Tablet input on Windows (was: Vikenti)

[Vikenti]

AD ver 1.8.5.703. Windows 10 Pro on AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz, 64 RAM, video: nVidia GTX-1060 6Gb,

In pixel persona: I used old Wacom Intuos Tablet and all was fine except occasional spoils at the beginning of the like (when inking illustrations with brushes). Few days ago i bought a Huion GT-220 pen display and now i have troubles:

1. if i use "low-precision" or "high precision" tablet input mode i have lots of spoils at the beginning of my lines, but less lags with large size brushes(150px or greater)

2. if i change tablet input mode to "windows ink" - i have accurate lines but lots of lags (almost hangs) when i use large brushes (100px+ from Frankentoon Neptune pack)  or stamp brushes (1200px+ from Frankentoon Concept Master pack)

tablet drivers are ok - last version and all is ok in Krita and Paint Tool SAI. The problem appears only in Affinity.

what should i do?

[stokerg]

Hi @Vikenti and Welcome to the Forums,

Can you check the software for your tablet and see if that has its own Windows ink setting and disable that and try setting Designer to low/high precision mode and see if the same happens.  

[Vikenti]

Huion application (with settings ) has the only option for this: "support tablet PC" checkbox.

i tested combinations (AD\huion settings):

1. low precision + support tablet PC checked

2. low precision + support tablet PC unchecked

no lags, no any problem with large brushes, but lots of spoils at the beginning\end of lines

 

3. high precision + support tablet PC checked

4. high precision + support tablet PC unchecked

no lags, no any problem with large brushes, but frequent spoils when you draw the line slowly, when you move your hand fast - there are less spoils, but they also exist 

 

5. windows ink + support tablet PC checked

correct lines, even when drawing with slow movement. big troubles with large brushes

 

6. windows ink + support tablet PC unchecked

no pressure output, big troubles with large brushes

 

before Huion i used old Wacom Intuos 3 tablet with "high precision" tablet input settings - there were occasional spoils when draw slowly and i solved this issue by editing pressure curve in wacom driver settings - i made it sensitive starting from some higher pressure (maybe starting from 10..20% of pressure range) . But huion tablet has no such settings.

 

It would be nice if you make this input curve in tablet settings of Affinity Designer\Affinity Photo - maybe in the next release. Or maybe some pressure jitter filtering (on start\end line) 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Vikenti

[Vikenti]

Hello! are there any ideas how to solve this problem? i tried double click settings - made double click distance less and double click speed greater - but sometimes still have spoils.

If i just touch a pen display surface with pen nib - i often get a dot of maximum brush size instead of minimum (according to pressure).

Edited November 3, 2020 by Vikenti

[Vikenti]

Hi, @stokerg!

I've found another tablet interface trouble in AD. When use "windows ink" tablet input method in AD (with  corresponding enabled "Support TabletPC" option in Huion drivers which enabled "windows ink" support at the tablet side) - the brush size never reaches its maximum, with any pressure it become no more than ~25% of its maximum size. Looks like if the whole pressure range is 8192 while my tablet supports only 2048 (my GT-220 model really supports 2048 pressure levels).  No similar bug neither in Krita nor in SAI (currently they configured to use WinTAB interface, i didn't test them in "windows ink" mode).

To summarize all written above, i think the global solution for "low\high precision" tablet input mode could be :

1) test whether the line has been just started\ended - and at this moment assume the lower pressure value rather than maximum value (start pressure interpolation at the start of the line from lowest value rather then from maximum, and end interpolation at the lowest pressure value at the end of the line). This simple jitter filtering may prevent big unwanted dots at the start\end of the line.

2) global tablet input pressure curve in preferences of Affinity (like this is implemented in Krita, for example). This will help a lot to setup lots of tablets that have no this option in drivers, and finally get precise and smooth lines. Many users will thank you, because AD (against Krita or SAI) is very comfortable software for the whole production cycle (from draft drawing to many variants of ready product) where drawing is just one stage.

I very appreciate if these bugfixes\features will be in the next release!

I am eager to participate in testing to improve Affinity software.

P. S. As for me, it would be nice if there will appear in some future release some kind of ruler assistant for brush\eraser (perspective -2,3 vanishing points, ellipse, fisheye), or just moving brush\eraser along some vector path. But this is not vital for me.