tariq Posted May 16, 2023 Share Posted May 16, 2023 Summary: Affinity Photo running, even in the background, causes the Wacom pen to glitch intermittently. Is this a known issue? Detail: The Wacom Intuos Pro Small PTH-460 (2019) pen glitches intermittently - it either doesn't register clicks, or there are gaps in its movement. This happens in all apps - Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Word, MacOS Finder .. not just Affinity apps. If Affinity is NOT running, then there is no issue. Initially we thought this was a Wacom driver issue (they are notorious for driver quality compared to 20 years ago, yes we've been using Wacom that long). However testing with Wacom tech support has led us to conclude that the issue only happens when Affinity is running, even if it isn't the foreground app. Specifically this is on an M1 iMac with MacOS Ventura 13.3.1(a) and Wacom driver 6.4.2-1 with the latest Apple Store version 2.0.4 of Affinity V2. A range of tests we already did include: not using the Caldigit Thunderbolt Element Hub for its USB connection, connecting directly wiping the disk properly (disk utility format) and reinstalling the macOS afresh with minimal apps (only chrome and Affinity plus the Wacom driver) watching the Activity Monitor for CPU and Memory issues - result is no problem is observed with this semi-scientific test It is difficult to film the issue as it is subtle, intermittent, and also hard to predict. We've been using Wacom tablets for 20 years on Mac and Windows so we're pretty sure we know how they are supposed to work - and this ain't it. Additional Info: I haven't noticed the issue on a MacBook Pro M1 nor an MacBook Pro M2. This might be because the pen is used all the time with the iMac as its only pointer device (no mouse, no trackpad) and only for some work on the MBPros. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted May 17, 2023 Staff Share Posted May 17, 2023 Hi @tariq, Thanks for your report! 15 hours ago, tariq said: Is this a known issue? Unfortunately, not that I'm aware of, this isn't something that we have logged as a known issue currently. 15 hours ago, tariq said: Specifically this is on an M1 iMac with MacOS Ventura 13.3.1(a) and Wacom driver 6.4.2-1 with the latest Apple Store version 2.0.4 of Affinity V2. Can you please try the following, testing with the Wacom tablet after each change: Right-clicking on the Affinity app in the Applications folder and selecting Get Info - in the dialog that opens do you have Open Using Rosetta enabled? If so, please disable this option. Open the Affinity app and navigate to Affinity Photo 2 > Preferences > Performance - in this dialog please untick Metal Hardware Acceleration and change the Display from Metal to OpenGL, then restart the app as prompted. Uninstall the Mac App Store version of the app and install the Affinity Store version directly instead - https://store.serif.com/update/macos/photo/2/ Repeat the above steps within Performance, with the Affinity Store version of the app. Try downgrading to an older version of the Wacom pen driver. I'm not 100% certain of the exact issue you're experiencing, as you've mentioned the intermittent & subtle nature of this, but please note the Release Notes for the macOS 6.4.2-1 driver has the following Known Issue: Quote Pen tablets: PTH-460 PTH-660 PTH-860 An intermittent issue with the pen not working properly after a driver restart has been fixed in some scenarios, but remains in others. We are working to fix this issue. I hope this helps! tariq 1 Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tariq Posted May 17, 2023 Author Share Posted May 17, 2023 Hi Dan thanks for the suggestions. 1. I checked and Open Using Rosetta is not enabled. I know that there were some issues with some apps misreporting this flag (eg Cubase) so I also checked the process monitor to ensure the Apple Silicon native app was running and not "Intel". 2. I'd like to keep the Metal acceleration if that's ok. If the solution is to downgrade from Metal than that's not a solution to the bug. 3. For now I'll keep the App Store version and hope the issue is Wacom driver related - as you say, their release notes suggest there is a known issue but they're pretty vague. If this doesn't go away in the next two Wacom driver updates, I'll bring this back here. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted May 18, 2023 Staff Share Posted May 18, 2023 No problem at all! 18 hours ago, tariq said: I'd like to keep the Metal acceleration if that's ok. If the solution is to downgrade from Metal than that's not a solution to the bug. I certainly understand, though I'm not asking you to disable this option as a resolution - simply I need to know if the issue continues to occur with the option enabled, as if this does stop the issue from happening then I can log this with our developers to be resolved in a future update. I appreciate your desire to remain with the app store also, though as above I am asking for this to be tested to narrow down a possible cause, rather than as a permanent resolution. 18 hours ago, tariq said: If this doesn't go away in the next two Wacom driver updates, I'll bring this back here. Many thanks, please do let us know and should this continue to occur then I'd recommend starting with the above changes to try and pin down the exact cause of this Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tariq Posted May 18, 2023 Author Share Posted May 18, 2023 hi Dan It turns out the Wacom driver was the latest but one. Upgrading seems to have fixed the problem - we'll keep an eye on it for a few days before finally being content. It is odd that the problem only occurred when Photo was open (even when not the foreground app). Thanks for your help. Dan C 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted May 19, 2023 Staff Share Posted May 19, 2023 That's wonderful news, I'm certainly glad to hear this & many thanks for letting us know Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tariq Posted June 6, 2023 Author Share Posted June 6, 2023 Aahh - re-opening this one. It seems my wife has been suffering in silence since my last update as the issue was not resolved by a Wacom driver update. Because it is intermittent, it felt like the problem was fixed but it wasn't, and she didn't say anything. She says that since that last update 3 weeks ago, the issue has been persistent and intermittent. Today I observed a bad phase with the pointer freezing and jumping in Chrome and on the desktop (Finder) with Affinity Photo running in the background. As soon as it was killed, the problem stopped. I manually checked the Wacom driver was the latest, and the Affinity Photo is the latest 2.1 Is there anything I can do to help diagnose this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted June 7, 2023 Staff Share Posted June 7, 2023 Sorry to hear this @tariq! Looking at the release notes from the latest Wacom driver, it appears as though this issue is still present. Therefore I'd like to request the following: Uninstall your current Wacom driver and roll back to a previous version. I'd recommend version 6.4.0-5, which I've attached to my reply here. If you haven't already, update to macOS Ventura 13.4 Please let me know how you get on here WacomTablet_6.4.0-5.dmg Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tariq Posted June 7, 2023 Author Share Posted June 7, 2023 Thanks Dan - the OS is 13.4 and we'll try the 6.4.0-5 driver. Have you had others reporting similar issues? Dan C 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted June 8, 2023 Staff Share Posted June 8, 2023 No problem at all 13 hours ago, tariq said: Have you had others reporting similar issues? Not that I'm aware of, I've checked both here on the forums and with our QA team and we aren't aware of any similar reports at this time - but I'll be sure to keep my eye out for any relevant information or potential fixes and update you here! Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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