CS4 bug: brush cursor display is incomplete

Lawrence, is this the clone stamp brush? It sounds like you might be describing the new (GREAT, IMO) behavior of cloning which shows you a preview of what your clone stamp is going to look like before you click. It might sound a bit silly, but I've found it to be a great time saver, especially when trying to line up patterns.

OTOH, you could be describing an actual bug, and if so, my apologies.

I think you freaked the brush out Lawrence

This brush problem is a total deal breaker for me. I'll check this on the new platform I configured last week, but on my single core AMD XP Pro box, I get the most idiotic operation possible.

When the brush is over a white area, the circle is black. Fine

When over a black area, the circle is white. Great!

When over a gray area, the circle is gray!! That is invisible.

I see it shift as I negotiate an image.

Whut?

Yep, you're right. No SLI for Photoshop yet.
So, we're right back to looking for a solution for external monitors that can't display full cursor.

If we look on the bright side, we can get damn big panels on the external monitor! Just keep zooming in on the laptop. Thanks again guys.

Just in this attachment it reads, in 2 areas, that photoshop will only use 1 GPU on a card. Nothing about SLI.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb404898&sliceId=2

I think i recall chris saying that sli won't effect photoshop. it will still only use 1 card... could be wrong. maybe someone could confirm...

KB2:

Yep, we seem to have the identical issue. Primary monitor works fine when editing is done on base laptop and it is set as primary monitor (1). The external monitor works for me in all aspects except the incomplete cursor. This is either a problem with Nvidia GPU or Microsoft XP (thought I would bring them to the blame party).

Nvidia is finalizing their "Big Bang" drivers that allow an external monitor in SLI configuration. XP is not listed as yet, but perhaps if they include an XP version, we may get some relief.

I frankly don't want to go with Vista but may have to if the Big Bang drivers actually do allow SLI with 2 screens. I would like to edit on larger external (24" monitor).

I'm wondering, has anyone been able to get SLI to work with an external monitor attached to a laptop? My guess is you have to use a modified inf to accomplish this. And if you've been successful, do you have complete cursor control as well as other GPU-related functions?

I 100% agree, Ron!

As for my problem, I was finally able to resolve it this morning.

It turns out that under XP, the numbering of your primary & secondary monitor is arbitrary. That is, you may mark monitor #1 or #2 as the primary; it doesn't matter (except for this bug!).

In my case, contrary to what I wrote previously, what I had actually been doing was editing on my primary monitor, which XP identified as monitor #2. This setup exhibited the drawing bug.

This morning I discovered it is possible to renumber the monitors. Now I am editing on the same monitor, still set as the primary device, but it is now identified as monitor #1. The problem "disappeared". (It now occurs if I try to edit on monitor #2, my secondary monitor, which I do not use for editing, but which had previously not had the problem.)

In case anyone is in the same situation, here's how you go about swapping monitor ID #s:

Turn off your secondary monitor, and unplug its cable from the computer. After rebooting, look at the Settings tab on Display Properties and verify that only one monitor is shown. Re-attach the secondary monitor's cable, and reboot again. This time, the Settings tab should show both monitors, and the primary monitor should be identified as monitor #1.

PS - I just tried setting the 'AllowOldGPUS' to 0 and relaunched PS; it still works. So it seems that the registry key never made a difference in my case.

Wolf / KB2

KB2 is right. Having fought the driver issue for over a year with Dell (forget it!)and Nvidia (forget it!) I am foced to upgrade my GPUs (8800M SLI)using modded drivers (latest 180.70)from LaptopVideo2Go. Believe me, I sympathize with consumers who cannot get a manufacturer or Nvidia to get anything done. So when Chris says to get an updated driver, it causes some of us to grit our teeth.

Actually, nothing will get Nvidia off their arse unless Adobe publicly points out that there are known bugs in their drivers. Then, and only then will Nvidia make a move. So I guess I was trying to point out to Chris that after a while consumers come to believe that Adobe does indeed have some responsibility in resolving the matter.

If it is Nvidia's fault (which I honestly beleive), then Adobe should consider issuance of a formal public notice that use of computers (at least laptops) with their GPUs could be problematic...rather than let them advertise how great their GPUs are with Adobe graphic systems.

Updating the Nvidia driver does fix the half circle cursor. That's because GL is disabled on the next PS start after a driver update - silently, by the way, so unless you check, you might be tempted to proclaim you've been healed. Put GL back on, the cursor is again its old half-circle self. Nothing is fixed. It's bugged up pretty bad.