Gigapixel v6.3.3

So far, the models (finally!) seem to be a progress (which none of the versions since 5.7.3 provided for me) but the software crashes every third picture or so.

Hi, love the update! Will this ā€˜engineā€™ be incorporated into a later Topaz Photo AI update?

Thanks again! The Topaz AI solutions are almost like magic.

CJ Carpenter

Okay, I have been playing around with 6.3.2, and while the new AI models are really great, stability has become a catastrophe. Inrespective of which of my machines I run it on (I have a desktop PC and a laptop for choice), I can hardly process three images in succession without having the thing crash. The crashes happen randomly, most of them during image processing, some during generating the preview and I even had GPAI crash when I dragged a picture onto the program window. Both PC run Intel GPU which seems to add to the problem. Switching to CPU is no choice as it processes about three times slower.

There is another bug: I use custom sizing and when I enter a value, say 2.5, it is shown correctly in the status line at the bottom of the program window. However, as soon as I click something in the window, the custom value is reset to the previous one. I have to enter the new value again to make it work.

The new standard model is not quite my thingā€¦ I assume thereā€™s no way to use the ā€œstandardā€ from 6.2.0 along with the rest of 6.3.2?
Original:
Gabrielle Drake  'The Saint' (1968) 6.1
6.3.2 4x Standard


6.2.0 4x Standard

6.2.0 4x lines with a SN adjustment

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I think it was caused by the non-optimal selection of parameters. The Remove Blur slider (as well as the other two sliders) now are more sensitive (i.e., gives more different results from 0 to 100).

For this image, it seems that you were using Remove Blur 100 in GP6.3.2, which gives inferior results since it is over sharpened. Using Auto values can give much better results, and is recommended to start with for any images, and you can try getting better ones by further tuning the sliders.

Remove Blur Slider Auto (42)

Remove Blur Slider 100

However we still want to keep the slider range to be large, since 100 can be necessary for some other lower quality input images.

4 Likes

Excellent point, I assume it was set to Auto but in fact it wasnā€™t, many thanks and apologies I hadnā€™t noticed that.
The top right and eyes are still poor both in Auto and your =42 pic BTW. I canā€™t get a set of params for Standard that make it all look good. This is standard/auto in 6.2.0:

I have the same problem as @james.walley , but it occurs only when enlarging 2x. When scaling 4x everything looks OK. Itā€™s the same with every image even with the built-in tutorial images.

To me it seems that the model file C:\ProgramData\Topaz Labs LLC\Topaz Gigapixel AI\tgrc/gclc-v1-fp32-96x96-2x-ox.tz (which GP is using as per log file) is not working correctly.

It happens when I set my Nvidia GTX970 as AI processor in preferences. When I switch to Intel HD Graphics 530 or CPU as AI processor everything looks OK when scaling 2x. The glitch occurs only with GTX970 and scaling 2x.

@digit42 youre right about the 2x issue. I have a GTX980 with the same problem. I did some testing and it seems that if I use anything under 2.5x it gives that weird glitchy pattern but anything 2.5x and above seems to work (appears that way)

We are now working on the solution for the artifact issue for certain nvidia gpu (GTX 980 Ti for example). We have reached out to some our users to verify our solutions.

2 Likes

I wanted to say that while the new standard model is fantastic on some subject matter, Iā€™m running into situations where it falls short of the previous version. For some clarification, I have a workflow where I am upscaling very low-resolution game art assets. Iā€™m finding in very low-res situations with foliage, the model seems to get confused and spits out some rather messy noise. HQ has the same issue but is slightly less pronounced. The original Standard scale seemed to handle these situations much better.

Currently, Iā€™m planning to keep both old and new versions to bridge the gap, because the new Standard model doesnā€™t seem as reliable in all situations. Attached are some examples. Please note that noise suppression is set to MAX, but does not seem to have much of an impact. Iā€™m running on a 2021 M1 MAX Macbook Pro.

2X Standard Upscale in 6.2.2:

2X Standard Upscale in 6.3.2:

2X HQ Upscale in 6.3.2:

Source Image:
sui_a02f-layer0-st

Thanks!

1 Like

Not sure which messy noise you were referring to in 6.3 from the image above. But there are two things I would check if such noise is observed.

  1. New models (standard and hq) handles images best with gamma correction off, for most images; the option is only useful for some darker images.
  2. Fix Compression slider is another effective controller for noise (and artifacts). It was designed for not only compression artifacts, but also processing artifacts remained from denoising. Try increase that.
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Pardon me for jumping in, but thanks for bringing this to my attention - I used never to use auto settings because it produced quite erratic results with the old models. However, it seems to have improved a lot over time, and now the ā€œautoā€ settings seem to be an excellent entry point for the animal photos which make up the lionsā€™ share :grinning: of the pictures I process.

I use the four-tile preview, one tile being the standard model with all parameters zeroed, the next being standard/auto, the third set to HQ/auto and the last to low res/auto. There have been hardly any pictures where one of the previews has not yielded a result very close to what I wanted it to be. While weā€™re at it, the ā€œremove blurā€ slider is in fact much more aggressive than it used to be with the old set of models. While the old models often needed !remove blur" set to 100, the new standard and HQ models seem to incorporate quite some blur removal capacity in them, so I hardly need to set ā€œrevove blurā€ to 50 or more while the ā€œautoā€ setting typically has it in the 20 to 30 range with the pictures I process.

If the software only was stable and the image size parameters were applied after I enter them once, Iā€™d be almost completely satisfied :upside_down_face:

Thank you Developer very much. :grinning: :+1:
The new Standard Model is so much better than the old one. It is a huge improvement. :100: :partying_face:

In most cases, the new Standard model win hands down, except for some slightly noisy image.
I think the new Standard Model require a wider range of noise reduction setting.

For some slightly noisy images, I was able to get good result with the Old Standard Model by manually set the noise reduction to max & remove blur to zero. However for the New Standard Model, noise remain in output image with the same setting. (Max Noise reduce, Zero Remove Blur, Max Fix Compression).

This is happening with the Photoshop extension:

I have used gigapixel for several years successfully. With the older version at first I had a trouble with it being unable to download the models it needs. I got some help from you attached below.

Now with the new version Iā€™m having the same problem but your solution from below does not work. I need this software immediately for some artwork Iā€™m printing.

Pleas help. Here is one current screen shots Iā€™m getting:

Screenshot 2023-01-19 at 7.35.08 AM.png

The other window said it was unable to download the models and admonished me to remove any virus or other software that might interfere even though it spent several minutes downloading them. I have no virus blockers or other things getting in the way of downloading. Just download the installer and a number of images and files from you and elsewhere with no problems.

The instructions I got last time this happened (for issues with Denoise) are included below.

I am using a Mac with OS 13.1. And a recent install of Gigapixel 6.3.2.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)

Processor 3.6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9

Memory 48 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Startup Disk Macintosh HD

Graphics AMD Radeon Pro 5700 8 GB

Serial Number CO2DD0R207CK

Please help. I need this to work right away. I have important images I need to process.

ā€”Kenoli

Your reply when I had this issue before.

Hi Kenoli,

Thanks for reaching out. I am happy to help troubleshoot this with you.

Weā€™ll need to start by removing the product and reinstalling with some specific steps:

  1. Open a new Finder window and open the Go to Panel by holding down CMD (Command) + Shift + G and paste the whole path in there for each. For the Library path, the ~ needs to be included. Delete the whole DeNoise AI folder or application from each location. Some may not have DeNoise AI. That is okay, just be sure to check each.

~/Library/Application Support/Topaz Labs LLC/
/Applications/Topaz Labs LLC
/Applications/
~/Topaz Labs LLC

  1. Delete plist files for DeNoise AI: How To Delete Your Plist Files

  2. Download and save the full installer but donā€™t open it right away: https://downloads.topazlabs.com/deploy/TopazDeNoiseAI/latest/TopazDeNoiseAI-Full-Installer.dmg

  3. Restart your computer, and then run the installer without any other programs running.

Please let me know if any problems persist, and I will continue helping.

Thank you,

ā€“
Jenny W
Support Specialist
Topaz Labs

I am having the same issue as a number of others: ā€˜model file download failedā€™. Iā€™ve tried a full install of 6.3.0 too, and on another computer - but no joy there either.

Iā€™m running a trial license on Win11 with a 3070Ti

(Not yet taken the leap to GP but have used DeNoise a fair bit and Sharpen all the time. But have never had an issue running trial versions previously. Have squirrelled out remnants of old installs as best I can!)

Alex

For those who have model downloading issue, you can go to support team and chat with them https://support.topazlabs.com/. They saw and fixed many such cases. If not fixable caused by internet, they can send model downloadable link from cloud storage.

Just a thought here. If you use AdGruard on your computer it may be the problem. I have it and it will prevent a number of downloads though I havenā€™t had an issue with in app updates. Try turning it off before a download.

Good results, indeed! That said, you forgot to activate the gamma correction option for the first photo because we can see some blue/cyan artifacts here and there on top that the AI added, due to the JPG or JPEG strong compression from the original photo.

I agree, as long as it doesnā€™t remove ā€˜textureā€™ or ā€˜grainā€™ I want to keep, if I set the reduce noise slider to zero.

3 Likes

Blue-Red-Green Rectangles (Bricks) Artifact persists in Standard and HQ regardless of many parameter changes.
I saw this in prior beta versions but not in prior full public release.
It shows up in different places when you change Noise, Remove Blur, and or Fix Compression but cannot get rid of it. The processed image is therefore unacceptable.

GigaPix 6.3.2 Wedding Photo Rectangular Artifacts Standard or HQ