]
Svt[info]: -------------------------------------------
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: main profile tier (auto) level (auto)
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: width / height / fps numerator / fps denominator : 1920 / 2600 / 60000 / 1000
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: bit-depth / color format : 8 / YUV420
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: preset / tune / pred struct : 10 / PSNR / random access
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: gop size / mini-gop size / key-frame type : 321 / 16 / key frame
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: BRC mode / rate factor : CRF / 16
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: AQ mode / Variance Boost : 2 / 0
Svt[info]: SVT [config]: sharpness / luminance-based QP bias : 0 / 0
Svt[info]: -------------------------------------------
SvtMalloc[fatal]: allocate memory failed, at C:\DEV\FreeImageRe\dependencies\svtav1\source\Source\Lib\Codec\pic_buffer_desc.c:270
SvtMalloc[info]: you have no memory leak