Adobe has taken significant strides in expanding its Creative Suite offerings for Windows on Arm, recently unveiling beta versions of popular applications such as After Effects and Premiere Pro. This move follows last year’s initial foray with Illustrator, marking a notable commitment to enhancing the user experience on Snapdragon devices.
New Beta Releases for Windows on Arm
In a recent announcement on the Adobe Community platform, the company detailed its latest beta releases, which now include not only After Effects and Premiere Pro but also Audition and Media Encoder. Users with Snapdragon devices are encouraged to explore these applications, albeit with the understanding that certain features are currently absent or may never be implemented.
For After Effects, the limitations are particularly noteworthy. Users will find:
- Lack of format support: Key formats such as ProRes, ARRIRAW, SWF, GoPro CinePro, JPEG20000 in MXF, and WMV cannot be imported or exported. Consequently, the High Quality and High Quality with Alpha settings will default to the uncompressed QuickTime codec, accompanied by a warning.
- No import capabilities for MotionJPEG and MKV.
- Absence of hardware-accelerated playback and export for H.264 and HEVC in MP4.
- Missing features such as Keylight and Mocha, which are not yet available at launch.
- The Cinema 4D renderer and related features are also absent.
- Third-party plugins will not function with the native builds and will require updates for compatibility with Windows on Arm.
Adobe is actively engaging with third-party developers to facilitate these updates and plans to release an SDK update for Windows on Arm in the near future.
As for Premiere Pro, users can expect a mix of features that are currently unavailable and those that will be added in future updates. Notably, the following features will not be available in the beta or final release:
- Loudness Radar effect (replaced by Loudness Meter)
- Export to Wraptor DCP
- Import and export of the GoPro CineForm codec
- Export to the P2 Movie format
However, some features that are currently missing but will be included in future releases comprise:
- Support for third-party extensions, including plugins and audio plugins.
- ProRes support for import and export, as well as for proxies and render & replace options.
- Import and export of JPEG2000 in MXF.
- Hardware-accelerated playback and export for H.264 and HEVC in MP4.
- Support for various raw video files, including Apple ProRes RAW and ARRI ARRIRAW.
While the absence of these features may pose challenges for some users, the ongoing development of Windows on Arm presents a promising landscape for creative professionals. The advancements in Snapdragon-based systems have sparked excitement, suggesting a bright future for users eager to leverage Adobe’s powerful tools in a native environment.
