Affinity products for Linux

[msdobrescu]

It's no reverse engineering, you just take Wine logs to detect missing APIs in order to implement them. If that would have been illegal, would have been taken care by MS long ago. Wine just bridges.

[Renzatic]

9 minutes ago, 1stn00b said:

(which should be illegal if we look at all closed-source software EULAS)

Most EULAs are filled to bursting with stipulations that sound scary on paper, but are unenforceable from a legal standpoint.

Did you all read the license agreement when you installed your Affinity apps? Do you REALLY think Serif has total ownership of our immortal souls?

[1stn00b]

Well they can't go after me or you, but if they wanted they could go after Wine , off course they need to be real stupid to do so but never say never : >

[Frozen Death Knight]

22 hours ago, 1stn00b said:

Well it's their problem not mine or Wine community, i already moved on. This is a commercial closed-source software so i don't think spending community time to reverse engineering their software (which should be illegal if we look at all closed-source software EULAS) to see why it doesn't work.

It's the same way as with Windows games anti-cheat : Epic made Easy Anti-Cheat available on Linux thru Proton and Wine not Valve or the community.

Also since Serif business model is to sell a unique non-sharable license on every platform they support i'm 100% sure not only that they won't support the Wine community, but make sure in the future that their Windows Apps will never install on Wine again : >

Well, it is up to the community to make Linux a viable platform for developing software. If you want it you have to work for it. That's just the nature of open source.

Epic is also a massive company with billions in their pockets. They have a long history of providing easily accessible tools and funding for game development through their Unreal Engine, Quixel, and donations to projects like Blender. They are charitable because they can afford it and because it is in their best interest to strengthen their own brand that encourages working within their ecosystem.

Also, if Serif was so against people using Wine, why did the lead developer for Windows just post how to fix the GUI on Linux? Being against using Wine and not putting resources into supporting Wine and Linux are not the same thing.

[Renzatic]

8 minutes ago, 1stn00b said:

Well they can't go after me or you, but if they wanted they could go after Wine , off course they need to be real stupid to do so but never say never : >

If you really want the best example for how that'd turn out, look to the Google v Oracle lawsuit that popped up in the courts here a few years back. The way Android translates Java calls isn't entirely dissimilar to how WINE works with Windows APIs.

[Snapseed]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but I'll disagree.

Serif has said they do not plan to support Linux. If it is going to work there, it is up to the Wine community or to CodeWeavers to get it working, in my opinion. Serif does not want to expend resources (a) getting it to work and then (very important) (b) keeping it working with future development.

It is a no-brainer for CodeWeavers to try to get the three Affinity softwares to work well on CrossOver because of the increased sales they would get.

I think it would be useful if everyone went over to CodeWeavers' website, downloaded Crossover ( https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover/download ), tried it out with Photo, Publisher and Designer, reported the bugs and faults back to CodeWeavers and started a thread discussion about the Affinity products on Crossover ( https://www.codeweavers.com/support/forums ).

They are perhaps the best potential option to try to solve the problem of running Affinity software on Linux (aside from the VM route, that is).

 

[1stn00b]

@Frozen Death Knight

From my point of view Linux on Desktop is already a great platform for developing and distributing software with the introduction of Flatpak (i know i'm biased here since i use Fedora Workstation and want to go full immutable on Silverblue) that is actually decades away into the future from Microsoft UWP crapware  : >  

Even with those billions in their pockets they chose to make their anti-cheat run thru a translation layer and not native the same way they didn't make their Game Store Launcher available on Linux like Valve does with Steam that is also offered as a flatpak

Disabling hardware acceleration sounds more like putting salt on wound then fixing something. The canvas still flashes and flickers when u open menus so not really a fix.

 

 

 

 

[Mark Ingram]

It's not up to us to get it working on Linux - as far as we're concerned, it's an unsupported platform, regardless of whether that's native, or via WINE or anything else. 

With regards to the canvas flickering, it uses Direct3D11 to present the document to the screen (separate to the UI rendering in hardware, which is done by WPF/Microsoft). You may have more luck by changing the renderer to WARP in the Preferences, if that is detected (WARP is a software rasteriser for Direct3D).

[1stn00b]

Still flickers on menu appearing over canvas even with WARP on :

 

and also : >

[Renzatic]

18 minutes ago, 1stn00b said:

Still flickers on menu appearing over canvas even with WARP on :

Out of curiosity, what changes have you made to my base configuration? I still can't access the Preferences panel.

Also, switching to a Wayland session does lead to a slightly less flicker filled experience.

[1stn00b]

I didn't change anything to your configuration, in fact i couldn't even install it before - it was complaining NET 3.5 was not enabled, the Bottles Runtime option enabled in configuration did the trick - i never use it ; >

My GPU uses the included open-source Mesa drivers - changelogs here : https://docs.mesa3d.org/relnotes.html and feature matrix here : https://mesamatrix.net/ , in your case u should check Nvidia forums they post Linux problems from time to time : https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/wayland-information-for-r515-beta-release/214275 - from what i see there Wayland is no go for Nvidia GPUs

L.E. Also you might wanna check this blog post : https://blog.froggi.es/bringing-vulkan-raytracing-to-older-amd-hardware/ by Joshua Ashton from Valve that works with Bas Nieuwenhuizen from Google on Mesa drivers

[Renzatic]

7 minutes ago, 1stn00b said:

I didn't change anything to your configuration, in fact i couldn't even install it before - it was complaining NET 3.5 was not enabled, the Bottles Runtime option enabled in configuration did the trick - i never use it ; >

The only way I've managed to get past that is to create a bottle tailored to applications. It installs Mono automatically, which seems to fix the .Net 3.5 issue. Of course, that limits you to only using Caffe 7.5.

When I try creating a custom bottle with another runner, it always fails to grab its own version of Mono. Installing it from the dependencies does nothing. Installing dotnet35 fails to complete, and, well, it seems my options are limited. Changing the runner manually in the yml file doesn't seem to do much of anything at all.

Shame this isn't a big game everyone wants to play. We'd have a fully running version by now if it were.

[Kamei Kojirou]

Please post your findings on the WineHQ website as well. https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=18332 it will help narrow down where the work needs to be done. If the Vulkan Child dll issue isn't required this could be a viable path to a working setup.

[1stn00b]

Made a video of running Affinity Photo on my Fedora Workstation 36 thru Bottles

Sorry for lower quality just installed OBS Studio Flatpak and run the auto-configuration wizard at start.

 

 

[chiddekel]

https://usebottles.com/

[1stn00b]

@chiddekel

They just need to setup flatpak on the distro used (ChromeOS included) using quick guide here : https://flatpak.org/setup/ and then use software manager to get it :

They need to update description since the app have already been ported to GTK4 and libawaita so no more legacy windowing : >

 

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, 1stn00b said:

@chiddekel

Forum hint: To tag another user, you must:

1. Type an @ sign, then
2. Start typing their username (no pasting allowed; must be typed), then
3. Select their username from the popup list that appears. Then you will get something that looks like @1stn00b and if they have chosen to be notified of mentions, they will be notified.

[walt.farrell]

15 hours ago, 1stn00b said:

and also : >

You will not be able to enable Hardware Acceleration unless both those conditions are met. This is not related to the value you choose for Renderer.

[1stn00b]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Forum hint: To tag another user, you must:

1. Type an @ sign, then
2. Start typing their username (no pasting allowed; must be typed), then
3. Select their username from the popup list that appears. Then you will get something that looks like @1stn00b and if they have chosen to be notified of mentions, they will be notified.

My intention was never to spam anybody with useless notifications , i am just simply pinpointing who i'm responding to without filling my posts with tons of quotes like u see here.

Also without quoting your 2nd post : you don't really know what we will be able to do or not do in the future with or without Serif help. Last time i checked Affinity software didn't come with transparency or shader effects on closing windows like u see in my low quality recording ; >

[Frozen Death Knight]

Question to Linux users, what's the Linux equivalent of Windows Ink/WinTab API for drawing with tablets? How well supported are Wacom tablets?

[1stn00b]

Wacom Leads the Way with Drawing Tablets for Linux : >

Everything works out-the-box without u having to install anything, since they are included in the Linux Kernel like AMD or Intel hardware. There is even a Wacom section in Settings if u have a tablet :

 

 

 

[Frozen Death Knight]

@1stn00bCool! So, how well does the API for drawing with high precision input work with Affinity? Is Linux able to translate over Windows Ink to something that works, since that's what Affinity supports on Windows?

[1stn00b]

Since Serif doesn't support the Linux platform and some of us already posted the Affinity in a Bottle experiences on this forum, i don't think that is a question worth answered at this moment in time. A valid one would be how good is the Wacom experience with Krita, Blender etc but that is just a search away on the web. 

I would check the improvements from time to time when there is a major new Wine release or an Affinity software update, but i don't intend wasting my time with this software in the current form. It's just a stressful unpleasant experience when everything else just works : >

[Snapseed]

48 minutes ago, 1stn00b said:

Since Serif doesn't support the Linux platform and some of us already posted the Affinity in a Bottle experiences on this forum, i don't think that is a question worth answered at this moment in time. A valid one would be how good is the Wacom experience with Krita, Blender etc but that is just a search away on the web. 

I would check the improvements from time to time when there is a major new Wine release or an Affinity software update, but i don't intend wasting my time with this software in the current form. It's just a stressful unpleasant experience when everything else just works : >

Have you been able to try it out yet using a VM within Linux and, if so, how did it work? Thanks (l'm guessing that you might have 32GB RAM?).

[1stn00b]

Sadly i don't  do Windows VMs, only Fedora Silverblue, since i intend to fully upgrade to that in the future (not ready yet for my setup) and next Fedora versions before hitting the Upgrade button. For my other needs i use Podman containers managed before by Fedora Toolbox and now by Distrobox.

Last time i tried Windows in Boxes was 17 june 2021 when that W11 leak gone out : That non-removable Recommended ADs sections is still there 1 year later so yeah nope.

But then again old Windows is still one F11 press away at PC Boot to chose the 250GB nvme it's rotting on, if i really really need to run something there which i don't since is just an inferior experience : >