BoltBait's GPU Accelerated Plugin Pack for Paint.NET v5.0 (Updated 2024-04-29)

[BoltBait]

BoltBait GPU Accelerated Plugin Pack

(for Paint.NET v5.0+)

 

NOTE: If you're looking for my plugin pack for Paint.NET v4.3.12, go here, or Paint.NET v3.5.11, go here.

 

If you're in here downloading the 5.0 version of Paint.NET, you're probably familiar with my plugin pack.  I have spent the better part of the last 6 months rewriting most of my plugins from scratch... taking advantage of all the new toys @Rick Brewster has given us plugin authors in Paint.NET v5.0.  He has completely rewritten the Effect system within Paint.NET v5.0 (Don't worry, all your favorite classic effects will still work.) adding new capabilities for the IndirectUI system and providing access to the GPU so that our effects can run VERY fast!

 

Spoiler

Here is a short list of things @Rick Brewster has enabled in Paint.NET v5.0:

• Effects can now access the GPU.
• Effects can have tabs in the UI.  Tabs can contain tab sets.  You can have more than one tab set. You can have controls outside of tab sets.
• Plugin authors can hide the dividing line between controls when using IndirectUI.
• Plugins can now read other layers within your document (although you can still only write to the selected layer).
• Plugins can read a fully merged image of your document (all layers merged together).
• Plugins can read the image metadata.
• Plugins have access to layer names, the current layer, and document/layer metadata.
• Plugins can write OUTSIDE of the current selection (although you can still only write to the selected layer).
• IndirectUI now has a comment control which does nothing except allow you to place text between controls.
• Drop-Down IndirectUI controls can now place text in front of the drop-down list.

 

More tutorials on how to implement these things in your own plugins will be written over the coming months.

 

What's New:

 

I have rewritten more than 25 of my plugins so that they will now be GPU accelerated!  While I was in there, I also added cool new features. Be sure to check your favorite plugin!

 

 

Download:

 

Download      Donate     How to install these plugins.

I'm going through a really tough financial time right now. So, any donation

no matter how small would be very much welcome!

 

Download Contents:

 

The following effects have been GPU accelerated
Adjustment > Black and White Plus Adjustment > Color Balance Adjustment > Combined Adjustments Adjustment > Transparency Artistic > Dream Fill > from Clipboard Fill > from File Object > Apply Alpha Mask Object > Bevel Object Object > Feather Object Object > Inner Shadow Object > Outline Object Object > Switch Alpha to Gray (This is Create Alpha Mask) Object > Switch Gray to Alpha Photo > Level Horizon / Plum Bob Photo > Meme Maker Photo > Photo Adjustments Photo > Remove Dust Photo > Vignette Plus Render > Calendar Creator Render > Flames Selection > Bevel Selection Selection > Blur Selection Edge Selection > Feather Selection Selection > Inner Shadow Selection > Outline Selection Text Formations > Text Fun Factory Object > Drop Shadow Plus		The following effects are classic flavor* Adjustment > Hue / Sat+ Flip Horizontal Flip Vertical Artistic > Oil Paint+ Artistic > Pastel Blurs > Gaussian Blur+ Color > Complementary Colors Object > Paste Alpha Photo > Seam Carving Photo > Sharpen Classic Photo > Sharpen Landscape Render > Chart / Graph Render > Dimensions Render > Gradients Render > Grid / Checkerboard Render > Polygon / Stars Stylize > Edge Detect Classic Stylize > Floyd-Steinberg  Dithering   Outdated plugins removed from my pack Adjustment > Temperature / Tint (now built-in)   Text Formations > Creative Text Pro (now Text Fun Factory) Text Formations > Outlined / Gradient Text (now Text Fun Factory) These can still be downloaded here!

 

This pack also includes 57 shapes and 2 palettes. These are the ones I use.

 

    

 

*Please post a vote for which of my "classic" effects you'd like to see GPU accelerated next.

 

Screenshots of Various Effects:

 

            

 

Outline Selection and Outline Object got some new features and the outlines look MUCH better than previous versions.

 

               

 

                   

 

Check out some of these new features:
Bevel now has a shadow angle free choice and a hard edge option.

Calendar Creator now has holiday highlighting.  Enter your favorite birthdays!

 

                  

Many of my plugins utilize tabs for making the UI much smaller than before.  For example, Text Fun Factory separates the UI into basic functions:

 

 

The Photo > Level Horizon effect utilizes 2 tabs, one for marking the horizon and one for finalizing your image:

 

    

Some old favorites have been rewritten for GPU acceleration:

 

              

 

Enjoy!  

 

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Also, for you luddites that refuse to use the installer, here's a zip file with all the DLL's in it: BoltBaitPack611DLLs.zip  How to install Paint.NET plugins.  NO SHAPES FOR YOU!

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 How about giving this post an up vote ♥️?  

 

 

[BoltBait]

How to install my plugin pack:

 

1) Click the big blue button in the previous message.  The plugin pack .zip file will download to your "Download" directory.

 

2) Right-click on the .zip file and choose "Extract all..." from the menu.

 

3) Click the "Extract" button.

 

 

4) Once the extracted file is shown, double-click on it to run it.

 

 

5) You may be prompted by Windows to protect you.  This is normal, just click on the "More info" link and then click the "Run anyway" button.

 

6) Once the installer runs, you should see the following screen:

 

7) Click the checkbox to agree to the terms and conditions, then click the "Install Everything!" button.

 

A few moments later, you should have all my plugins, palettes, and shapes installed on your system.

 

Enjoy!   👍

 

If you are in an IT department and you'd like to install the BoltBait pack on all of your company's systems, there is a command line interface for just such a purpose:

 

If none of these things work for you, there is a zip file full of just the effect plugins attached at the bottom of the first post.

 

[user.by]

Can we install for Paint.Net 4.3.12, is it work?

[Rick Brewster]

2 hours ago, user.by said:

Can we install for Paint.Net 4.3.12, is it work?

No. These plugins require Paint.NET 5.0. They will not work in 4.3.12 at all.

[TrevorOutlaw]

Very nice job with the Apply Mask plug-in. That is the closest thing we will come to having Layer Mask.

 

[BoltBait]

2 hours ago, TrevorOutlaw said:

Very nice job with the Apply Mask plug-in. That is the closest thing we will come to having Layer Mask.

Thank you. That was my goal.

[amaazon]

This is great thank you, but I have one question.  What happened to the color selection in the bevel tool?  It's only black and white now, is there anyway to change it currently and do you plan to return it to how it was eventually. 

For example something I'm trying to add a darker gray color instead of the white.

Edited November 30, 2022 by amaazon

[BoltBait]

2 hours ago, amaazon said:

What happened to the color selection in the bevel tool?  It's only black and white now, is there anyway to change it currently and do you plan to return it to how it was eventually. 

 

Just an oversight on my part.

 

I have added in some color wheels in Bevel object and Bevel selection.

 

 

Redownload and install.

[amaazon]

Thank you so much for adding this!  I just got on and was thinking i'd have to reinstall the old version of Paint.net to do some of my bevels. 

Thank you so much!

[amaazon]

One more thing sorry, is there anyway to turn off the angling? Similar to the old verison just fully wrapped around rather than just one direction it's toward.

[BoltBait]

4 hours ago, amaazon said:

One more thing sorry, is there anyway to turn off the angling? Similar to the old verison just fully wrapped around rather than just one direction it's toward.

 

Not quite sure what you mean here.  Can you explain?

 

Short answer: No, nothing can be "turned off"... what you see is what you get.

[Shambles_SM]

Hello! I've been using this pack for a while now - been using it for the bevels and image masking and recently just upgraded to Paint.net 5.0 alpha. The updated Bevel Object with a fully customizable light direction was honestly the reason why I decided to do so.

 

Although one thing I noticed is that the effect feels like it's using a blurry Nearest Neighbor-like effect now? It doesn't happen with the drop shadow or when using hard edges. The colors are similar as I prefer beveling objects that way, but since I don't want to reinstall the older version of paint.net (and even if I didn't, the older Bevel Object won't show up) you may want to zoom in further in the below image in paint.net (NOT Photos as it's not nearest neighboring) to see what I mean.

 

Hard Edges turned on does not seem to have the "pixely bevel" issue.

Also, I kinda prefer the older bevel that looked like it had an inner shadow... I think that's what amaazon meant, but that's just me.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Shambles_SM

[BoltBait]

Yes, I agree.  There's something going on there.  I'm going to have to have @Rick Brewster look into it.  I might be mishandling alpha values or something.

 

Just know that the algorithm that I'm using is COMPLETELY different from the old effect.  There are going to be differences.  Hopefully it is something that can be lived with.  I think the old algorithm gave too much priority to the dark areas--I corrected that for the new algorithm.

 

The difference between the hard edges and soft edges is the type of blur used.  Maybe there's a clue there.

 

But, I agree, there is something wrong there.  If the shadow was smooth, I'd say you'll just have to accept that.  But, the shadowing looks like there's some type of crosshatch going on.  I will investigate.  Thanks for compiling the screenshots!

[Shambles_SM]

53 minutes ago, BoltBait said:

Yes, I agree.  There's something going on there.  I'm going to have to have @Rick Brewster look into it.  I might be mishandling alpha values or something.

 

Just know that the algorithm that I'm using is COMPLETELY different from the old effect.  There are going to be differences.  Hopefully it is something that can be lived with.  I think the old algorithm gave too much priority to the dark areas--I corrected that for the new algorithm.

 

The difference between the hard edges and soft edges is the type of blur used.  Maybe there's a clue there.

 

But, I agree, there is something wrong there.  If the shadow was smooth, I'd say you'll just have to accept that.  But, the shadowing looks like there's some type of crosshatch going on.  I will investigate.  Thanks for compiling the screenshots!

So it's not some sort of GPU issue after all. I forgot to mention that I use integrated graphics. Using my CPU for rendering effects also gives the same effect.

 

Regarding the new algorithm, it's fine, and I see why - if it wasn't redone, it would probably mess with hard edges. I can just emulate that with Inner Shadow anyway.

[Rick Brewster]

The discrepancy in the amount of shadowing could be because of a difference in how the old "classic" GaussianBlurEffect and the new Direct2D GaussianBlurEffect handle their radius values. The old classic GaussianBlurEffect was essentially wrong -- its radius value of 2 is equivalent to a radius value of 3 in the new effect (which then has to be converted to standard deviation). So the conversion to standard deviation is r/2 instead of r/3 if you want to match the old GB effect.

 

As for the banding, that might be a precision issue. Direct2D is supposed to be using Float32 here, but it might be sneaking in lower precision at some point. @BoltBait you can experiment with 1) override OnSetDeviceContext() and then do deviceContext.EffectBufferPrecision = BufferPrecision.Float32; and 2) set the Precision property of each effect to BufferPrecision.Float32. Obviously the first one is easier to try first.

 

So, I would start with those two and we'll see how things improve.

[Rick Brewster]

Okay I figured out the issue -- the Bevel Object effect is making use of the Direct2D effects, GaussianBlurEffect and ShadowEffect. They have an Optimization property who's default value is Balanced. It needs to be set to Quality.

[BoltBait]

1 minute ago, Rick Brewster said:

Okay I figured out the issue -- the Bevel Object effect is making use of the Direct2D effects, GaussianBlurEffect and ShadowEffect. They have an Optimization property who's default value is Balanced. It needs to be set to Quality.

 

Thanks, @Rick Brewster!

 

I'll do a build in about 5 hours when I get home from work.

[Rick Brewster]

I'm also going to make is so that the wrapper classes GaussianBlurEffect and ShadowEffect have their Optimization property default to Quality instead of Balanced. Otherwise this type of issue is going to keep coming up. The Balanced and Speed optimization levels should really only be used when animating, like for UI elements (the fade-in for the image and layer thumbnails use Balanced, for instance). So technically you could do nothing and just wait for the next build  

[BoltBait]

4 minutes ago, Rick Brewster said:

So technically you could do nothing and just wait

 

I could do that.

[Rick Brewster]

3 hours ago, BoltBait said:

 

I could do that.

Well I'm not sure when the next build is coming out -- I didn't say that to encourage doing that

[BoltBait]

16 hours ago, Shambles_SM said:

the effect feels like it's using a blurry Nearest Neighbor-like effect now?

 

I believe I have fixed the issue. (OK, not me, but Rick fixed it... but, I did make a release and posted it above!)

 

Please download from above and retest.  Let me know if you're seeing smooth blurring now.

[Shambles_SM]

Seems like the issue has been fixed. Thank you!

 

[Shambles_SM]

Actually no, scratch that. It seems like the issue still persists... I have redownloaded it twice to verify if it's just me mixing up my files.

 

[BoltBait]

6 hours ago, Shambles_SM said:

Actually no, scratch that. It seems like the issue still persists...

 

OK, try one more time.  Rick suggested switching to a different blur library that has a "Highest Quality" setting.  Looks good on my machine.

 

[Shambles_SM]

Looks like it has been fixed! I really hope my eyes aren't tricking me, but for reference I have an i3-4160 and use integrated graphics (HD Graphics 4400). I assume the blur here is the equivalent of Quality 4?