NatureScapes.net Forums

v 2.0.6
August 5, 2019

New Feature:

Tools menu added with a Toggle Histogram option - more tools to come
Ability to Create, Import form TS1, Use, Remove Custom Filter Presets
Names have been added to textures
Name Search in Texture, AI ReMix, and Digital Frame added

Increased histogram brightness
Histogram has been relocated to the right side of the bottom tool bar

The plot thickens on Topaz Studio 2 blurring images.  I thought it was fixed but it clearly isn't.  It has no problem in stand-alone mode but in plug-in mode it clearly blurs image and does some sort of weird pixel shift - after I was told it was fixed I tested it in stand-alone mode and found everything to be OK, but since, I have had to revert back to Studio 1 when running as a plug-in.  There is a thread on this in the Topaz forums:
https://community.topazlabs.com/t/blurr ... ps/11253/1

Update from Topaz:

Aug 8, 2:09 PM CDT

This is an issue our team is aware of and working to resolve it permanently! We’re collecting cases to add to our bug ticket, I’ll add yours to it. As soon as we have a fix for the issue, I will let you know!

Thank you for all the information, that’s very helpful as we troubleshoot the issue!

E.J. have you paid for your copy of Topaz Studio 2 ?
When it was first announced I got an email which allowed me to download Studio 2 for free without any mention of a price. Which I did. But since then I am getting emails that say the introductory price of $79.99 will be gone and the regular price of $99.99 will be in effect after tomorrow Friday 8/9. With all the problems that you and others have encountered I'm a bit reluctant to pay for something that still is encountering so many bugs. Is it worth $80 -$100 ? The free version seems to do much the same thing but then I haven't used it that much. What's your take?
Edit:
Just went back through my deleted emails and found the one with the link I used and indeed it is free:

"Since you own some of our paid adjustments from Topaz Studio Classic, we're gifting you with a complimentary copy of the new Topaz Studio 2!"

signgrap wrote:E.J. have you paid for your copy of Topaz Studio 2 ?
When it was first announced I got an email which allowed me to download Studio 2 for free without any mention of a price. Which I did. But since then I am getting emails that say the introductory price of $79.99 will be gone and the regular price of $99.99 will be in effect after tomorrow Friday 8/9. With all the problems that you and others have encountered I'm a bit reluctant to pay for something that still is encountering so many bugs. Is it worth $80 -$100 ? The free version seems to do much the same thing but then I haven't used it that much. What's your take?
Edit:
Just went back through my deleted emails and found the one with the link I used and indeed it is free:

"Since you own some of our paid adjustments from Topaz Studio Classic, we're gifting you with a complimentary copy of the new Topaz Studio 2!"

If you got that email and downloaded it you own it.  It means that you purchased some of the modules for it which are now included in Studio 2.  The emails offering it to you for an introductory price are just because you are on their general mailing list.  You can ignore them.  If you go onto their website and go into your account you will see that you own it.

v. 2.0.7 now out - no stated fix for the blurring problem:

v 2.0.7
August 7, 2019

New Feature:

Crop/Rotate/Straighten added
Added ability to manage textures
Image Navigator added
Change

Save as Project File in Photoshop or External Editor mode from File Menu


Fix:

Corrected Issue with scrolling to bottom controls in Filter Panel
Corrected issue wehre the mask brush would linger after masking, closing, and opening new image

It's 2.0.8 now.

I thought I was updating to 2.0.7 but ended up with 2.0.8.

LOL - me too!

Do you get the feeling that you are a beta tester if you are using Studio 2 yet?

v 2.0.8
August 8, 2019

New Feature:

Added bulk import for textures
Added ability to edit texture names in the texture manager
Added multi-select deletion from texture manager

Fix:

Fixed text filter leaving behind edit box when deleting the layer
Fixed text overlap issues in texture browsers
Fixed transparent textures having a shadow of the base image on them

E.J. Peiker wrote:Do you get the feeling that you are a beta tester if you are using Studio 2 yet?

I probably would have wondered what I had paid for if my copy were not free.

Yup ! There it is, 2.0.9.

DChan wrote:Yup ! There it is, 2.0.9.

And it still does not fix the image blurring phenomenon when run as a plug-in.  I did get a message from them yesterday that they are aware of the problem and are still searching for images that do this - um, every image does this and a lot of people are having the problem and it is cross platform, cross graphics card, and occurs whether you are running it as a plug-in from Photoshop (any version) and Affinity Photo.  In any case, here are the latest changes for Topaz 2 users, or should I say the paying beta test group...


v 2.0.9
August 9, 2019

Fix:

Fixed sliders not updating to the values they were dragged to
Fixed previews being wrong after cropping
Fixed the texture manager hover boxes sticking in some cases
Fixed search textbox not being focused when searching for a look
Fixed masking being off after cropping
Fixed image view being off after cropping
Fixed some textures showing up as black boxes due to missing resources

Here is a comparison of running the default AI Clear from inside Photoshop as a plug-in on the left and in stand-alone mode on the right.  Topaz does acknowledge the problem at this point but has not engineered a solution.  This is a 100% crop from a very tiny portion of an image of a peak that is many miles away...

So I started Studio 2 from Photoshop and this time I saw what E.J. had been saying. You don't need some distant mountain shot to see it.

Continuing the experiment, I tried the same thing from Capture On Pro 12 and DxO PhotoLab 2. From Capture One Pro to Studio 2, the image in Studio 2 looked not as sharp. From PhotoLab 2 (with all auto adjustments turned off), I don't see any difference in sharpness. It appears that Capture One Pro applies some sharpening to our images by default. Anyhow, AI Clear seems to work fine in both situations.

One more thing about Photoshop. Mine is CS6 stand-alone. I can start Studio 2 from it but I can't go back to Photoshop from Studio 2. I clicked accept in Studio 2, it closed, but Photoshop just hanged there with that message saying click ok to go back to Photoshop still on the screen. I had no choice but to use task manager to end Photoshop.

I have no problem at all going round trip from Studio 2 back to Photoshop CS6... That could be a corrupt Photoshop preferences file...

Progress!!!


Russell - VP of Product Development:
"We’ve identified the root cause and have a fix for when loading an image from Photoshop (or other plug-in based host editors)."

Just did a TIFF image in Studio 2 where I applied AI Clear and Precision Contrast then the resulting image was exported as a TIFF. The image was then imported into CorelDraw where the image refused to load and crashed Corel (tried this 3 times same result). Then processed the same image the same way in Studio 1 and it imported fine. I'm not going to use studio 2 for a while and give them time to debug it.

signgrap wrote:Just did a TIFF image in Studio 2 where I applied AI Clear and Precision Contrast then the resulting image was exported as a TIFF. The image was then imported into CorelDraw where the image refused to load and crashed Corel (tried this 3 times same result). Then processed the same image the same way in Studio 1 and it imported fine. I'm not going to use studio 2 for a while and give them time to debug it.

Does Corel support LZW compression?  Topaz by default uses LZW compression in their TIF files unless you change it when you are exporting.  It's a one time setting change - the program remembers it for the next time.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

signgrap wrote:Just did a TIFF image in Studio 2 where I applied AI Clear and Precision Contrast then the resulting image was exported as a TIFF. The image was then imported into CorelDraw where the image refused to load and crashed Corel (tried this 3 times same result). Then processed the same image the same way in Studio 1 and it imported fine. I'm not going to use studio 2 for a while and give them time to debug it.

Does Corel support LZW compression?  Topaz by default uses LZW compression in their TIF files unless you change it when you are exporting.  It's a one time setting change - the program remembers it for the next time.

I had checked compression None checked. I always make sure that there is no compression. The files were the same size from Studio 1 and 2, file size 979 MB. I was using CorelDraw not Corel Paint Shop or Photo.