Apple Pencil redux

[nickbatz]

If you connect an iPad to a Mac with a wired connection using Sidecar like this:

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/working-with-affinity-apps-through-sidecar/

...does Affinity Photo or does it not support pressure with the Apple Pencil?

Thanks.

[v_kyr]

I would assume here that the connection type, wireless vs wired usually shouldn't make any difference here for pressure, as it's just a different way one and the same data is transfered.

• ADe - Using Sidecar
• Apple Sidecar_Tech_Brief_Oct_2019.pdf
• Google search after that theme

BUT related here to Affinity apps see also ...

 

[nickbatz]

14 hours ago, v_kyr said:

I would assume here that the connection type, wireless vs wired usually shouldn't make any difference here, as it's just a different way one and the same data is transfered.

Thanks very much for the links.

It's the same data over a much slower connection. I can tell you that using Sidecar wirelessly over Bluetooth is not a viable solution, at least not with the iPad/Apple Pencil I bought and returned. The latency makes it unusable.

That's why I wanted to try it with a wired connection.

[v_kyr]

That guy seems to use an wired USB connection.

However many things for wireless working here also do depend on setup option facts and probably also the hardware's speed and the like. As M1/M2 based Macs and the latests iPad Pro models do offer hardware based overall better common speeds here. The rest is usually OS, software and their overall customization related, as there are bugs also in Apple's OS software, as is with many third party apps too. - So one always have also to check with other third party software than the Affinity apps here, in order to see if it is a general problem, or third party app specific etc.

[nickbatz]

4 hours ago, v_kyr said:

That guy seems to use an wired USB connection.

However many things for wireless working here also do depend on setup option facts and probably also the hardware's speed and the like. As M1/M2 based Macs and the latests iPad Pro models do offer hardware based overall better common speeds here. The rest is usually OS, software and their overall customization related, as there are bugs also in Apple's OS software, as is with many third party apps too. - So one always have also to check with other third party software than the Affinity apps here, in order to see if it is a general problem, or third party app specific etc.

Thanks.

Yeah, no question hardware makes a difference, however I've been using screen sharing to view my old Windows slave machines over Gigabit Ethernet for years without an issue. I had a Mac Pro 5,1 for several years, and before that a 3,1.

My strong hunch is that Bluetooth is what caused the lag when I tried it before. Too bad the Genius at the Apple Store didn't tell me you could use a wired connection when I asked, or maybe I wouldn't have returned the iPad and Apple Pencil! Even Wi-Fi would probably have been much better.

That was on the least expensive iPad, but with a Mac Studio Max. So I don't think it was the hardware, although who knows.

My latest thinking that the $650 Wacom is probably a safer bet. At this point I'm becoming known in retail training videos as The Silly Man Who Buys Stuff and Returns It, but what can you do.

[v_kyr]

41 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

Too bad the Genius at the Apple Store didn't tell me you could use a wired connection when I asked

Maybe he wasn't that Genius! 😆

[nickbatz]

19 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Maybe he wasn't that Genius! 😆

Right, although normally those people are exceptionally well trained.

I've been working on Macs literally all day long since 1986, friends call me with Mac questions all the time, and there are always things they know that I don't. They do encounter different things, of course, but they should know the answer if a customer comes in with a product he wants to make work but can't due to latency issues - and asks specifically whether it's  possible to use a wired connection instead.

[v_kyr]

29 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

I've been working on Macs literally all day long since 1986, friends call me with Mac questions all the time, and there are always things they know that I don't. ...

Well I personally tend to inform myself carefully first, in cases where I don't know an adhoc/direct answer to something IT related I'm interested in. And as I'm also (due to my daily job & work) quite well selftrained in information retrieve & finding, I wouldn't need that guy's help there at all, instead I can answer these things to myself.

[nickbatz]

You don't know everything.

I know that because I do.

[v_kyr]

8 hours ago, nickbatz said:

You don't know everything.

I know that because I do.

Though enough to tell you -as I did before in another thread- to try a wired connection instead, which you appently didn't know is possible here and also didn't prechecked/researched before!

[nickbatz]

If you told me that it was after I'd returned the iPad and Apple Pencil - because the Genius told me you couldn't use a wired connection.

[v_kyr]

6 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

If you told me that it was after I'd returned the iPad and Apple Pencil - because the Genius told me you couldn't use a wired connection.

Honestly if you explicitely asked after that and the guy said no it's not possible, then I doubt he's good trained in his job for selling iPads, or he isn't himself informed that well. - As it would have took him also only 10 seconds to crosscheck & verify that on the net ...

• Apple Support - Connect iPad and your computer with a cable
• Google search - apple ipad wired connection cable
• Google search - apple ipad wired usb connection cable
• .. etc.

[nickbatz]

Blocked. Ah, much better.

[v_kyr]

9 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

Blocked. Ah, much better.

?

However, in order for you to be sure that a wired connecting works better in terms of less lagging here then, an Apple Store might be able to let you tryout and play with such an iPad connection to some Mac. So you are more shure about possible lagging. Further they could put ADe onto one of their machines, in case they don't already have it installed for demonstration purposes. Then you can also check if pencil pressure is up to what you expect it to be or not!