PHOTO: G'MIC-Plugin doesn't work

[iconoclast]

Hi!

Yesterday I found a video on Youtube, that shows how to use the verry cool G'MIC-Plugin in Affinity Photo. I have worked with it in GIMP for many years,  and it works verry nice there. But in Affinity Photo it causes an error message or is greyed out and inactive in some other cases (for example on images from Pixabay and Unsplash), and it does nothing at all. Has anyone here experiences with it and possibly an idea how I could fix this problem? I already startet a thread on the G'MIC- forum for this also.

[Gnobelix]

Hello @iconoclast,
welcome to this forum.

Many Photoshop plugins can only be used on 8 bit files, I think the G'MIC plugins are one of them.
Stock files from Unsplash, Pixabay etc. are loaded as an image, they have to be rasterized so that plugins can be used.

I hope it helps.

 

Cheers

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, Gnobelix said:

Hello @iconoclast,
welcome to this forum.

Many Photoshop plugins can only be used on 8 bit files, I think the G'MIC plugins are one of them.
Stock files from Unsplash, Pixabay etc. are loaded as an image, they have to be rasterized so that plugins can be used.

I hope it helps.

 

Cheers

Hi Gnobelix, thanks for your reply!

It seems that you are right, that the greying out of the G'MIC-entry in the "Filter"-menu is caused by 32-bit colour depth. 16 bits are normally supported by G'MIC. But unfortunately the error message appears on 8-bit- and 16-bit-images and G'MIC doesn't start. Even on rasterized images from Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels.

[Gnobelix]

3 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

Hi Gnobelix, thanks for your reply!

It seems that you are right, that the greying out of the G'MIC-entry in the "Filter"-menu is caused by 32-bit colour depth. 16 bits are normally supported by G'MIC. But unfortunately the error message appears on 8-bit- and 16-bit-images and G'MIC doesn't start. Even on rasterized images from Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels.

Do you have the latest version of the GMIC plugin?

Click here

 

Cheers

[Andy05]

1 minute ago, Gnobelix said:

Do you have the latest version of the GMIC plugin?

Click here

 

Cheers

I just wanted to post/ask the same. I got nosy about the plugin and tested it from the page above (x64 version). And it runs without problems here.

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, Gnobelix said:

Do you have the latest version of the GMIC plugin?

Click here

 

Cheers

Yes, I downloaded and installed it yesterday. And it is v2.9.6.1.

[Gnobelix]

6 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

Yes, I downloaded and installed it yesterday. And it is v2.9.6.1.

I installed the GMIC plugin for testing. in the current beta of Affinty Photo, works without problems at first sight.

 

Cheers

[iconoclast]

I  downloaded it again some minutes ago, deleted the old one and installed the new one, in a different direction, and it is still the same. It doesn't work. Still, every time I try to start G'MIC, the error message appears and nothing more happens.

[Winu]

I installed GMIC.

With the PC version from Microsoft Store it has an error message. See below.

With the Beta version it works.

[Andy05]

3 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

I  downloaded it again some minutes ago, deleted the old one and installed the new one, in a different direction, and it is still the same. It doesn't work. Still, every time I try to start G'MIC, the error message appears and nothing more happens.

Just a random shot, but did you also copy the gmic subfolder, not only the *.bf8 plugin?

[iconoclast]

15 minutes ago, Andy05 said:

Just a random shot, but did you also copy the gmic subfolder, not only the *.bf8 plugin?

I made it as the guy in the Youtube-video told: I downloaded the latest ZIP for Photoshop, Affinity etc and for 64 bits, unpacked it to a save place on my hard disc, attached it to the Photoshop-Plugins-dialogue in the Preferences of Affinity Photo (screenshot) and restarted Affinity Photo.

[iconoclast]

17 minutes ago, Winu said:

I installed GMIC.

With the PC version from Microsoft Store it has an error message. See below.

With the Beta version it works.

Hi Winu!

That's interesting. So it is possibly a bug in the Microsoft-Store-Version? How did you find this out?

[Winu]

Hi Iconoclast

I have my original Affinity Photo from the Microsoft Store and parallel the last Beta version.

Then i used the same setting in both versions.

 

[iconoclast]

 

7 minutes ago, Winu said:

Hi Iconoclast

I have my original Affinity Photo from the Microsoft Store and parallel the last Beta version.

Then i used the same setting in both versions.

 

OK, so this seems to be the reason for the problem, and it only exists in the Microsoft-Store-Version. But who do we have to contact now because of this: the Affinity Support or Microsoft?

[Gnobelix]

After further testing, GMIC also works in the buy version.

 

Cheers

[iconoclast]

6 minutes ago, Gnobelix said:

After further testing, GMIC also works in the buy version.

 

Cheers

OK, but did you test it with the Microsoft-Store-Version? It seems to be somehow different from that one you can buy in the Serif Store. For example, I can't find the installation of Affinity Photo on my computer. In opposite to that, the installation of Affinity Designer (that I bought in the Serif Store) is in the Programs folder. Easy to find. Not so Affinity Photo, that I bought in the Microsoft Store.

[Gnobelix]

I bought all Affinity programs in the Serif store.
The programs from the Microsoft Store are installed in the WindowsApps folder,  moreover  is  the installation folder is hidden and locked.

 

Cheers

 

[iconoclast]

50 minutes ago, Gnobelix said:

I bought all Affinity programs in the Serif store.
The programs from the Microsoft Store are installed in the WindowsApps folder,  moreover  is  the installation folder is hidden and locked.

 

Cheers

 

I suspected something like that. But that could be the reason for the problem. Possibly Windows prevents the installation from accesses from outside, so that G'MIC can't connect with Affinity Photo. I will check if I can change that in my admin-account. I can't open the WindowsApps-folder in my user account. Think I will never buy anything in the Microsoft Store again, because it always caused trouble if I did it.

Edit: Havn't even found the Affinity-Photo-installation in my admin-account. Think I will have to contact the Microsoft-Support. That's exactly the bullshit they are famous for: while they are spying in every corner of our computers and our privacy, we don't find anything at all and have to spend our sundays for searching even the most simplest things.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, iconoclast said:

Havn't even found the Affinity-Photo-installation in my admin-account.

Possibly: https://www.maketecheasier.com/access-windowsapps-folder-windows-10/

Or one of the other similar pages you can find by a web search.

[iconoclast]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Possibly: https://www.maketecheasier.com/access-windowsapps-folder-windows-10/

Or one of the other similar pages you can find by a web search.

Hi Walt!

Thanks for that hint, but I don't really want to goof around in the registry of my computer just to make such - normally - simple things work, like installing plug-ins. Too dangerous for me. That's annoying and a verry fundamental experience I already made with Microsoft several times: they are so much worried about preventing their stuff from missuse, that this stuff sometimes becomes nearly useless. The same, by the way, with movies. You can buy them there, but you can only watch them than on Microsoft's rudimental player. You owe the copy of the movie, but you are strictly regulated in using it. It was a verry bad idea to buy Affinity Photo and Publisher or anything in the Microsoft Store. Will not make that mistake again.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

And, for me, it's not as easy as the articles make it sound, either. I was not successful in getting that approach to work.

[iconoclast]

I would be interested if it's the same with other 8bf-plug-ins like, for example, the NIK Collection.

[Winu]

It's only the Gmic which not function with my Microsoft store version.

NIK Collection and Topaz Plugins are OK.

 

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, Winu said:

It's only the Gmic which not function with my Microsoft store version.

NIK Collection and Topaz Plugins are OK.

 

OK, thanx for that reply. That's interesting. I will report this to the G'MIC developers.

[Gnobelix]

There is also another way, to open the Windows App folder,without editing the registry file.

if interested, more Information.

 

Cheers