[Zubersoft]

Thank you Martin. I don't see the issue with the line being drawn to the right of the pointer. Is that happening with every song you test with? 

I'll review the smoothing algorithm when "minor" is selected - it's identical to what is used with the current (non-beta) version of MobileSheets, so I'm not sure why you would be seeing this issue only in the beta (unless it also existed in the previous version). I think it does do some work to remove redundant points, but this should have no impact on what is drawn, as it's looking for situations where the slope between multiple points is identical, meaning you only need the first and last point. I do use quadratic beziers when "minor" is selected. I use cubic beziers when the normal smoothing is active, which drastically reduces the point count and provides better performance with lower memory usage. Not everything maps to cubic beziers well though, so I can understand if the smoothing is undesired for some types of drawings, but when writing words, I often find that the smoothed out points look better.

Thanks,
Mike

[MartinH]

I think it was Cmart that reported that lines were drawn to the right of the pointer. I've never seen that myself. 

When I mentioning the 'minor' smoothing setting, I'm not sure it's any different than the release version. I've only be looking at it in such detail since testing the beta, so I have no indication that this is a new behaviour.

I made an animated gif showing what I mean. After I lift the pen after each 'w', the first two corners soften. You can download it here:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!An-nEo9boZ4eg-o8bPoz...A?e=ylAKqv

As I said, it's really not worth worrying about, and maybe it's even better this way. It's just something I noticed.

[Zubersoft]

Sorry about that. I also don't see the behavior shown in your gif when I draw with the stylus on my Surface Pro 4. Whatever I draw is not modified at all with the smooth mode set to "minor". This is with the latest release of course.

Thanks,
Mike

[Cmart]

I also see some smoothing like Mike even when using minor setting. In non beta version there is a "none" setting that eliminates smoothing completely. I also see this smoothing in OneNote but not in Paint and some other pdf-apps. I like the minor smoothing though. I have the new pen which was released with surface 6.

I tested the thing with line drawn to the right. It is only on cropped pages. If I clear cropping it is precise again. And it is only when annotating zoomed in.

[Zubersoft]

Even with a cropped song and zoomed in, I can't reproduce the issue with the line being drawn to the right of the stylus. Can you use Share->Export as .msf and send me the song? Hopefully then I'll be able to reproduce what you are seeing. It might also help if you zip up the XML files (.xml) under C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Zubersoft.MobileSheets_m0zk3axhy8w52\LocalState. Alternatively, you can send me mobilesheets.db, the XML files and one of the song files from the LocalState folder.

I definitely can't explain why I'm not seeing smoothing but you are. That doesn't make sense to me... What you are seeing rendered before you release the stylus should match what is drawn after you release it, as I don't really modify the points with the "Minor" smoothing except for removing redundant points. Quite a mystery...

Thanks,
Mike

[Cmart]

Even with a cropped song and zoomed in, I can't reproduce the issue with the line being drawn to the right of the stylus. Can you use Share->Export as .msf and send me the song? Hopefully then I'll be able to reproduce what you are seeing. It might also help if you zip up the XML files (.xml) under C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Zubersoft.MobileSheets_m0zk3axhy8w52\LocalState. Alternatively, you can send me mobilesheets.db, the XML files and one of the song files from the LocalState folder.

I definitely can't explain why I'm not seeing smoothing but you are. That doesn't make sense to me... What you are seeing rendered before you release the stylus should match what is drawn after you release it, as I don't really modify the points with the "Minor" smoothing except for removing redundant points. Quite a mystery...

Thanks,
Mike

Strange, I have this right-of-pointer-issue in all songs, even if I import a new empty pdf-page.

I have a more serious problem. I have a couple of songs that seems to load really slow and takes a while to render properly. I realize that these are songs from old version with annotations which I then modified with new annotation, deleting and changing old etc. So I pulled up task manager to see whats going on, and there are some memory issues indeed cause this song uses up over 4 gb ram after a while. It stars around 1 gb the builds up as I turn pages. In the old version it uses approx 450 mb continuously. Then memory usage stays even after closing song until I open another and after a couple of page turns in the new song memory usage stays around 500 mb.

Maybe you want me to send this one in particular along with xml-files?

[MartinH]

Regarding the smoothing, I had assumed the method of rendering the line would be simpler while drawing, since it's continually refreshed, than after it's finished (when you lift the stylus) so I wasn't too surprised that things moved a bit. 

I'm not an expert in bezier curves, but I think the line does not necessarily pass through the points:

So even if there's a point at the peak of the letter I'm drawing, it could get smoothed out once the line is rendered as a bezier. Could it be that on some tablets, there are fewer points so more of the peak is being smoothed down? I find that my Surface Go 2 doesn't quite have the responsiveness of a Surface Pro, and maybe the rate of drawing new points is less.

[Zubersoft]

Cmart - Yes, please send me the song and xml files. 

MartinH - While your pictures are accurate for how bezier curves work, the code is actually drawing quadratic bezier curves between every point reported while drawing, and the control point is calculated as being halfway between the points. So it really is more like very small, almost straight lines, but it still handles small curvatures. So no noticeable smoothing occurs (and if it did, you would see it in the middle of drawing, not when you raise the stylus). You are correct that if fewer points are reported, there could be more smoothing going on, but you would see that while drawing, not after releasing the stylus.

Thanks,
Mike

[MartinH]

I guess I don't have anything else to suggest, but if I can help debug something, let me know.

[Zubersoft]

Cmart - So I've identified the cause of the issue, but I'm not sure how the song got in this state. All of the points for each of your freeform annotations are duplicated 28+ times. So that means for each freeform annotation, it's basically stacking the same points on top of each other over and over, using a ton of memory and causing the loading and drawing to be slowed down a significant amount. Is there any chance you can export the .msf for this song from the old version so that I can import it and see if I can reproduce the issue that got the song in this state? I'm not sure if the issue is something that was fixed along the way, or if the issue still exists. 

MartinH - Can you please send me all of the xml files under your LocalState folder along with mobilesheets.db? I just want to investigate a few things.

Thanks,
Mike

[Zubersoft]

Thanks to Cmart's help, I discovered a major bug that was introduced with the last build. It will cause all of the points for every freeform annotations to be duplicated in the database over and over. Songs whose annotations were modified since the last build are no longer usable unfortunately. Reverting to a previous backup is recommended. A new build is being created now and will be released shortly.

Mike

[MartinH]

I just tried making lines with sharp corners using my PC with a mouse rather than my tablet with a stylus, and I see the same behaviour. So it doesn't seem to be related to either the stylus or the relatively low performance of the tablet. Note that this is happening when zoomed in very close to the page, not when zoomed out:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!An-nEo9boZ4eg-pJ2gne...g?e=cake7p

I'll email you a zip file with the database and xml files.

[Cmart]

I just tried making lines with sharp corners using my PC with a mouse rather than my tablet with a stylus, and I see the same behaviour. So it doesn't seem to be related to either the stylus or the relatively low performance of the tablet. Note that this is happening when zoomed in very close to the page, not when zoomed out:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!An-nEo9boZ4eg-pJ2gne...g?e=cake7p

I'll email you a zip file with the database and xml files.

I tried this on my PC and I see the same, even when zoomed out a little bit. It is mostly noticed when drawing sharp Z-figures.

Btw how do you zoom in with the mouse/keyboard?

[MartinH]

I think the only way to zoom without touch gestures (pinch) is ctrl + scroll wheel.

[Zubersoft]

I have reproduced what you have described, and it is indeed due to the algorithm that used to reduce redundant points. I've adjusted the minor setting a small amount, but I'm also adding back the "None" option for users that don't want any modifications to their drawings at all. Thanks for the help with figuring that out.

Mike