Inactive UI after brushing within a mask, using a tablet (Wacom)

[PixelMoshpit]

This has been a constant issue since V2, for me at least. Once applying a mask to a pixel layer, painting within the mask, using a brush and then trying to exit the mask with the stylus (clicking to the thumbnail for the layer) is not possible. The interface becomes inactive for the stylus and shortcuts do not work. I have to use the mouse to switch to the move tool to be able to regain function of the UI to then get back to the pixel layer.

Any help would ne greatly appreciated. 

 

(wacom cintiq 16 pro, windows 10, AMD Threadripper, MSI RTX 2080 Super, 32gb RAM) 

[debraspicher]

Yes, this has been going on for a while on my end as well. Seems like any brushwork can trigger it.

[Ian R]

I also have been having a possible similar frustrating time with my tablet and AP since V2. There seems to be a certain number of executions in the viewport window - for me personally - that need to occur before my intuos pro medium ceases to work on the menu icons area. I then have to either alt tab out and back in or use the mouse to select an icon for the tablet to become responsive again.

[_考槃]

+1😢

[Dan C]

Hi,

Though I'm not able to recreate this, we've had some reports that the latest Wacom driver can cause issues such as the ones listed above, could you please try rolling back your driver version to see if this improves matters.

Lee

[debraspicher]

On 11/6/2023 at 8:26 AM, Lee_T said:

Hi,

Though I'm not able to recreate this, we've had some reports that the latest Wacom driver can cause issues such as the ones listed above, could you please try rolling back your driver version to see if this improves matters.

Lee

I'm on an older Wacom driver set (since intuos4 drivers are not actively updated since 2020 iirc...). I did get an Intuos Pro M for another machine now and I will be able to report on it as well with more regular usage.

Anyway, I think I understand what may be happening. Perhaps the brush tool is not registering leaving the canvas and so the UI becomes unstable interacting with the "extended" canvas underneath. In one example I recorded below, it's actually drawing behind the UI/Layers Panel. Because the Layers panel seems to be a common culprit for triggering this odd UI behavior, it's possible it's why people are mostly noticing it during masking... I see it a lot less when just painting on an already existing layer/extended canvas work or painting on repetitively auto-generated layers such as with Pencil tool or Pen tool)... what will certainly trigger this behavior is lifting my pen while moving to access the "V" key for move tool... then I have to "reset" Affinity by minimizing the program with the mouse to get back the correct behavior.
 

It's worth noting the Brush Engine performance overall is really poor on my end (see sig for full specs...). Perhaps it as a result of this off-canvas behavior, as I wonder if it has to "find" the UI/elements array each time it leaves the canvas/viewport. Another tell may be which elements seem to struggle most, especially lists of things, causes major stuttering in the program if they are pointing to resources. As such, there seems to be a hang of sorts when the pen even just hovers over these items once the misbehavior begins. Sometimes it requires a tap to trigger, but most odd behavior is "on hover" as the program "pauses" to search for UI elements to highlight (on hover).

Example: It really does not like me looking through the Brush list, which I've also recorded below. I've had the same issue with random but consistent lag accessing/hovering over the Layers panel. Simply clicking a layer can cause fits. So much so, it creates a lot of mistakes and objects being moved around without my control... very very frustrating.

Here is the example of the drawing behind the UI, particularly it is the Layer's panel that seems to be a common culprit... which may be why some people have more trouble when painting in masks...

As to the brush list/cat lag... Here is that example:

Other elements of the UI are also "responding" in a laggy/misbehaving manner when Affinity is having its fits. Sometimes can be on a fresh start, but like other people mentioned, fiddling around back and forth for a few iterations between the Layers panel and canvas seems to consistently trigger it. Brush Panel and Layers seem to always be the worst as far as lag produced by hover. But even clicking options in the Context Toolbar sometimes creates this lag response as things need time to highlight... for example, in this session it took a moment to toggle "Wet Edges", for example, when I needed in-between brush changes (another horrible bug...). In this case it was behaving badly enough from before that I left it unchecked to test the brush for size variance. Which I changed to a simple round which performed better-ish...

Hopefully the above information helps somehow. It's very unworkable.

TLDR: It seems like when this bug occurs, the Wacom pen/cursor is trying to access elements behind the UI, probably the canvas, and it's like the whole program becomes an extended viewport. The UI just doesn't respond at all.It requires that I min&max the window to return to a functional UI... It may also share a similar cause with the other issues of the general glitchiness/slow responsiveness of the UI once the program starts having these "fits" so to speak...


Edit: Huh. Found one of these in Event Viewer/Windows logs while I was searching for something else to rule out other problems. I looked at the timestamp of the recordings and this one was right at the starting part when I had noticed the behavior beginning (and poor responsiveness from UI/brush engine) so I began recording at this point...:


Video screen showing timestamp matches EV log in bottom right:

[Ian R]

 @debraspicher excellent explanation. I have experienced almost all of these issues... its hard to parce apart some issues because sometimes one's fingers and key presses and clicks are faster than the lag, so it can stack up, leaving some quite unfavourable results as you might guess. selecting anything for me once I have drawn in the viewport seems to create the issue.

I have other issues if I roll back the driver for my wacom intuos , I can't try this out.