Stencil and Projection tool broken

[Roukuo]

Stencil: after draging a alpha texture into the slot i try to draw on a paint layer that i created on a black mask. the preview of the texture works and i am able to scale rotate and move the alpha. but when i try to draw it on the mesh nothing happens. weirdly enough, when i draw on the UV/2D view it works. Its only broken in the 3D view.

Projection tool: when i drag a texture into the stencil it does not show up in my paint buffer (the buffer just stays grey) so i dont see what i project but when i left click, it actually project the thing onto the mesh. So just the preview is broken. 

[Roukuo]

corection: Projection tool: when i drag a texture into the Grayscale slot it does not show up in my paint buffer (the buffer just stays lightgrey like nothing happened) 

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hello @Roukuo,

Thank you for the report.

For the Projection tool, I was indeed able to reproduce and I think this is unfortunately a bug since 11.1. We'll investigate and look for solution.

For the Stencil though, I wasn't able to reproduce the issue. Do you have maybe a video or more context, so I can have a better idea on what's happening?

Let me know.

[Roukuo]

My graphics drivers are up to date but i also tried an older/stable one. Did not make any difference. I also tried ortographic view since my tutor mentioned that sometimes that helped but sadly this didnt work out for me as well. I am using the Steam Version of Painter but i also tried using the latest creative cloud version and it did not make any difference as well.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Have you by any chance reimport an updated mesh in the project?

[Roukuo]

Yes, i did update the mesh a while back and reimported it. 

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Okay, so this is probably a different bug we're currently investigating in. In general, I would advise you to use the Projection tool instead, but considering there's this preview issue with 11.1... You either have to wait for the bugfix or rollback to 11.0.3.

[Roukuo]

Thanks for the insights. Great to hear that you are aware of both issues and working on a fix! 

[pabloa28317799]

Having same issue, projection texture preview don't works when I try to project inside a mask (greyscale), it stays white to me. Using steam 2025 version. 11.1.0 b4950

[RGhost]

No problem with Nvidia 5060ti... so it looks like it's video card related. (drivers 581.80)
Edit: But the stencil is not visible when using Projection brush at the layer mask.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Also, do you have the right to share the .SPP project? If so, it would be really helpful if you could send me the .SPP file at cdellenbach@adobe.com so we can take a closer look to find a solution. In addition, what are the types of changes you've done on the mesh before reimporting?

[Roukuo]

I will send you the file via Email directly after i finished writing this.
I noticed some bake errors. I changed the mesh and the UVs rebaked the mesh in marmoset and reimported the mesh maps + the actual mesh. Inside the same file i am working on a different mesh which i did not have to reimport and the stencil, works on the 2D as well as on the 3D view. 

[marry_5326]

Hey! 

I’ve run into similar quirks with 3D painting — sometimes the 3D viewport just doesn’t update previews properly, even though painting works on the mesh or in UV/2D view. A few tips that usually help:

:keycap_1: Refresh or toggle viewport settings — switching to another view and back can sometimes “wake up” the 3D preview.
:keycap_2: Check paint buffer visibility — make sure the paint buffer layer isn’t hidden or set to an unsupported mode.
:keycap_3: Restart the program — some stencil/projection glitches are fixed after a full restart.
:keycap_4: Organize your workflow — I personally keep a structured set of notes, textures, and stencil setups using a Google Stacking template. It helps me track which textures work in 2D vs 3D, and which projections need tweaking, especially when working on complex meshes.

This kind of organization doesn’t fix the preview directly, but it makes troubleshooting a lot faster and keeps your resources neatly structured.