This update took quite a bit longer than I anticipated (3 weeks instead of 1), but the good news it that there’s a lot to like here!

I’ve bumped the version to 4.3 (was 4.2.17), added native ARM64 support, and optimized a whole bunch of important rendering code paths. In addition, the quality of selection antialiasing has been improved by using a 4×4 super sampling filter, whereas before it was 3×3. There should be no performance loss because this is now optimized to use vectorized SSSE3 instructions (“SIMD”) on x86/x64 systems.

To get this update, make sure you have "Also check for pre-release (beta) versions" enabled in Settings, and then click on the Check Now button. (Unfortunately alpha/beta releases are not currently available for the Microsoft Store version of the app).

For direct download links, please visit the forum.

Changes since 4.2.17 alpha build 7858:

• New: ARM64 is now natively supported, which includes devices such as the Surface Pro X
• Improved: Many areas of the app have been optimized to use SIMD (SSE2/3/4.1, AVX2) on x86/x64
• Drawing on an image with a large number of layers is faster
• Drawing with the Gradient Tool’s alpha mode is faster
• Drawing with the Recolor tool is faster
• Drawing with the Erase or Clone Stamp tool is faster when using a color whose alpha value is less than 255
• Drawing with the Overwrite blend mode is faster
• Drawing with the Shapes tool is faster, due to improved compositing performance
• Drawing with a brush tool without antialiasing is faster
• Tile compression has lower overhead due to being optimized for SSE2 and AVX2
• Working with complex selections is faster
• Many other optimizations all throughout the application and rendering engine
• Improved: Selection antialiasing quality is now better by way of using a 4×4 super sampling filter instead of 3×3. The code has also been optimized to use SSSE3 on x86/x64.
• Improved: Performance should be significantly better on systems without HyperThreading (by reserving 1 core for the UI), and also a bit better on systems with it (by utilizing more of the logical cores)
• Improved: Effect and File Type plugins can now be organized into folders — the plugin loader will recursively search for DLLs up to 1 folder deep
• Fixed: There were some issues with zooming in/out using the keyboard, where the anchoring (centering) point was not calculated correctly, causing the canvas to drift in the wrong direction.
• Fixed: If a download fails in the Prerequisites Installer, it will retry and resume up to 10 times, thus greatly improving its reliability for downloading things like .NET 5 and the Visual C++ Runtime
• Changed: A processor that supports SSSE3 (yes 3 S’s) is now required for x86/x64 systems (previously only SSE2 was required). All CPUs released since about 2006 (e.g. Core 2 Duo) support this.
• Known Issue: Due to crashing, GPU accelerated effects (Gaussian Blur, Motion Blur, Radial Blur) on ARM64 will actually use the CPU for rendering.

Enjoy!