Astropad Standard and Studio Apps Updated With Support for Luna Display Adapter, Which is Now Available for Pre-Order

Other apps have allowed wireless display transmission, but at less than optimal frame rates and resolution using WiFi. Is this like some sort of lower-latency USB 3.0 thing with a built-in H.265 encoder or something? It can't be too proprietary considering that the iPad only has Bluetooth, LTE and WiFi to communicate and I don't see a dongle on the iPad end.

The dongle is simply a display emulator. A chip tricking the OS that "hey a display was connected". By doing this you can then capture the "fake" display and stream it as video to the iPad (over WiFi). There is no real magic behind the Luna dongle except it being USB-C. There's tons of this type of dongle available in HDMI-format for cheap:

https://www.headlessghost.com/

https://www.amazon.com/CompuLab-fit-Headless-Display-Emulator/dp/B00FLZXGJ6

Price is 90% less than what Astropad is charging for their dongle.

Am I understanding this right -- could you take an image you're working on and drag it over to the iPad Pro display and draw on it with the Apple Pencil? (I mean, assuming the app supports that?)

Just with the app, the iPad mirrors your Mac’s screen and, yes, you can draw on it great. Works really well.

Luna is a smart hardware hack that “tricks” macOS that there is a second monitor present and then the iPad image is “mirrored” from that virtual monitor - esentially creating a separate display on the iPad. You can draw on this too, of course.

So, Astropad - mirrored Mac screen you can draw on, Astropad + Luna - separate Mac screen you can draw on :)
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Other apps have allowed wireless display transmission, but at less than optimal frame rates and resolution using WiFi. Is this like some sort of lower-latency USB 3.0 thing with a built-in H.265 encoder or something? It can't be too proprietary considering that the iPad only has Bluetooth, LTE and WiFi to communicate and I don't see a dongle on the iPad end.

It uses wifi or a lightning cable to connect (latency is better with the cable).

The adapter on the Mac is Luna Display, a little dongle that makes your Mac think there is a separate display which it can mirror on the iPad with Astropad. It’s the only way you can get a separate (non-mirrored) image with Astropad.

Please note I’m not affiliated with Astropad in any way - I’m just a user :)

Nice ad.

How much do you pay MacRumors to read their site?

...oh, you don’t? Breaking news: advertising pays the bills so you don’t have to.

What’s the difference between Standard and Studio?

I used to use Astropad but the pixelation sucked and Duet was better. Then Duet started requiring a subscription to use the Pencil so I stopped using mirroring apps like these alltogether and went with using native apps for Mac and iOS that could open each other’s files (I.e. Lightroom for Mac and iOS).

I’d consider going back to Astropad if it works with Apple Pencil and has solved the pixelation problem. I already paid for Astropad, I’m not going to pay for a subscription too.

Subscription is way too expensive...

How good is it for drawing when it comes to latency etc?

Very good - you can definitely do professional work on it with ease. This is coming from someone who used various Cintiqs and Intuoses. Please note that I use a lightning cable for best results.

What’s the difference between Standard and Studio?

I used to use Astropad but the pixelation sucked and Duet was better. Then Duet started requiring a subscription to use the Pencil so I stopped using mirroring apps like these alltogether and went with using native apps for Mac and iOS that could open each other’s files (I.e. Lightroom for Mac and iOS).

I’d consider going back to Astropad if it works with Apple Pencil and has solved the pixelation problem. I already paid for Astropad, I’m not going to pay for a subscription too.

Duet can’t really compare with Astropad when it comes to drawing. Not even close. Yes, there used to be pixelation in Astropad before, but that was because the app was art-focused, putting low lag before picture quality. But now even that is fixed. If you want a second screen, Duet is fine, but for actual art, Astropad is the only choice.

As for Standard and Studio - Studio has some nice gestures, shortcuts and pressure curve settings. Standard has the same performance and the most important features. If you plan on using a keyboard instead of gesture shortcuts, Standard is perfectly fine.