Installing Nik on Affinity Photo

[Stolzy]

I've had this working in the past, but a recent upgrade to AP has lost the NIK filters.

I'm pretty sure I've installed it correctly and my plugin preferences look OK.  The Nik filters appear in the menu, but clicking on them does nothing.

What am I missing?

 

[Lee_T]

Hi Stolzy, 

We can only really suggest a removal and reinstallation following the vendors instructions.

https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/5091760579869-How-do-I-install-Nik-Collection-for-use-with-Affinity-Photo-

Lee

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Stolzy said:

The Nik filters appear in the menu, but clicking on them does nothing.

Are they greyed out in the menu? If so, try selecting a pixel layer in your AP document before trying to apply them. 

[MEB]

Hi @Stolzy,
Also make sure you aren't working with a 32bit document. Most plugins only support RGB8 or 16 bit documents. To change the color format go to Document > Convert Format / ICC Profile and set the Color Format dropdown to RGB8 or RGB16.

[Stolzy]

On 6/22/2022 at 7:42 PM, MEB said:

Hi @Stolzy,
Also make sure you aren't working with a 32bit document. Most plugins only support RGB8 or 16 bit documents. To change the color format go to Document > Convert Format / ICC Profile and set the Color Format dropdown to RGB8 or RGB16.

Images are 8 or 16 bit.

On 6/22/2022 at 6:34 PM, R C-R said:

Are they greyed out in the menu? If so, try selecting a pixel layer in your AP document before trying to apply them. 

Not greyed out.  They click, but nothing happens

On 6/22/2022 at 5:49 PM, LeeThorpe said:

Hi Stolzy, 

We can only really suggest a removal and reinstallation following the vendors instructions.

https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/5091760579869-How-do-I-install-Nik-Collection-for-use-with-Affinity-Photo-

Lee

I've reinstalled twice with the same result.

[Stolzy]

So I've now reinstalled after having uninstalled everything NIK-related. 

The filters are in /Applications/NIK Collection.  I can see them and eve run them from there.  They're also visible when I do 'Open Plugins Foilder In Finder'.  But AP obviously isn't seeing them - there's nothing in the plugins menu and the preferences pane looks like this

 

[j3rry]

The two points at the end of https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/5091760579869-How-do-I-install-Nik-Collection-for-use-with-Affinity-Photo-  

are important, 

"During the “Compatible Host” step, click on + to create a custom plugins folder in your preferred directory (use the combination shift+Cmd+n if necessary), then click Open. We suggest creating an empty folder beforehand. At this step, just select this folder on your computer."

 

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, Stolzy said:

I can see them and eve run them from there. 

What do you mean you can run them from there? How are you running them if Affinity Photo isn't seeing them?

Can you open that folder in Finder and show us the contents?

[R C-R]

26 minutes ago, Stolzy said:

The filters are in /Applications/NIK Collection.  I can see them and eve run them from there. 

They are plugins, not filters. So what you should be seeing somewhere in the subfolders of that folder are items with the *.plugin extension, for example something like Analog Efex Pro 2.plugin, as well as the stand alone versions like Analog Efex Pro 2.app.

[Stolzy]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

What do you mean you can run them from there? How are you running them if Affinity Photo isn't seeing them?

Can you open that folder in Finder and show us the contents?

'Run them' in the sense that I can click on them and run them as independant applications.

Folder contents below

[Stolzy]

2 hours ago, j3rry said:

The two points at the end of https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/5091760579869-How-do-I-install-Nik-Collection-for-use-with-Affinity-Photo-  

are important, 

"During the “Compatible Host” step, click on + to create a custom plugins folder in your preferred directory (use the combination shift+Cmd+n if necessary), then click Open. We suggest creating an empty folder beforehand. At this step, just select this folder on your computer."

 

Good point, but that just gets me back to post #1.  The plugins are there now and I can click them, but nothing happens.

[Stolzy]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

They are plugins, not filters. So what you should be seeing somewhere in the subfolders of that folder are items with the *.plugin extension, for example something like Analog Efex Pro 2.plugin, as well as the stand alone versions like Analog Efex Pro 2.app.

OK, the .app files are in /Applications/NIK Collection, the .plugins are in individual folders in  /Applications/NIK Collection/Google.  Just to be sure, I've put that in the AP search path, but to no avail.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Stolzy said:

OK, the .app files are in /Applications/NIK Collection, the .plugins are in individual folders in  /Applications/NIK Collection/Google.  Just to be sure, I've put that in the AP search path, but to no avail.

Try:

1. Create a new folder 

2. Put all the plugins into that folder.

3. Specify that folder in Affinity Photo.

[Stolzy]

11 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Try:

1. Create a new folder 

2. Put all the plugins into that folder.

3. Specify that folder in Affinity Photo.

Just the same.  Plugins appear to be installed, but when I click on one through the menu, nothing happens.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Stolzy said:

Just the same.  Plugins appear to be installed, but when I click on one through the menu, nothing happens.

Can you give us a screenshot of the application window, including the Layers panel, when you're trying to click on the menu? That might show something.

[Stolzy]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Can you give us a screenshot of the application window, including the Layers panel, when you're trying to click on the menu? That might show something.

Application window looks thus:

Menu "Filters>Plugins>NIK Collection>Color Efex Pro 4", for example opens, but nothing happens.

[R C-R]

18 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Try:

1. Create a new folder 

2. Put all the plugins into that folder.

3. Specify that folder in Affinity Photo.

I don't think that will work, at least with the old Google versions. On my Mac, each of the plugins is in a subfolder of the Applications/NIK Collection > Google folder, & for each of them the plugin is in its own individual folder, along with one *.config file & possibly more than one *.plugin file.

I think, but am far from sure, that all these items must be created during installation at the add a "Compatible host" step to create a separate custom plugins folder that AP can use.

[Stolzy]

29 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't think that will work, at least with the old Google versions. On my Mac, each of the plugins is in a subfolder of the Applications/NIK Collection > Google folder, & for each of them the plugin is in its own individual folder, along with one *.config file & possibly more than one *.plugin file.

I think, but am far from sure, that all these items must be created during installation at the add a "Compatible host" step to create a separate custom plugins folder that AP can use.

But at the 'Compatible Host' step, there is no possibility to create a folder.  The folder has to be created before running Nik Collection.app

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, Stolzy said:

But at the 'Compatible Host' step, there is no possibility to create a folder.  The folder has to be created before running Nik Collection.app

From the DXO page:

Quote

During the “Compatible Host” step, click on + to create a custom plugins folder in your preferred directory (use the combination shift+Cmd+n if necessary), then click Open. We suggest creating an empty folder beforehand. At this step, just select this folder on your computer.

So if the SHIFT+CMD+n shortcut does not work for you, try their suggestion of creating that folder before running the installer.

[Stolzy]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

From the DXO page:

So if the SHIFT+CMD+n shortcut does not work for you, try their suggestion of creating that folder before running the installer.

Exactly what I did. They still don't run from the AP plugins menu.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Stolzy said:

Exactly what I did. They still don't run from the AP plugins menu.

Can you provide a screenshot of that folder's contents, with at least one or two of its subfolders expanded so we can see what's in them, & also a screenshot of the Plugins preferences window so we can see what it shows now for the Plugin Search & Support folders?

[Stolzy]

12 hours ago, R C-R said:

Can you provide a screenshot of that folder's contents, with at least one or two of its subfolders expanded so we can see what's in them, & also a screenshot of the Plugins preferences window so we can see what it shows now for the Plugin Search & Support folders?

Folder looks like this.

 

Plugins preferences pane is the same as the one in the original post.

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Stolzy said:

Plugins preferences pane is the same as the one in the original post.

If it's the same as in the original post then none of those plugins should be showing up in your Filters menu, because in that original screenshot you had not told Affinity Photo to look in /Applications nor in /Applications/NIK2.

Please gives us a new screenshot of those Preferences.

[Stolzy]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

If it's the same as in the original post then none of those plugins should be showing up in your Filters menu, because in that original screenshot you had not told Affinity Photo to look in /Applications nor in /Applications/NIK2.

Please gives us a new screenshot of those Preferences.

Sorry, I edited my last post to show the prefs with the current folder (NIK2), maybe I didn't click, submit.

Here it is

[walt.farrell]

I wonder if you need to have /Applications/NIK2 in the Plugin Support Folders listing, too?