Photo 2.6.2: Rectangular artifacts when using Paint Brush Tool on a Mask layer inside a Group

[Dusan Pavlicek]

Hi, this is a bit complicated to describe but I'll try my best.

I'm using Affinity Photo 2.6.2 (currently the latest version).
I'm on Windows 11, I have a laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 3060 GPU with the latest drivers.

Steps to recreate the problem (a sample file is attached, see below):

In Affinity Photo, open a new document (A4 or larger seems to produce more visible artifacts).
Create two new pixel layers and fill each with a different color (or a photo etc.).
Now move the top layer into a new, separate Group (Ctrl+G).
Then create a new Mask layer and move it so that it is also inside that Group and ABOVE the pixel layer that is already there.
This way the Mask layer should only affect the top layer (within the same Group) and not the bottom layer that is outside the Group -- that's the effect I wanted to achieve with this.

Now when I select the Mask layer and switch to a very large Paint Brush Tool (B) and I start moving the brush across the Mask layer without actually drawing anything on it (just previewing the effect of the mask), weird rectangular artifacts start showing on the screen in various random places as I'm moving the brush.
If you use photos instead of solid colors, you'll see that wrong sections of the photo layer are used, or there's even some visual garbage instead of the actual content of the layer. Sometimes apparently even the content of the image clipboard! -- see attached screenshot #2.
These visual artifacts also change completely when I zoom in or out.

It seems that the program is trying to access wrong parts of memory when rendering the preview of the masking effect.

The top layer being inside the Group and the Mask layer placed ABOVE the top layer seem to be critical for this to occur.

I'm attaching a sample file bug.afphoto, plus a few screenshots of the artifacts.

Best regards,
Dusan Pavlicek
 

bug.afphoto

[Komatös]

Hi @Dusan Pavlicek and welcome to the forums.

I can't replicate it, neither on Mac nor on Windows PC. Try it with hardware acceleration disabled in Affinity Photo (Edit -> Preferences -> Performance).

[Dusan Pavlicek]

Thank you @Komatös for your reply.
Disabling the hardware acceleration indeed resolved this issue.

Edited April 21 by Dusan Pavlicek

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @Dusan Pavlicek,

This is a known issue that has been fixed as of the 2.6.3 beta if you'd like to give it a try. 🙂

20 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

Painting on Grouped masks causes brush artefacts AF-6223

Beta signup page: https://affinity.serif.com/affinity-beta-program/

[Dusan Pavlicek]

Thank you, @NathanC !
I installed the beta and it works for me, the problem is gone even with hardware acceleration enabled 🥳👍

Edited April 24 by Dusan Pavlicek