Window HSL adjustment appears bad

[RaSu]

Window HSL adjustment on Mac, in Mojave appears sometimes bad - see bellow

 

[MEB]

Hi RaSu,
We have seen a couple users reporting this but Its far as I know we weren't yet able to reproduce the issue. Are you using the native screen resolution or a scaled resolution? In regular or Separated mode (menu Window > Separated Mode)? Are you running any third party utility (menu utilities and the like) to change/switch screen resolution? Also, are you working with multiple monitors? 

Do you mind attaching a screen capture of your Mac specs please (menu Apple > About This Mac). Don't forget to hide/delete the serial number from the screenshot.

[RaSu]

Hi,

it is in Regular mode and I use second DELL monitor 27¨, native screen resolution.

My computer is 

[Richard Liu]

Hi,

In 1.7.2 on macOS 10.14.6 this problem seemed to have been solved,

but on 1.7.3 it's back.   Here are the pertinent screen shots:

The problem afflicts the BenQ SW271, not the MacBook Pro's builtin display; however, it doesn't happen all the time and, as before on macOS 10.13.6, moving the control to the builtin display, then back to the SW271corrects the problem until it happens again.

[markw]

In your screenshot I see that the BenQ is not set to it's default resolution but Scaled (More Space). What happens if you set it to Default?

[Richard Liu]

The default resolution is 1920 x 1080.  I wouldn't have needed to buy an external monitor at all if I were satisfied with that resolution.  What happens if I set it to that resolution?  How long would I have to wait for the problem to occur at that resolution before I could conclude that it doesn't?  Because in the meantime I could not work with Affinity Photo under those conditions.

As I said, I had the impression while working with 1.7.2 and macOS 10.14.6 that the problem had been solved.  In fact, I recall being informed when I first reported it HSL crashing Affinity Photo 1.7 that the problem had to do with Apple's Metal support in macOS 10.13.6, which I was running at that time.  The mangled HSL control of versions thereafter was the price to pay for its not crashing Affinity Photo on High Sierra.   I just recently switched to 10.14.6, so I can't swear that it hasn't always been in 1.7.

[MEB]

Hi Richard Liu,
I believe this is a metal/scaling resolution issue. Do you mind trying two things to check if this is indeed the case please? The first one is to turn Metal compute acceleration off in the Performance section in Affinity Photo Preferences and try to work with it disabled a couple days (if possible - the system will become slower)  - unless you can replicate this consistently/intentionally - in that case check if you can reproduce it with Metal turned off. The other is to change the external resolution of the Benq to its native resolution (1920 x 1080) with Metal compute acceleration enabled - again for a couple days until the problem appears again (or not). If you can't replicate the broken HSL UI in these conditions it is probably is something related to the Metal/scaled res combo which will have to take a look.

I've connected my MacBook to an (external display with a scaled resolution) and will be working with it a few days to see if I can replicate this here as well.
Sorry for the trouble and thanks for your support.

[Richard Liu]

@MEB

I am not averse to helping, but  I am running behind an -- admittedly self-imposed -- deadline.  Working for a few days (!) with the BenQ set to the default resolution is something for masochists.  I won't be indulging.  Working at scaled resolution with Metal support might be doable, depending on how how slow the system becomes.

I didn't mention explicitly:  I am using both the BenQ and the laptop's display simultaneously.  I do notice some nervous "twitching" of one or both while working with Affinity Photo, especially when I've place some windows (typically, the Blending Options) on the laptop's, almost as if something were being redrawn very quickly.

What about working on the laptop's display at scaled resolution?  Could the problem be caused when Affinity Photo is working with both displays and the resolution of one (or/not) both is set to scaled?  Has the problem been reported with other brands of monitors besides BenQ?

[MEB]

Hi Richard,
No worries if you can't check/change the resolution as suggested - your work comes first. I remember seeing a couple other reports about this issue but I haven't been following them personally. I'm working with multiple screens now (laptop + external monitor) to see if I can replicate this somehow. I'm also checking if we have any report/logs about this as well as inquiring a few colleagues in the hope we can find the cause.

From your description seems you move the controls/panels etc arbitrarily between the two monitors as needed or do you recall some layout/config where this seems to happen more frequently? From your description seems it happens only when the HSL panel is displayed on the external monitor - it always works/displays fine on the laptop's built-in monitor, correct?

(I'm assuming you are not using any third party utilities (like SwitchResX and similars) to manage/change screen resolution). 

[Richard Liu]

@MEB

3 minutes ago, MEB said:

From your description seems you move the controls/panels etc arbitrarily between the two monitors as needed or do you recall some layout/config where this seems to happen more frequently? From your description seems it happens only when the HSL panel is displayed on the external monitor - it always works/displays fine on the laptop's built-in monitor, correct?

Well, the HSL control gets moved to the laptop's display every time it displays wrong on the BenQ.  Actually, just hovering it over the laptop's display before dropping it back on the BenQ corrects the problem, at least, until it reappears.  So sometimes I just leave it on the laptop.  As long as one adjustment layer's control is being displayed on the laptop, Affinity Photo seems to replace it with the next one that it has to display.  It doesn't do that with live filters' controls, however.

[am7]

I have the exact same problem. HSL is bugged and takes the form of a quarter of a circle about half the time I use it. I can also confirm the bug happens even:

- when the monitor's resolution is set to default

- with metal compute acceleration turned off

- with an older OS (10.13.6)

- With the most recent OS (10.15)

Restarting affinity photo seems to be one way to temporarily fix the issue, for me (but I'm not sure this method works 100% of the time)

[Richard Liu]

@am7,

I'm assuming you have a dual monitor setup and this is happening on the external, non-Apple monitor.  Drag and drop the mangled HSL control to the other monitor.  It should "self-heal" there.  Then drag and drop it back.  It's not a permanent solution.  Unpredictably the control will once again be afflicted.  It's better than restarting Affinity Photo, though.

[Evan Will]

Wow @Richard Liu not the most elegant solution, but thanks so much for this work around. Has been driving me crazy for ages!

[KirkLC]

I'm sending this update because I have been experiencing the same problem with a BenQ SW240 alongside my iMac 2020 27"G5 running Big Sur 11.6.5/Affinity Photo 1.10.5 and have found that the @Richard Liu work round does seem to clear the problem.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "HSL adjustment and multiple screens: only a quarter of the colour spectrum circle is displayed" (REF: AF-88) has been fixed by the developers in build "2.4.0 Release".
This fix is in the current customer release.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us