nickbatz

Neither of those has been my experience, hence my post.

1. You need to create a new pixel layer to do a Merge Visible. Right? Why? 2. Am I right that you can't use the clone brush on a pixel layer anymore? If so, I have to voice strong disapproval. But hopefully I'm wrong. TIA

You wait until the software you use is ready. That was only a minor issue through most of last decade (until Catalina broke all 32-bit programs), but it is again. Maybe that's because of the transition to Apple Silicon.

Actually, I'd debate the semantics of that point (not that I disagree entirely). Apologies in advance for being so argumentative - this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently, and no doubt I'm far from alone in that! Anyway, text-to-picture certainly has an intention, and whether or not you call what it does art isn't really important (although I don't). To me the main issue is what I already wrote: we are humans with a deep need to create and enjoy art. AI has the potential to take a lot of that away. Or will it force real artists to come up with things that are beyond a machine? Remember, programs like Midjourney rely on a database of images created by artists. Machine learning is a totally different thing from AI "art." Whether Serif *needs* to incorporate it into the Affinity programs, who knows. Anyway, my hunch is that at lot of this will end up as... I'm not a programmer, but it'll be in libraries of routines that are part of the SDK. You're right that it's the next wave, though. New Macs even have dedicated neural engine cores in their current computers.

I'm afraid you're underestimating the impact programs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are already having. But the second sentence of yours I quoted here - yes, in fact it's a tautology to say that unique art is always going to be unique!

It will get better, but I consider that irrelevant. You can come up with 50 billion analogies about other inventions, and they all collapse at the same point: human have a need for the arts (both creating and enjoying it). Having a machine create "art" is totally unclear on the concept, even if it can produce some interesting things at times. I have less utter disdain for the whole concept than I did at first, because there are creative uses for it (for example creating backgrounds). But it will never be art, no matter how hard you struggle to compare the process. Shorter version: I don't give a FF about it. No AI can do what I do, and it's not something I'll ever use - whether it's visual art, music, or anything else.

Oh no, Nick Batt is not at all the same person, and I believe his video reviews are what you're talking about - not that he isn't good at it. He sort of grumbled and barely suppressed a snarl when I accused him of stealing my name and initials (Edit: obviously my accusation wasn't serious). I'm Batzdorf.

DAWs have been pretty amazing for years, but I guess it's true that there hasn't been much significant improvement to them - leaving aside that seemingly small things can be hugely significant if you use a program all the time! Probably the biggest change over the past few years is that the software and hardware (computers) have caught up with each other. Affinity's programs aren't real-time, so that's less of a factor, but faster hardware certainly does help. And yeah, hardware synths are definitely thriving, and the supply chain bottlenecks do seem to have eased. Synthplex, a synth show in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, seemed to be very well attended - both by manufacturers and regular humans.

I was a print magazine editor then and now edit an online magazine (SynthAndSoftware). Music and audio technology is a different audience, but we actually do run real reviews.

I should have said you can't *count on* being able to reinstall an older OS. As far as I know that was the case with my previous Mac, a 5,1 Mac Pro, when you installed High Sierra en route to Mojave. That may have been an old wives' tale, though - I didn't try going back. Or maybe it was just that you needed the firmware update to support the Metal-capable video card Mojave required. Anyway, it's moot, because that iMac can't be upgraded and Affinity Photo can't run on it. I sympathize, of course, but that's how it goes.

I just did and would buy the v.2 license just to support Affinity's development even if I didn't care about the features, in fact I bought Designer for that reason (at this point I only work with pixels, not raster graphics). However, the fact that this thread is now five pages long says something about how customers perceive things, i'nit? There are lots of posts from people kvetching, followed by responses explaining why it's a good deal, obligatory car analogies, and so on. And in my opinion the responses totally miss the point! I don't care about not getting a lower price than new customers get, but I do understand the reactions.

By the way, that's in any case, even if you're not doing anything to your system! And I wouldn't recommend trusting only one full backup, because they can fail too. I use alternating Time Machine local backups, a bootable clone in my glove compartment (made using SuperDuper from Shirtpocket Software), and an iDrive cloud backup (which can't do a full restoration, i.e. it doesn't include programs). *** That aside - and what was sticking in my head since yesterday (I know, I'm not normal) - you can't reinstall an older OS if the firmware gets updated. It doesn't do that with every update, but the point is that you only want to do macOS updates with your eyes open.

Oh... you're talking about Ventura. Never mind.

Understood, but I still wouldn't do it - and in fact I chose not to on my (heavily updated) 2009 Mac Pro. I work on these silly machines all day long, need to run current software, and just can't afford to risk having problems with drivers, etc. It is annoying when a computer has plenty of horsepower and will run everything except a couple of things that are incompatible (usually the main programs you use), but what can you say; I'm old enough to remember when computers were 2-1/2 year investments for people who ran demanding software.

Thanks very much. Actually I do save to an external drive regularly. But now that you mention it, I think I just do Save As when it doesn't want to save, in other words I never realized it was a bug! There are still a couple of music plug-ins I use that have issues with Ventura, but those are going to be fixed imminently.

Asking for a friend who I'm madly in love with.

I personally wouldn't recommend phaffing with OpenCore unless you really like playing with computers. It's unsupported by Apple and who knows what's going to happen if you try to run an OS that doesn't know about your computer. But if you really do want to do that, I'd suggest going up one macOS version at a time - even if you're doing a totally fresh installation. For example, I know that on my previous machine, a 5,1 Mac Pro, you had to update from Sierra to High Sierra to get the required firmware update for Mojave. Apple's support instructions made that very clear. You also had to get a Metal-capable video card, which isn't an option on the iMac anyway. But if it were, $600 for a base model M1 Mac Mini would be a much better investment in my opinion.

By the way, Affinity Photo now launches in two seconds - literally. There must be some caching in macOS. It took at least 20 seconds on my previous machine, and that was from an SSD (on a SATA II bus, but still).

Unfortunately some of the music software I use isn't compatible yet, so I'll have to wait. But thanks, good to know. I'm hoping Ventura will address one minor issue that Apple knows about: windows from open programs get shrunken and moved to the left corner when waking the machine from sleep, because the monitor doesn't sync quickly enough.

I'd be interested in an official update whether or not macOS Ventura is recommended for Affinity Photo, now that it's released and you'd expect there to be a number of people weighing it. Normally I don't update until it's known to be safe, but this time I have a new machine (six weeks) and I'd like to start off being current. After all, the machine would already have Ventura on it if I were taking delivery today.

Our podcast on the subject. Olivio Sarikas (great Affinity Photo YouTube tutorials) is very enthusiastic about Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc. The other three of us have differing opinions. It's a good discussion, anyway.

No kidding. I had no idea.

Any update on this now that it's being released on Monday? I tend to wait until the dust has not just settled but been swept up, however Ventura has an updated Metal 3 - whatever that means - and it would be good to know the whole story.

I'm not Mr. Ritson, for which he's extremely grateful, but one suggestion that might help the performance: create temporary Merge Visible layers so you can turn off layers you're not working on. Having said that, I have the same Mac (although not the Studio Display) and haven't noticed a lag - however my pictures haven't been as big as yours. The Affinity Photo files are often really large - like in the 4GB range - but not the images themselves.

Thanks. The problems are: 1. I personally have absolutely no interest in working on an iPad, for several reasons. Their horsepower is not among them - I'm not worried about that. 2. 16GB is not enough memory for what I do. I have nothing against iPads, in fact I have two of them that I rarely use. They're just good for different things.