Okay,  I installed ubuntu to test Expresii on Linux. And with the help from    devviktoria  (and thanks also to Granham who initiated a Wintab driver implementation for use with WINE), I also fianlly got pen pressure and tilt working under WINE.   I confimred that this driver works with Wacom, XP-Pen and Huion pen tablets, and also on my XP-Pen pen display.

There are still minor issues like minimizing the app would crash it, and  the artwork preview  in the Export dialog being blank.  I will look into these and try to fix them. Overall, I'm so glad Expresii works and performance is on par with on Windows:

1. Install WINE according to their Download page. I used ubuntu 24.04 LTS so  I followed the instructions here.
2. Install Expresii using WINE: After you download Expresii setup program, unzip it and run the installer EXE with the command "wine Expresii-SetupXXXX.exe", where Expresii-SetupXXXX.exe is the exact filename you unzipped. 
3. Install  XWinTab  from here.   The followings screen captures show how to do the sub-steps of installing libxcb-xinput0 and make a DLL override.  I needed to restart ubutntu after installing   libxcb-xinput0  for it to take effect.

To   put the .DLL and .so files  to the same  of Expresii's EXE,  the destination path looks something like "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Expresii x64". By default, Expresii initially tries to load Wintab32.dll already so unless you picked 'Windows Ink' previously, you don't need to explicitly choose wintab32.dll from within Expresii.  

Now you should be able to run  Expresii just like a normal program in ubuntu.  There should be a Expreii  icon on your desktop too, which is initially grayed out. To enable it, right click on it and choose 'Allow Launching' just like what is shown in the beginning of this video:

Within Feburary 2026, we confirmed that Expresii can run  on MacOS via Fusion, Android via Winlator, and Linux via WINE, thanks to the progress in emulation or VM technologies.  Recent improvement in OpenGL support allow us to run Expresii  on Android and Linux.   Today, you can run Windows on iPad via UTM but this doesn't get adequate OpenGL support to run Expresii.  UTM v.5.0.1  supports OpenGL 4.1 on MacOS. Hopefully, one day we will see UTM supporting OpenGL 3.0+ on iPad too and then you will be able to run Expresii on an iPad.

And, after these recent platform-related tests, I will be back to focus on getting Western watercolor in Expresii. Stay tuned.

I first tried Winlator 6.1 on a  on Snapdragon 730G  Android  phone   in mid-2024. Expresii ran, but any operation that heavily used OpenGL stalled the app to a halt.    Subsequently, I also tried later versions of Winlator   as they came out but still to no avail - it just crashed at startup with those later versions of Winlator.   

Recently I found that Expresii stopped working under VMWare Fusion since March 2024, and figured that it was an OpenGL  call with  GL_POLYGON_OFFSET_LINE at the app startup that crashed the app. I updated Expresii to not make such a call at startup, and now the latest version of Expresii works under   VMWare Fusion  AGAIN.

That reminded me of  the similar startup crashes with Winlator. So, I tried again their latest release 10.1 hotfix - Expresii ran, but just blank canvas when I stroke.   Then I found  they also hae a 11.0 beta pre-release - and a pleasant surprise - it  draws with ink simulation! See the video below:

Chip on the S24: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Adreno 750 GPU.
GPU detect by Expresii: zink (Turnip Adreno (TM) 750); GL 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 22.2.5.

Yes, you need to choose Turnip (Adreno) as the Graphics Driver in Winlator for this to work - for those Samsung phone using   Adreno GPU.

Expresii works for the most part - simulation is correct.  No multi-touch gesture for pan and zoom - but you can use the GUI to switch to pan or zoom mode so that you can pan and zoom with just mouse interaction.   Loading of an artwork doesn't work and would crash the app. The Samsung S-pen on an S22 ultra also didn't work as stylus input to Expresii.

It only runs at 17 FPS at a screen size of 1280x720  and if I switch to 'Performance' mode for Box64 in Winlator, I can get up to 20 FPS.  

But this is all very encouraging - Winlator uses WINE and MESA.   So,  I thought Expresii could work under Linux  via WINE. And sure enough, a user just reported that it does work!   Now, if we can get graphics tablets to also work with WINE, then  you can really paint  with Expresii on Linux too. ^_^

Another Mac user asked about using Expresii on a Mac. So, I tried the latest version of VMWare Fusion. It became free even for commercial use since last time I tested it.    Expresii crashed last week. Took me a few days to figure that it's the MESA 24.1.0 OpenGL implementation of   GL_POLYGON_OFFSET_LINE crashing the app. Now at least  the latest version of Expresii runs but you still can't switch to Brush Display to 'Mid' or above, since those would use an outline shader, which relies on GL_POLYGON_OFFSET_LINE .

You will first need to resgister for a Broadcom account before you can download Fusion. When you install Windows on Fusion, you should use the "Get Windows from Microsoft" option within VMware Fusion because this way  some necessary drivers are already included:

There are many installation guides for VMWare Fusion on the internet so just follow them if you are not sure. For my test, I used Windows 11. Remember to install VMWare Tools too.

Yes, this time I don't need to use any third-arty software to use my drawing tablet WACOM Intuos Pro via USB. Just plug it to your Mac and  VMWare Fusion gives you a dialog asking if you would connect it to the Mac or the Virtual Machine (VM) running Windows.   See a video demo below:

I get  only 30-40 FPS on an M1 machine with 8GB. Too slow for smooth painting. Fusion suggested that I allocate to the VM up to 5.6GB out of the 8GB as recommended by Fusion and I did that.   Only 2 processor cores  allocated for the VM.  The VM uses a FullHD screen resolution.  Using a higher resolution would consume more rendering power. The M4 gives roughly double the performance of M1 so if you have an M4 Mac,  you should get a much smoother painting experience. For better performance, you should consider Parallels Desktop.

Thanks to CGVisual, we took part in the SIGGRAPH ASIA 2025 exhbition  again this year.   Like last year, we also invited   Sensei Shuen Leung  to do live painting on the spot. 

I'm very glad that  Raman Hui  visited on the first day.  I had a good chat about using Expresii for animation with Raman   ^_^.   On the second day    Richard Chuang  also visited!   To my surprise, Richard said he is a fan of mine!    Richard  showed me his traditional Chinese paintings  he learnt to do from a young age.   Richard has always been an artist but went to do software engineering in Computer Graphics for a living since early 80's.   I guess we share something in common -  we are both artistic and technical, and we went to develop new software necessary for the art we are after. 

The up-coming 2026 is the Year of the Horse, so  we had   Sensei Shuen    use the horse motif.   Here are some screenshots of Sensei Shuen's three paintings done on the spot.  Check out the details we can render using our revolutionary Vexel Rendering technology:

What a cool horse girl!  And then Sensei Shuen decided to paint something cute the next day. How about a  cute girl also riding a celestial horse with accompanying birds?

And finally, a change -  a lady playing pipa  music.   Yes, this one still has a horse head in the     pipa   the lady is playing.  

And the following are short videos of the painting processes for the three days.  Check out the   fluidity (pun intended - both the watercolor simulation AND the brush wielding)   Sensei Shuen is able to  demonstrate given great hardware and software technologies combined as a great painting tool.  Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 pen display as the input and output device, and our Expresii Painting app running on the Aoostar GT37 mini PC.

Two days right after SIGGRAPH ASIA, we also  took part in the Hong Kong   Illustration & Creative Show 10.  We also had Sensei Shuen paint for us. This time, it's a  lady playing the musical instrument Konghou (箜篌). Click on the following screenshots to check out our ultra-high resolution rendering.

And this is a short video showing the process:

Thanks to those who visited our booth. Thanks to the supporting staff of CGVisual. And your support to me is the greatest encouragement in continuing developing Expresii!   ​+｡:.ﾟTHANKヽ(*´∀)ﾉﾟYOU.:｡+ﾟ

Had a chance to  tryout the new OneXPlayer X1 air's performance. Very  happy to get 200+ FPS. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to try out their WPG pen yet.  But I was told that it supports tilt sensing, in addition to pressure. 

Also had a chance to try out  the very new (not yet available) Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (Gen 3) and the Kamvas 13 (Gen 3).  The new Pen Tech 4.0 is very sensitive in  pressure. Tilt sensing is also much more stable then last time we used Huion. The slim pen and also the eraser tip button that also gives pressure is a very welcomed feature.

I Tried running Expresii on a GPD Win Max 2 (2023) with AMD Ryzen 7840U, 32GB RAM.​ It's actually more like a small laptop than a handheld, as it is a bit heavy to hold for a period of time. It is very responsive running Expresii. Please check out the demo featuring the use of G-sensor for intuitive digital watercolor paint flow:

Why gaming handheld PC? Because they have fast GPUs yet they are compact. I confirm that the Win Max 2 can connect to an external nvidia GPU for both cases of using Thunderbolt and Oculink.  That would be useful if you do AI development as today most AI code ran on Nvidia rather than on an AMD (their ROCm 7.0 is still not officially released yet!). Wake up from sleep on Windows 11 of this deivce (7840U) is immediate on par with a desktop PC. In comparison, my older 6800U   OneXPlayer 2    sometimes takes quite a while to wake up. So far I'm quite happy with the Win Max 2 ​.

Many MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol) 2.0 pen displays exhibit certain level of wobbling for slow diagonal lines. Luckily the GPD Win Max 2  only exhibit slight wobbles:

For comparision, here is the slight wobbles given by a Surface Pro 8:

For comparision, the 6800U OneXPlayer 2 supporting the same MPP 2.0 protocol pens gives a bit more wobbles:

Hopefully their newer models like the OneXPlayer X1 Air can give less wobbles.

There are several brands of portable  display with pen and touch support.  Recently we tried Intehill U16ZT-B.   Several years ago, I  bought my first portable display and it was an Intehill too. That one's colors are too saturated.  Several years later, I think their colors are much more accurate now. Their   U16ZT-B is rather light for an 16" 16:10 at 890g. Their  anti-glare screen works well for removing glare.  The 3K resolution is also adaqate as I believe a higher resolution would be blurred by the anti-glare   treatment. 

From an artist's perspective, the main complain is the wobbles for slow diagonal lines.   Many MMP-based pen display have this issue.   If you don't do slow diagonal lines often, it's probably okay. Another   complain   would be that the kickstand is too small that if you stroke with the pen on the screen, the screen would be moved.  I guess that mean syou need to use a separate stand if you are really to paint on this display. But it's good that they have VESA holes that you can mount this display.

I also have an eHomewei RQ3 17.3" pen display. Previously, we also tried an earlier model from eHomewei, and that gives line wobbles.   Last year I bought a new model   RQ3,  and to my delight, there is no wobble at all!   See the video below:

EMR pen displays won't have the wobble issue and have been the choice for artists.   Now, we also have an MPP-based pen display that doesn't give wobble.   Great to have more options!

The host PC is Aoostar GT37 mini PC.  It's very compact and sleek, and even support connecting to an eGPU via oculink.   The only thing I want to have is one more USB type-c port, so that after using one for portable display, I can still have another one for other stuffs.

Previously we tested EasyCanvas with an Android device. Today, we tested EasyCanvas again but with an iPad Air 4.

Our host PC is an AMD 7840HS. We get around 90 FPS when the iPad is connected to the PC via an USB cable. We weren't able to get wifi connection working, unfortunately. Make sure you check the 'Winodws Ink' checkbox in Expresii so that Expresii uses the standard pen API of Windows instead of Wintab DLL like those shipped by Wacom XP-Pen or Huion.

The following video shows how the painting experience is when the auto-setter is enabled.   It alsos shows that you can change the brush visualization.

We took part in the exhbition of SIGGRAPH ASIA in Tokyo 4-6 December 2024. This time, we had Sensei Shuen help demo Expresii to the audience. 

We had a chance to meet with  artists including 五天晴 . famous of his work on digital Chinese ink related 3D work.   

The following are video recording of sensei   Shuen painting live at the event. Check out those super-high resolution rendering at the end of the video.  You see very thin lines as well as organic flow patterns~

There have been visitors saying they use paint apps like Procreate and ran into the issue of not being able to enlarge their artwork.   That's why they are  amazed to learn about the innovative   vector-like zooming capability of Expresii!      The next video captures a conversation  with a visitor along this line:

Yes, we show you that you can always change paper profiles for a different texture too, while keeping all those high-resolution rendering:

Thank you for all the appreciation~   Yes, we keep working on Expresii, including the improvement of layer support. 

Again, we thank CGVisual for having us at their booth. See you in SIGGRAPH ASIA 2025 in Hong Kong!

We  were lucky enough to have a chance to present a gift to Dr. Jensen Huang while he was in Hong Kong.  The gift is a piece of calligraphy hand-written with Expresii by our Dr. Nelson Chu.   The text written is a poem made with the help of ChatGPT AI. The following is a video documenting its making.

On 23 November 2024, Jensen Huang received an honorary doctorate   in engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Dr. Chu  was honored to    present the gift to Dr. Huang on the same day.   Both Dr. Huang and Dr. Chu are now fellow HKUST alumni.​   ^_^    

The first characters of each verse are from the Chinese names of Jensen Huang (仁勲) and Nvidia (輝達). Here is a  short  English   explanation of the text:

仁芯拓算力: Jensen’s chips (pun ‘kind heart’) expands computing power.
勲業領風流: Nvidia (‘distinguished work’) leading the way.
輝影繪千變: Computer imagery transforms. 
達智創新猷: Reaching intelligence, creating new strategies.

The stamp ‘墨戲’ (MoXi) on the upper right of the piece  was from a physical seal and is the name of the software prototype Dr. Chu made at HKUST.   The  sundial on the lower left was painted by Dr. Chu digitally while he was at HKUST around 2006 using the MoXi prototype. 

Calligraphy is a highly regarded art form in East-Asian cultures.   In late 90's, Dr. Chu set off to create a virtual brush system for digital calligraphy  & painting.  That was also the dawn of modern GPU computing - in early 2000's, Nvidia made the first GPU with   programmable shading, together with  software components like the   Cg language,   that can be used for general purposes including fluid simulation.  With the help of the latest GPU technology, Dr. Chu was able to unveil a   software   prototype   featuring a virtual brush   in 2002 and present the   MoXi prototype    featuring both virtual brush and virtual ink at SIGGRAPH 2005.   You can say it was Dr. Huang's company that made Dr. Chu's dream come true!   Dr. Chu's   MoXi research paper   was also the first all-local-effort SIGGRAPH paper attributed to HKUST and Hong Kong.  

We thank the HKUST management for allowing such a gift presentation to happen. The smile on Jensen's face was priceless! We also thank Helen, Vv and Tiffany Tang for their support!