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v_kyr

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The Affinity OpenCL Disabler is a little Windows based support tool, which will search and check for the availability of the PerformancePreferences.xml files (and inside those especially the existance and value setting of the <UseHardwareAcceleration> field) in Affinity for Windows release product installments. It's main purpose is to automatically disable the OpenCL hardware acceleration settings for the GPU in PerformancePreferences.xml files, which when as default enabled can lead on some Windows systems to crashes of Affinity application due to possible GPU driver incompatibilities. So if these settings are as default enabled, this tool will disable these settings for Affinity release programs.

The tools main window looks like this ...

program.png.e42daa2d4080efc46fd3bd147ea1ecef.png

... and when started does a first automatic search after PerformancePreferences.xml files and their contents. It's console output box lists (outputs) what it processes and found out so far. The console also prints some hints for the next steps to take (pressing related image buttons) in order to disable related found OpenCL settings. Further during processing the top big image buttons change to indicate the found out states, their tooltips do change too dynamically and give here further related hints. - The tools top three big affinity image buttons do always show the found out state of the as installed found Affinity apps (Photo, Designer and Publisher). The tool actually searches only for Affinity Store, MS Store and Test releases of Affinity app versions, Affinity Beta versions are here excluded from the automatic search facility and thus not yet taken into account.

  • No applications or PerformancePreferences.xml settings file found ...
    photo_none_100.png.2b94c80e100597ef89d22f38a33eaa4b.pngdesigner_none_100.png.fb87d6ba0ed7940aa6b06cad081ad354.pngpublisher_none_100.png.76fcc698eaba5870f3b81a856c719900.png

    ... these image buttons are shown if no application related settings file are found, meaning there are probably no related Affinity apps installed on the Windows system.
     
  • PerformancePreferences.xml settings file found but it has no <UseHardwareAcceleration> field entry ...
    photo_entry_100.png.7cc9f40d2d657921487858940bec80b9.pngdesigner_entry_100.jpg.e4e494d708c894248ef4848fa4e804f0.jpgpublisher_entry_100.png.e6db980e1d61a6803c82750621ce8bb4.png

    ... clicking on one of the above shown "OpenCL No entry" image buttons will create a corresponding entry into the related PerformancePreferences.xml file, but will flag it to OpenCL disabled (False) and thus disable hardware acceleration.
     
  • Hardware acceleration OpenCL related setting as enabled found ...
    photo_on_100.png.f9f7f0571cdadeb9c4b4ea1fdfa822b4.pngdesigner_on_100.png.fbf08d52cf7ad717e7719d7c62a2316d.pngpublisher_on_100.png.32a267ef821259bc72cb162e05289e9e.png

    ... clicking on one of the above shown "OpenCL enabled" image buttons will edit/change the corresponding PerformancePreferences.xml file entry to OpenCL disabled (False) and thus disable hardware acceleration.
     
  • The state this program always aims to reach is to disable all the OpenCL hardware acceleration settings and thus it should finally ideally show these image buttons here ...
    photo_off_100.png.612a8cdb5adad5117cd78774dfa4765b.pngdesigner_off_100.png.c6c9b04c8761e165aa60ace7c4c4bff8.pngpublisher_off_100.png.7c536993ad23bb57e4836854a84558e4.png

    ... if the obove shown images are shown, OpenCL is disabled for the Affinity Windows apps, which might hopefully help to prevent possible default app crashes then.
  • [x] Create any missing performance XML files

    When this checkbox is enabled during clicking on any of the above shown image buttons then a possibly missing performance XML files can be initially auto-generated. The Affinity OpenCL Disabler then looks during it's scan after any related Affinity product if it's settings directory is available (does exist), if the directory exists but there is no PerformancePreferences.xml settings file found inside, then an initial PerformancePreferences.xml will be generated and created in the corresponding settings directory! - Such a scan and XML file creation is only performed when this checkbox is enabled and one of the above  Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer or Affinity Publisher icon buttons are pressed!

NOTE: The tool comes along with some HTML based help contents (see the file in: ..\help\help_en.html) which you should read. From inside the running tool the help is accessable via the little [?] show help button. The HTML based help can be alternatively opened (the file help_en.html) from inside the supplied help directory with your local webbrowser.

Installation:

In order to use Affinity OpenCL Disabler you must have an actual installed Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 (or a newer version) on your computer. To install Affinity OpenCL Disabler, just copy the contents of it's ZIP file into a directory of your choice. Where the AffinityOclChecker.exe file is the main Affinity OpenCL Disabler file, which must be executed in order to run the tool.

In the following table, <somedir> refers to an installation directory of your choice.

File to copy Target directory
Contents of AffinityOclChecker.zip <somedir>/AffinityOclChecker/

To start the Affinity OpenCL Disabler you can just do a double click on it's EXE file, afterwards the Affinity OpenCL Disabler tool should appear and is ready to use.

Here is the little AffinityOclChecker Windows based program, it's zipped (archived) thus remember that you have first to extract (unzip) it in order to use it:

I hope that it might be useful for the one or other Affinity forum user, regards v_kyr!

opencl-info.png.56fec0f1e84999b677c425f3dbe5e43e.png

openclscreen.jpg.cc239486fd0ca8359cb1966e382f1dbf.jpg

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Thanks for the info.  I have run the tool and I have the following results:

-- SEARCHING FOR PERFORMANCE SETTINGS XML FILES --


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0 (Trial)\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml

Found file: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml
But no <UseHardwareAcceleration> setting found inside! 
*** Click above (Photo No entry) image button to create a disabled setting! ***


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0 (Store)\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Designer\1.0 (Trial)\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml

Found file: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Designer\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml
But no <UseHardwareAcceleration> setting found inside! 
*** Click above (Designer No entry) image button to create a disabled setting! ***


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Designer\1.0 (Store)\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Trial)\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml


No file found: C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Store)\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml

Done!

So this appears not to be the problem.  Any other advice appreciated.

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1 minute ago, TonyKing said:

So this appears not to be the problem.  Any other advice appreciated.

If no setting is found, the system will try to use Hardware Acceleration. So if you are having a problem getting the applications started, you should use the program's option to "create a disabled setting".

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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35 minutes ago, TonyKing said:

So this appears not to be the problem.  Any other advice appreciated.

The console output tells that you have Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer from Serif and as @walt.farrell already indicated, that there is no ...

  • <UseHardwareAcceleration>value</UseHardwareAcceleration>

... OpenCL hardware acceleration setting entry found at all inside the corresponding PerformancePreferences.xml settings files. The top image buttons (their icon) should indicate the same here. Further the console output tells you too, that you can initiate the creation of the missing related entry by clicking one of the above image buttons. The image buttons tooltips should tell the same at this stage! - So if you now click on any of those above image buttons, the tool will create those entries for you inside the found PerformancePreferences.xml settings files as OpenCL hardware acceleration disabled. It will insert into the files an entry ...

  • <UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>

... and thus disable the OpenCL hardware acceleration for both found apps (Photo & Designer)!

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Can the hardware acceleration works on a NVidia GT 720 graphics card, AMD Ryzen 6 cores processor and Windows 10 pro 20H2?

6 cœurs, 12 processus - Windows 11 pro - 4K - DirectX 12 - Suite universelle Affinity (Affinity  Publisher, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo).

Mais je vous le demande, peut-on imaginer une police sans sérifs ?

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3 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

Can the hardware acceleration work on a NVidia GT 720 graphics card, AMD Ryzen processor and Windows 10 pro 20H2?

Seems off-topic here.

Perhaps try in:

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Thank you. DXDiag says there is DirectX 12. Affinity says the machine is not compatible!

dxdiag.jpg

affinity.jpg

6 cœurs, 12 processus - Windows 11 pro - 4K - DirectX 12 - Suite universelle Affinity (Affinity  Publisher, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo).

Mais je vous le demande, peut-on imaginer une police sans sérifs ?

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DirectX12 is not the requirement. You need to read the first post in that topic.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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:)Thank. I found it. It's level 11 of directx 12, so that explains why it doesn't work.

https://technical.city/fr/video/GeForce-GT-720

6 cœurs, 12 processus - Windows 11 pro - 4K - DirectX 12 - Suite universelle Affinity (Affinity  Publisher, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo).

Mais je vous le demande, peut-on imaginer une police sans sérifs ?

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37 minutes ago, TonyKing said:

I have run the applet which told me it had changed the setting.  However when I tried to open Affinity Photo I still get the same issue.

Many thanks for your help/advice so far.  Any other ideas?

You can look into the indicated XML files manually in order to see if the entry is inserted there now. If you open with a text editor the files ...

C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml
C:\Users\Tony King\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Designer\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml

... there should be such an entry now inside ...

<UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>

Also NOTE: that the tool doesn't make any changes for Affinity Beta versions, it just operates and looks after Affinity release versions! - So if you started a Beta version, that hasn't been touched and will behave as before!

Other than that it's possble that your Win Affinity app problems aren't GPU related at all, you can look into the corresponding Affinity and Windows crash reports as far as there are some ...

Crash reports should be stored in %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\CrashReports
Crash reports should be stored in %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\CrashReports

... if you find any crash reports you can file them in (attach them) to the corresponding forum section posting, in your case then ...

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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  • 6 months later...

@serif from: AppData is a directory, not a file, and it may be Hidden on your system, if you have not configured Windows File Explorer to show Hidden directories.

You can also:

  1. Press the Windows key and R.
  2. In the dialog that opens, type or paste %AppData%\Affinity
  3. Click the OK button. 

You'll get a File Explorer window. Navigate down in it to the directory/file that you need.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 3 months later...

Example of how a default, in this case an APh related "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml" with an added disabled "UseHardwareAcceleration" XML entry content wise looks like ...

Quote

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Settings xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="Serif.Interop.Persona.Settings.PerformanceSettings">
    <RAMUsageLimit>
        <UnitType>Megabyte</UnitType>
        <Value>8192</Value>
    </RAMUsageLimit>
    <DiskWarningLimit>
        <UnitType>Megabyte</UnitType>
        <Value>32768</Value>
    </DiskWarningLimit>
    <UndoLimit>1024</UndoLimit>
    <ViewQuality>0</ViewQuality>
    <AutoSaveInterval>
        <UnitType>Number</UnitType>
        <Value>300</Value>
    </AutoSaveInterval>
    <UsePerfectClipping>False</UsePerfectClipping>
    <UseDithering>True</UseDithering>
    <RetinaPassIndex>0</RetinaPassIndex>
    <UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>
</Settings>

Here's the above shown PerformancePreferences.xml file:

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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  • 5 months later...

There is now a slightly reworked version 1.2 of the Affinity OpenCL Disabler available.

This v1.2 adds the capability to create/auto-generate any possibly missing PerformancePreferences.xml file on demand (via enabling a checkbox option) in an related Affinity settings directory. - This feature might be handy in certain cases where the Affinity apps may do crash on Windows systems due to a probably missing GPU prefs settings file after a reinstall or the like.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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1 hour ago, c42759 said:

Are you able to explain me what happened?

Yes I give it a try, though you can see also from the tools console output what happened and what it did ...

... this Affinity OpenCL Disabler tool looked through some of the possible ADe on Windows installment paths and searched there then especially for a specific PerformancePreferences.xml file inside an ADe option settings directory. In your case it has found that file under the path ...

    ->    C:\Users\c42759\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Designer\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml

... then the tool searched inside that PerformancePreferences.xml file after the existence of a specific XML element entry, namely ...

    -> <UseHardwareAcceleration>True</UseHardwareAcceleration> 

... if it finds that entry (so if that entry exists) it will make a backup copy of the whole file and will afterwards change that specific entry value setting from "True" to "False", meaning it will disabale the OpenCL hardware acceleration ...

    -> <UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>

... if that <UseHardwareAcceleration> entry doesn't exist at all inside the file, the tool will add such a missing entry to the file, which in turn then means that it disables the OpenCL hardware acceleration of Affinity Designer with this setup option then.

IN SHORT:  the tool disabled the OpenCL hardware acceleration setting from outside of ADe, so that it doesn't have to be done from inside a running ADe version via it's preferences settings here.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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4 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Yes I give it a try, though you can see also from the tools console output what happened and what it did ...

... this Affinity OpenCL Disabler tool looked through some of the possible ADe on Windows installment paths and searched there then especially for a specific PerformancePreferences.xml file inside an ADe option settings directory. In your case it has found that file under the path ...

    ->    C:\Users\c42759\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Designer\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml

... then the tool searched inside that PerformancePreferences.xml file after the existence of a specific XML element entry, namely ...

    -> <UseHardwareAcceleration>True</UseHardwareAcceleration> 

... if it finds that entry (so if that entry exists) it will make a backup copy of the whole file and will afterwards change that specific entry value setting from "True" to "False", meaning it will disabale the OpenCL hardware acceleration ...

    -> <UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>

... if that <UseHardwareAcceleration> entry doesn't exist at all inside the file, the tool will add such a missing entry to the file, which in turn then means that it disables the OpenCL hardware acceleration of Affinity Designer with this setup option then.

IN SHORT:  the tool disabled the OpenCL hardware acceleration setting from outside of ADe, so that it doesn't have to be done from inside a running ADe version via it's preferences settings here.

Ty, that was an amazing explanation 😁

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  • 3 months later...

This is mindboggling to me.

Why do you decide as a developer to set these settings as standard, when people are installing to use the program? It means that the program will not start up and you cannot change it, unless you are lucky. The other way around you would always be able to add this machinepower if you have the premise to do so, after installing the program. And if it dont work for you or it mess up you can always fix it by reinstalling the program.

It was the same setting with the batch, which is set to overwrite back over the Raw input where the files were comming from. So when done you could not reverse.

Pleace just change these small things that break the program from amazing, to crappy shit that will not work.

 

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2 hours ago, Lars301 said:

Why do you decide as a developer to set these settings as standard,

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

As you're new to the forums, you may not realize that v_kyr is simply a user of these programs, who has kindly provided a utility to help other users. You can tell this because their avatar and posting information does not show them to be a Moderator of the forums, nor a Staff member.

You should probably address your comments to Serif, the developers of the applications, not to v_kyr. 

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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On 10/4/2022 at 10:32 AM, Lars301 said:

This is mindboggling to me.

Why do you decide as a developer to set these settings as standard, when people are installing to use the program? ...

Well don't blame me, I'm just an independent user who also happens to be a software developer (though in totally other IT software areas).

And the story behind this little tool is pretty easy explained, as a user I was really sick & tired of always seeing again and again (repeatedly) posts related to that OpenCL hardware acceleration problematic theme in the forum. - So I said one day to myself, Ok let's do something against these problems a bunch of people seem to have with that as default enabled OpenCL hardware acceleration setting on Windows systems. And the result is this little "OpenCL Disabler" auxiliary-tool!

Why Serif decided to use these OpenCL hardware acceleration settings as default?

Honestly I don't know, possibly their marketing wanted it that way in order to show and advertise some speedy screen handling or the like. - However, you have to blame Serif for that decision and not me here!

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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  • 3 months later...

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