Summary

  • Adobe releases betas for Windows on Arm, including After Effects and Premiere Pro.
  • Missing features, such as format support and hardware acceleration, exist in the Arm versions.
  • Plugins, formats like ProRes, and codec support may never make it to the Windows on Arm versions.

Last year, we saw Adobe state that it was planning to bring its Creative Suite over to Windows on Arm. It began the charge by releasing an Illustrator beta for Windows on Arm, but then things went a bit quiet as Adobe continued cooking up some more native versions to release on Snapdragon systems.

Now, the company finally has more to share on the Windows on Arm front. The company has just released betas for apps like After Effects and Premiere Pro that work natively on Snapdragon devices, but before you get too excited, the apps do have a few missing features.

Adobe releases more beta apps for its creative suite on Arm

On the Adobe Community, the creativity media giant posted several announcements that more of its apps are getting native releases for Windows on Arm. This includes After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, and Media Encoder. They're all in beta right now, so if you own a Snapdragon device and you want to use Adobe apps natively on your device, give them a spin and see if they're to your liking.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that everything made it over to the Windows on Arm release. For each app, Adobe listed new bugs and missing features for its Arm version. Worst of all, this includes some features that Adobe states won't make it onto the app at all, even after release.

Here are the issues listed for After Effects:

  • Lack of format support, mostly notably ProRes, but also including ARRIRAW, SWF, GoPro CinePro, JPEG20000 in MXF, and WMV. These formats cannot be imported or exported.
    • This means that the High Quality and High Quality with Alpha settings will default (with a helpful warning) to the uncompressed QuickTime codec.
  • No import of MotionJPEG and MKV.
  • No hardware accelerated playback & export of H.264 and HEVC in MP4.
  • Keylight and Mocha are not yet available (there is a warning about them being missing on launch).
  • The Cinema 4D renderer and related C4D features (e.g. Cineware) are not yet available.
  • Third-party plug-ins will not work with the native builds and must be updated for WinARM.
    • We are in contact with many third-party developers and will be releasing an SDK update for WinARM.
    • You are welcome to reach out to developers about updating their plug-ins! We will provide an update when the next SDK update is available.
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And here's what's missing from Premiere Pro, with Adobe listing both features that will eventually be released, and ones that will never make the jump:

Some features of Premiere Pro on Windows Intel systems will not be available when using Premiere Pro on Windows ARM, either in beta or in the final release. These features are:

  • Loudness Radar effect (Loudness Meter is a replacement for Loudness Radar)
  • Export to Wraptor DCP
  • Import and export of the GoPro CineForm codec
  • Export to the P2 Movie format

Some features of Premiere Pro on Windows Intel systems are not currently available in the beta of Premiere Pro on Windows ARM but will be available in a future release. These features include:

  • Support for 3rd party extensions (including plugins and audio plugins)
  • Support for ProRes
    • Import and export
    • Using ProRes for proxies, render & replace, or as a sequence setting video preview option; see below for more information.
  • Import and export of JPEG2000 in MXF
  • Import of MotionJPEG and MKV
  • Hardware accelerated playback & export of H.264 and HEVC in MP4
  • Support of raw video files including:
    • Apple ProRes RAW
    • ARRI ARRIRAW
    • Canon Cinema RAW Light
    • Sony X-OCN and Sony RAW
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Here's hoping that the missing features aren't a dealbreaker for people who want to use these apps on their Snapdragon processors.

The past year or two has been really good for people who use Windows on Arm, to the point where I'd argue that the Snapdragon-based system's developments are more exciting than Windows itself. However, there are some reasons why Windows on Arm can't follow in Apple Silicon's footsteps.