Subclavius

I would like to ask a general question here - if this is not the right place please redirect me. I have a AMD graphics card (very modest RX550) which any (even slightly) more up to date card would run rings around. In view of the problems with the AMD OpenCL interface and the (relative) absence of issues with Nvidia (at least on my reading of the forums), I'm wondering if it is worth purchasing a modest Nvidia card. I'm not actually looking for the answer here but I would like to be able to utilise the potential for improved performance. I suppose it's a long-winded way of asking if: the Affinity team sees, or perhaps realistically expects, any progress with the AMD interface? is the Nvidia performance really significantly better, even for lower-end cards? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

The highlight slider in the Develop persona (development of a DNG file) seems to have no visible effect on the image. The histogram changes briefly while the slider is moved but returns to the same set of curves. This only happens with OpenCL active. With OpenCL off things behave as expected. The shadows slider behaves as normal. I don't know if it's related to this post but am reporting it separately.

Hello @Scott Williams, I can confirm the "snapping" behaviour when adjusting the curve around the original point position in the 1.9 production release (it's also in current beta 1.9.1.963) and I can see how it makes life awkward when trying for fine control. The only alleviating thing is that 1.9 now accepts numerical (x,y) inputs (bottom left on the curves dialog) and this does allow for precise positioning. It ought to be fixed but I guess Affinity have got bigger headaches at the moment

Thanks @Mark Ingram for your continued efforts here. Here are my benchmarks: My system: Ryzen 7 3700X, AMD RX550. The biggest problems I see are in simple painting with a brush. With OpenCL active it is especially bad in large documents - and this means large in pixel dimensions. The size on disk seems to make no difference.

And from @Patrick Connor this is also the same post: "... a simple workaround is to download and install the beta build and sign into your account using the beta build. Once you've done this, you should find that you can sign into the released version without any issues. Feel free to uninstall the beta build once signed into your account."

I am unable to turn off OpenCL with build 944. I uncheck the box and then close it but APhoto no longer asks for a restart. Manually stopping and restarting shows OpenCL still enabled.

I see that with 1.9 the Flood Select tool has got some nice new symbols (complete with tool tips) for the mode (New, Add, Subtract, Intersect). However, this seems to be the only one. The select brush tool still has "Add" and "Subtract", and the Freehand and Marquee select tools also have the old words for the mode. Is this something that was missed?

The performance of APhoto with OpenCL is now substantially improved since the new Beta release (limited testing to date). I have had to disable OpenCL on the production release. (1) The slow, jerky performance when painting (large document) is very much reduced - I now see what looks a very fine jitter as the brush catches up. The only remaining point with is that when the brush is moved (not drawing), it jumps around a lot - that is to say - the black circle around the brush moves relatively smoothly but the coloured square in the middle jumps around as though it's new position is only recalculated when the circle slows or stops moving. It's slightly disconcenrting but not a big deal (2) loading and particularly developing a DNG is now faster than it ever was in production I also no longer hear the fans in the computer gear up for action. Thank you Affinity Team,. It makes the product, as far as I am concerned, usable with OpenCL. My system: Windows 64 bit, 64 GB/AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/AMD Radeon RX550 graphics card

Although my graphics card is not a 5600, it is AMD (RX550, single GPU). APhoto 1.9 is definitely significantly slower than 1.8.5. Have tried to do a little analysis to get see if there is some sort of handle to be obtained. The first pic is views of the Windows Task Manager for the GPU while running the AP benchmark. Left is OpenCL off, right is OpenCL on. The second pic is my psuedo real-world test with a picture - consisting of high speed painting with the pen/tablet. When OpenCL was off, the drawing kept perfect pace with the pen movements, while when OpenCL was on, there was a signficant lag - of the order of 10 seconds. The underlying document is large and this may well account for it, but with OpenCL switched out AP has no problem. Clearly the GPU is being used in a significantly different way. Open CL off - GPU engine only in use, GPU dedicated memory usage low Open CL on - GPU engine usage less, copy engine usage increased, but significantly a huge increase in the GPU dedicated memory use As can be seen from CPU performance in the real world test, it is not at all stressed. A repeat of the real-world test with a small (A4) picture with OpenCL on, AP behaves normally with no lag.

@artofmtl, I don't think it is the case your video card is "incompatible". What was apparent in the beta testing forum was that the hardware acceleration is sometimes sensitive to the hardware being used. My advice would be to ensure that you are using the latest drivers. I would guess that the Affinity Team are looking at this one closely

Hello @caubeyron, It appears from other threads that the incorporation of OpenCL into 1.9 may possibly be causing performance issues. You can turn it off via Edit > Preferences > Performance and uncheck Hardware Acceleration. APhoto will restart when you close the dialog. I have done this myself due to slow performance and it has resolved.

As @Vasto7 says, thank you to the team for getting 1.9 released. Following the upgrade to 1.9 I noticed a decreased performance when drawing (painting) with a (externally purchased) brush. I am using APhoto to trace an underlying image and the brush performance is jerky and not smooth. I have switched out OpenCL and perfomance has reverted to its usual smooth behaviour under 1.8.5. I don't know what this implies - whether there is a problem with OpenCL performance-wise, or whether the increased demands of the software simply mean that my graphics card isn't up to the job and the CPU can handle it better. Windows 10 pro/64 GB/AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/AMD RX550 graphics card (running latest driver)

Windows 10 64 bit/APhoto 1.8.5.703 - behaviour is unchanged in APhoto Beta 1.9.0.903/Wacom Intuos Pro I'm hoping my experience is to the point - but I'm happy to start a new topic if not. Please see attached video. The opacity layer setting is ignored - only when using the tablet. When using the mouse it is accepted first time. It mostly takes 2 or 3 attempts to set the opacity with the pen+tablet but sometimes several as you see. The behaviour, whilst not a huge problem, is really annoying until the program finally accepts the opacity setting. APhoto_2021-01-21_21-40-52.mp4

The brush stabiliser is great and works a treat. For my work I find myself constantly switching between using a brush/eraser with stabiliser to produce smooth lines and without (freehand) for odds and ends. However i find switching between these modes is awkward as I am always forced to lose brush position (using my pen with Wacom tablet) and then restart at the old position. I would like to request that the stabiliser feature could be additionally turned on or off via a keyboard command or some other keystroke so that I can then set it in my Wacom tablet buttons.

I also have Affinity Designer available (the apps aren't that expensive) which I occasionally use. It's proved really useful here though as I simply copy the APhoto layer to the same-sized document in ADesign, alter the fill mode and copy back into the APhoto document. Seems like such a simple enhancement to add though.