Live Filter panel re-opens with (?) Screen Redraw

[smadell]

I'm a big fan of live filters. They slow down my workflow and cause me grief sometimes, but they're great for non-destructive editing. A new bug in v2.2 (which I don't think was present in the betas) is the seemingly reliable re-opening of the last live filter panel used on various occasions. Best as I can tell, the last live filter used will pop open again when the screen redraws. (I find this happens all the time after I sharpen a photo – I zoom in to 100%, apply a High Pass live filter, and close the panel. When I zoom out to Fill Screen level (by pressing Command-0) the High Pass panel will pop back open. Hitting Cancel will close it, and does not seem to affect the settings I set previously.

If I have applied two live filters in a document, it seems also to occur with screen redraws and will only re-open the most recently used live filter panel.

My system – Mac Studio M2 Max; 64 GB RAM; 2 TB SSD.  Affinity Photo retail version 2.2 (Serif store version).

[Lee D]

@smadell I can't seem to replicate this on our M1 MacBook, can you do a screen recording (full screen) so I can see the issue occur.

[smadell]

Here you go, @Lee D. This is annoyingly reliable, and happens (it seems) every time.

 

 

[Old Bruce]

10 hours ago, smadell said:

This is annoyingly reliable, and happens (it seems) every time.

In this case you have not entered a value, you have typed the first digit and not hit enter to apply it. The blinking cursor is plainly visible.

[smadell]

I would respond to the comment by @Old Bruce by saying (i) so what? why should hitting Enter be necessary, especially given that there is no indication it is needed? and (ii) this is a definite deprecation from previous behavior, by which I mean that I have never hit Enter to “apply” live filters, or to apply adjustments. They simply have not needed it, and this behavior is new and (in my view) far worse.

[Hangman]

Hi @smadell,

Values entered will only be adopted once focus is removed from the text entry box either using the Tab key or the Enter key. This has always been the case and applies to any dialog windows where values are entered.

For example, if you enter 50 as the Red value in the RGB colour sliders, the value isn't adopted until you either hit Tab to move to the Green value or hit Enter to apply the value. The same applies to the Transform dialog, enter an X, Y, W or H value and it's not applied until you hit Tab or Enter.

8 hours ago, smadell said:

I have never hit Enter to “apply” live filters, or to apply adjustments. They simply have not needed it, and this behavior is new and (in my view) far worse.

I don't know if this is the case on Windows but it certainly doesn't work that way on Mac.

[Return]

19 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I don't know if this is the case on Windows

For the examples you provided it is possible to just click anywhere and have the digits applied.

 

 

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, Return said:

For the examples you provided it is possible to just click anywhere and have the digits applied.

But in doing so, i.e., clicking elsewhere, you are removing focus from the text entry box. The point @Old Bruce and myself were trying to make is that a value isn't adopted simply by typing it in the text entry box, another 'action' needs to happen first. In your screen recording simply clicking on the canvas or elsewhere on the UI removes focus from the text entry box.

In @smadell's screen recording, the Radius text entry box in the Live Filter still has focus when it's closed which means the value hasn't been adopted. Hitting Tab to move focus to the Opacity Box or hitting Enter to accept the value entered in the Radius box will adopt the value.

This is the same behaviour as V1 and the same as other Mac apps. I don't know if the behaviour is different on certain Windows apps but I believe the behaviour is as expected but equally happy to be corrected if not.

[Return]

59 minutes ago, Hangman said:

enter an X, Y, W or H value and it's not applied until you hit Tab or Enter.

I just responded to your statement that only TAB or Enter would invoke a field entry.

[smadell]

Ok, folks. Let's put the "focus in the number field" half of the argument to rest. I've attached a screen recording in which I apply a live filter and clearly remove focus from the Radius field. The value is reflected in the image on screen before the High Pass panel is closed. Upon hitting Command-0 (to return view to "Fit to View") the High Pass panel pops open again.

 

 

[Hangman]

What's slightly odd is that it's the 'Standard High Pass Filter' popping up and not the 'Live High Pass Filter' when you hit Cmd 0...

[smadell]

I hadn’t noticed that, @Hangman but, of course, you’re right. The live filter re-opening issue happens with other live filters, such as Gaussian Blur and others. I would have to go back and check to see if it’s the “standard” version of the filter panel that opens up after-the-fact.

[Hangman]

Is your setup using 'Float View to Window' and if so, does the other file you have open, your Red Flower JPG happen to have the Standard (Destuctive) High Pass Filter open?

I only ask because even though I can't replicate this exactly on Mac I sort of can in as much as when I click on the other open image, the filter that I deliberately left open (for the other image) appears above the image I'm working on, i.e., if the Standard High Pass filter was open on your Red Flower Image, on Mac I can make the filter dialog appear above the Tower of London Image when the two images are floating so I just wondered if that may be what is going on here?

[smadell]

I assume you mean “Fit” view to window (as in Cmd-0), but this behavior occurs irrespective of the number of documents that are open. If you look at the first version of my Tower of London photo, you’ll see that it is the only open document. Also, I almost never use the standard versions of the filters, destructive little beasts that they are, and even when I have to do so, certainly don’t leave them open and just sitting there, unapplied. So, that can’t explain my dilemma.

[Lee D]

@smadell I Still can't replicate the issue on our systems.

Could you provide a link to your file (.afphoto) used via DM so I can take a look, just in case.

Also to cover basics, have you tried resetting the app?

[smadell]

@Lee D - I sent you a link to the file via DM. Please understand (as also stated in the message) that this behavior is not just seen on this particular file. It happens to me irrespective of the image used.

You also suggest resetting the app. I have not tried this, since I always dread this procedure – the amount of re-customizing my workspace is seldom worth the effort (as the reset almost never solves the problem). However, if this is such a repeatable behavior for me, but for no one else, I will try this. Any suggestion(s) as to which "reset" checkboxes I should invoke. (Obviously, the fewer the better.)

[smadell]

@Lee D - some follow up. I went ahead and reset the app (entirely). The live filter re-open issue persists. I also shut down my Mac and started up in Safe Mode. The issue was still there. I set the Display preference to OpenGL (instead of Metal) and made sure that Hardware Acceleration was turned off. No change. I think I've run out of tricks. Any suggestions?

[smadell]

Hello again, @Lee D. I also have an M1 MacBook Air which has a copy of Affinity Photo version 2.1.1 on it. I decided to try it out. Sure enough, the re-opening did not occur. I then upgraded that copy to version 2.2 and tried again. Once I had installed version 2.2, the live filter re-open issue immediately started again. I had my old copy of version 2.1.1 saved (in a Zip file) and I re-installed that. A third test revealed that the problem had gone away.

So… different machine, light UI instead of dark, but the same results. No live filter re-opening in version 2.1.1; immediate recurrence of the issue in version 2.2.

[For completeness sake, I tried the same testing having changed the Interface Language to English instead of English (United States). In the past, localization issues have caused some bugs, so I tried. It did not change anything.]

[Note - toward the end of the video, text indicates that I chose Cmd-1 Zoom to Fit; in fact, I chose Cmd-1 but this is Zoom to 100%]

[smadell]

@Lee D - any follow-up on this? Suggestions? Progress on your side? As noted, this is brand new behavior since v2.2 which affects me on two different Macs. Both are running Ventura - is that part of the problem? I’m tapped out when it comes to additional things to try.

[walt.farrell]

On 10/5/2023 at 3:55 PM, smadell said:

No live filter re-opening in version 2.1.1;

To avoid confusion, as previously mentioned it is not the Live filter reopening, but the standard filter opening.

What happens if instead of Cmd+I you use View > Zoom > Zoom to Fit? Does that also show the problem?

Have you checked your Shortcut settings, to confirm that you do not have Cmd+I assigned to Filters > Sharpen > High Pass... ?

 

[smadell]

1) The fact that it is the standard version of the filter opening has been addressed.

2) I have not assigned any shortcuts to the standard live filters, since I use them so infrequently.

However… your second question brings up an interesting wrinkle. If I apply a live filter, close the panel, and choose a Zoom level via the menu (rather than with a shortcut) the filter re-opening does not occur. However, the filter panel opens up the first time I use a shortcut to change the Zoom level. Even if I apply a High Pass live filter and then do additional editing (such as adding multiple adjustment layers), as soon as I use a shortcut to change the zoom level, up pops that damned High Pass panel.

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, smadell said:

as soon as I use a shortcut to change the zoom level, up pops that damned High Pass panel.

Any zoom shortcut? Cmd+1, Cmd+2, etc.?

[smadell]

Any of them…

[walt.farrell]

Truly weird.

[smadell]

My feelings exactly, Walt. I also tried (i) reverting my shortcuts to "Serif Defaults" thinking that my imported .afshortcuts file might somehow be a culprit - no change; (ii) changed the shortcut for Zoom to Fit and Zoom to 100% to use the Option key instead of the Command key - no change. Yes, truly weird…