This build fixes the bugs identified in the forum post for the previous version, and also optimizes plugin loading times by quite a bit. A performance issue was also fixed that was crippling the performance of most tools, which was related to using the garbage collector’s "low latency" mode while drawing. As it turns out, it totally broke performance, so it has been reverted.

The first time the app starts after install or update, it will load Shapes normally, convert them into a binary format, and then save them to a cache. Subsequent app starts will be much faster, as the time for loading the binary data from the cache is — at least on my system! — 16x faster. I’m pretty happy with this result This should help a lot on systems that have a lot of shapes installed. Memory usage of the shapes is also greatly reduced.

For effects and file types, some of them need to be patched up at load time to be compatible with 4.3. If you remember from some of the previous alpha builds, I mentioned that I made a similar caching system for these types of plugins (as described above for Shapes). I later disabled it because I had concerns about its security. I’ve now re-enabled the cache, but only for plugins that are installed into the Documents folder — not for plugins installed into the Program Files location. So, if you want to ensure Paint.NET starts as fast as possible, I recommend moving your plugins to that location (e.g. Documents\paint.net App Files\FileTypes for FileTypes, and similar for Effects). The cache is also employed for additional plugin directories that are established using the process described here.

The plugin caches are now also enabled for the portable releases. A directory called AppCache will be created in the same directory as the app. It can be safely deleted at any time, even while the app is running.

Also note that the plugin caches must be rebuilt every time a new update is installed, so expect the first app start after installing an update to be more sluggish if you have many plugins or shapes installed. It won’t be any worse than 4.2.16, however.

Get the update

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 4.3 alpha build 7918:

• Improved performance of loading custom Shapes by 16x on 2nd and subsequent app starts
• Fixed a crash when trying to save an image that does not support loading
• Fixed a performance issue that was crippling performance while drawing with most tools

Enjoy!

This build fixes 2 more bugs that were present in builds 7916 and 7917.

Get the update

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 4.3 alpha build 7917:

• Fixed a bug in the FileType plugin loader that resulted in any attempt to open or save images to crash the app. This would happen if a plugin existed with types decorated with attributes from assemblies that did not exist (e.g. from a unit testing framework).
• Fixed a bug with tool cursors not switching to their "mouse down" forms

This build fixes 3 bugs that were present in yesterday’s build 7916.

Get the update

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.

Note that the offline installer may still need to download some prerequisites if you’re on a Windows 7 or 8.1 machine that is not up-to-date via Windows Update. You do not need to have .NET installed, as these builds use self-contained deployment.

Changes since 4.3 alpha build 7916:

• Fixed a rendering issue with the brush tools, reported here: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118596-paintnet-43-alpha-build-7916/?do=findComment&comment=586025
• Fixed an issue that caused the Plugin Browser plugin to crash for shimmed plugins because the Assembly’s Location was empty
• Fixed an issue with tolerance values being scaled slightly wrong for the Magic Wand, Paint Bucket, and Recolor tools, causing discrepancies with previous versions (4.2.16 and earlier), which was reported here: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118565-paintnet-43-alpha-build-7906/?do=findComment&comment=585879

As it turns out, the plugin loading error that @AndrewDavid reported with build 7906 was caused by a much deeper issue in the plugin loading system. I’ve significantly rewritten how plugins are loaded and the result is a much more robust and performant system.

I’ve also greatly optimized the memory usage when custom shapes are installed. Previously, the declarative XAML would result in possibly hundreds of thousands of small boxed objects on the heap (floats, points, etc.) due to how the WPF-based object model. Now the shapes are compiled to a Direct2D-compatible format, reducing the memory used and the number of objects littering the heap (instead of 100’s of thousands, now maybe just a few thousand). I was actually seeing jumps and spikes in paintbrush drawings, presumably due to added GC stress, and this now seems to be eliminated.

Lastly, you can now specify additional directories to load plugins from, which means you can use something like OneDrive to host your plugins which will then be sync’d to all of your systems. For security reasons you must edit some registry entries to enable this feature. See here for more details.

I think we’re finally in the home stretch for 4.3!

Get the update

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 4.3 alpha build 7906:

• New: Additional directories can now be specified for plugin discovery, which enables the use of OneDrive for storing plugins. See here for more info: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118583-feature-request-set-custom-app-files-plugins-folder/?do=findComment&comment=586013
  • Note that this does not work with the portable version of the app, but you can install plugins next to the app so it isn’t necessary.
• Optimized memory use when custom shapes are installed so they don’t litter the heap with hundreds of thousands of boxed value types (e.g. floats and points)
• Fixed a whole bunch of issues related to plugin loading, such as random OptionBasedLibrary-based plugins not loading (race condition in the loader)
• Optimized the performance of plugin loading to prioritize "expensive" plugins so they don’t extend the critical path any more than necessary
• Changed: FileType.IsReflexive() is now deprecated via [Obsolete], and is no longer honored. However, the Save Configuration dialog will no longer try to generate previews for FileTypes that do not specify any file extensions for loading, which is what this method was mostly being used for.

Enjoy!

This update improves legacy plugin compatibility and fixes an issue with the Effects and Adjustments menus.

Also, the legacy plugin cache has been disabled for now due to a security concern. You can enable it by setting the following registry key to "true": HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ paint.net \ "Plugins/EnablePatchedAssemblyCache". This is only necessary if you feel like the app starts way too slow, and you have several legacy plugins installed.

Get the update

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 4.3 alpha build 7904:

• Fixed compatibility with Shape3D v1.2.6.3 plugin
• Fixed compatibility with FileType plugins that use OptionBasedLibrary, such as ImPDF.Open.FileType and ImPS,EPS,AI.Open.FileType
• Fixed an issue where the Effects or Adjustments menus would be blank, and keyboard shortcuts for adjustments would crash the app

This update fixes a few crashes and greatly improves compatibility with legacy plugins. This compatibility is being accomplished by hot-patching the code (IL) in the DLLs, and it can be CPU and disk intensive the first time the app is launched after updating. After that, the hot-patched DLLs are cached and will load much faster (until the first launch of the next app update).

There is still ongoing work to make sure as many legacy plugins as possible can be made to work. See this thread for more details: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118529-plugins-that-fail-in-the-43-alpha-builds-of-paintnet/

Get the update

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 4.3 alpha build 7894.40357:

• Fixed a crash when using Image sampling mode with the Magic Wand or Paint Bucket tool
• Fixed a rendering bug in the Gradient Tool when using Transparency Mode
• Fixed compatibility with many old plugins, including: Shape3D, Planetoid, ClusterClearEffect, Shape Maker, Scribble, LensFlare, GraphPaper, BrushFactory (v2.0.2 and earlier), BrushFilter, CircularText, ColorHarmonies, ColorMatrix, Ed Harvey’s Classic Dents, EditableText, CustomBrushesMini, SimonBrown’s plugin pack, and any effect plugin using OptionBasedLibrary v0.7.9 or earlier.
  • If you have these plugins installed, startup performance after updating the app will be slower as the old plugins are patched and placed into a cache. Subsequent app launches will be faster.

This big thing for this update is that I was able to get @Ed Harvey‘s effect plugins to work! And that’s basically it, but that’s a really big win

In order to get it working, the DLL is modified to fix up the code that doesn’t work on .NET 5. There were two properties of type ContextMenu that had to be removed (they weren’t being used), and some reflection against some fields in VisualStyleRenderer that were renamed. This was pretty easy with the use of Mono.Cecil.

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 4.3 alpha build 7879:

• Fixed: EdHarvey’s Effects now work as-is without the need to install an updated version (which is not yet available)

The complete list of changes so far for 4.3, as compared to 4.2.16:

• New: The app has been migrated to .NET 5, and performance has been greatly improved as a result.
• New: ARM64 is now natively supported
• Installation is much faster now due to no longer needing the "Optimizing performance for your system" stage (NGEN has been replaced with ReadyToRun via crossgen).
• Portable ZIPs are now officially available, utilizing self-contained deployment, and do not require the installation of .NET 5. You must manually update to newer versions of the app, however.
• Improved performance of most effects and other compute-intensive tasks by about 20% on average, due to .NET 5’s improved code generation
• 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 a bug in Polar Inversion that was causing hangs
• Improved performance of Polar Inversion by 3x, due to the aforementioned bug fix (and a little bit is due to .NET 5)
• 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 a bug when saving with "Auto Detect" bit-depth that was causing fidelity loss on some images that already had 256 colors or less. This was reported here: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118401-images-already-with-256-or-fewer-colors-being-dithered-when-saved-with-palette/
• 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.
• Updated the built-in AvifFileType plugin to v1.1.13.0 (courtesy of @null54). See the project’s GitHub Releases page for more information.

This build isn’t too exciting, fresh off the heels of yesterday’s 4.3 alpha build 7878, but it’s important: it fixes a crash when running an effect with a selection active! (unless the selection was just simple rectangles)

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 4.3 alpha build 7878:

• Fixed a crash when running an effect while a non-pixelated selection (not just simple rectangles) was active

The complete list of changes so far for 4.3, as compared to 4.2.16:

• New: The app has been migrated to .NET 5, and performance has been greatly improved as a result.
• New: ARM64 is now natively supported
• Installation is much faster now due to no longer needing the "Optimizing performance for your system" stage (NGEN has been replaced with ReadyToRun via crossgen).
• Portable ZIPs are now officially available, utilizing self-contained deployment, and do not require the installation of .NET 5. You must manually update to newer versions of the app, however.
• Improved performance of most effects and other compute-intensive tasks by about 20% on average, due to .NET 5’s improved code generation
• 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 a bug in Polar Inversion that was causing hangs
• Improved performance of Polar Inversion by 3x, due to the aforementioned bug fix (and a little bit is due to .NET 5)
• 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 a bug when saving with "Auto Detect" bit-depth that was causing fidelity loss on some images that already had 256 colors or less. This was reported here: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/118401-images-already-with-256-or-fewer-colors-being-dithered-when-saved-with-palette/
• 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.
• Updated the built-in AvifFileType plugin to v1.1.13.0 (courtesy of @null54). See the project’s GitHub Releases page for more information.

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!