White lines in images exported from RAW files - Affinity Photo v2.x

[Saldatoccio]

This seems to be an outstanding bug since at least 2022:

In my case, white lines are present in ALL the JPEG files created by exporting RAW files, I use an embedded Intel video card (i5 14600K) with the latest video drivers, but the issue seems to affect also other videocards:

Disabling hardware acceleration could avoid this behaviour, but I really think that this problem should be solved without giving up the benefits of having HW acceleration available.

[Komatös]

Hello and welcome to the forums, @Saldatoccio

Finding a solution is difficult. The problem is the large number of different hardware combinations/configurations. And even with systems of the same design, it will happen that HWA works on one system and not on another.
Another source of error is the OCL driver, which is provided by the GPU manufacturers. OCL is specified, but the compiler used and its version can make all the difference.
 

[Saldatoccio]

Thank you @Komatös, but I've used several other packages to process RAW files on the same hardware and they don't produce this kind of artefact, so I'm assuming that:

1) It's a bug in the Affinity code that may be hard to find and/or fix, but it's something that's been around for years. 

OR

2) Other manufacturers are also affected, but they don't use hardware acceleration when processing RAW files to generate JPEGs (I doubt it, given that the export times are "consistent" with those of Affinity Photo with HW acceleration enabled)

Searching the web and this forum, the problem seems to affect a wide variety of video cards (Intel, Nvidia, AMD), so I doubt it is a problem with a specific driver or video card.

And I understand that hardware combinations and the use of certain versions of a compiler can play a role, but it seems to be a fairly common problem. 

[Alfred]

40 minutes ago, Saldatoccio said:

the export times are "consistent" with those of Affinity Photo with HW acceleration enabled

How “inconsistent” are the export times in Affinity Photo when you switch HW acceleration on or off?

[Dan C]

Hi @Saldatoccio,

Thanks for your report!

On 5/6/2024 at 9:10 AM, Saldatoccio said:

This seems to be an outstanding bug since at least 2022:

I can confirm this was a known issue in version 1 of Affinity apps and was fixed in version 2 - the thread you've supplied above is in the V1 section of the Affinity Forums to corroborate this, so I'm certain sorry to hear you're experiencing this in V2.

We've not had any reports of this issue within V2 since release, therefore our team believe the issue is still resolved, however it is possible that due to certain hardware configuration or a regression in the Affinity code, the issue has returned

Firstly, can you please open the Affinity app and navigate to Help > About and provide a screenshot of the dialog that opens?

Secondly, can you please navigate to Edit > Settings > Performance and provide a screenshot of your current settings here also?

Many thanks in advance  

[Saldatoccio]

Thank you Dan,

I am a registered user of 

and I confirm that disabling OpenCL-based hardware acceleration is indeed a viable workaround:

Some technical details about my PC:

- Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (64 bit)     23H2 (10.0.22631)

- Intel® Core™ i5-14600K

- Intel® UHD Graphics 770 (with up-to-date drivers)

 

Edited May 7, 2024 by Saldatoccio

[Dan C]

Many thanks for confirming that for me and all of the information provided here - this is invaluable to our team

We've recently fixed a regression in Affinity Photo Windows which caused artifacting to appear when loading RAW images with Hardware Acceleration enabled in our latest beta (v2.5) and I suspect this may be related to the issue you've reported here, as I understand you are starting from a RAW file in Affinity before exporting to JPEG.

If you are willing, can you please sign up for the beta and install this alongside your retail version, so that both apps are installed at the same time and let me know if this also occurs in the latest version of 2.5 for you, or if the above fix also addresses the issue you're reporting here?

https://affinity.serif.com/affinity-beta-program/

[Saldatoccio]

I deliberately took a very dark photo to test the RAW -> JPEG export of both Affinity Photo 2.4.2 and Affinity Photo 2.5 Beta, in both cases with HW acceleration enabled.

These are the results:

2.4.2:

2.5.0 Beta:

I did not check all the other settings, but the issue seems solved.

 

[Saldatoccio]

Thank you Dan.

How can I uninstall the beta version from my PC? I can't see it in the list of installed programs (Windows Store and Installed Programs):

 HRESULT: 0x80073CFA

Edited May 7, 2024 by Saldatoccio

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, Saldatoccio said:

How can I uninstall the beta version from my PC?

Right-click on it in the Start menu, and choose Uninstall. Or uninstall from Settings, Apps.

[Saldatoccio]

Thank you Walt, but that option was missing, that's why I had to use PowerShell and the correct command was (in my case):

Remove-AppxPackage -Package SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2Beta_2.5.0.2430_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt

[Dan C]

16 hours ago, Saldatoccio said:

I deliberately took a very dark photo to test the RAW -> JPEG export of both Affinity Photo 2.4.2 and Affinity Photo 2.5 Beta, in both cases with HW acceleration enabled.

Spoiler

These are the results:

2.4.2:

2.5.0 Beta:

I did not check all the other settings, but the issue seems solved.

Many thanks for trying that for me and I'm certainly glad to see this issue is resolved in our upcoming 2.5 update!

I'll be sure to inform our team regarding this and we hope to release this update ASAP, once ready