I’m a digital artist and I love Krita for its performance and your community, which I actively follow. However, recently I’ve been encountering brush tearing issues and my patience is wearing thin, so I decided to create this topic. I can’t solve the problem on my own (though buying a new PC might help, but that’s not an option right now).
Problem Description: While drawing in Krita and Photoshop, the brush sometimes creates lines with torn squares that are transparent and flicker only during the drawing process. This issue occurs when drawing on the XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro tablet with both Win Ink and Win Tab. It might be related to using a screen tablet, as I did not experience this problem with regular tablets like the Huion HS610. Previously, I resolved another issue—canvas tearing in graphic programs (except SAI)—by turning off the tablet’s HDMI. I mostly use the screen turned off (80% of the time), 15% of the time as a second monitor, and 5% trying to draw on the screen.
The problem feels like a lagging brush. I use different brushes, and some perform better than the standard ones, but the issue persists with most brushes.
My System:
OS: Windows 10 (22h2)
Graphics Tablet: XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro
Processor: Ryzen 1700
Graphics Card: GTX 1060 6GB
RAM: 16GB
Hard Drive: SSD
Monitor: Asus vg248qe
Krita Version: 5.2.2
What I Have Tried:
Updating all drivers.
Reinstalling Windows; also tested on Linux (where Krita seems to work about 40% worse, and the canvas tears).
Switching between Win Ink and Win Tab in Krita settings and tablet drivers.
Using OpenTabletDriver.
Changing performance settings in both Nvidia Control Panel and Windows.
Limiting the frame rate to 144 FPS for Krita through NVIDIA Control Panel.
Completely disabling WinINK.
Additional Observations:
The problem is more noticeable in 16-bit mode.
Limiting FPS to 144 with Direct3D helps reduce tearing for Brush Outline Shape cursors but not for Brush Cursor Icon.
Using Direct3D through ANGLE in Krita.
In Photoshop, the issue disappears when turning off hardware acceleration, but the canvas starts tearing badly.
With WinINK enabled in Photoshop, there is tearing of the transparent selection around the cursor in menus and other drop-down menus (which doesn’t occur in Krita).
Known PC issue: Using a power plan lower than high performance can cause random freezes of 20-30 seconds. High performance removes this issue.
PS: I am ready to provide additional video materials if needed. Thank you!
Screenshot Description:
Here’s a screenshot. The lower line shows that the overall rendering is normal. However, if you take a frame from the recording, you’ll find this terrible rendering issue.
By the way, I constantly get an error if (Direct 3D 11 via ANGLE) is selected. Could this be the key to solving the problem?
Hi, what error are you getting with ANGLE acceleration? Do you mean that yellow exclamation mark in the UI? That is harmless. If you see something in the Log Viewer Docker, that’s another matter.
I can only guess what your issue might be, but this blocky “flickering” of brush/canvas update is typically associated with a performance problem, where these updates take too long to complete. It can happen if you push the color depth and the image resolution high, or if you use some filter layers. But assuming your images didn’t change much and you only started using a new tablet, then I think I would blame the graphics driver for this. Here are a few things you can try, if only for experimentation:
Is it better if you turn off your main monitor and use the tablet as the only monitor? (i.e. Windows sees only one display attached).
If you have an option to use OpenGL acceleration instead of ANGLE/DX11, try that in case it works better.
Your graphic card is fairly old. In this case the latest driver may actually not be the most optimal. Using an older driver can have other issues, but your Windows is also not the latest, so maybe try downgrading your graphics driver and see if it works better. Try a few versions and maybe go as far back as to the driver that predates RTX 2000 series launch.
I see a yellow exclamation mark in Performance only when using Direct3D 11 with ANGLE. I haven’t checked the logs and don’t know what to look for.
The issue seems to be related to performance. Some days everything works fine without any hardware changes. I agree that the whole PC needs an upgrade, but that’s not an option right now. I’ve tried old stable driver versions and used clean uninstall programs to remove traces and install drivers without telemetry and GeForce Experience.
There are no problems in high-performance games, everything runs at 144 Hz and FPS is stable. UFO test shows good results. I suspect that my CPU and GPU might not be working properly with graphics editors, possibly due to power settings.
I recorded a video with OpenGL tests - the result is worse. I found a fix: using Direct3D + 144 FPS limit in Krita - Brush Outline Shape reduces the stroke tearing near the cursor. But it is still noticeable!
I tried turning off the main monitor a month ago (I’ll try again and report back). I’m used to 144 Hz, and my tablet is 60 Hz, so it feels like the pen is lagging compared to 144 Hz.
Thank you for responding. I’m ready to test anything to help you solve my problem.
Hi, the video is currently private and can’t be viewed.
If you’re saying it sometimes works, then maybe it’s too much to drive two screens at the time. Unfortunately, I have no good advice. It would require trying various things with hands on the system, so that’s not possible
I’m likewise very accustomed to a high-refresh display. It’s the primary reason why I don’t use a display tablet anymore. I guess there are some super expensive devices that have 120Hz (new Cintiqs maybe?), but it seems crazy to shell out so much money if a classic pen tablet is perfectly serviceable
The main question here is whether the squares disappear aftet the layer visibility switched back and forth. If the squares disappear, then the problem is in our openGL rendering code. If the squares keep after the layers is toggled and after the document saved/reopened, then the problem in the brush rendering code and FPS limitation is just a catalizator of it.
Thank you for responding to my request so quickly.
The video above is now available for viewing. To understand what’s happening on the video, let me clarify and answer your question.
On an 8-bit canvas (my main environment), I experience some flickering of the entire brush stroke. Closer to the cursor, I notice the stroke catching up in jumps. Slowing down the video, you can see some squares, which are definitely causing this flickering. The brush stroke eventually renders correctly, and even moving the canvas doesn’t affect it.
On a 16-bit canvas, I can amplify these issues for testing, and they are more noticeable, especially with a broader brush.
How to reproduce the problem:
Any canvas size (e.g., 1000x1000 as in the video).
Use an airbrush or a standard brush with a brush size of 1000 (minimum 250, with 250-280 also showing issues, but the larger the brush size, the more noticeable the tearing in 16-bit).
Simply paint on the canvas with pen pressure.
Check the recording for artifacts.
To see it in real-time, do the same but use a 16-bit canvas.
OpenGL or Direct3D/11 (I have Direct 12 on my PC).
