Vertus Fluid Mask, apparently usable in AP for MAC, not so for AP for Windows

[emmrecs01]

According to the page which MEB created, listing the PS plugins that AP can see and use, Vertus Fluid Mask 3 should be "available".  For me, it is not, using AP for Windows.  Preferences>Photoshop Plugins does not even list it though it is stored in the same folder as all my other plugins which I use/have used in PhotoPlus X8.

 

Any suggestions?

 

TIA.

 

Jeff

[neilgcart]

Same here Fluid Mask is not available in the Windows version.  Hopefully Plugin support is one of the priorities as it is the biggest issue I have today.

 

Neil

[MEB]

Hi emmrecs01,

I have not tested Vertus Fluid Mask on Windows yet. I believe you have checked the Mac page instead.

Here's the correct link for the main Photoshop plugins support page.

[PeanutsA]

Hi emmrecs01,

I have not tested Vertus Fluid Mask on Windows yet. I believe you have checked the Mac page instead.

Here's the correct link for the main Photoshop plugins support page.

Hi MEB

Thank you for the link to 'tested' plug-ins for Windows, which I have been searching for.

 

I must admit that I am 'slightly steaming' because Serif sold me 5 AKVIS plug-ins, 3 FRANZIS, plus FilterForge 5 Pro, only a month before the issue of 'finalised' AffinityP version 1.5.0.45

Now it appears that these, along with 7 other AKVIS  and Vertus Fluid Mask plug-ins, also purchased from Serif will not be usable with AffintyP for an unknown period of time and therefore if I want to see a return for my money I will have to continue using my now 'unsupported' PhotoPlus X8.

As Serif are/were selling these non-operative plug-in products to their loyal customers I feel that there should have been more thought given to support for them in the development of AffinityP.

 

I do greatly appreciate the ever increasing demands on your time that this forum is placing but have you any idea when you, or possibly some other equally qualified person, could do more testing of the plug-ins still in doubt, and the Affinity team doing something about those not (yet) supported?

[R C-R]

PeanutsA,

 

Did Serif ever indicate to you that the plugins it sold for use with PhotoPlus would work with the retail (or any other) version of Affinity Photo?

 

It is my understanding that Serif is not the developer of any of these plugins; that they only sold them through their web site. If this is correct, all they can do is work with the actual developers to see if or when they can be made compatible with Photo, the same as with any other plugins that are not currently compatible (both for Windows & Mac versions of the app & for the plugin versions for each of them).

[PeanutsA]

PeanutsA,

 

Did Serif ever indicate to you that the plugins it sold for use with PhotoPlus would work with the retail (or any other) version of Affinity Photo?

 

It is my understanding that Serif is not the developer of any of these plugins; that they only sold them through their web site. If this is correct, all they can do is work with the actual developers to see if or when they can be made compatible with Photo, the same as with any other plugins that are not currently compatible (both for Windows & Mac versions of the app & for the plugin versions for each of them).

Hi RC-R

 

Serif did not indicate that all/any of the plug-ins they sold for use with PhotoPlus would work with AffinityPhoto and I was not implying that they did.

BUT they were not purchased via their website, which would have made their purchases solely my choice, not knowing that AffinityPhoto was very near release - they were sold during a "Valued Customer" phone call, initiated by Serif sales dept, as I said only a month before AffinityPhoto was officially released and when they would/should have known how imminent AffinityPhoto was. The same sales dept, the same person, contacted me regarding the purchase of both Affinity products.

 

My point is that Serif must have obviously known that they were/had been selling (by phone) these plug-ins and others by Topaz to their  "Valued Customers" over the years and therefore hopefully the Affinity team would have been made aware of this.

They could then have given more thought to the amount of money Serif's loyal "Valued Customers" had contributed towards the development of Affinity by the purchase of these plug-ins, and therefore given more thought to the suitability of their usage.

 

If, as seems likely as no firm dates are being given, that most of these plug-ins will continue to be only suitable for use with PhotoPlus then PhotoPlus should not be classed as a no-longer supported 'Legacy' product, at least until the plug-ins 'problems' are sorted out.

[emmrecs01]

PeanutsA,

 

I think we all understand "where you are coming from".  It is annoying (very) that some plugins "work" in AP for Windows and some do not.  However, I think RC-R's basic tenet that there could be no guarantee from Serif sales staff about possible compatibility with AP is reasonable, however close to beta release AP might be.  Indeed, those sales staff may not even have known that (i) AP was imminent for release, or (ii) which plugins would/would not work with it.

 

I'm not sure which Akvis plugins you have but I can tell you that one, NatureArt, listed as "Not compatible" on MEB's page, actually DOES work in AP.  Similarly, only one Topaz plugin is listed as "Not compatible"; I don't have that one but all others I do have do work.

 

I personally am "annoyed" by the fact that I have at least two plugins, Photo Toolbox "PT Portrait" and "Skin Finer", listed in the Filters menu but open in AP with blank screens!

 

Bottom line: there is still much for the AP developers to do to "improve" plugin availability, compatibility and usage.  But they are getting there!  I suspect the road will be long and final success may well be several weeks, or even months, (hopefully not years) away.  We all need to be patient!  

 

Jeff

(wanting all my plugins to work but accepting that I must be patient  :( )

[MEB]

Hi PeanutsA,

I don't know/am aware of Serif's offers regarding PhotoPlus and the rest of Serif's Plus line but i believe those offers were made taking in consideration your previous purchases as a customer, in particular regarding PhotoPlus. Affinity Photo in still quite recent on Windows and currently we can't (and don't) assume/assure that all plug-ins work inside Affinity. This is simply because Affinity's code is new/built from scratch and has nothing to do with PhotoPlus. Functionality and feature wise there's also quite a few differences so we can't relate them in this regard.

Adding support for those and other plug-ins isn't as straightforward as it may seem. While regular Image filters may be relatively easy to support since they are more or less "self contained" and just have to receive and send the image back to Affinity, there's plenty of others that rely on automation/calls to perform actions for which we don't have an equivalent feature/functionality implemented yet. These cases imply a lot more work than just making the plugin work inside Affinity - they require specific functionality which may not be currently available. There's also issues/conditions related with each platform - Affinity Photo runs in a sandboxed environment on the Mac for example -, while some plugins may also require direct developer support. Due to all this there's no eta for any specific plugin. We are trying to get them running as soon as possible.

 

@emmrecs01,

NatureArt is listed as not compatible for Mac. I haven't tested it on Windows yet. There's two lists now - please make sure you are checking the correct one from the main Photoshop Plug-ins page here.

[emmrecs01]

 @emmrecs01,

NatureArt is listed as not compatible for Mac. I haven't tested it on Windows yet. There's two lists now - please make sure you are checking the correct one from the main Photoshop Plug-ins page here.

My apologies.  I had checked the correct page but had thought I saw NatureArt listed as "Not compatible" rather than "Not tested".

 

Should you wish to amend that list I can confirm that NatureArt does function fully in AP for Windows.

 

Jeff

[PeanutsA]

Hi MEB,

Thanks for your reply, sorry not posted to it earlier.

I do fully appreciate what you are saying.

I have now got all 10 of my Topaz Lab plug-ins, those shown on your list, plus AKVIS  HRD Factory working fine with AffinityP Windows.

I am having problems with AKVIS SmartMask but this might be/is due to my ignorance - whenever I attempt to use it I get the message that "Image has a read-only alpha channel (transparency is locked)" and I have no idea what this means :unsure:. Although I would like the answer to this I am using the alternative Vertus  Fluid Mask as a 'stand alone', as I did with PhotoPlus X8 and as soon as it is available for use with AffinityP I will be scrapping AKVIS SmartMask.

I am also having to use Filter Forge as a 'stand alone' but from the Filter Forge forum I note that there is on-going interaction between you, Patrick, the Affinity development team and them so have hopes that this will soon (?) be in the AffinityP plug-in list.

[mikehaui]

Hi there,

 

just installed Versus Fluid Mask 3 on my Mac and it DON'T WORK AS A PlugIn for AP.

 

I installed the PlugIn into the recommended NickPlugIns Folder to and it is showed up in AP - but: if I call it, it doesn't launch!

 

Any hints to get it to work?

 

Best regards,

Michael

[emmrecs01]

Michael, as you have found, Vertus Fluid Mask does not work as a plugin in AP, on either Windows or MAC machines.

 

As far as I can tell, there is NO workaround, sorry.

 

Jeff

[MEB]

Hi mikehaui,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

As emmrecs01 pointed out this plugin is not compatible with Affinity Photo. Please check this page for more info.