The cause of the brush pressure problem!

[gb_whisper]

Hi Boris,

I think I've found the actual cause of the problem I mentioned at my post here

What I find out is that anything deactivates the Artweaver main window will cause the wrong brush behavior!

Please see the image above. You can tell if Artweaver window is deactivated by looking at the colour of the top window bar (I've circled the area). Apparently, clicking on floating palettes (like what I have here, the colour picker, the brush palette, the layer palette etc.) will deactivate the main window. And then if you draw on the canvas, a wrong brush mark will be made.

However, if you click on a docked palette (like the tool palette I docked to the left edge of Artweaver), there wouldn't be a problem to the brush stroke.

So I am guessing that Artweaver thinks docked palettes are part of the program, whereas floating palettes are NOT considered to be part of the program. And if Artweaver's main window is not active, using the brush on canvas will make a wrong-looking brush stroke.

[gb_whisper]

Since I had the guess above, I did another test.

Please see the image above. On the picture at left I made a correct brush stroke (how it should look like). I then click on the Start button of Windows7, which deactivates Artweaver. Then I draw a line in Artweaver again, you see this time it's not just the head of the brush stroke went wrong (like what I mentioned here])- the whole brushstroke went wrong. No pressure at all!

This proves my guess. So the root of the problem is that deactivating the Artweaver window will cause a sudden loss of stylus' pressure function.

[gb_whisper]

Here is another way of causing the same problem, and it also relates to the 'floating menu', or maybe rather, the deactivation of the AW program.

See image above. I firstly drew a line. I then used the Right Click shortcut button on my stylus to bring out the brush selection menu (which is a floating menu) but do not click anything on the menu. Doing so doesn't deactivate the main Artweaver window, but my next brush stroke's got wrong again as you can see from the picture right.

[gb_whisper]

So that reminds me of the problems I reported to you the other day here.

I mentioned that using shortcut buttons on my graphic tablet will cause wrong tool behaviors. Using Alt (on tablet) will make the eye dropper pick colour ONLY once; Using Spacebar (on tablet) will cause a delay of the release of the hand tool.

My theory here is that, like 'deactivating' the Artweaver window, using shortcut buttons on a graphic tablet will also interrupt with the program (it's like sending outside signals from tablet to Artweaver).

I am not sure if I am guessing it right (I only know some HTML code), but please check on this issue. Thank you.

[Boris Eyrich]

Thank you for the detailed analyses. I will check this.

[gb_whisper]

Here I found another way of causing the same brush pressure problem.

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Overall there are 4 ways of causing this problem:
1, Click on a floating (undocked) palette and draw;
2, Click on the Brush Editor and draw;
3, Use right click shortcut button on a stylus/tablet and draw;
4, Click outside Artweaver (e.g Windows Start button) and draw.

1 and 2 both deactivate the main AW window (you will see the menu gray out) and would produce a wrong brush head.
3 doesn't deactivate the main AW window but would also produce a wrong brush head.
4 deactivates the main AW window and would produce the entire brush stroke wrong.

To fix this problem, I think first you need to make those 'floating palettes' as part of the program and make sure the main window/menu doesn't gray out after clicking those palettes.
Disable the first touch in AW when switching from another program (so the first touch activates AW instead of drawing in AW).
Then you will need to maybe check the stylus support? Many problems in AW are digital tablet related.

Thanks.

[Boris Eyrich]

Can you please try the latest Prerelease update. Problem ways 1-3 should be fixed with this version. Only way 4 is still present and I'm working on it.

[gb_whisper]

Can you please try the latest Prerelease update. Problem ways 1-3 should be fixed with this version. Only way 4 is still present and I'm working on it.

Hi Boris,

I've checked the new update. Just like you said, all fixed apart from the last one.
Very cool. Artweaver really is getting there! Thank you for your hard work!