Category: Hardware

2020 conclusion and Looking Forward

19/12/2020

2020 went too quickly. No travel. In fact, our activities were mostly confined in our neighborhood. Nevertheless, the development of Expresii never stopped. Just check our Update Log for a (truncated) list of what have been done.

2020 Review

Animation / Automation

Have been collaborating with a small team of animators this year on a short film Find Find , whose production started in March. It serves as an experiment for how Expresii can be used for animation. We are developing a system that can automatically control the brush (and other attributes like color loading) in Expresii to produce a sequence of animation frames. This lays a ground for modern ink-painting animation (水墨動畫). Click the octopus below to watch an illustrative video.

The animation is set to premiere in mid-2021.

Running on Mac / ARM-based machines

In mid-2020, it's been proven that Expresii can run on an Intel-based Mac via Parallels Desktop 15 or later, complete with Apple Pencil support (with pressure and tilt) via Sidecar, but the save / export function of Expresii was not working due to limitation of Parallels' OpenGL implementation. Since version 2020.11.01, we updated Expresii to overcome this limitation so that it can now run fully via Parallels. So, yeah, apart from running Expresii via Bootcamp, you can now run it directly from within MacOS via Parallels.

However, it seems Apple is ditching Intel processors for future Mac's in flavor of their own ARM-based processors. For Expresii to run on ARM, a crucial part from Microsoft is the support of OpenGL 3.3+ for Windows on ARM. They have good progress on this, citing in November an Insider version of the compatibility package that one can test with. Since one can already run Windows on ARM on Apple's new M1-based machines, it's quite possible we can run Expresii on ARM-based Apple hardware.

Those of you having an ARM-based machine can try Windows on ARM (if on Apple M1, here's an installation guide) and get the Insider preview of the OpenGL 3.3 package to try Expresii there already. For those of you hoping to run it via Parallels, Parallels just released a tech preview in which you can run Windows on ARM as virtual machine on an M1 Apple machines. So for those of you having a Parallels 16 license, you can already try it. If you do try them, let me know how it goes!

new hardware for color input / control

In March 2020, we got a call from Taiwanese company Ufro. Their CEO would like us to support their new color-picking mechanism, in preparation for the then-upcoming Lenovo E-Color Pen. We're happy to help. In July this E-Color Pen started to hit the market, and we did some demos for it. Expresii became the only app that can show off this E-Color Pen with gorgeous color blending effects.

In May, we added support for on-the-fly adjustment of loading color hue, lightness & saturation via hotkeys in Expresii. More pen tablet makers are adding dials to their hardware and we also showed you can use those dials for real-time color adjustment by assigning the dial to our hotkeys.

We have been in contact with other hardware makers too. Would reveal more when collaborations come to fruition.

Beautiful watercolor patterns produced while demonstrating an XP-Pen pen display

Demonstrating the Lenovo E-Color Pen

Optimization

Since February, the file size of an Expresii artwork file and in-memory storage size are significantly reduced. In October, the artwork export rendering implementation is replaced with one that is more amenable to having more layers. In December, artwork rendering is also optimized to up to 50% faster (or 80% for a bit lower quality). These path the way to allowing more layers or future enhancements.

2021 Ahead: Improvements & New Features

Sorry for the lack of a roadmap thus far. Since the internal of Expresii is much more complex than ordinary paint programs, it takes more effort to design and implement stuffs. Quite some users still don't have a good GPU and without a good GPU, we have to be economical when using GPU resources. Now that hardware has improved and capable GPUs are more common in new machines, we'd like to update Expresii to allow better experience given more available GPU compute and memory resources.

Suminagashi

Suminagashi is a form of marbling. In October, we gave a preview of our implementation in Expresii and we passed it to our trusted user Shuen Leung, and she produced the following artwork:

Sample Suminagashi artwork done in Expresii by Shuen

There is still some more work to be done before we can release it to the public. Let us know how you like it so far.

Better Dry-up

I know many of you find it hard to paint when the paint never really dries and needing to use a new layer for sharp overlapping shapes. That would change soon.

More layers

With those optimizations mentioned above, we're ready to add support for more layers.

Western watercolor

We'll start adding Western watercolor specific features like drips, backruns or granulation.

Image Import

Some of you were asking for image import. With that above-mentioned dry-up change, import would be possible.

Oil paint

Our Nelson Chu has been thinking about how to do even better than what he did for oil paint simulation in Fresh Paint (Project Gustav) . Hopefully, we can come up with a good solution in the coming year following Western watercolor.

RYB color model

We already have an initial implementation of the RYB color model. This makes the colors look more natural, but it actually narrows the range of possible colors you can get. The greys become kind of sepia.

RGB / CMY color model

RYB color model

Your support is Essential

Existing customers will get these enhancements for free. So, you don't need to wait if you want to purchase Expresii now. (^人^)

If you like what we're doing, please support this endeavor by buying the app (or giving a tip by paying for a trial key) and tell your friends who might be interested. Everything counts! Thanks you! m(_ _)m

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Using EasyCanvas Pro with Expresii

10/12/2020

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Apart from Duet Display Pro, there's also Easy Canvas Pro from DEVGURU Co. in Korea that allows you to use your iOS or Android device as pen display to your desktop apps. Yes, it's like connecting a Cintiq to your desktop, but you have the option to go either wired or wireless. You can use a tablet like the iPad or the Samsung Tab S3 or even your Samsung Note 10 phone. It'd be a great solution if you already own one of those devices.

We just tested their newly released EasyCanvas Pro for Android . I own a Samsung Note 8 with S Pen, which supports both pressure and tilt, so I used it in this test. Normally, you should use a tablet instead since a phone's screen is very small for painting.

I found the wired connection gives satisfactory performance. When using 2.4GHz wifi, the delay is rather noticeable. Unfortunately, I don't have a 5GHz router here so I can't test 5GHz performance. The Samsung device shows the 2.4GHz wifi giving 144Mbps, while my test desktop is connected to the wireless router via cable. My desktop screen is at 4k and my phone is set at FHD+, so Easy Canvas has to resample the 4k screen capture and that's another source of latency.

We hope DEVGURU can support G-Sensor data and hover in the future. G-Sensor can be used for surface tilt to direct the paint flow, and hover is good for users to see the pen posture before hitting the paper. This is important for Eastern calligraphy, if not for painting in general.

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Expresii on Surface Pro 7

13/11/2020

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It has been one year since the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 was released. We got ourselves an i7 model to test with. We've had it for about a month now and it has been very responsive.

The following is a quick test on its performance. As you can see, it allows fluid digital watercolor in Expresii. In case you can't afford the i7 model, you can still get by with the i5 model, but you may want to use the Fast Mode for more responsiveness.

Did some calligraphy test too:

Don't have the original Surface Pen with us right now, so we picked up a Surface Pen alternative in these tests.

Finally we'd like to show you some sneak peek at some latest development in ink-painting-style animation (水墨動畫) that we are working on. Follow our animator collaborator's Instagram to learn more. Their work is so cool & cute at the same time!

And yes, Surface Pro is used in producing this animation, in case you wonder. (・ωｰ)～☆

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Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i & E-Color Pen 大千色彩一筆入魂

31/8/2020

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The Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i was announced earlier in May this year as a 2-in-1 tablet / laptop computer. The design is very similar to that of the Surface Pro, so we regard the Duet 7i as a Surface Pro competitor.

Digital Pen captures Colors From Real World

Perhaps the highlight of the Lenovo Yoga Duet 7i is its support for the brand new Lenovo E-Color Pen. Among all the pressure-sensitive styli for iPads, Windows or Android devices, the Lenovo E-Color Pen is the first that can capture colors from the real world. Recently, the Apple Pencil was rumored to add such a feature given they filed a related patent application. However, It's not likely Apple would be granted such a patent, as suggested by Jeremy Shu, CEO of Ufro Inc, the company that provides the color capture technology in the E-Color Pen .

The Lenovo E-Color Pen is a rechargeable Wacom AES pen. Its USB-C charging port is hidden behind the color capture module, which unplugs from the top of the pen. The pen is pressure sensitive and drives the cursor when hovering. It doesn't support tilt sensing, but you can use one of the two side buttons to adjust brush tilt in Expresii.

The pen is not magnetic like the Surface Pen, so you can't just stick it to the side of the tablet. Previously Lenovo supplies holder for their active pens that plugs into USB-A ports of the tablets, but now they switched to USB-C for the Yoga Duet 7i so you will need to find another solution if you want to keep it attached e.g. this pen sleeve on Amazon, or the same thing on TMall of China for half the price.

Software Takes the colors & Magic happens

Currently our app Expresii is one of the select apps that natively support the E-Color Pen color capture function. Its watercolor simulation is a good reason for anyone to use it for showing the capture capability beautifully. When you pick a yellow and a cyan from the real world, the virtual paint mixes together to give a nice green and Expresii's watercolor flow further mingles the paint with gorgeous flow patterns in very high resolution. Expresii supports Ufro's Mozbii pen since 2018 and we thank Wacom for linking us up leading to hardware and software innovations working well together.

The following is a video showing general color picking and the use of the pen for Eastern calligraphy on the Yoga Duet 7i. The machine used in the i5 model, but it's already fast enough for using Expresii. There's the i7 option that gives even better performance for you to choose from.

Pen & Keyboard included

I came from the Surface Pro family, and I really prefer the keyboard of the Duet 7i being able to operate via bluetooth when detached. It's good that Lenovo is including both the keyboard and the E-Color pen, at least in the markets of Hong Kong and the Philippines, instead of needing customers to fork out another USD 90 to 160 for a keyboard cover and USD 99 for the official Surface Pen. There're cheaper aftermarket alternatives for both items (like these pen alternatives), but consumers need to shop around separately. The Yoga Duet 7i is called Yoga Duet 2020 in the Chinese market, and a normal Active pen instead of the E-Color Pen is included.

Multi-Color Loading

Expresii receives colors from Color King, the proxy software that sends the captured colors to supported apps. Our Expresii not only can directly receive colors from Color King, but it also offers you the option to auto-load single or multiple-colors into the virtual brush. This is a unique feature made possible by the native support for multi-color loading in Expresii. As demonstrated in the above video, you could pick a few colors in sequence to make a gradient in the brush. You then can make strokes with such a gradient for even more interesting marks!

A Coloring Demo

We further demo coloring a piece of ink work using the E-Color Pen. In this demo, we celebrate brush stroke economy. We appreciate watercolor having a life of its own. From the thumbnail, you may not be able to appreciate the simulation quality so we urge you to watch the video:

Performance

The following video shows the performance of color capture and making strokes on the i5 version of the Yoga Duet 7i. The color transfer can be immediate. In the above videos, most of the clips are played back at 2x speed up for editing purpose. The following video shows you the performance in real time.

Our app uses GPU for rendering and flow simulation, so it's often the GPU being the bottleneck. If you find it too slow on your machine, we can still enable Quick Stroke Mode (Fast Mode), and Expresii would be more responsive as you stroke. If you're on Win10, it's easy to download this Store Demo version of Expresii for you to test out the performance.

How accurate is the color capture? I'd say pretty accurate, as you can see from our demo videos. I tried picking the neon orange from my sport shirt and the color captured was obviously off. But other than difficult situations like that, it's pretty accurate for the most part.

Final words

We appreciate the startup Ufro Inc bringing low-cost color capture tech to the masses. Color sampling devices used to be rather expansive, and only specialized people would buy them. FYI, you can also order Ufro's standalone color picker InstaPick for as low as USD 60. We also appreciate Wacom and Lenovo for adopting the innovation.

We hope that the Lenovo E-Color Pen would be supported on future pen-enabled machines from Lenovo. They just announced the Yoga 9i, which uses Intel’s new and much improved Intel Xe integrated graphics of the 11th Gen CPU. We also wish Lenovo would opt for tilt sensing for their coming pen models. The future looks bright for creative professionals!

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Surface Dial alternatives & Customization

15/4/2020

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Keyboard are good for shortcuts, but sometimes we prefer to use a knob for more intuitive and smoother operation. The Surface Dial ($100) was designed for such a purpose. However, the Surface Dial doesn't lend itself to muscle memory - the only operations are rotate and press so you need to rely on mode change in order to invoke more than 3 actions. That's why people like compact controllers with more buttons like the TourBox ($158 at Amazon) or the Clip studio TabMate ($57) so that they can control more parameters swiftly without worrying about which mode they're in.

Controllers like TourBox are great to use but a bit expensive. Any alternatives that are less expensive but still give us a dial?

We found numerous USB volume controllers on the market. Among them, devices from iwit caught our attention since their inexpensive knobs can actually be programmed to send custom keystrokes. They can even simulate a Surface Dial! This is a Chinese company in Beijing and they sell in Taobao (from $10) for the Chinese market but various resellers are reselling them at Amazon or EBay (big version available at e.g. as this item at Amazon for $31, small version at EBay for $20, big or small at Aliexpress for $20-$30). The two we got are small ones.

Build

The weight is just right and together with the non-skid pad it doesn't move around. The knob on the silver one was not level when it arrived, but we managed to pull the knob out and after plugging it back it stayed leveled. The design is simple and the knob clicks and rotates well making It almost a fidget toy. ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ The iWit dials are notched so they don't rotate as smoothly as the Surface Dial. They are also smaller and don't have a indention like the Shuttle Express ($60) does making them less suited for one-finger operation.

Programmability

Programmability is not advertised but it is there. I chatted with the seller at Taobao, who said they don't want to advertise it to avoid the trouble of providing customer support. Why? They said their way to program the device can be confusing so they would rather just sell it as a simple, single-purpose USB volume controller. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How to Program. The way you program them is special. You use the app Notepad as the display and let the device print a menu that you can choose from. To enter setup mode, press the iwit dial while you plug it to a computer via USB. You should have Notepad already open and in focus when you do this so that Notepad receives all the key output from the iwit. The rest is simply to navigate the menu with the dial itself. Each can be programmed to give different keystrokes independent of each other and thus you can connect multiple iwit knobs and have them control different things (a bit like Palette ($330 for a Travel Console)). This is what the Surface Dial can't do, as multiple devices would only map to the same Dial API. The same goes for ordinary USB volume controllers, since all of them would map to the same volume +/- mute keys.

iwit video editing controller

If you want to control different apps without having to reprogram, you can do so with Autohotkey, which can remap the input keys according to the foreground app. This requires you to do some coding with Autohotkey though.

Granted, this setup UI is not the most user-friendly, but it gets the job done. If you prefer a more user-friendly setup procedure, you probably would prefer a TourBox ($158) or a designer keyboard ($90). Taobao users would have more options like this keyboard (RMB 399 = $56) or this dial (RMB 138 = $20) that allow custom key assignments. Iwit also offers a larger video editing controller (RMB 799 = $113) at Taobao featuring a knob, a shutter ring and a dial (see photo right), but again you have to deal with their special setup UI.

Mutiple Devices working together

Personally I'm quite happy with using a keyboard with my non-dominate hand for hotkeys. In Expresii, we have made common tasks like undo and redo easier: we have Z and X as hotkeys for them so that you only need to press one key, as opposed to Ctrl-Z or Ctrl-Y which requires some finger twisting. We still support standard multi-key commands like Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y for undo and redo so that, if you're new to Expresii, those familiar key commands you got used to are still there.

That said, the only missing piece from my standard keyboard is a dial. Or, a few dials. So, I put the two iwit dials besides my keyboard. Because they are wired and the connectors stick out, I can only put them side-by-side. One knob controls Brush Wetness (hotkeys Q W) and the other Pigment Adjuster (hotkeys , .). And I still have more assignments available for operations of knob short press, long press, and knob rotation while pressed. So, a total of 6 assignments per controller.

In the future, we may add the support for using multiple mice on the same computer, so that you can use your spare mice's buttons and wheels for controlling different settings in Expresii. Leave us a comment to let us know how you like this plan.

Custom tool for Surface Dial

Microsoft added the ability to add custom tools for different apps for Surface Dial. Here is a little walk-through of such a process. To get to the right setting page, type 'Wheel' in the search bar and choose 'Wheel Settings'. Then see the following screenshots for guidance:

This is also useful if you have a device that mimics a Surface Dial , such as the iwit knob we review here and the Huion Q620M . Hers is an example usage of the custom tool with Expresii:

Conclusion

The iwit USB volume controller is a great choice if you want to add a couple of dials to complement your keyboard. They are inexpensive but reasonably well made. We thought of using multiple mice for their wheels, but this is not the same as a dial: you cannot keep rotating a mouse wheel like you can with circular motion for a dial. When do you need such a motion? Rotating the paper like this. (^.~)☆

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Upgrading with sub-$90 graphics card to use Expresii

14/10/2019

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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?

Budget upgrade

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.

Left: GT 730 with 1G RAM; Right: GT 1030 with 2 GB RAM. Both are low-profile, single-slot cards.

Upgrade Process

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:

Result: smooth painting in Expresii

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.

Conclusion: Truly amazing watercolor doesn't need super computer

Pixalation in an artwork done by Kyle Webster in Adobe Fresco due to their limited resolution

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.

2019-10-22 Update: Slim desktop Dell Inspiron 660s

The slim Desktop Dell Inspiron 660s is from 2012. The Intel integrated GPU HD Graphics 2500 that came with the Inspiron 660s is not suitable for Expresii. We tried to upgrade another PC with GT 1030 too and see what performance we get.

6th-gen i3 vs 3rd-gen i5 - which is faster?

The Passmark CPU scores for i3-6100 and i5-3330S are 5483 & 5678 respectively, so looks like they would gives similar performance if paired with the same GT 1030. Experiment shows the newer 6th-gen i3 GPU gives much better performance than the now 7-year-old 3rd-gen i5 GPU. Specifically its 200+ vs 110+ FPS.

Current Expresii is single-threaded. So, we should really be looking at the single-thread performance. The passmark site says 2105 and 1652 for 6100 and 3330S respectively - this probably the main factor why we get lower performance in Expresii on the 3330S.

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Review: Cheap Surface Pen Alternatives with tilt support

25/9/2019

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Where to buy?

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.

Pen Tip Feel

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).

No Bluetooth, no Magnet

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.

Pressure & Tilt Sensitivity

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:

1024 vs 4096 Levels

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.

Weight Balance

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.

Weight balance of (Top to bottom) 2017 Surface Pen, IQS Surface Pen, WiWU P503.

Conclusion

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.

Update: Compatibility

Since the WiWU pen claims to be an MMP (I believe it should it be MPP, standing for Microsoft Pen Protocol) Active Stylus supporting the devices listed below, we want to verify if it's really cross-device. We couldn't find the exact models today but we managed to try the pens on a Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 and a Lenovo IdeaPad C340. Unfortunately both the WiWU and the IQS don't work on either. FYI, the Lenovo active pen meant to go with the C340 does work on the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1.

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Asrock Deskmini A300 with External GPU

2/7/2019

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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).

1x versus 4x PCI-E

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).

We ordered a 1x, instead of 4x, ribbon cable because we wanted to see how such low-cost setup performs. The 1x cable is actually thin enough to pass through the vents of the Deskmini case, meaning that we might be able to attach or detach the external graphics card from the Deskmini easily. However, after we ran the cable through the vent, we were unable to get the connection to work, probably due to the tiny space of the Deskmini enclosure forced the cable to bend causing e.g. the interface on the M.2 adapter to loosen a bit. FYI, even not physically restricted, the more interfaces you have, the more chance you get connection issues: we experienced e.g. a pink screen, or the card not being detected. We needed to resit the cards a few times before we get it to work.

Conclusion

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.

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Mini PC for running Expresii

25/5/2019

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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.

Smooth painting at Full-HD ($350-$620)

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.

Thanks to AMD for making great performing APU at affordable price, and Asrock for making such a compact box!

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.

Smooth painting at 4K+, as an upgrade (+$116 + Graphics card of your choice)

Fullscreen painting using a 4k monitor with the above A300 system with Vega 11 is a bit slow. One thing I like about these mini PC's is that they are equipped with NVMe M.2 slots, which can be used to connect to an external GPU to improve the graphics performance. That means you can upgrade your system if you need to (the setup is a bit geeky though). If you're a tinkerer, you can check out this video with an actual A300 (left) and another (right) showing using an eGPU kit with a similar mini PC:

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.

Smooth Painting At 4K+, Compact, ready-to-use ($1150-$1300)

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 Chuwi HiGame mini PC

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 ̑̑

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Expresii on Microsoft Surface Book 2

30/6/2018

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We were excited ever since the first Surface Book came out in 2015, since it gave the option for a discrete GPU. Now we have a chance to test with a Surface Book 2, thanks to Microsoft for providing the hardware for testing.

We are provided with the 13.5" model. Coming from the 12" Surface Pro, I like the bigger screen size. The hardware feels really solid and clean. And of course, with an nvidia GTX 1050, we get very good performance, although it gets a bit hot and the fan would kick on.

Left: Surface Pro 2017. Right: 13.5" Surface Book 2.

You need the base

When you detach the base, the GPU performance drops significantly, so you would like to attach the base when you use Expresii. In fact, when I detached the base and held the tablet part only, I realized how convenient the kickstand of the Surface Pro is! Note that the tablet part doesn't have any USB port (or video port), so you can't really use it in place of, say, a Surface Pro. I believe they designed it for only brief detachment like for the case of quick presentations.

Calligraphy done in Expresii on the 13.5" Surface Book 2

See the calligraphy process video in Youtube:

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2020 Review

Animation / Automation

Running on Mac / ARM-based machines

new hardware for color input / control

Optimization

2021 Ahead: Improvements & New Features

Suminagashi

Better Dry-up

More layers

Western watercolor

Image Import

Oil paint

RYB color model

Your support is Essential

Digital Pen captures ​Colors From Real World

Software Takes the colors & Magic happens

Pen & Keyboard included

Multi-Color Loading

A Coloring Demo

Performance

Final words

Build

Programmability

Mutiple Devices working together

Custom tool for Surface Dial

Conclusion

Budget upgrade

Upgrade Process

Result: smooth painting in Expresii

Conclusion: Truly amazing watercolor doesn't need super computer

2019-10-22 Update: Slim desktop Dell ​Inspiron 660s

6th-gen i3 vs 3rd-gen i5 - which is faster?

Where to buy?

Pen Tip Feel

No Bluetooth, no Magnet

Pressure & Tilt ​Sensitivity

1024 vs 4096 Levels

Weight Balance

Conclusion

Update: Compatibility

1x versus 4x PCI-E

Conclusion

Smooth painting at Full-HD ($350-$620)

Smooth painting at 4K+, as an upgrade (+$116 + Graphics card of your choice)

Smooth Painting At 4K+, Compact, ready-to-use ($1150-$1300)

You need the base

Expresii 寫意

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Digital Pen captures Colors From Real World

2019-10-22 Update: Slim desktop Dell Inspiron 660s

Pressure & Tilt Sensitivity

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以前的文章