OpenColourIO (OCIO) v2 Support

[Ash]

Apps: Affinity Photo
Platforms: All

We have now added support for OCIO v2 so config files including the more advanced features available in OCIO v2 can now be used.

We understand this is a rather specialist feature required by various VFX, film and 3D artists using Affinity Photo within their workflow - and we are reaching out to some of those customers to help test this for us. However, it would be useful if you could confirm for us that support for OCIO v2 is working on your set up.

To do this you can use this example config file which is in OCIO v2 format. Download the file and then select it from within preferences, under the colour section as highlighted below. After loading the .ocio file you will need to restart the app.

 

After that you can do two things to show it working:

32-bit panel

1. Load an image and convert to RGB/32 (HDR) colour space (from document menu -> Convert Format / ICC Profile...)
2. Bring up the 32-bit panel from the windows menu
3. Turn OCIO display transform on.
4. Alter the source and destination formats from the drop downs and confirm it is having an impact on the display output.

OCIO adjustment layer

On the same image if you wish, add an OCIO adjustment layer and again change the source and destination formats, again to confirm this indeed changes the appearance of the image.

 

We are confident that as long as it's having an effect in both cases then OCIO v2 support is working as intended.

Thanks,

Ash

 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Ash

Just a quick heads up to say this appears to be working as advertised based on an initial quick test...

[Sorn]

Thank you so much for this!

I'll test it right away!

Edit: It works! 

[playername]

Hi @Ash

I sent a reply yesterday saying I bought the update on the strength of this news but I might have been a bit hasty (strangely can't see it here).

Thanks so much for adding OCIO v2 support which I can confirm seems to work. At present though there doesn't seem to be a config support for AdobeRGB colour space. Could I request this be added in the release? This is the colour space I work in exclusively and many professionals outputting to print still work within that colour space and have their monitors calibrated to it. P3 is becoming the Apple bog standard but it is better suited to video output not photographic output.

Having Adobe RGB as an option would make for a seamless workflow for myself and many others

Cheers 

[DM1]

@Ash

Hi Ash , unfortunately this is not working on my iPad. The config file cannot be opened by Affinity Photo ( beta 1931).

iPad Pro 10.5 running latest iOS 16.5.1

cheers

Dave

[playername]

Hi again @Ash,

My apologies, it has been a while and I forgot we can supply our own OCIO config files to work with Affinity and these can include adobe rgb. 

It does work with the provided OCIO profile, (at least for ICC display transforms. However, it does not work or seem to be recognised with an OCIO V2 config file I use in Blender which includes AGX and Adobe RGB.

Also if I apply an OCIO adjustment layer on my exr files from Blender (which are encoded as Adobe RGB (Linear)only RAW appears visible or as an option in the drop downs, and selecting the various displays does nothing. 

Using a Mac Studio Ventura. 

Hope that helps.

[Patrick Connor]

3 hours ago, DM1 said:

unfortunately this is not working on my iPad.

Affinity are one of the first (perhaps only) app to support OCIO on iPad, and to get it to work requires jumping through a few hoops just once!

Please confirm you have followed these required steps

1. For OCIO 2 Photo 2 iPad requires you to create a folder with an .ocio extension,
2. Then the config file needs be renamed to config.ocio and placed into that folder you created
3. Then you choose the folder on iPad from within the application

This is because of iPad sandboxing issues - we appreciate it's not what some are used to. Can you try that please

[Poffel]

@Ash

Thank you very much for implementing this! It seems to work as expected.

But I´m getting extremely long opening times when opening a multilayer exr file with the beta.

It takes more than 10 minutes just to open the exr. Comparing with the Stable v2 release the opening time for the same exr is less than 10 seconds... 🤔

[DM1]

@Patrick Connor

Hi Patrick, creating the OCIO folder and renaming the config file didn’t help. Still unable to read the config file.  I suspect it is related to the Files app inability to view content of a .OCIO file format. It should read as text but appears as an empty file. Documents app, file viewer shows the file content.

[walt.farrell]

34 minutes ago, DM1 said:

creating the OCIO folder and remaining config file didn’t help. Still unable to read the config file.

Have you tried just clicking Open in that dialog, without selecting the file? From the Help I think we're choosing the folder, not the file.

Quote

3. Using the iPad's Files app, convert your chosen contained OCIO folder to a package by long-pressing and choosing Rename, then add an ".ocio" file extension

... 

5. Select Choose OCIO Package, then navigate to the .ocio file that you renamed previously and select it.

Edit: However, though I can click Open, I don't seem to be able to use an OCIO transform setting, so maybe that doesn't work.

[PaoloT]

Impressive how you deal with some very niche feature (like astrography, or this one).

Just a curiosity: "ocio" (/ocho/) means "eye" in Venice, a city where nuanced colors have a sense.

Paolo

 

 

[DM1]

10 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Have you tried just clicking Open in that dialog, without selecting the file? From the Help I think we're choosing the folder, not the file.

Yes, if you use the folder info Open option it simply opens the folder. You can then see the config file but it is still greyed out. The File info Open option shows it as a config file but the Open button is greyed out again. No way to open the file. Believe me, I’ve tried every possible method to try and open the config file.

Maybe it’s like the issue we had with some Adobe apps where the extension is allocated priority to another app. 
 

Tell me, what do you see on iPad when you use Files app directly to open the config file? I see an empty file.

 

Files app:

 

[DM1]

Anyone have this working on there iPad yet?

[playername]

Hi @Ash and @Patrick Connor

After further testing it looks like it is not working on my Mac Studio M2 Ultra, Ventura 13.4.1.

I have installed your config as instructed but when opening any exr file the 32 bit display panel shows only 'raw' in the drop downs (there appear to be other slots but there is no text filling them.) There is a limited choice of 5 variations in the other drop down list. Selecting any combination of these does nothing to the image. 

The OCIO layer option shows many more choices in source colour space and destination colour space but again, none of these changes the image. 

I use an adaption of an AGX config from Eary Chow  in Blender which is written in OCIO v2 format and allows an AdobeRGB workflow. If the program is directed to that config rather than yours, it does not load at all. An earlier version of this config, written for OCIO v1 does work in Affinity Photo V1. 

I hope this helps toward fixing it. I would very much welcome OCIO v2 in Affinity Photo (and rather hastily bought the update thinking it would work without issue.) Not a gripe, appreciate you making the effort toward providing it. I do think though there are many Blender based workflows that will pick up Affinity 2 once functionality is assured. 

Let me know if you need further feedback. 

cheers

 

[Chris B]

@playername

We can get this working with the file Ash linked - I'm not entirely sure why you don't see any changes when scrolling through the settings. It's working on desktop but the display transform view is broken on iPad.  Any chance of a video and or screenshots?

As for your own adaption of the AGX config, I'm wondering if this is because you may not have pointed the app to the OCIO Search Folder (underneath the Configuration File section).

[Chris B]

On 8/7/2023 at 10:41 AM, DM1 said:

Anyone have this working on there iPad yet?

In your video at the 5-second mark, you should only need to click Open and it will load the config file. Once you click Open, you should see a Downloading toast (I did not see that in your video) and then you can load a 32-bit image up and add the OCIO Adjustment. We've discovered that the display transform doesn't actually change anything on the View Tool - it's only working for the adjustment at the moment.

[DM1]

28 minutes ago, Chris B said:

In your video at the 5-second mark, you should only need to click Open

@Chris B And therein lies the rub Chris. If you look at the video closely you will notice that the Open button is “greyed” out. It is not possible for me to actually open ANY config file. This has been the issue all along. So frustrating….

[Chris B]

Hey DM1, it does not look greyed out to me:

[walt.farrell]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:49 PM, DM1 said:

Yes, if you use the folder info Open option it simply opens the folder. You can then see the config file but it is still greyed out. The File info Open option shows it as a config file but the Open button is greyed out again. No way to open the file.

I think that @Chris B is saying the same thing I was trying to say, DM1. You only point to the folder, and click Open. You are not supposed to Open a file.

[DM1]

@Chris B, @walt.farrell, @Patrick Connor 

Thank you all for persevering with me. I can now also confirm that this method, when applied as per your instructions 😊, works on my older iPad.

This method also loads my earlier v2 OCIO packages.

Their is a issue with the drop down menu display being cut off, (see image) but the selections do work on colours.

[Chris B]

Brilliant! The issue with the dropdowns has been logged  

[playername]

Hi @Chris B,

Please find attached a screenshot and 2 videos showing the issue.

I did also point my agx config file to search the same folder as per the instructions. 

Hope this helps.

[Chris B]

I'm a little surprised that adding the search folder did not work. Would it be possible for you to upload the config files to this private Dropbox folder?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/b6VCPGnUgMbyrssCuSqd

Only QA and development will have access to it and once we've resolved the issue, the files will be removed. If you're happy to upload them, could you please let me know as I do not get a notification from Dropbox that the upload has finished.

[playername]

Hi @Chris B

i have uploaded the config files you requested last week but forgot to notify you. Then did notify you but that message seems to be missing here. Hope this one gets through and you can access the files

cheers 

[Chris B]

Thanks playername,

I downloaded the files and managed to get them straight into the app. See below:

I wonder if perhaps that fact you have it stored on some sort of volume that the sandbox is failing?

Are you able to move them locally and see if it works? If this is the case, I can log this with the developers and see if they can get this resolved.