Arm processors

[Ivon365]

Would it be possible to make Affinity Photo compatible with ARM-based processors? My operating system is a 64-bit operating system but Affinity Photo says I have a 32-bit processor.

[Gabe]

Hi @Ivon365,

Welcome to the forums. 

Currently, we only support INTEL and AMD processors. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[Ivon365]

On 3/5/2019 at 2:44 AM, GabrielM said:

Hi @Ivon365,

Welcome to the forums. 

Currently, we only support INTEL and AMD processors. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

Are there any plans to support Snapdragon processors in the future? A Snapdragon 835 processor runs in my tablet/laptop. @GabrielM

Edited March 7, 2019 by Ivon365
tag replier

[Gabe]

At the moment, we have no plans for this. 

[Damasta]

You might want to rethink this. My new Surface Pro X is extremely powerful. Microsoft is working with Adobe to bring native 64bit ARM support to the platform - It'd be a shame if they were the only alternative I have.

Besides: Adobe is already working on bringing their products to 64 bit ARM: 

Check the rest of the Pro X, too. Color calibrated panels, Surface Dial support, and a pen with 4096 pressure points and true artistic qualities. It is a mobile creator's dream!

Can you afford to NOT support these awesome new devices?

Thanks

[Tremble]

I assume that the number of people who want to work on arm is not so large that for the sake of this, they will almost fundamentally change the program engine. There are tons of other applications for this, so there are some doubts about whether this will ever be added.

[skroychowdhury]

This is something I also so very dearly want. But I assume affinity team is very small to work on something like this right away. And I don't expect any movement on this front from Affinity team before at least one year. Or even worse, until Apple comes out with their ARM-based laptops. And in my honest assumption, I fear that we will have to wait till the second option to happen. And that puts the time frame somewhere between Late 2021 to Mid 2022. 

[fde101]

On 12/2/2019 at 10:10 AM, Tremble said:

they will almost fundamentally change the program engine

It already runs on iPad which is ARM-based.

There are rumors that future Macs will switch to ARM processors so they might be forced into it on the Mac platform.

Right now there are limitations regarding supporting ARM processors on Windoze due to the UI toolkit they are using not working on 64-bit ARM processors.  There was discussion about this on another thread.  Because of that issue, if you ever see ARM support for Windoze, it will probably be a while as they may need to recreate the UI using another toolkit, which could be a fair bit of work.

[Aut]

Another +1 for Linux support, with single-board computers: Affinity Suite for Raspberry Pi 4.

[scrbl]

Hi, 

Except for HPDT (High Performance Desktop) Segment (AMD has taken the performance, efficiency, and and price-performance crown now, and Intel is just less stuff for more cost), Everything (and Everyone) else IS moving to ARM.

Apple has its iPhone, and and iPad segments on Custom-ARM chipsets, and soon Macs, the and MacOS will be transitioning to Apple-designed Custom-ARM chipsets. That's a boatload of the "Creative/Content/Arts" Device Segment. 

 

Microsoft is, with the introduction of the Microsoft-Designed Custom-Arm SQ1 Chipset in the Surface Pro X running an ARM64 compiled version of Windows 10, the upcoming Android-based Surface Duo will likely have either a Snapdragon (Qualcomm ARM Chipset) (likely an 8cx or the Microsoft-Designed Custom-ARM SQ1 Chipset)... 

Future versions of Windows 10 (based on CoreOS and having better operability with a Read-only OS, the and Sandboxex App Environments) will also be on ARM64 natively. 

So, let's see if Apple is moving to a let's say 90% ARM Chipset based device ecosystem, Microsoft is transitioning Windows and future-facing devices to ARM64, and "the rest" of the world's devices that don't run AMD/Intel x86-64 are ALSO running ARM64 on ARM-based Chipsets, shouldn't Serif ensure that ALL OF THOSE DEVICES can run a version of Affinity (Suite) apps on them? 

Otherwise, why bother? 

Serif does have a bit of time, but the Surface Pro X (first ARM64/Custom ARM Chipset based Surface device running Windows On ARM) has launched, the Surface Duo isn't launching until Holiday 2020, we don't know if the Surface Neo will run on ARM, but AMD, and or Intel, and the Surface Pro X is the first in a "Category Example" for PC Makers of a 2 in 1 Convertible PC running Windows On ARM natively on ARM64 on an ATM Chipset, and signaling that their iterations are now welcome, but and expected. 

One of the 2 new "Dual Screen" category of Surface Devices will at least run Android on ARM, future Microsoft and PC devices will be running Windows On ARM and do so natively compiled for ARM and ARM64. 

Samsung. They already have a new ARM based Laptop running Windows On ARM. Their Android Phones run on Samsung-designed Custom-ARM Exynos, and and Qualcomm-designed Snapdragon ARM-based Chipsets. Their S Pen Stylus-equipped (4096 to 8192 levels of pressure styluses) Note series is huge, but and a huge number of stylus-equipped devices to take advantage of for Serif, and the Tab S series of S Pen stylus-equipped Android-based Tablets... And soon with the Surface Duo, the Android Tablets with Dual Screens that can leverage the Surface Pen or Surface Pen X On ANDROID! 

For Serif to ignore the very fertile ecosystem developing for ARM would just be a titanic failure of leadership and engineering. 

Besides, the Affinity (Suite)/Photo is almost missing the GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to position itself as THE premiere Photo Editing Solution on Android (with whichever Stylus the artist prefers: Apple Pencil, Surface Pen (X) (all the protocol-compliant Third Party Styluses that are compatible with the Surface Pen besides Wacom's Styluses), S Pen in many iterations... 

I think it would be foolish for Serif to miss such a timely opportunity. 

 

 

[fde101]

21 hours ago, scrbl said:

if Apple is moving to a let's say 90% ARM Chipset based device ecosystem

They are already well past that if you include the iPhone and iPad, and with Photo and Designer on the iPad the core Affinity engine if you will is obviously working on ARM already.

There is an issue with a specific UI toolkit they use for the Windows version that is currently preventing them from releasing an ARM version for Windows - this was already discussed on a few other threads.  That shouldn't be an issue with the Mac version if Apple does decide to transition to ARM.

[Finesseful J]

Hi,

Im interested in knowing if there are any plans to have these apps released on the Surface Pro X (Windows on ARM). I use my Surface Pro X more than my book and would love to have these apps on my device.

[skroychowdhury]

7 hours ago, Finesseful J said:

Hi,

Im interested in knowing if there are any plans to have these apps released on the Surface Pro X (Windows on ARM). I use my Surface Pro X more than my book and would love to have these apps on my device.

We most likely have to wait till Apple comes out with ARM processor based laptops. Then we will get a version for Windows within next 2 to 3 months. 

[Finesseful J]

On 3/27/2020 at 3:20 AM, skroychowdhury said:

We most likely have to wait till Apple comes out with ARM processor based laptops. Then we will get a version for Windows within next 2 to 3 months. 

That sounds horrible. Hopefully we can get one sooner than that if not guess I will hold off for the Adobe solutions (they announced support coming this summer).

Edited March 29, 2020 by Finesseful J

[skroychowdhury]

1 hour ago, Finesseful J said:

That sounds horrible. Hopefully we can get one sooner than that if not guess I will hold off for the Adobe solutions (they announced support coming this summer).

I am horrified too. But you got to admit, that more people on Apple side spend the money than Windows people do. And that's why we Windows people will always be 2nd class citizens. 

[Finesseful J]

4 minutes ago, skroychowdhury said:

I am horrified too. But you got to admit, that more people on Apple side spend the money than Windows people do. And that's why we Windows people will always be 2nd class citizens. 

A little upset that I can't disagree with that. I think Apple influencers do a great job at highlighting their fav apps which sort of guides those interested into adopting what they use. I guess the only way to combat that would be to have better marketing from Microsoft to showcase their platform is a viable option.

[skroychowdhury]

1 minute ago, Finesseful J said:

A little upset that I can't disagree with that. I think Apple influencers do a great job at highlighting their fav apps which sort of guides those interested into adopting what they use. I guess the only way to combat that would be to have better marketing from Microsoft to showcase their platform is a viable option.

Maybe you got a point there. We also need to do a better job of spreading the word too. But honestly, I have tried to get people to buy Affinity products off Windows store or otherwise for Windows. But they are always like, why pay when I can get Adobe and Affinity products both pirated. Makes me sad. But what can I do?

[fde101]

On 3/27/2020 at 3:20 AM, skroychowdhury said:

Then we will get a version for Windows within next 2 to 3 months. 

This is extremely unlikely.  As I mentioned above, Serif has already stated in another thread that it is a specific toolkit on the Windoze platform that prevents them from doing this right now.  Porting the Mac version to ARM would not face that same issue, so even if they do release an ARM version for the Mac, that won't make any progress at all toward a Windoze version on ARM.  They already have the iPad version running on ARM so anything the Mac and Windoze versions would have in common to benefit by for ARM is almost certainly already in place for that.

[Finesseful J]

So not to beat a dead horse but after today's Apple presentation can we also get some love for the Windows on Arm push. Or is there still nothing in the pipeline about the decision to support the platform?

[fde101]

13 hours ago, Finesseful J said:

the Windows on Arm push

 

On 3/29/2020 at 6:21 PM, fde101 said:

it is a specific toolkit on the Windoze platform that prevents them from doing this right now

 

[Patrick Connor]

16 hours ago, Finesseful J said:

...can we also get some love for the Windows on Arm push. Or is there still nothing in the pipeline about the decision to support the platform?

The Serif Affinity 1.x Windows range are built using WPF for the UI.

Microsoft have not got WPF working on ARM64 chips.

For Serif to support ARM64 either (A) Microsoft need to get WPF working on ARM64 OR (B) Serif would need to rework the software to not use WPF. Both are potentially possible, neither are fast fixes. If either of these changes I am sure the Marketing team would let everyone know.

[GraphicDesigner]

Affinity is going to support ARM MacBooks really quickly, aren't they? Since the iPad version will work on those laptops. Although I don't know how the features of iOS vs macOS compare. 

[Finesseful J]

Last time I promise but good news on that WPF stuff

https://mspoweruser.com/windows-forms-apps-support-windows-10-arm/

[fde101]

On 6/25/2020 at 11:06 AM, GraphicDesigner said:

Affinity is going to support ARM MacBooks really quickly, aren't they? Since the iPad version will work on those laptops. Although I don't know how the features of iOS vs macOS compare. 

The iPad versions are missing a number of major features of the desktop versions.

That said, I would certainly expect the Intel-compiled versions of the Affinity software to be working with the ARM-based Macs fairly quickly under Apple's emulation.

I suspect that Serif probably won't be slow in updating to native ARM builds either but considering how well some of the much more demanding 3D applications appeared to be running in Apple's demos in the WWDC videos, the performance of emulated Intel code should be good enough for most of us when dealing with 2D graphics, particularly since the metal acceleration should still run natively on Apple's GPU, thus not much reason to hold back on getting at least that much going right away.

[v_kyr]

On 6/23/2020 at 6:50 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Microsoft have not got WPF working on ARM64 chips.

For Serif to support ARM64 either (A) Microsoft need to get WPF working on ARM64

Well things might change here soon for .NET 5 probably then, since VS has longer time build-in ARM64 C++ compiler support and it seems windowsdesktop can be compiled accordingly.

See also:

• Enable arm64 zip and runtime pack nuget generation #757