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BluEgo106 karma

I'm a 3D artist and proud owner of the first Surface Pro. I believe that many artists out there have been and will be interested to any new evolution of Surface products. You addressed many problems related to using the tablet from an artistic point of view, but many of them still remain imo.

1) I was surprised that you don't use Wacom Technology anymore. Maybe there was some problem as the Surface could be seen as a direct competitor of the Wacom Companion. But the new pen, while more accurate, lacks of levels of pressure. It is only 256, and while it may be enough for digital painters working on a a small canvas, it may result in less accurate sampling. I'm actually happy that you ditched Wacom technology, as they currently have the monopoly, which usually isn't a good thing... but from a user point of view, it may be a risk to jump on the first iteration with a new technology. Do you think the pen will be updated with more levels of pressure during SP3's lifecycle?

1a) This pen probably will not work with applications that use WinTab drivers only... Will this problem be solved? Currently I can't think how it will be possible for me to use softwares like zbrush or mudbox without pen pressure.

2) One of my bigger concerns with the first Pro was that the screen wasn't that big, and that many applications weren't scaling the text properly when using different DPI settings. Is it possible to solve it in some way? Furthermore, can you add an option in windows 8.1, to setup different DPI settings per application?

3) The bigger resolution will probably impact performances. I don't understand this big run to the "retina" resolution. Is it really that important? I would have preferred the classic HD resolution coming from the previous pro.

4) Is it true that the windows logo, being on the right oprtion of the screen, represents a problem for right-handed artists, as it is often pressed by mistake?

5) I would like to see a customizable on-screen keyboard (like ArtDock), where I can put the keys I use the most in my applications. This would be useful when using Photoshop for example... where I can setup a mini-touch-keyboard with ctrl+alt+shift+space buttons only. The problem I have with existing solutions (artdock again), is that palm rejection disables it, and I am forced to remove the hand holding the pen from the screen, while using this on-screen buttons.

Thank you!

BluEgo2 karma

Thank you for the reply. Does this mean that weren't introduced significant improvements regarding pen calibration/accuracy in Pro2? Pro1 is pretty good, but lacks of precision at the border edges. Furthermore, there are a couple of things I would like to see addressed: 1) Two buttons on the side of the pen instead of just one. 2) I love to use the Pro in tablet mode (i.e. without the keyboard attached), while using it for painting/sculpting in 3d. To do so, I use an application called artdock:http://tinyurl.com/artdock, to have ctrl,alt,shift and space in a small touch GUI. I would like to see a customizable touch keyboard in win8 like artdock, where I can layout all the keys I use the most. It would also be great to have an option to disable palm rejection and touch inputs while using this small GUI, so only touch inputs in this custom keyboard will be accepted. This would be awesome for artists who use the pen a lot.