Odd behaviour with pen when moving nodes or resizing objects 1.8.4.693

[Mezcapp]

OS: Windows 10 ver. 2004, build 19041.338

Affected product: Affinity Designer 1.8.4.693 (non Microsoft store version)

Hardware: Microsoft Surface Book 1st Gen (i5 6300u, 8gb ram, 256gb ssd) Microsoft Surface Pen (battery level 61%)

Issue: When dragging nodes/lines or when resizing objects in Designer while using pen input the line/object/indicator will glitch and flash rapidly.

 

More info: This issue first appeared for me after upgrading to version 1.8.4.693, it was not present in the earlier version i was using but that version was out of date and i do not know the version number. I believe the build i was using was installed around March this year. This issue does not seem to be present in Affinity Photo, i did not test in Publisher. The issue is only with pen input, both mouse and touch inputs seem unaffected at this time. General drawing and other activities are unaffected by the glitching. This happens on both new and current projects. The issue is present in all performance modes for the laptop, from power save to full performance mode while plugged in. This issue still occurs when a different Surface pen is used. As a troubleshooting step, all user settings were reset to default by holding CTRL on startup, issue still present.

 

Here is a video of the issue, i apologize for the quality and terrible audio. Please mute or turn down before viewing.

 

[Gabe]

Hi @Mezcapp,

Welcome to the forums. 

Can you try this beta and see if it's any better? 

 

[Mezcapp]

2 hours ago, Gabe said:

Hi @Mezcapp,

Welcome to the forums. 

Can you try this beta and see if it's any better? 

 

Excellent, Gabe! The beta seems to fix the issue.

 

After further testing i can confirm that the issue exists only with the High Precision option enabled, both Low Precision and Windows Ink options seem to be working as intended. Is there a temporary fix i can apply to my non-beta install to fix the issue until the next official release? Or is falling back to an earlier version easier?

[Mark Ingram]

1 minute ago, Mezcapp said:

Excellent, Gabe! The beta seems to fix the issue.

 

After further testing i can confirm that the issue exists only with the High Precision option enabled, both Low Precision and Windows Ink options seem to be working as intended. Is there a temporary fix i can apply to my non-beta install to fix the issue until the next official release? Or is falling back to an earlier version easier?

For now, you can use the --legacy-wintab command line option (in 1.8.4). When 1.8.5 is released (hopefully in next week or two - it's only a small hotfix for 1.8.4), that command line option will be ignored, and will use the new Preference item instead.

When using the Windows Ink method in Affinity it's important to note that your Wacom driver must also be configured to use Windows Ink (else your pen will just behave like a mouse).

[Mezcapp]

1 hour ago, Mark Ingram said:

For now, you can use the --legacy-wintab command line option (in 1.8.4). When 1.8.5 is released (hopefully in next week or two - it's only a small hotfix for 1.8.4), that command line option will be ignored, and will use the new Preference item instead.

When using the Windows Ink method in Affinity it's important to note that your Wacom driver must also be configured to use Windows Ink (else your pen will just behave like a mouse).

After a bit of looking around while trying to find the settings for the Wacom drivers it turns out that no Microsoft Surface device past the Surface Pro 2 are Wacom enabled. The Surface Pro 3, Surface Book, and all newer devices use Microsoft's Wintab drivers by default that are automatically set to use Windows Ink. So, as long as newer Surface users are using the Microsoft drivers they shouldn't have an issue with the Windows Ink setting. Probably.

[Mark Ingram]

Hi @Mezcapp, I missed the fact you said Surface Book in OP. I don't think that's using the WinTab driver (and will instead use the new Pointer API, aka Windows Ink), so you shouldn't have been affected by the --legacy-wintab switch. Unless you have a Wacom too?

[Mezcapp]

8 minutes ago, Mark Ingram said:

Hi @Mezcapp, I missed the fact you said Surface Book in OP. I don't think that's using the WinTab driver (and will instead use the new Pointer API, aka Windows Ink), so you shouldn't have been affected by the --legacy-wintab switch. Unless you have a Wacom too?

I haven had a chance to try the command line switch and dont have a Wacom device. If the command line switch wont affect my device should i roll back to an earlier version like 1.8.3 until 1.8.5 launches?

[walt.farrell]

11 hours ago, Mezcapp said:

I haven had a chance to try the command line switch and dont have a Wacom device. If the command line switch wont affect my device should i roll back to an earlier version like 1.8.3 until 1.8.5 launches?

You could try the 1.8.5.703 Beta and see if it resolves the problem.