Plugins and Compatibility

[hy13]

Hi there, I found lots of questions about plugins and their possible use with AP in that forum. But I did not find that subject inside the FAQ pages. Consequently my question:

Is there a page or a list which gives an overview of plugins usable with AP?

Well, of course everyone can ask the software vendor of his desired plugin for compatibility issues. But as we all know, we would not get an answer in most cases.

[R C-R]

There is no comprehensive, up to date listing but the only kind that have any chance of working in AP are PS filter plugins (those with the 8bf extension or Mac 8BFM type code).

Some of them work in AP running on Windows but not on Macs; some partially work on one or both platforms; some work fine on both platforms; & others do not work at all.

Because there are so many different filter plugins, many of them are still being updated, & some are only usable with certain OS versions or platforms, there probably never will be a comprehensive list.

[John Rostron]

Your best bet is to use the search box to look for you favoured plugin. Add your OS ,to the search as well.

Failing that, post a message asking if the plugin you want to use is working for other forum members.

John

[firstdefence]

On Mac JixiPix plugins work well, FilterForge works well, NIK Collection is good with the odd quirk and same with EyeCandy Corel Painters Particleshop works, On1 Effects works and so does On1 Portrait Ai

[Pšenda]

6 hours ago, hy13 said:

Is there a page or a list which gives an overview of plugins usable with AP?

 

 

[hy13]

Thanks for the hint. It is better than nothing to follow secondary sources. But why is there no statement from serif inside the FAQ? There is no doubt, that this subject is addressed quite a lot. I can understand that Serif is not able to guarantee for external companies products. On the other side when there is no multilateral interest in cooperating, users will go back to PS after a while because they do not want to fail repeatedly instead of working on their projects.

[hy13]

@R C-R:

It is a pity, but meanwhile we know that Adobe changed a lot in PS Interface and plugin vendors followed them. The 8bf still exists, but hardly works as before. Portrait Pro, Portraiture and NIK for example, are no longer fully compatible. You can only use them standalone. What a progress! In the music software industry however, VST is a standard which still works very good, and all software vendors profit from that, but 8bf is dead in the meantime. And therefore there will be a need for Serif with AP to look for agreements with plugin vendors, at least the most important ones, when AP shall further grow in the market.

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, hy13 said:

But why is there no statement from serif inside the FAQ?

Probably because there are so many different versions of different PS plugins, & many of them will work only on one platform and/or certain OS versions, that there is very little they can say about which ones would work in AP with any particular user's system.

I am also puzzled by your statements that 8bf is dead, & that NIK only works stand-alone. If you search these forums you will see that neither one is completely accurate.

[hy13]

@R C-R

I use AP already for a long time on a regular basis. And my experience during that time was, that more and more plugins did not work any longer when there was a new version issued by the plugin manufacturer. And even the latest NIK 3 by DXo runs only with part of its functionality, while portraiture does not at all. So for the moment you can still use the old NIK 3. But what will be the solution when a next NIK 5 will offer great new features?

When single users contact third party producers they normally are not heard (except from AcdSee as one positive example) and instead get the hint to use the product standalone. Therefore I think it might be of interest to Serif to improve that situation by mutual agreements with some important plugin manufacturers at least. One solution for instance could be that the ancient 8bf structure is offered to AP users in parallel to the new interface for PS. I myself follow the strategy to "freeze" certain versions in order to keep my working environment stable for as long as possible. But some time this will come to an end of course.

[walt.farrell]

19 minutes ago, hy13 said:

And even the latest NIK 3 by DXo runs only with part of its functionality, while portraiture does not at all. So for the moment you can still use the old NIK 3. But what will be the solution when a next NIK 5 will offer great new features?

NIK Collection 4 is supposed to work with Affinity Photo on both Mac and Windows.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, hy13 said:

One solution for instance could be that the ancient 8bf structure is offered to AP users in parallel to the new interface for PS.

I do not understand why you think the 8bf/8BFM filter plugin structure has been replaced by something newer. As listed here, it is one of ten PS plugin types. As the Host application section says, PS itself fully supports all ten of them, while "the majority of non-Adobe hosts support filter plugins only, and many of them do not even support all available filter plugins."

There are several reasons for this lack of full support but it is not because the filter plugin structure itself is obsolete or no longer in use in Adobe apps.

[hy13]

@R C-R

Well, I did not say that 8bf has been replaced, or did I? I recognized, that Adobe has changed/further developed the interface and software manufacturers followed them. I could experience myself, that a plugin manufacturer changed his 8bf interface file together with a new version of his product and AP could further on not work with that "new" 8bf file at all. The advice given by the plugin manufacturer was: You can use it standalone. Similar with the "new" NIK 3 version by DXo. While the "old" Google version worked pretty in AP the new DXo version did run only part of the interface functionality as an AP plugin.

What is the conclusion from that? I would like to use AP in the future, too. But when I loose my most frequently used plugins as time progresses, then I will be forced some time in the future to return to PS or some other product which might offer that functionality then. It is not my intent to debate 8bf file development details any longer. I just wanted to give a hint to Serif to keep an eye on that and perhaps find ways to overcome the problems behind.

[hy13]

@walt.farrell

Thanks for the hint. I will try this in the near future.
But why is there no subject about it inside FAQ? There is no need to cover everything out there in the market, but for sure, it would be a good help to give information about plugins which are inside Serif known as "working" with AP on the FAQ page.

[Pšenda]

On 6/5/2021 at 10:51 AM, hy13 said:

But why is there no statement from serif inside the FAQ?

2 minutes ago, hy13 said:

But why is there no subject about it inside FAQ?

There is nothing easier than writing a request for a supplement - otherwise you will always just ask "why?".
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/52-feature-requests-suggestions/

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, hy13 said:

What is the conclusion from that? I would like to use AP in the future, too. But when I loose my most frequently used plugins as time progresses, then I will be forced some time in the future to return to PS or some other product which might offer that functionality then.

You could still use the stand alone versions, right?

 

7 hours ago, hy13 said:

But why is there no subject about it inside FAQ?

What would you like them to say that has not already been said? Many times in many different topics they have said that they continue to work on supporting more PS filter plugins but it is slow going because the plugins are written specifically for PS, so some plugins that require some features of PS to work correctly or at all do not (as yet) exist in AP.

[hy13]

@R C-R

@Pšenda

Thanks for your contributions to the discussion.

When I go back to my question which started the discussion, the answer will be: there is no list of working plugins maintained and published by Serif at present.

Let us finish this thread by reminding at the famous "wish sandwich".

[Laura Ess]

I was similarly disappointed  with the lack of compatibility with many of the plugins. I suspect that for folk like me, who tried and used other legit graphic editors before Affinity ones, the solution might be a workaround. And that is to reinstall the old editor that you know IS compatible with Adobe Plugins (even if that's only .8bf) and just copy the layer or selection over to that editor, and apply the filter there, then copy it back.

In my case I an old CS6 Photoshop, and an older version of PaintShop Pro as well, and both will run plugins that don't work in Affinity. This is a bit like using the trick of tracing in an image in Inkscape, and then copying that as SVG over to Designer.  Not ideal, but it works.