Latest release Sharpen AI 2.1.3

Topaz Products Product Technical Support
#1

This is a very disappointing release.

  1. Topaz has not addressed the banding problem on Sharpen stabilize, which makes it useless
  2. The new auto select feature is also useless. I tested my choice (Sharpen for stationary images) vs the auto selection which was usually Stabilize. Stabilize produces unusable reults with strong sharpening artefacts.
  3. On the Sharpen-ai intro page on the website, Topaz claims to create tack-sharp images with no artifacts, which is clearly nonsense
    I know this product is still in development, but it really is time you sored out the banding problem which you have known about for months.
2 Likes
#2

You should supply some actual information about your environment, which can be found from the Help-> Graphics info where you can press the Copy button and paste the info here. And standalone or plugin & host etc.

Then examples of the image, including details of the input image and the output, you are attempting to Sharpen and the settings you are using. Then also the actual Auto settings given by the application.

#3

I must say that I’m not seeing any banding in the images I’ve processed in 2.1.3 where Stabilize is the Auto selected mode.

I do find the default setting of OFF for the Auto feature quite frustrating. It’s as though the developers decided that most users wouldn’t want to use the Auto feature anyhow, but to further deter any who might, they made it so extra steps are required to select it.

it seems to me it could be a useful option when using batch processing to have both the mode and the settings set to auto, but no, unless I’m mistaken, one would have to individually set both of the switches for every single image in the batch.

It could have been made a preference setting, but it wasn’t.
It could even have been made a remembered setting but again it wasn’'t.

As I said, I find it frustrating and it makes me wonder whether the developer/s actually ever use this software themselves?

My two cents.

#4

Just posted it in the wrong thread: Bug in v2.1.3: Using auto for mode and sharpen setting for batch processing having set “Append processing mode as suffix” doesn’t append the found values. In my case they all have “stabilized” attached. Maybe because the very first one used it.

#5

Application & Version: Topaz Sharpen AI Version 2.1.3
Operating System: Windows 10 (10.0)
Graphics Hardware: AMD Radeon ™ R7 M340
OpenGL Driver: 3.3.13587 Core Profile Forward-Compatible Context 20.2.2 26.20.15019.19000
CPU RAM: 8080 MB
Video RAM: 2048 MB
Preview Limit: 4884 Pixels

Both products used Standalone

Denoise AI 2.2.7
Denoise auto

Sharpen AI 2.1.3
Preferences Enable discrete GPU Yes
Allowed graphics memory consumption High
No auto update of preview

A = Sharpen AI 2.1.3
Mode: manual Sharpen Sharpen; settings: auto

B = Sharpen AI 2.1.3
Mode: auto: software selects Stabilize; settings: auto

Don, you said to send images. I would have attached files but the first message I got was that they were too big, so I reduced them in size and was told cannot put images in a post! Please advise where I should post them – I use dropbox

#6

Just to DropBox and post the link here.

#7

Try changing the Allowed graphics memory consumption to Medium and see if that makes a difference. It also seems your driver is a little out of date, you can download the latest from the AMD website.

#8

Unable to update driver. Reprocessed with Medium rather than High, made no difference. Time on high was 1min36, on medium was 1min36. Stabilize auto setting on Denoised file S54 N26 (my usual routine). Stabilize auto setting undenoised file S47 N23.
Dropbox requires an e-mail adress to allow you access, Don

#9

I’m finding 2.13 is giving me less good results. When it first came out I marvelled at how it could add a touch of sharpness but remove the background noise. Now the noise looks worse after sharpening even with a low sharpening number of say 10 and noise removal 40. The first version seems to have worked best for me.

#10

Try this: Right click on the file on your computer and choose Send With Transfer. After one or two steps you will get a link. Instead of using an email address, just copy the link and post it here for Don. It will self delete in six days. This is a Dropbox function.

#11

Or, if it is already uploaded, choose “Share a link instead” from the share panel.

Screenshot_20200818-061848
Screenshot_20200818-061848.png1536Ă—2048 162 KB

#12

Here you go, thanks for the help

#13

I have now downloaded latest driver from AMD. I have rerun sharpen AI Stabilize on undenoised and denoised images, on high and medium setting and the banding is still evident. I’ve uploaded five new files to Dropbox. Thanks.

Graphics info
Application & Version: Topaz Sharpen AI Version 2.1.3

Operating System: Windows 10 (10.0)

Graphics Hardware: AMD Radeon ™ R7 M340

OpenGL Driver: 3.3.13587 Core Profile Forward-Compatible Context 20.2.2 26.20.15019.19000

CPU RAM: 8080 MB

Video RAM: 2048 MB

Preview Limit: 4884 Pixels

#14

Thanks for that but as I have Intel/NVIDIA I would like to see if it is an issue with your hardware I would like to see the originals. Remember that JPEG originals can have existing artifacts because of the compression that may be accentuated by either DeNoise or Sharpen.

#15

I often take in RAW, but not for the ones I had sent you.
So I’ve procesed a recent image IMG_1723 from RAW and uploaded CR2, DNG, JPG and Topazed files.
I’ve never processed from .CR2 or .DNG before. Files are huge! ~ 9 minutes

#16

I posted some more images 5 days ago, so would appreciate a response please

#17

My apologies I didn’t see the originals, I have downloaded the 3 JPGs and shall get back to you this evening. I shall have a look at the issues you raised in the first post …

#18

GPU processing as at 200% I can see artifacts with the stabilize mode and AUTO settings. But if I use the OpenVINO/GPU mode I don’t see any artifacts as yo can see here at 200%:

image
image.jpg1912Ă—1079 1.86 MB

Just as a follow up from the JPEGs (this wont cause any issues) but you have hot pixels (i.e. Dead ones) in the images.

  • For the Northern Lapwing image, it seems that focus simply doesn’t work and Stabilize works but will give a little artifacts along the trailing edge of the wings. It seems there may be an issue with the models as the Sharpen/Focus give the same result where I thought Focus should be the right Mode.

    image
    image.jpg1912Ă—988 1.24 MB

  • For the final image Focus Mode gives a perfect result but it seems to lose detail in the top left of the eye … (Note that GPU gives a better result with the detail but artifacts appear also)

    image
    image.jpg1910Ă—883 1.58 MB

I have had an answer about artifacts from the head of the development team for other images where they are more serious than these, and it reads so:

“These artifacts are the by-product of trying to add fake details. All of our app produce this time to time. Currently, we are doing some research to train some high fidelity models which will produce lesser artifact. If we are successful all of our apps will be benefited.”

So, I believe that you should raise a support request at the main website because I am not sure if OpenVINO is compatible with your system (mine is Intel I7 and as OpenVINO is Intel it works).

#19

Thanks Don. I did raise a support request at the main website and you responded, so no idea what else you want me to do. Are you not a Topaz person?

#20

No, not Topaz this is a user to user forum and occasionally Topaz people drop in. Usually when asked or there a betas to test. But I have raised the issue with the developers as i believe it is a HW compatibility issue … I have seen many issues with the AMD GPUs and some of the later CPUs can be used for processing.

Have you tried to switch off GPU processing and turn on OpenVINO, I believe it will default to CPU but may be slower?

Preferences will look like this:

image