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Development Status - Where is Affinity 1.5 Beta?


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alt/option clicking on an object in the main window is also a quick way to find in layers panel.

 

good point, thx. However it doesn't open the groups/artboards etc.

It would be very useful/faster, if there would be some key + click to find object in layers panel. Instead of current right click -> find in layers. Or is there such trick?

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  • 4 weeks later...

First of all can I say that I absolutely love Affinity, completely smitten with it and I use it heavily every single day.

 

This thread has gone cold for nearly a month now and I am quite sad because I check it every single day in anticipation!

 

What is the current status of the beta and when can we expect to see some movement?

 

Some of the work I am doing this month would be about a hundred times quicker with the symbols functionality so am hoping the answer is soon :)

 

Keep up the good work guys, thanks! 

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Hi lenogre,

It doesn't have to do with the Windows version. It's simply because 1.5 is a big update and is taking longer to code and test before it can be released as a Beta.

 

But You guys made us (AD users) "every friday new beta" addicts! And here You go, these are the consequences - stack of addicts with discontinuation symptoms :-) Me included :-/

We are nervous, impatient, looking for culprits… WHERE IS MY BETA!!? :-)

 

Seriously, You should start the AD detox. Or be very carefull about given informations. Someone send echo here at forums, that 1.4.XXX new beta would be shipped last friday :-( That is torturing!

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It took Bohemian Coding about two years to get a solid symbols implementation in Sketch, so I totally understand if it takes Serif a few months. :)

 

And it is still far from perfect...

Personally I do prefer to wait for a really new way to conceive symbols, more than a clone-feature from the old school.

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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  • Staff

Someone send echo here at forums, that 1.4.XXX new beta would be shipped last friday :-( That is torturing!

Guilty as charged - sorry! :(  Seriously though, I was trying to make it happen, but I just couldn't go for it without some changes we were waiting for... I'm really going to push to get it out asap - I promise! :)

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Guilty as charged - sorry! :(  Seriously though, I was trying to make it happen, but I just couldn't go for it without some changes we were waiting for... I'm really going to push to get it out asap - I promise! :)

 

I don't blame You. I think You are developing great products! And quality is important, no doubts.

So when :-) ?

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Guilty as charged - sorry! :(  Seriously though, I was trying to make it happen, but I just couldn't go for it without some changes we were waiting for... I'm really going to push to get it out asap - I promise! :)

 

And the Lord saith: Thou shall atone for thine sins by releasing another beta soon. And 1.5 beta. And, like, ehm..., Publisher... ;) (seriously, I have been waiting for that one for ages and had to buy both Designer and Photo just to endure the pain... Addictions can be funny - turns out I am addicted to something I have never seen or imbibed yet. :rolleyes: )

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I like being on the bleeding edge if only I could see it :(

 

Printer asked me to include bleed but I can only see it when i export to pdf

 

If you need to see what's in the bleed, you can temporarily enlarge your artboard/document with the size of the bleed without rescaling. Just remove it again before export. 

 

Smarter bleeds are on the roadmap, I believe.

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Hi blackest,

Bleed preview is coming in a future update.

 

You mean like not necessarily in 1.5?

 

The question I have is: How long will it take to debug and bring 1.5 to the MAS when it takes almost half a year to bring it into beta  :ph34r:

Seems like you either tried to pull all the roadmap at once or time is really being stretched for the future  :blink:

 

MattP, what about the checkin from two weeks ago regarding 1.4.2 beta 5?  :wacko:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/19299-affinity-designer-customer-beta-142-beta-4/?p=93296

 

 

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I think they just lost themselves to making the perfect creation. Something which is impossible, because no matter how hard you try to make a beta stable there is always another bug... especially considering the complexity of the software. 

 

Same for 1.5 beta... they just want to make something so awesome that it takes forever to actually finish. Compare current state of things to how they were last year where you got a beta every 1-3 weeks and you could test and recommend improvements etc.

UI Designer, CG Artist

 

Macbook Pro 15" 2014

2.5 Ghz, 750M

 

https://www.behance.net/VladMafteiuScai

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Hi everyone,

 

The reality is what I've described elsewhere: People use our beta versions for production work because they have traditionally been stable and supported. This is great, but also causes us a potential headache: If I make a major architectural change (like Symbols, which is just one of the new features that you know are coming) and then I release it as a beta and people use it for important work then I have to support that architecture even if I change my mind and want to do everything differently. This leads to us having a huge lump of code hanging around forever to support a thing that was only available in one beta version. This is very bad. So I basically can't release large features to beta until they're ready - and by that I don't mean 'utterly perfect', I just mean that they're definitely the right way to do things. Sometimes you only find out limitations or drawbacks by trying things... Right now our Art Director and MD are playing with 1.5, planning their videos and giving me feedback so I can assess whether the required functionality is there and whether there's anything fundamentally wrong - that basically means there's not so long to wait now until 1.5 is ready for a beta release (unless they tell me something horrific in the next few days - which I don't think they will!)

 

As to why the 1.4.2 betas have been slow to appear - basically everyone is spending the bulk of their time getting 1.5 ready. This is good and bad. If they weren't doing this then there would be a big gap between 1.4.2 and 1.5, whereas the gap should now be short, but it does delay the release of 1.4.2 - but 1.4.1 (MAS) is pretty stable and the 1.4.2 beta that we have resolves most problems already if a user encounters one, so the only thing people are really missing out on is a 1.5 beta... which as I said, is approaching faster because there's been more developer input to it than to 1.4.2.

 

We have tried to add a number of big things in 1.5 and if this makes people unhappy about the update frequency (because big features cannot be released in a state where we're not 100% confident the architecture is correct) then we'll have to give only one big feature each time (which may not appear in the beta until a few weeks before the end) and a number of smaller ones. We're obviously listening and learning what you're all after throughout this process - so we can hopefully deliver more of what you're after next time. But I have to say, when you see 1.5, I don't think you'll be complaining about the new features... ;) 

 

Thanks again,

Matt

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Well if you wound´t wait half a year to update the 1.4.2 and always tell people in the forum to just use the beta, then not everybody would (have to) use the betas for productive work and the betas could actually be more like development builds which I think would lead to more satisfaction in the testing community.

And I mean - seriously, what´s wrong with the one check-in from two weeks ago and why don´t you just release 1.4.2 to the MAS and call it a day? :blink: (as 00Ghz says, it won´t be close to perfection anyway)

 

I´m not so much complaining about the lack of announced big features but more about old smaller things that are crazy.

 

Wasn´t it an option to get bleed and adjustable zero point or even just 10bit support for the 2015 Mac 5k, correct an incorrect vector scope, merging masks, the crazy filter pop up, sizable sampler, non destructive smudge tool, crop to opaque and inpaint after rotation, proper color and color range selector, global clipping indication in photo persona...i mean just some of them?! out in a 1.4.x release? That would have made a better mix with all the import export render improvements that just focus on the under the hood technology IMO.

And does e.g. sticky settings rely that much on symbols that you coudn´t split the update or at least the beta instead of waiting even longer and then get all out at the same time?

 

1.5 better be pretty stable when it comes out as beta "soon", otherwise I´m really concerned  :wacko:

 

Anyway, your explanations always sound reasonable from your POV to me.

 

 

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I think that it looks like 1.5 is going to be epic as far as features is concerned, but what would most be appreciated I think, is if you would just do a little more house cleaning? MBd mentioned many things but I do tend to agree that having a stable fixed MAS versions with small but significant fixes would be more beneficial in the short term. Example: expanded strokes fix-would be a HUGE deal. Same goes for other tools. We as users will eventually get tired of repeating the same issue and shall say well you know you can comment all you want on a certain bug but we can't influence them enough to make a difference. I don't want Serif to be that company. Look at Pixelmator, had a chance to be the PS incumbent but they're still worthless to professionals because they are on they're own schedule, no vision in that company.  But on the contrary and in the long term, having the new features that are coming, for me, is like saying that day is going to be like Christmas morning, and we all can/have to wait for that.

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I for one thinks the approach making users believe that beta software as production ready is will come back to bit Serif in future.  Anyone who understands software development lifecycle knows that beta software is no production ready.  A beta software can be very stable but cannot be considered production ready until released into production.  This is well understood within the software industry. As an example, when Apple releases beta software to the public, there is a big disclaim that a user uses the beta software for production at their own risk and Apple cannot be held responsible.  In fact, with Mac OS X, apple goes a step further to outline that a beta tester must be prepared to wipe their hardware if required.   I think this is a reasonable approach as clear distinction is made between a production ready software and a beta software.  I think Serif could consider this approach than making the user community believe that beta software must be production ready.

 

By the same measure, Matt, I see no reason why you need to maintain old code if there is a design or architectural decision change while the software is still in beta on the premise that a beta software hasn't moved to GA yet.  I believe most users in this forum understand this concept.  Users requiring state-of-the-art features can make the decision to user beta software which are in the beta release can make the decision to use the beta software knowing the associated disclaimer of what a beta software is.

 

As said in my previous post, the user community is here to help you.  That is why we eagerly check on a daily basis if new beta has been released so we can test and report found issues back to you guys.  The Symbols functionality could be released on a later beta as I don't think it's a deal breaker for most users.

 

Please don't delay anymore.  Pretty please!!!

 

Nana

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Honestly, I believe Matt’s points are very reasonable. Would it really make sense to create a document in a beta version that relies on “state-of-the-art” feature implementations which are not supported by subsequent versions, due to fundamental code changes? In other words, can you imagine a possible use case for a document you would never be able to open again, once the beta you used to create this document has expired? I fear I cannot …  :unsure:

 

On the other hand, I would also believe that it might make sense to push smaller fixes and improvements faster to the users, if possible. But it is, admittedly, very hard to assess from a user’s perspective, what should be considered a “small” fix or improvement, since such a seemingly small change might have numerous consequences in the code base.

 

Anyway, thanks for your hard work …  :)

Alex

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I would like to add both some pros and cons to the current feel of the development direction.

 

Pros:

 

Great responsive apps (both Designer and Photo) running on either OS X Yosemite or OS X El Capitan. Great interactive tools (e.g. gradient, transparency, blend mode live view). Very fun to work in the apps due to said responsiveness in the OS. Great for home projects.

 

Cons:

 

Starting to feel a little like the Pixelmator development (but far from becoming a product that is a disappointment - at least to me). Since I use Adobe products professionally at work (on a Windows based infrastructure) and have been for over 10 years, I can't say I feel comfortable with Affinity apps when I think of completing a project from start to finish at this point in time. Perhaps once the tool sets are complete, I may be confident.

 

The expand stroke issue as well as the lack of path offset are basic prerequisites for my work. The lack of a mesh tool (which has been on the roadmap since I started using Designer and has yet to be seen or mentioned outside of the roadmap) also has me wondering when that will ever show up.

 

These are a couple of basic reasons I can't remove other design apps from my home machine (which I would like to do since I prefer simple and efficient). I have the seat license from work for Adobe CC, so I do keep that installed and continue to fall back on it for any serious work at home, even though the newest CC desktop client feels very intrusive on my iMac as far as responsiveness goes. In fact; Photoshop CC 2015, Illustrator CC 2015 and Lightroom CC all feel like they are running in a browser instead of locally off the hard drive.

 

I really am looking forward to Affinity improvements (read additional tools, options and fixes like the expand stroke's - IMHO - unreasonable amount of nodes created for a program that is meant to make work easier). I would very much like to see one of these MAS companies move past the 'app of the year' stage and into the 'just continues to amaze' part!!  :P

 

Note - please don't take this as anything other than an honest perspective from one user who hopes for the day when one set of tools that perform efficiently without bloat will do just fine. I still believe Serif's Affinity products can make that come true. The main reason I am even posting this comment is that there was an indication that a stable MAS version would be presented first and then beta's would resume. I now see that has changed.  :unsure:

 

Best regards,

CorkyO

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