Topic: Brush size video glitch in PS CS4 (Read 4076 times)

reburns · « **on:** March 01, 2009, 07:35:33 pm »

When I use a brush, clone or eraser in PS CS4, I get a full circle for small brush sizes, but when the brush is sized up the circle becomes broken and less is shown as a larger brush is selected. I end up "flying blind", and it's hit & miss.

This happens whether or not Open Gl is selected. I have two machines and it's the same for both:
Laptop: Quadro FX 2500M (Dell special), 512MB video, XPx32 with 3.25GB RAM
Desktop: Quadro FX1700, 512MB video, XPx64 with 8GB RAM
For both machines I have PS preferences set to utilize 85% of available RAM.

Any hints? Thank you. Ralph

Jack Flesher · « **Reply #1 on:** March 01, 2009, 07:50:14 pm »

I suspect it could be because of too little RAM assigned to CS for the large brushes to copy the image data.

If it's not RAM, you could also try resetting all your preferences in CS4 -- you do this by holding Cmd+Opt+Shift (Ctrl+Alt+Shift) while launching CS4, you'll get a dialog asking if you're sure you want to do that, click yes. It's then reset back to all the original defaults, so a huge PITA to go back and set up your prefs, but usually fixes these types of glitches.

What's odd is that it is the same in both your machines -- why I suspected RAM allocation -- or perhaps you added a new software to both that caused the problem?

Hope it works for you,

Paul2660 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 02, 2009, 08:04:50 am »

You might try enabling the bigger tiles plugin.
It's in the goodies section on your CS4 DVD.

Paul Caldwell

keithrsmith · « **Reply #3 on:** March 02, 2009, 09:20:01 am »

I get that too, but only on one of my 2 screens, the other is fine. It doesn't matter to me as I only us ethe second screen for the tools.
A friend also get it, also on his second screen, but in his case he uses that screen as his main screen, so it's a problem

keith

walter.sk · « **Reply #4 on:** March 02, 2009, 09:41:39 am »

I remember reading about this issue, and it happened to me as well. What I read was that it was one of the known bugs in CS4, and that Adobe was aware of it. It may well have been on the Adobe website, but I am not sure.

Doug Fisher · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2009, 12:47:39 pm »

FWIW, I had that problem and it went away when I updated to the latest video drivers for my card.

Doug

reburns · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2009, 03:51:13 pm »

Here's more:

1. I edited my initial post to include the amount of system RAM and allocation to PS. It may have appeared that my systems were starved for RAM, but actually I have the maximum possible RAM installed.

2. You guys are great!

3. I tried wiping the preferences. No change.

4. I tried adding-in "Bigger Tiles" from the "Goodies" section of the install disk. Do I just double click and let it launch PS? I never saw confirmation that this took affect.

Now the biggie, when launching PS, I can get an error message, “…CS4 now includes graphics card acceleration… visit video card manufacturer’s web site to download and install the latest drivers…”

The XPx32 machine is a Dell M90 Precision laptop, so the Nvidia graphics card is an OEM model and the drivers are only available from Dell. I’ve the latest installed and it’s dated 11/2007. This laptop was top-dog two years ago… suppose it’s obsolete now? My car is older, kids older, I better get new ones (hear any frustration?).

I discovered a workaround for XPx32 laptop: when I go to Video Properties > Advanced > Troubleshoot > and look at Hardware Acceleration, there is a sliding scale with six levels. Once moving the slider from “Full” (6/6) to 5/6th, I can immediately see the large circle size brush in PS. There is a noticeable (further) speed hit in CS4, but hopefully I’ll work better. I use my computers for CAD and FEA engineering work (Solidworks & Abaqus) during the day, and each has their own suggested antiquated drivers. I might be sliding that performance slider around between applications.

For the XPx64 workstation (14 months old), I found that Nvidia updated the driver two weeks ago, and that did fix the issue without requiring that the performance slider be turned down. However, the preferences setting, “Enable OpenGL Drawing” is grayed out.

In other news, Photoshop CS4 version 11.0.1 update is available, although it didn’t change anything about this issue. And I’ve been making time to study the older Masking book by Katrin Eismann at night, and juggling thru the version changes.

Jack Flesher · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2009, 04:43:31 pm »

Quote from: reburns

4. I tried adding-in "Bigger Tiles" from the "Goodies" section of the install disk. Do I just double click and let it launch PS? I never saw confirmation that this took affect.

You drag it into your CS4/Plug-ins/Extensions folder and rename it by removing the tilda (~) from the front of the filename, then it will activate on re-launch.

paulbk · « **Reply #8 on:** March 02, 2009, 05:53:17 pm »

This is a common problem with some Nvidia cards. The latest driver helps. But not always.
The Fix: Reduce your hardware acceleration to 50%, more/less if necessary.
How: XP, go to Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot > Hardware acceleration (slider)

Very annoying little glitch, isn't it?
Works for me every time.

Doug Fisher · « **Reply #9 on:** March 03, 2009, 10:58:01 am »

You can get around the OEM limitation for Nvidia laptop drivers by going to sites like http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ . Also, for newer 7xxx and more recent Nvidia laptop cards, Nvidia now provides drivers directly on their site so that you don't have to do the workaround.

Doug

Author Topic: Brush size video glitch in PS CS4 (Read 4076 times)