P: Brush Outline/Circle disappearing when working with masks

[Belichtungsquartier]

There is already a discussion in the community "Brush Outline/Circle disappearing intermittently (NOT CAPS LOCK) ". But since I have figured out in detail how to reproduce the behavior and when it becomes present, I want to report the issue officialy that Adobe hopefully will fix this in one of the next upcoming patch releases.

OS Environment:

• Win 10 Pro 64bit 21H1
• Adobe Ps 23.0.2

The issue is only present in combination when using Masks on a layer!

1. Create a new document (white, black or transparent layer)
2. Add a Mask to the layer
3. Select the layer OR the mask (independent on what you want to paint)
4. Select the brush tool
5. Try to start moving the mouse quickliy and pressing the left mouse button nearly at the same time and keep the mouse button pressed
6. Try to repeat until the you get locked in the issue and the brush circle disappears and the mouse arrow becomes visible

When working with a mouse as input device, the chance to facing this issue is probably rare because this kind of operation, moving the mouse and clicking the button nearly at the same time is kindly unnatural.

But it looks different when using a pen tablet as input device, because now it becomes a more natural operation when hover the pen toward the tablet surface and then drop down onto the surface to start painting.

Kind regards

[PECourtejoie]

Bonjour, Jerome, le problème se présente-t-il avec la souris? est-il possible d'essayer un pilote Wacom antérieur?

Le clignotement est-il présent uniquement sur l'écran de la Cintiq ou aussi sur l'écran principal?

[jeromea13244388]

Bonjour, oui, ça se produit aussi avec la souris (et j'ai aussi testé avec d'anciens stylets wacom que j'avais en réserve et le problème demeure). Et mon écran principal est dupliqué sur l'écran de la cintiq donc ça se produit sur les 2. Ce n'est pas juste un problème d'aspect du curseur, comme je l'ai dit, il y a un léger lag. ça ne se produit qu'avec la version 2023 mais je ne pourrais pas dire si c'est apparu dès le début ou depuis une mise à jour de cette version.

[CShubert]

Hi @jeromea13244388 thank you for your sysinfo.  Your graphics driver is a month old, if there is an update you should install and see if that solves this issue.

Go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and check "Disable Native Canvas" - then restart Photoshop. Does the problem still occur? 

Thank you,

Cory

[PECourtejoie]

@jeromea13244388 j'ai vu des recommendations d'utiliser le Studio driver, et des infos sur des bugs avec les derniers drivers nVidia, et une mise à jour à venir chez ces derniers...

[Jqqerry]

This also happens with Windows desktops.
PS 24.1 windows10, with Wacom Tablet.
The conditions for the bug occurrence are not known.
But most of the time, when you use a clone stamp or brush to rub something, the cursor shape of the brush changes to the mouse arrow of the window itself. (Cursor also blinks)
I always disable native canvas. I hope it was helpful!

And my driver is Latest Version (Studio Nvidia)

[jeromea13244388]

@CShubert Hi, thanks for your reply. Actually i have downloaded the latest update for my graphics driver. I also clicked on "disable native canvas" and it doesn't make a difference. To be clear I already fiddled with a lot of preference settings (checked/unchecked every tecnology previews, tried several different cache, memory levels, number of recently open files etc.) it doesn't change anything. And again with the same settings in Photoshop 2023 and 2022 I have different results with the brush flickering in 2023 and not in 2022 so it must come from a photoshop update somewhere.

@PECourtejoieOui j'utilise le pilote Studio et avec la dernière mise à jour en date (du 5 janvier)...

[PECourtejoie]

Is there any other software running at the same time?

[jeromea13244388]

@PECourtejoie il y a sûrement Firefoxen même temps mais ça n'a jamais été un problème auparavant (depuis des années que j'utilise photoshop). 

[PECourtejoie]

On recommande aux utilisateurs de premiere pro d'utiliser le pilote studio 517. 

S'il était possible d'essayer, même si le code de premiere et de photoshop n'ont rien à voir, au cas où...

Pour les autres apps, rien de lancé au démarrage? Est-ce un clavier et une souris filaire?

@Jqqerry Are you using a tablet?  I see that @Belichtungsquartier mentions the masks, you get that with the stamp or the brush... (Trying to find a common denominator) can everyone give the exact nvidia driver in use?

[PECourtejoie]

@Nino0D4C This issue of the cursor on neutral grey has been adressed in the latest releases, try 24.1, you'll get a larger cursor by default that does not get aliased/less visible  so muche on grey tones.

[jeromea13244388]

@PECourtejoieAlors sinon j'ai supprimé certaines fenêtres dans le menu vertical collé à gauche de l'historique pour ne laisser que la fenêtre de la palette et ça a l'air de diminuer le problème (?)... En tout cas le comportement est maintenant relativement similaire à celui dans PS 2022.

[PECourtejoie]

Merci de l'info. Mais connaître laquelle/lesqueslles pose(nt) problème serait crucial. Le panneau calques? l'histogramme?

et en cliquant sur Tab pour ne laisser que l'espace de travail?

[Jqqerry]

@PECourtejoie 

(This is what I searched and attached the image. The left side is the normal Photoshop brush cursor, and it looks like the right window default mouse cursor when the current bug occurs. Please keep that in mind.)

My Current Nvdia Studio driver is 552.30 (I used the latest version 528.02 until a few days ago, but there was a heat issue reported by Reddit and various communities, so I used the original version.) 
Yes. When i'm using "Tablet", And painting something.
I also reinstalled the Wacom driver and tested both the previous and the latest versions.
I don't think there's anything in particular to explain......
I don't think I've ever seen a bug like this in full screen mode (maybe?) and I usually work in standard mode.

Acutally It's not a very serious problem for me.
But it is true that there is a problem. I always missed this bug when I was trying to record or capture it.

[Jqqerry]

This is strange. This bug certainly does not occur when using a mouse.
Healing brushes don't seem to apply, and bugs sometimes occur when using brushes and clonestamps.

But this was not necessarily reproduced either. However, the "high frequency" point was when you turned on Photoshop and started working with a brush directly on the image, and that's how the basic cursor shape of the window appeared (not 100% but about 70%). Not sometimes. It happens quite often.)
Could it be a problem with Wacom Tablet? I didn't have a tablet from another brand (Hunion ... Etc)
We tested two small and medium sizes of Wacom Intuos Pro alternately and they all happen.

[jeromea13244388]

@PECourtejoieAlors j'ai l'impression d'avoir fait une découverte sur ce bug de brush qui clignote : quand j'ouvre un document ou un nouveau calque et que je commence à dessiner dessus, le bug apparaît puis quand je clique sur le dernier état de l'historique, le bug a l'air de disparaître... Il réapparaît ensuite si j'ouvre un nouveau calque, et disparaît encore si je clique sur le dernier état d'historique. Je ne sais pas si ça fait beaucoup sens... Je dirais que c'est un problème de mise en mémoire dans l'historique mais je ne vois pas trop à quel niveau.

[PECourtejoie]

@Jqqerry can you confirm @jeromea13244388 's findings?

[Jqqerry]

@PECourtejoie  I don't know what the last record says because I understood what he said using the translation function.
But it's the same with me that the bug starts after I create a new document (I'll create a new document after I start Photoshop, I'll open a new image).
And if what he's saying is that he's saying Ctrl+Z (undo), I agree to some extent (I can't be sure).
There are times when I inadvertently go back to work and it seems to stop the bug. I need to reproduce it more, but I can't cling to it because I'm busy with my field work.
The conclusion is that about 70% agree with his reproduction opinion, and 100% sure is the initial stage of opening or creating new documents and new images. (+Wacom tablet, I don't know other tablet brands)

[jeromea13244388]

@Jqqerry: Hi, I thought I replied to you but apparently it didn't register... Well, actually what I said is that I have this thing with the brush cursor flickering to a white arrow when I open a new document or create a new layer, and it SEEMS to go away if, say, when I create a new layer, I click on the last history state in the history menu/panel. Then I can go on drawing without flicker. And you have to go click in the history each time you create a new layer before drawing on it. Doesn't seem to make much sense so I don't know if it's the right method but the flickering/buffering seems to point to a problem with memory or cache or something so maybe the history is linked to it.

[Jqqerry]

@jeromea13244388 Hi. When I do that, I usually press Ctrl+z to go back to my previous work history. And as you will say, it seems that the bug disappears even if you press the previous work history directly. However, the screen cannot be recorded (what I am watching is not recorded in the video).
As you think, this may be a problem with Photoshop's first recording, memory, and cache.
I tested it on Photoshop 24.1 on my laptop and other Windows desktops in the office, and the same phenomenon occurs. 

[Jqqerry]

And "what's certain" doesn't happen in previous versions (24.0). And it's not a matter of configuration.
Because I always consider and prepare two things when I update the photoshop version.
1. Back up or take notes of the configuration settings and shortcuts that I use (because I manually reset the configuration settings because they can be pasted and bugs can occur again).
2. Always try to keep your graphics driver up to date. (Studio drivers).

So this is the sole problem of 24.1.

[jeromea13244388]

@Jqqerry: It seems we have the same method. The only difference is that by just clicking in the last history state instead of hitting ctrl+z, i don't go back in the history and my work is not undone.
I see that you said that the bug doesn't occur in 24.0 so I will just downgrade.

[jeromea13244388]

I can confirm that the bug doesn't appear in version 24.0.

[Jqqerry]

@jeromea13244388  Yes. In 24.0, I tried to re-run Photoshop several times and never got a bug.
But I think I should use 24.1. The ability to see the edges of the brush thickly started from 24.1.
I hope it's fixed at 24.2 soon! 

[Belichtungsquartier]

Today the issue I had initially described becomes present again with the update from v24.0.1 to v24.1.

The interesting thing, it was totally the same issue as shown within this video (post from Dec 06, 2021).

Then I mentioned in this post from Dec 01, 2022 that fortunately I have fixed the issue with help from the adobe customer support.

The only thing I had to do was to delete the user preferences from the affected version.

Today I did the same to first back up the complete settings as described in this article from Adobe "Backup preferences".

I have created a backup of just this directory 

"Users/[user name]/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop [version]/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings"

In my case it is exactly:

"c:\Users\<MY_USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2023\Adobe Photoshop 2023 Settings"

Step-by-step procedure:

1. Ensure that the application Photoshop is closed and not running
2. Backup the data with the settings
3. Delete the complete directory manually with the file explorer
4. Start Photoshop
5. The issue was gone and no longer reproducible

After I have realized that the problem was gone I have compared both directories to restore my previous settings but without taking over the bug again into the settings. For this I have compared the directory that was created again from scratch by Photoshop with the other one from the backup.

There were a lot of *.psp files that seems to be different. I decided to trial and error and took over one *psp file after the other to identify the file causing the issue.

To restore all my previous settings and ensure the issue is gone, I have identified to just isolate the file "MachinePrefs.psp".

That means, I have restored the complete settings directory from the backup and just deleted this single file.

After that you will keep all your previous customized settings without the brush issue.

It seems that you have similar issues than mine and not totally the same. But give it a try on your system to check if this will fix the problem on your side too.

Kind regards

[J453]

@Belichtungsquartier Would it be possible to get a copy of the 'bad' "MachinePrefs.psp" that you removed? Post a URL to the file using CC files or dropbox, or something similar to share the file.