CS4 bug: brush cursor display is incomplete

surely if the problem lies with nvidia, nvidia needs to fix the problem. you see, in computers, specifications exist so that companies creating products can be assured of interoperability. when one company breaks spec, all it does is inconvenience the user because they couldn't be bothered doing it right.

if you designed a website "to spec" (whatever, html, xhtml) but then "spiced it up" a little with something no one else uses, something "proprietary", would you expect everyone else to change for your website? (unless you're microsoft the answer is no... but even then, i notice i now have no problems browsing MSDN with firefox.)

<rev. lovejoy>oh, dear lord!</rev. lovejoy>

It is VERY disappointing to see Adobe passing the buck on this cursor problem.

Here we have a graphics card manufacturer that has a serious market share offering certain API calls, and Adobe relying on some arcane document (not specified here) which lays down something different.

If I took this approach when developing web sites, very few of the end users would get acceptable page rendering due to variations in adherence to the supposed 'standards'.

Surely Adobe should take the more realistic view that whatever the standards might say, a big company like NVidia cannot be ignored if its drivers don't fully comply. Especially when the problem was flagged up during beta.

And while I'm having a little rant, can I also say that the new cursor in CS4 is very much less user friendly (ie it disappears against certain backgrounds) than that in CS3 when doing grayscale retouching (of which I do a great deal). Surely it can't be that difficult to include an option in Preferences to use the old cursor code. That would be a pragmatic and welcome workaround to both issues.

Meanwhile, even after all the months since the problem was first exposed, there is no sign of an update to NVidia drivers. Doesn't say much for working level cooperation between two supposed industry leaders, does it.

Chris: I don't like that you guys always refer to NVidia. You are perfectly right - The bug is on NVidia's side, but Notebook manufacturers will not release new drivers for the mobile GPUs and NVidia is not allowed to directly give drivers for these special mobile versions. I hope you don't expect every non-tech savvy user to use hacked drivers...

Contacting NVidia is NOT the problem's solution as NVidia does not give support to mobile GPUs. Contacting Dell, HP, Sony (whatever) will also most probably not yield to a result. The latest drivers for my 8400M GS official from dell are from late 2007. I hope you don't expect all users to use hacked drivers. What about publishing an official FAQ page in the adobe knowledge base with some tips for users how to circumvent this problem (e.g. the registry hack).

NVIDIA did finally release a driver for the FX 3450/3500 which fixes the cursor clipping problem.

Yay!

Cursor truncation is an NVidia driver bug. If it is not fixed in the latest drivers for your card, please contact NVidia.

I also had the same cursor truncation issue. I finally just got around to looking up this posting. The registery setting change that was provided worked for me.

I do agree that this issue NOT being fixed pretty much renders photoshop useless. :( I'm realy glad the registery setting was posted and worked.

Good luck to all of those stil experiencing issues!

Statusupdate: Using "hacked" drivers from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ for my 8400M GS now and everything works like it should.

I still strongly believe that Adobe should do something for those unlucky users having a Mobile NVidia card not being able to get updated drivers from their manufacturers. I don't believe that using these "hacked" drivers is the way to go for everyone (especially for non tech-savvy).

Derrick,

With the latest update. OpenGL off, and the AllowOldGPUs_ON.reg registry key, do you have complete cursors?

-Adam

Just in case it might help someone:

After following this thread for a while, (and being a late-in-the-cycle CS3 user with an NVIDIA card), my curiosity got the better of me, so I installed the CS4 trial and encountered the incomplete cursor.

I've got the Quadro FX 570, and an update to driver version 6.14.11.7846 (11/05/08), which appears applicable to a number of other cards, fixed the cursor problem.

Aside from that, so far CS4 is a delight. Thanks to Chris and Adam for hanging in here. Chasing down emotionally charged issues like this can be a real balancing act, and no matter what anyone thinks about Adobe as a company, you guys are doing yourselves proud. Your diligence is appreciated.