Today many digital artists don't have a discrete graphics card in their computers , as they only  use traditional paint programs that don't use GPU. Did you know that you can upgrade your PC with a sub $90 graphics card to use Expresii smoothly? 

We recommend a GT 1030, currently the fastest low-profile single-slot card,  because it fits most PC chassis that provide at least one half-height card slot and that it doesn't require much extra power  (most cases you don't need to upgrade your power supply). There are many brands that make graphics cards with GT 1030 and they usually come with 2GB of video  RAM. You  can get one from Gigabyte for US$85 that  is also   Amazon's Choice . ​ Those who can use Taobao can buy this GT 1030 card from Maxsun at   only   RMB439 = US$62 . We bought one when there's a discount at US60. 

We use a PC enclosed by a REALAN    e-mini   E-I7  mini-ITX chassis to show you how the installation of the graphics card is like.   The CPU in this PC is a modest Intel i3-6100. Yes, Expresii doesn't require a very fast CPU for smooth painting as most of the work is done on the GPU.

Here's a video showing the graphics card installation process:

The GT 1030 gives very good performance: 200+ FPS on Full-HD screen resolution.   For  comparison,  an older GT 730 only gives ~120 FPS.  120 FPS is already rather good for casual painting.   If you're on a really low budget, you can buy a used GT 730 for much less (~US$30).  

The resolution of your monitor does affect the speed at which Expresii runs. At 4K screen resolution, the GT 1030 still runs at a usable ~70 FPS, while the GT 730 can only do 30 FPS,  which is too slow. Notice, here the FPS is our simulation frame-rate instead of display frame-rate.

For comparison, another older low-profile single-slot card AMD Radeon 7730 (with 2GB video RAM) only gives 60 and 20 FPS for FHD and 4K respectively.  We highly recommend  you get the 1030 so that it is still fine if you use a 4K monitor to paint.

If you don't want to be limited to 8k x 8k output size as in many of the iPad paint apps, you should consider painting on a 'real' computer.  Expresii is capably of outputting to 32k x  32k (in the production version)  if you use a good graphics card and 12k x 12k in the current public version.   

The rendering in Expresii​ is unique - you won't see pixelated results like in most other painting apps (like shown on the right).  Together with our organic paint simulation, this is truly amazing!  Don't be fooled by Adobe calling their Live Brushes (oil & watercolor) in their new Adobe Fresco app ground-breaking  . The fact is, we achieved much better results in Expresii years ahead (for oil, see this video for what our Dr. Nelson Chu did previously for Microsoft).

Let us know if you have more question about hardware requirement.

Earlier this month we were invited to visit NTU, Singapore.   Our Dr. Nelson Chu gave a talk titled "The Quest for Digital Ink: developing tools for Painting, Calligraphy & Animation"  (Abstract & Bio) on 20th Sept 2019, jointly organised by the School of Computer Science & Engineering, the   Alibaba-NTU Joint Research Institute, and the  NTU-UBC LILY Center. Dr. Chu shared his journey developing digital brush and paint dating back to 1999.  We also met with folks from Cacani the animation system.

We also took the chance to visit the Singapore Zoo,  and  used Expresii on a 2017 Surface Pro  to do some sketch  there:

We miss the food there already.  （*´▽｀*） We look forward to visiting Singapore again!

There are tons of cheap Surface Pen alternatives out there available for purchase online. The cheapest usually marked as 1024 pressure-levels are around US$20. Newer models supporting tilt sensing are a bit pricier.

We acquired two Surface Pen alternatives from Taobao,  namely the IQS Surface Pen 4096  and the  WiWU   P503 'Picasso' Active Stylus for testing.  Both claim to support 4096 levels of pressure and tilt sensing. Tilt sensing seriously?! Normally a 2017 Surface Pen, which supports tilt, costs US$99, but these alternatives are only a fraction of this at around US$40. We bought them when there's discount so the final prices were around US$30 each.

If you can't use Taobao, there're online stores like Amazon that sell e.g. this VORCSBINE    (looks exactly like the WiWU reviewed),   this from Lengh (looks exactly like the IQS reviewed)   , this     Penoval,   or this NewPower,  which all at around US$40 and claim to support tilt. Those pens look very similar to those two we tested so we won't be surprised if they were actually the same pens just with different labels. We didn't found any review of these pens with tilt support so we will review a few for you.

The rubbery tip feels very good, just like using the original Surface Pen -  not making any scratchy sound or friction being too large impeding your flow nor too small that it feels like skating on ice. I actually like such a rubbery tip, typically found in the Surface Pen or its alternatives, over the tips provided by Wacom.   Recent default Wacom tips are quite easily worn out when stroking against their own drawing tablets like the Intuos Pro, while their felt tips are also easy to catch dirt (and get worn out too).

These Surface Pen alternatives don't have any Bluetooth module in them, so they can't perform top button shortcut clicks like the original Surface Pen. They also don't have magnets in them so you can't adhere them on the sides of the Surface devices,  at least not securely when it's only the battery  (enclosure made of metal) inside that provides a weak adhesion.

Testing shows these cheap pens perform quite well. The IQS seems to have a smaller activation force - I can press very lightly to get a very thin line with ease. The WiWU pen on the other hand needs more force to get registered and I do get some strokes not recognized or broken due to very light pressure being used. 

The 2017 'new' Surface Pen doesn't sense tilt when we use its Eraser end to stroke. These alternative pens don't have an eraser end - instead they have two barrel buttons, one being used as the Eraser button.  From our test, the WiWU doesn't sense tilt when the eraser button is pressed, while the IQS does sense tilt but with jitters when the eraser button is pressed. 

Like the 2017 Surface Pen, these pen sense tilt only when it touches the screen. BTW,  the pleasant surprise of Surface Go giving tilt reading even when hovering is gone after some Windows Update. :(

To our surprise, our Line Tests show the IQS pen is even more sensitive than  the original 2017 Surface Pen! See the following video for comparison:

Guys, I want to stress that it's not the pressure level,  but  the activation force  and the pressure response curve that matter here  - that which make you feel how sensitive the pens are. 1024 levels are actually very enough.   Due to the API used, the pressure reading is actually converted to 1024 internally if you use the 'Windows Ink' option in Expresii. If you are using Wacom,  by default Wacom's driver also converts the reading to 1024, no matter you're using a 4k or 8k-level pen (you can disable the 1024-level cap in Wacom's driver and see if you can tell the difference :-).  Truth be told, those 4k or 8k  numbers are purely for marketing purposes. However, you may ask, then why does the 2017 Surface Pen with 4k levels feel more responsive than its previous model with just 1024 levels.   The answer is that they also improved the   activation force  and maybe also the   pressure response curve .  With smaller   activation force ,  you don't have to push so hard for the stroke be get registered.  

Center of gravity also affects how the pens feel in your hand. Both the IQS and WiWU have full-metal bodies,  while the Surface Pen is metal except its top part being plastic.   The Surface Pen has its center of gravity right at it's middle along its length (shifting balance is probably one reason why its not all metal).  The IQS has its center of gravity  quite shifted towards its top part, making it feel a little unbalanced ​ when held in hand. The WiWU is only slightly shifted towards its top so it still feels fine. Our digital scale shows all  three pens weight roughly the same at 18-19g.

These cheap pens are really great alternatives to the original Surface Pen with excellent price-performance ratio.  In particular,  the IQS pen is great for artists because it can sense small pressure well, beating even the original 2017 Surface Pen. I'd say the IQS pen's pressure sensitivity is on  par with Wacom's.   The only thing missing is the ability to sense tilt even during hover like an EMR Wacom pen does.
​
For those wanting to buy Surface Pen now, note that the  next version of Surface Pen probably will have wireless charging. You might want to wait till Microsoft’s fall event on October 2nd.

We, of course, would still like to see digital writing hardware technology further advances - currently they are only mimicking pens with hard nibs. It'd be great if hardware makers can provide tools that  simulate brushes well.   Leave your comment on what else you would like to see in future digital writing instruments.

Expresii version 2019.08.02 gets a face-lift!   The Windows-7-styled frame of the Settings Window is now replaced with modern Windows 10 frame.   Buttons on the Caption Bar now gives clearer  clues on what options are there for the particular windows.  We also jump onto the bandwagon of  Windows 10 Fluent UI acrylic blur (shown in the Exit Prompt dialog):

However, we got rendering bug of only a portion of the window gets rendered (when DPI scaling is 200%) like this on Windows 10 ver 1803 Build  17134.885:

Updating to latest version 1903 Build   18362.267 fixed the rendering bug. So, be sure to  update your Windows to enjoy our new UI facelift. And In case you don't like Arcylic blur, you can disable it in Expresii's  System Setting Dialog:

The Acrylic Blur is applied on the exit prompt only at the moment and we plan to add the blur to where is appropriate.   Let us know how you like the new design!    ​( •́ .̫ •̀ )

When using 'System Enhanced' mode  override for high DPI, we notice shifted rendering of our UI. 

We believe it's a Windows bug because when we don't use high DPI override, the UI rendering is correct. So, before Microsoft fixes this, please don't use override for high DPI.

Following our last blog entry, we continue to test Expresii on the Deskmini A300, this time with external graphics cards.   We only bought two   new items: 1. M.2 to PCI-E x4 Adapter Card (US$2; US$6 at Amazon),  2.  PCI-E x1 to x16 ribbon cable (US$4; similar item $17 at Amazon) from taobao.  This setup needs an external power supply and we simply use one from our other PC's.   

We tried an nvidia GTX 1060 and two lower-end cards GT 640 and GTX 750 Ti.   The M.2 adapter slot is not open-ended so in order to insert the graphics cards directly onto it, we need to first cut it open (reference).

We get 180+ FPS on 4k with the 1060 connected at 4x PCI-E speed.  When at 1x (via ribbon cable), we get only 80+ FPS.  At Full-HD, we get 180+ FP with 4x;   150+ FPS, 1x. With lower-end cards, we basically only get around 30 FPS, which is even much lower then what we get with the integrated Radeon Vega 11 in the Ryzen 2400G (95+ FPS).

With adapter and cable totaling a mere US$6, we are able to test out the external GPU setup with either 1x and 4x PCI-E speed. You  probably want to use a US$89 riser    (similar item US$43 at taobao) instead for easier setup with 4x speed for for proper performance. Or, at least this adapter+cable (US$17 at taobao) to minimize physical interfaces.

​We're satisfied by the performance increase from Ryzen APU 2400G's Vega 11 GPU running at 95+ FPS on  Full-HD to GTX 1060 running at 180+ FPS on 4k  monitor.

See this   youtube video  for adapter & cable options.

We're often asked what PC would be good to run Expresii. ​ ​In this blog entry we show you a few mini PC options. Note that if you don't need a PC such small, there're cheaper solutions if you build regular ITX PC's, which are a bit bigger.  

​For your reference, we tested a mini PC using the Asrock Deskmini A300. Specifically, we built a system with a AMD Ryzen 5 2400G CPU, 16 GB of DDR4 2666MHz RAM, and a 2.5" 256GB SSD hard drive.  The Ryzen  2400G has an integrated GPU Radeon RX Vega 11, which performs much better than those integrated GPU's from Intel, is fast enough for running Expresii smoothly. Note that you can still go by with 8GB of RAM and just 128GB of storage space if you have a tighter budget.

The DeskMini PC box is only 15 x 15 x 8 cm, with the power brick  1/6 of the box size. Total hardware cost the main unit  (i.e. excluding monitor, mouse and keyboard) is USD380.  ​ Depending on how you get a license for   Windows OS, the final cost could be sub-$400. There are also ready-to-use pre-built units available at e.g. Amazon at around $620 (OS included) ​ for those of you who don't want to build a PC yourselves.

I once had a   Mac Mini    but it died in just a few years - since the CPU is soldered onto the main board, I can not simply replace the faulty component like I can with a regular PC. ​ What is great about this Deskmini is that you can still upgrade the various components like CPU, RAM, storage like you do with a regular PC.   So I think the  a mini PC  with Ryzen 2400G & Asrock Deskmini A300 is a   sweet spot  on price, compactness & ability to change components.

On such a system with Ryzen 2400G, we get 95 FPS  when using a FHD (1920 x 1080) monitor.   The mainboard allows a little overclocking of the RAM, and we get 100+ FPS if we overclock the RAM from 2666 to 3000 MHz. 

The Deskmini also has an Intel version, but the supported Intel GPU's (e.g. HD 630) are much slower so we don't recommend the Intel variant.

The m2 eGPU kit with power supply mentioned in the 2nd video costs $116 from Ali Express (get the same thing + power supply for $50 from taobao if you can read Chinese and get them ship to your region). A used GTX 1060 with 6GB RAM could be as low as $135 on eBay. So, with a few hundreds of dollars you can add a powerful graphics card with when you need it.   For even cheaper solution, look at this guide and buy the NGFF version (i.e. for M.2)  dock. More reference here.

If you   have some more money to spare, and don't want to mess around with PC building, we recommend the Intel   Hades Canyon NUC:

The   Intel   Hades Canyon NUC  (Vega M GH, 16Gb RAM, 256 GB SSD at $1300)  is even  smaller than the Asrock DeskMini A300 yet much more powerful.   Its   Radeon RX Vega M GH GPU, which is much faster than the Vega 11 in the Deskmini,  allows you to run Expresii on a 4k monitor smoothly. If the 1k+ price tag is a litte too high, thre's also a version with a slower GPU  Vega M GL.   Also, look at eBay and sometimes there're offers in the $500-600 range as a barebone (i.e. you add your own RAM and storage).

Other ready-to-use mini PC's with   Radeon RX Vega M GH GPU (but not as tiny as the Intel NUC) include   this    Beelink Kaby G7   (with 16GB RAM + 256 GB SSD at $1150)  and   the   HiGame from Chuwi  at $1300.    

Conclusion?   You don't need a huge PC to run Expresii fast! ​╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑    

We use the Quarter Mode of Expresii to create the ambigram《瑞豬 己亥迎春》. This mode shows the reflected images as you paint. 

We export the ambigram    from Expresii as a snapshot, which we then import into Inkscape for further manipulation.  After some arrangement, we print the design onto paper to make a paper cut.   We even pair the ambigram with a double-sided QR code, which we wrote a program to generate with reference to   Aleksey Tikhonov's article.  

Flipping the ambigram and testing  double-side QR code:

Here's the final product. Check out  our previous blog entry to learn more: 

​And here's one video that shows the whole process:

#翻轉字 #アンビグラム

The   2019 Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) is a huge show.  Among the many exhibitors is Huion:

And in case you wonder: the laptop used was a Huawei Honor   MagicBook with AMD 2500U &  Vega 8 GPU.   It ran Expresii at around 60 FPS, with screen being Full-HD.   See a review of the machine here:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Honor-Magicbook-Intel-8250U-vs-AMD-2500U-Laptop-Review.344731.0.html
The AMD model is cheaper than the Intel + Nvidia MX150 model, but is only about half as fast for GPU performance.

We also visited PiPO's booth.   Glad to have a chance to talk to Ben Lai, the owner of PiPO.  He is kind to share his views and offer advice on the Chinese market. ​  Note that we used PiPO's US$150 W5 back in 2014 to demo Expresii.

We also had a chance to try out Expresii on some of their devices.  Unfortunately, we are not able to even read the pen pressure on their  2-in-1 tablet   device   with   Celeron CPU.   On their Atom-powered device (shown below), we are able to get pen pressure but the responsiveness is not the best. PiPO now switched to using Active pen instead of EMR technology as in the W5.

Expresii is being used for producing the animated feature film  Red Squirrel Mai 紅松鼠米高. Do check out    the teaser above (those from China can see it  here)!  This film uses Expresii extensively - both animation background and foreground  are drawn with Expresii.   The teaser video is shown at Hong Kong Filmart 2019 earlier this month.   We thank   Ink Culture Ltd and Rooftop Animation for producing such a meaningful work - this animation is the first one made in Hongkong/China that has a distinct style different from all previous works.   It's been only less than two years from the setting up studios in Hong Kong and GuangZhou.   

Ink wash animation  is a  proud product of China from the 60's to the 80's. Nowadays,   many attempts have been made to modernize ink wash animation.   Our Expresii does provide a refreshing visual style that couldn't be achieved before.

One of the film Directors of Red Squirrel Mai   Angela Wong draw Mai the squirrel, the movie  protagonist,    on the spot:

Visitors can get a glimpse of of the production processing:

Our Nelson demonstrates calligraphy in the show:

And also some doodles (after the  famous comic artist 草日 from Hong Kong):

An inkjet printer was also setup there to print artwork done with Expresii on the spot:

We're lucky to encounter Kumamon as our Mai just stepped out of our booth: ^_^

 P.S. Now you know why we have to put up a notice forbidding new users to use Expresii for making feature films till later in 2019.   ^_^

I can't  emphasize  enough on Pressure+Tilt.  The minute change in your hand movement should translate to the marks you are making. 
用Expresii作畫，最好配有 【側鋒感應】 的繪圖筆。一劃、一點、一提、一按 ，特別有韻味╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑       

Recently  there are more tablet makers releasing models that support pen tilt sensing.  One of them is Huion.  

We got hold of a new version of  Huion H950P (US$80) that supports tilt sensing.   The following is a quick demo video of using the Huion H950P.   以下試用 《繪王》品牌的 950P 繪圖板，利用【側鋒(tilt)】+【筆壓】做出多變筆觸：

用後覺得，硬件方面，build quality 很好、筆很輕，且重心適中地落在握筆位置，還配有像Wacom 的rubber grip，故拿筆不累。筆不用電池所以不用換電或者充電。 軟件方面，Huion 自家config程式有時會偵測不到板子，不過這算小問題，且有機會日後軟件更新可解決。還一個小問題是那個火山口形的筆座的設計：筆座看起來是學Wacom 的，但卻改小了。可能Huion 不知原 Wacom 設計，是筆平躺和直插均可，改小了的Huion  筆座承托範圍有限，令  平放筆時很容易掉下，直插時卻又不知為何弄到筆座凹處跟筆頭角度不匹配，導致插着怪怪的不穩當。∑(O_O；)​

相比Wacom 的專業有tilt 系列，Huion 的價格絕對是優勢(現在最平宜有tilt 的Wacom 是Intuos Pro Small US$238)。用慣Wacom 的筆者，發現 Huion 的筆，壓下去很容易就到壓感最高值，而Wacom 的是 壓值越接近最高值你越要用力，所以挺不習慣。現在Expresii 是較適合Wacom 那種壓感特性的，所以現在用Huion 寫字覺得有點難控制(已試過調pressure curve)。也許這是個人習慣問題，所以建議大家先到體驗店親身試試看。有機會我們會把Expresii 的内部pressure curve 調控範圍廣大，希望可以有所改善，或者希望Huion 也可以硬件或者軟件上加入讓用家可切換成模擬Wacom那種壓感反應的可能，還有希望提供像Wacom 那種有彈簧的筆尖，以便更好模擬毛筆的提按。筆者覺得，寫不寫到好字，那個筆尖’軟硬‘度跟軟件配合是成敗關鍵。

還有一點要點讚是，Huion 的斜度感應，像Wacom那樣是懸空時也可以讀到的。要知道其實Surface Pen 跟Apple Pencil懸空時是讀不到 tilt 的呢（2019-03-06 更新：Surface Pen 起碼在 Surface Go 上有hover tilt，但2017 Surface Pro還是沒有）。懸空有tilt 有什麽好處？就是讓我們下筆一刻，可看到筆頭正確角度，清楚知道下筆是怎麼樣的筆觸咯～

期待之後試用他們有tilt 感應的pen display，如US$400 的   Kamvas Pro 13。

I am too used to Wacom's pressure profile. ​​A Wacom stylus requires significantly more force to reach the max pressure value in comparison to the Huion.  Right now Expresii is more tuned for Wacom's pressure response so it's a bit hard to control the height of the virtual brush to do calligraphy with the Huion. It could be a personal preference, but so far even after adjusting the pressure curve in both Huion's tool and also in Expresii (yes, internally we do have it), I was still not able to write as well as I can with a Wacom.  I'd try to adapt the pressure curve and see if helps. I also hope Huion can adjust the spring in their stylus so that it can better mimic a brush.  I'm glad that they would invite me to their Shenzhen Headquarters.  I haven't met them yet  and I look forward to a fruitful discussion.

I  think Huion's stylus sensing technology is really close to that of Wacom. Huion's tilt reading is as stable as Wacom's, and I'm glad to see tilt reading is also available while hovering, just like a Wacom (note that Surface Pen and Apple Pencil won't give tilt reading during hovering). Previously, the main advantage of Wacom is its ability to sense pen tilt+twist (i.e. 6 DOF totally).   No other stylus makers can sense pen twist just yet, so Wacom still have some technical advantage.   I have always been eager to tell Wacom what to improve in their technology and I  did tell them last time I was at Connected Ink. However, I'm not sure if they would do anything about what I said.

I look forward to testing Huion's new Pen Display featuring tilt sensing such as  the  US$400    Kamvas Pro 13.

In conclusion, I think the Huion has made signification improvement (last time I tried it wasn't that great) and is now  a company that can rival Wacom. This would be good for the consumers as they now have more choices that are budget-friendly. I hope Wacom can up their game by developing new technology for brush sensing.   I am of course always ready to offer my opinions on how things can be improved.

- Nelson Chu

The Good:

• Low cost
• Nice    build quality
• Pen is battery-free, light-weight, with    good weight balance

​The Bad:

• Sometimes their own software tool couldn't detect the tablet

We thank   Huion Hong Kong  for providing the hardware  and Huion Taiwan for connection.