Surface Pro 6 pen no longer working with the 1.8.4 update

[Elizabeth Taylor]

Since the update to Affinity 1.8.4 my Surface Pro 6 Pen is no longer working and the entire program gets jammed up.  It is particularly noticed when using the clone brush and the healing brush. I absolutely need this to be fixed in order to do my work and rely heavily on the program and my pen.

 

Thank you,

Elizabeth Taylor

[Chris B]

Hey Elizabeth, welcome to the Affinity Forums.

When you say the app gets 'jammed up' do you mean it completely freezes and you cannot do anything—or does it simply slow down?

I have a Surface Pro 7 and it seems to be working okay. Have you tried working on a new, smaller document to see if you can reproduce the issues?

[Chris B]

It might be worth safely resetting the app

Affinity Store - Go to %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 and rename 1.0 to 1.1

or 

Microsoft Store - Go to %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 (Store) and rename 1.0 to 1.1

You can acccess the AppData folder by pressing the Windows key + R on your keyboard and then just type %AppData%

[Elizabeth Taylor]

Hi Chris.  Jammed up = it stutters, is jumpy and lags. All the stutters and lags seems to as if the memory can not keep up or something.  I'm not very tech savvy and so this is difficult for me to explain.  Another way to describe the behavior is like this:  It starts to act as though one is stuck in mud and then one suddenly finds that they are free and then almost falls forward due to the unexpected release.  

 

I will try to do as you have suggested above about renaming the app to 1.1.  I have read on the forums that others are having pen issues due to the new update.  

 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thank you, Elizabeth

[Elizabeth Taylor]

I am able to get to the Affinity Store but how do I get to the location you mentioned to rename from 1 to 1.1?  I've tried to put it in the browser and it said this was a bad page with a 400 error?

[Elizabeth Taylor]

Chris!  By some miracle I was able to do what you suggested and it seems to have fixed the problem thus far.  I only checked it for a few minutes but the pen worked perfectly again!  Thank you!  If for some reason it isn't really fixed I'll return here.  If no words well, no more words is a good thing.

 

Elizabeth

[Elizabeth Taylor]

Well, after working with it for a while longer I can see that the program is still suffering from the update, at least for us using a pen to work.  

 

This is most disappointing .

 

Elizabeth

[Mark Ingram]

7 hours ago, Elizabeth Taylor said:

Well, after working with it for a while longer I can see that the program is still suffering from the update, at least for us using a pen to work.  

 

This is most disappointing .

 

Elizabeth

What size brush are you using? Does it still stutter if you use a small brush?

[Elizabeth Taylor]

The size of the brush does not matter. The problem is mainly showing up when using the healing brush tool. At least this seems to be the case I've ran into. The clone/stamp tool has improved since changing the name of the file from 1 to 1.1.

[Chris B]

Hey Elizabeth,

Can you give me an idea of the size brushes and documents you're working with? Perhaps if you attach one. I've been using my Surface Pro 7 on and off for the past couple weeks and haven't noticed anything (as mentioned before). I wonder if it's the amount of time you're spending in the app? If you save, close and reopen does it speed up again?

[Elizabeth Taylor]

It is mainly a problem with large brushes.  The files I us are generally large and JPEG.  My files are mainly like the one I have sent.  The program had been working just fine before the update.  I do not want to have to "baby" the program along in order to do my work.  Work can get done but with unpredictable brush stokes, brushes included in the program, stuttering and occasional crashes. I do hope this will be fixed.  The file below was edited first in Luminar.  I always start there and then move to Affinity for the final touches.  Luminar is more like Light Room and Affinity more like PhotoShop.

[Subclavius]

I get some behaviour like this too - a 'stuttering' effect as if Affinity can't process the incoming information fast enough and then suddenly catches up.  It appears most frequently with large documents, (relatively) high magnifications [this means 185% of 256 MB tiff, 1600dpi, RGB/8 format] and slow pen movements. Oddly APhoto seems ok with quick pen movements and these seem to make it 'catch up' again.  Am using Wacom Intuos Pro.  It was also occurring the one of the earlier beta builds (681).  It doesn't occur consistently however.

[Chris B]

Okay, you have a coupl of options here. You can either:

1. Install the beta which allows you to go to Preferences > Tools and change the pen settings to low precision. This will reduce the amount of points and speed things up. Using Higher Precision on big documents will be a lot slower. 
2. With the 1.8.4 retail, you can do the --legacy-wintab flag. Instructions are here.

The beta introduced this new option which is not available in the retail (yet).

[Subclavius]

Thank you.  Please would you explain what the essential difference is between low and high precision - I know it sounds obvious but what are the consequences for the document being worked upon.

FWIW I also notice a much improved performance (a lot less, if any, lag/stuttering) with a direct USB connection, which operates at a much higher bit rate than bluetooth.

[Mark Ingram]

1 hour ago, Subclavius said:

Thank you.  Please would you explain what the essential difference is between low and high precision - I know it sounds obvious but what are the consequences for the document being worked upon.

FWIW I also notice a much improved performance (a lot less, if any, lag/stuttering) with a direct USB connection, which operates at a much higher bit rate than bluetooth.

Low Precision is how it used to work in 1.8.3. It uses the position from the cursor on the screen to record location data for the tools. This method is not sub-pixel accurate.

High Precision is new in 1.8.4 (and was the only option in 1.8.4, without the --legacy-wintab option). It uses sub-pixel location data from the tablet directly, leading to more accurate (and smoother) input. It may also record a higher quantity of points too (more points equals more changes, therefore can slow things down).

[Subclavius]

Hello Serif Moderators,

Thank you for your help with this and for all your hard work