Pen pressure senstivity not working after upgrading

[Johan Swanberg]

Hi

I'm using a Gaomon pd1560 tablet-display. Its pen pressure has worked in previous versions of affinity photo, but when I upgraded to 1.82, it does not work anymore. It was a while ago I upgraded, so I'm not sure what version I was previously on. I have tried restarting my computer & reinstalling affinity photo, but pen pressure still does not work. I tried installing Krita, and confirmed that pen pressure works there.

Ive double checked that the brush has pressure dynamics enabled.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to fix this, or is this a bug in affinity photo itself which I need to wait until it gets solved?

Thanks in advance.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Johan Swanberg.

In your Preferences for Photo, under Tools, which option do you have for "Windows Ink"?

 

Also, in the Brush Tool's Context Toolbar, have you enabled the Pressure control?

[GaryRS]

I'm having the same issue, and I've checked the above settings 😞

[Johan Swanberg]

@walt.farrell Thank you, toggling the windows ink setting off solved my issue. I'm still confused at why this broke when I updated - was this setting recently introduced, and defaulted to something new? Either way, my issue is solved.

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, Johan Swanberg said:

I'm still confused at why this broke when I updated - was this setting recently introduced, and defaulted to something new?

1.8 required the use of Windows Ink if you wanted to use pressure at all. If you did not have Windows Ink enabled on your system your stylus would not register pressure in the Affinity applications.

1.8.2 created an option to make the use of Windows Ink optional.

 

[Hadriscus]

Thank you so much for the help, I was in despair. Why isn't this declared to the user at startup ? I mean one day it works, the next day it's broken and we have to go uncheck an obscure checkbox somewhere in preferences, provided we know what to look for or spent half an hour on the internet to figure it out - that's not cool.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Hadriscus

[walt.farrell]

The change was mentioned in the Release Notes, but you'd have to go looking for the Release Notes to be aware of it. Users who participate in the Beta program are more aware of such changes, as they see the release notes for each beta version when they're given the download instructions.

But users who only use the retail version don't have that advantage. I agree with you that there should be more warning of incompatible changes like that one.

For example, the Release Notes for 1.8.0 say: Software now requires Windows ink for pressure to work

And the Release Notes for 1.8.2 say: Added "Use Windows Ink for tablet input" preference (enabled by default, disable to use WinTab)

[Hadriscus]

I usually take a look at the release notes, but not regularly. I am not aware of that windows ink versus wintab thing - is that a new windows centric api for tablet events ? as far as I'm concerned my wacom always worked fine and I see no reason to change the way it interfaces with the OS, but obviously I am no developer. Thanks again Walt.

Hadrien

 

Just read about windows ink also breaking tablet support in the latest Blender release...

[Hadriscus]

1.8.4 broke tablet input again, and this time the checkbox "use Windows Ink" is gone. I don't know what to do, this is tiresome.

 

Symptoms are : AP hangs after opening a file (very simple one) or after the first brush stroke, zooming and panning are erratic, instantly zooms out to 2% when I touch the tablet, does not recognize pen release events (acts as if I am still holding down the pen when I am not)...

...and brush strokes do this :

 

[Dan C]

Please see our below FAQ regarding this - 

I hope this helps  

[Hadriscus]

6 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Please see our below FAQ regarding this - 

I hope this helps  

Thank you very much. This solves the canvas controls issues, but I lost the pen pressure again (which ironically was the only thing working nicely before that). I'll be moving my current project to Gimp for the time being, which although limited, works fine.

How can this kind of issue even creep in ? Is there no testing done for these releases ?

[Dan C]

I'm very sorry to hear that - for some users the new Win Tab is not working as expected, however running the above flag has resolved these issues - I've not heard of it stopping pressure from being recorded.
What tablet are you using here please?

3 minutes ago, Hadriscus said:

How can this kind of issue even creep in ? Is there no testing done for these releases ?

Version 1.8.4 was in beta for months before release and was tested both internally by our QA team and externally - unfortunately with such a 'wide net' of users with drawing tablets, it's essentially impossible for us to test every tablet on every system type & setup - so there's bound to be issues for certain customers, as with any piece of software.

[Hadriscus]

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

I'm very sorry to hear that - for some users the new Win Tab is not working as expected, however running the above flag has resolved these issues - I've not heard of it stopping pressure from being recorded.
What tablet are you using here please?

It is a quite standard Wacom Intuos M from 2013 (PTK-650), using latest drivers... (which haven't changed since years for this model anyway), monitor resolution is 3440*1440, OS is Windows 10 (18362.959).

I had to test again to make sure, but no, pen pressure most definitely does not work, regardless of brush or setting used.

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

Version 1.8.4 was in beta for months before release and was tested both internally by our QA team and externally - unfortunately with such a 'wide net' of users with drawing tablets, it's essentially impossible for us to test every tablet on every system type & setup - so there's bound to be issues for certain customers, as with any piece of software.

I understand... why remove the Wintab checkbox then, if unchecking it works for most users ? running a command line argument is imho less accessible than disabling a setting from the interface, which was already quite hidden in the first place.

 

@Dan C

Can I be sent the beta installer for next time please, so that I can report whatever bug I encounter ? Does it install side-by-side with the release version ?

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, Hadriscus said:

Can I be sent the beta installer for next time please, so that I can report whatever bug I encounter ? Does it install side-by-side with the release version ?

The beta program is open to all users who have the retail version installed. Just check the Beta section of the forums and look for your OS and application:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/32-beta-software-forums/

Yes, the beta versions install side-by-side with the release versions. Serif generally recommends not using the beta versions for production work (or against your original production files) in case there's an issue that makes the file unusable. (And, also, if the release version is 1.8.something and you're using a 1.9.something beta your release version probably can't open any of the files created or modified by the beta.)

The betas don't share anything with the release versions, so you won't have any of your custom brushes, assets, etc. unless you reinstall them in the beta.

[Hadriscus]

35 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The beta program is open to all users who have the retail version installed. Just check the Beta section of the forums and look for your OS and application:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/32-beta-software-forums/

Yes, the beta versions install side-by-side with the release versions. Serif generally recommends not using the beta versions for production work (or against your original production files) in case there's an issue that makes the file unusable. (And, also, if the release version is 1.8.something and you're using a 1.9.something beta your release version probably can't open any of the files creeated by the beta.)

The betas don't share anything with the release versions, so you won't have any of your custom brushes, assets, etc. unless you reinstall them in the beta.

Thanks for the info, I'll do that.

[Friar Dick]

I have spent another 2-days trying to follow the threads. My second attempt. Pressure doesn't seem to work. I've watched the videos, I keep coming back to the one with the lady. All roads . . .

I cannot find "Force Pressure" anywhere. I've gone throug preferences. The tablet works on Clip Studio and on Corel Painter Essentials. I love Designer. Would like to be able to use pressure.

Thanks

r.bunn2016@gmail.com

Edited August 29, 2020 by Friar Dick

[R C-R]

@Friar Dick, I suggest that you either not include your email address in posts or include it in a form that humans can understand but spam bots cannot, like "<myname> at <domain name> dot com."

[Friar Dick]

OK R C-R. I don't have any idea how to run this forum. Thanks. I just discovered that I would get a notification when I logged back into  the forum on a post I had made, yes? My question about the pressure sensitive not working is still paramount in my brain. It is driving me crazy. It works great in Painter Essentials 7 and in Clip Studio. But I can't get it to work in Designer. Thanks!

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Friar Dick said:

My question about the pressure sensitive not working is still paramount in my brain.

You mentioned that you cannot find "Force Pressure." You have not given us much other info to work with but assuming you are using Affinity Designer in the Pixel Persona, when you select the Paint Brush Tool, you should see a button on the context toolbar immediately to the right of the "More" button that looks like two concentric circles with a tiny brush on it. I think this is the "Force Pressure" item you are looking for.

[Friar Dick]

I couldn't find the "More" button to the left of the brush tool in Pixel Persona. AScreen Shot attached. Plus some added info on the system. I love the program BTW. I had the original ones, before the fancy names, I liked them almost as much as the Adobe products that I had. While I could afford them. Now I like your stuff better. I still need help, BTW.

 

[Friar Dick]

Where will the notification of a reply show up?

[Old Bruce]

9 minutes ago, Friar Dick said:

I couldn't find the "More" button to the left of the brush tool in Pixel Persona. AScreen Shot attached.

It is on the Context toolbar, go to View > Show Context Toolbar.

[Friar Dick]

Works in Pixel Persona. Thanks!