Subclavius

@Chris B, you're right that clicking the slider to obscure isn't necessary but it makes no difference. Just old habits ... The fault occurs every time when starting a new document. Also, the problem for me only occurs when using the Wacom tablet (which is all the time). When using the mouse to do the same operation APhoto behaves as expected and works the first time. Although you are unable to reproduce it, I can't seem to avoid it! I guess I shall have to carry on testing ...

Which Renderer is APhoto using? You can check this from Edit > Preferences > Performance. Does it make any difference if you change from NVIDIA to using Intel Integrated Graphics, or to WARP?

@sapstar, I was wondering if focus merge worked in 1.8.5? The only other thing I could suggest is to uninstall the NVIDIA graphics drivers completely and then reinstall the latest ones from scratch. This may be different to simply updating. I have seen a couple of threads where this seems to have helped.

Hi @DarkClown, now that the beta build 979 is in production, do you think it is worth starting a new thread (replicating or referencing this one) in the forum for Production builds? I find this problem particularly annoying and it might help not only to get it brought to attention but to get a fault number allocated.

@dev4press, it's actually OpenCL - that is the interface to enable 'computing' to be carried out using the graphics processor. OpenGL is something else. There is another thread (albeit around a Lenovo Ideapad 110) involving Intel integrated graphics and Intel's OpenCL implementation: The general consensus seems to be to turn off hardware acceleration until the OpenCL interface issues are sorted. And in case you think it's only limited to Intel, there are big problems with AMD graphics cards too, such that Affinity have disabled HA for all higher level AMD cards. Sorry that it's not much help, but you should be able to carry on using Affinity Photo with all its features, just without HA for the time being.

Hi @Vasto7, I think we've all got our fingers crossed for that

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.

Dear Affinity Team, Thank you for implementing this feature in 1.9 😊 I'd like to make a couple of observations/suggestions which would make things easier for me: the Y axis value begins with 0 at top left rather than conventionally at bottom left, so when entering "conventional" values I also have to do the calculation (1-y). This may be a design feature but it works contrary to the usage in blend mode curves where (0,0) is bottom left when hovering the cursor over the curve points, it is sometimes possible to "miss" slightly and click on the curve instead next to the desired point. This can easily be undone by right-clicking on the "wrong" point but it's made more difficult with lots of points. To make this easier I would like to see the cursor change (colour or shape for example) when hovering over and "picking up" an existing point whilst I'm doing my wish list, I would like to see the option for linear interpolation in addition to the current smooth implementation (just as with blend modes) Keep up the good work!

Thank you @Pšenda I didn't know how to put in the link to a particular comment. However, I've just noticed that i've started this thread in the wrong place. Am repeating it/opening a new topic under the Beta forums.

Dear Affinity Team, Thank you for implementing this feature (topic 88014) in 1.9 - see comment from @Andy Somerfield posted April 14 😊 I'd like to make a couple of observations which would make things easier for me: the Y axis value begins with 0 at top left rather than conventionally at bottom left, so when entering "conventional" values I also have to do the calculation (1-y). This may be a design feature but it works contrary to the usage in blend mode curves and a 1D LUT (which both have 0 as bottom left) when hovering the cursor over the curve points, it is sometimes possible to "miss" and click on the curve instead next ot the desired point, often creating a strangely shaped curve. These can easily be undone by right-clicking on the "wrong" point but it's made more difficult with lots of points. I would like to see the cursor change (colour or shape for example) when hovering over an existing point whilst I'm doing my wish list, I would like to see the option for linear interpolation in addition to the current smooth implementation (just as with blend modes) Keep up the good work!

Ah! Thank you @Old Bruce and @MEB. Obvious once you know how. I just couldn't find it in the help or a menu option somewhere. I guessed it was by design though.

Windows 10 64 bit/APhoto 1.8.5.703 (production) I was playing with colours and using the Opacity slider on the Colour tab I don't know what I did but suddenly APhoto changed the opacity slider to a Noise slider: The only way I could find to regain the opacity slider was to close APhoto and start again. Please would somebody explain how to switch between the Opacity and Noise sliders