True. It’s the only experience I can experience.
One minute??? I remember the ‘old days’ of film when hours, days or weeks were needed to get a result.
In the end, we go with what works best for us. I won’t argue with that. But I can’t deny my own experience - the AI tools do better than the others I’ve tested.
Not in denial at all and that’s kind of a silly thing to say. 
The “classic” programs, and I’m including both Impression 2 and Glow 2 in the group, offer FAR more control of the final output without question. The AI products on the other hand offer very little user input. That doesn’t imply that the AI products are bad, just that you have significantly less input. For what I do I appreciate the control so I prefer the “Classic” group and use them over the AI set. That said, there are some uses that I find for the AI programs. I use AI Clear regularly; and infrequently AI Gigapixel to enlarge small original B & W graphics for my church bulletin, which is a very limited use. But my original post, which got all this started, remains true. As you so appropriately said in another post we all need to use what works for us and each of us will likely have differing needs.
For my $$$$ the AI stable still has a long way to go, and I work testing them daily, but for right now I believe they need more attention AND they are getting such. That doesn’t mean I think they aren’t as good or better than the competition, they are in my estimation, but still have a ways to go.
My system is pretty powerful and I don’t experience the long processing times that some have reported so that is not a factor in my use of the programs. It is the limited input that drives my opinion. As always, individual mileage, and opinion, is going to vary.
It is my sincere hope that ALL of us responding would do so in a way meaningful to the developers and not use these forums as a platform to blow off steam as was the case when this thread began. That’s meant as a general comment and NOT directed at anyone in particular so please don’t misconstrue my intent! 
I dunno what I should do. Gigapixel is an interesting product, but it is not worth the price without the lifetime pass. On the other hand, calling for a refund might be even worse to Topaz then just let them grandfather me with the promise of free lifetime updates. Gigapixel needs updates/upgrades to become worth the price it had already cost. And I really can’t pay another 50 bucks to expand the upgrade period for another year only for the weak hope that certain issues with Gigapixel will be solved in the future. But I want keep Gigapixel nethertheless. Calling for a refund might screw up Topaz even more which will affect further support of Gigapixel AI too (which I will be locked off anyway soon as it looks like).
Eric Lowery’s title is the Operations Manager according to the mail I received. I had two credits appearing for some time unused. Some time back when a change was made on the account webpages, they disappeared. One of them was never recovered on inquiry. The other was posted to my account webpage. With this new pay for upgrades policy I checked again and it had disappeared once more. Eric was able to provide me with the coupon ID but said that it would not appear because the account pages were being worked on.
While no one likes to pay for an upgrade, no one like to work for free either. Without a continual flow of income, Topaz Labs would have to go out of business and no longer be able to support any of their products.
As the Windows and Mac OS continues to evolve, many old programs no longer work as I’ve found out for myself. At least Topaz will still be around to make sure that their programs stay up-to-date and functioning for years to come.
Customers have paid well already for Topaz promise of life time upgrades. Many users took the lifetime free upgrades into account when they bought the otherwhise overpriced pieces of software Topaz offered. So we can’t say future upgrades are not being paid. They have been pre-paid.
You can’t expect a Ford Fiesta to have fast acceleration and you can’t expect a cheaper computer to run high performance software fast. You can choose to buy other resizing , denoising and sharpening software that will run on your machine or upgrade your computer. Topaz has sped up the processing time on their AI programs but it still take a reasonable performance machine to enjoy it. Its really your (meaning those with lower performance computers) choice.
I very much agree with this policy change. Subscriptions instead of ownership bother me and I’ve dropped Adobe software as a result. You need to get money for your work and I get the peace of mind knowing that I won’t get cut off from the use of software that I have paid for already. Usually, I update every year anyway but I appreciate it being my choice.
I’m not surprised by this announcement. However the free upgrade policy was a sweetener for the high initial cost of the products. For new Customers, if Topaz is going to still charge a high price for entry into the Topaz AI ecosystem, then charge $99.99 a year to keep them up to date this will likely put a lot of people off. I for one, will likely now keep what I have (i.e. every AI product) but not update them until they are no longer supported. Then I’ll consider whether or not I continue to stay with Topaz.
I sincerely hope we see a big improvement from Topaz now they have made this significant business model change. The past 12 months have been really, really poor. Products rushed out to market with inadequate QA/QC, buggy installers, poor performance etc. They now need to deliver results to justify the decision they’ve just made. I hope they haven’t just priced themselves out of the market.
I bought Topaz in 2013 and have lived the ups and downs noted in posts -
I bought Topaz for what it was doing and clearly was on the road to become
I never considered ‘free lifetime’ in any purchase - I’d download the trial - if it didn’t work for me I didn’t buy it - but then I’d wind up buying a later (improved) release.
Topaz didn’t cost a fortune - probably $600 - $700 over seven years.
And for that $60 - $80 a year +/- I got some terrific software and a few frustrations …
but I got to deal with a small company developing interesting and productive apps…
Today I had time to dig back through old files and was delighted to rediscover fine memories shaped by Topaz apps
I will not be archiving this thread.
Hello everyone,
I wrote something once that I would support Topaz, but now I will add something from a different angle.
Topaz Labs is a small company, which is why we all, developers, customers and amateurs, should support it instead of complaining about the new pricing policy.
I don’t like many things, either. For example, the fact that Topaz no longer supports older products. For example, I can download Studio 1, but I can no longer buy modules for it, including AI Remix, so Studio 1 is worthless to me.
But, I will support them.
Do you know why?
Because you always have to support small businesses. There was once communism and dictatorship in my country, Poland. It was difficult to live here. Currently there is pseudo-capitalism. Sucks too. But in the US and Western Europe there is no real capitalism or free market that my favorite visionary Milton Friedman wrote so nicely about.
There is only an oligopoly of a dozen or so big corporations that, thanks to patents, lawyers and the appropriation of other people’s ideas, earn more and more, because they have a monopoly on everything that they can enforce. When you go to the store, you don’t realize that many of the things you buy are made by the same corporation that has several thousand different brands and daughter companies registered. I once talked about this with a policeman who specializes in analyzing the topology of such companies to detect tax evasion and other frauds.
And thanks to them you earn less and less (because they earn more and more). And the gap between the richest and the poorest is still growing, as even Pope Francis spoke. Just as human egoism is increasing. This situation and social inequality are strange if we think we have the 21st century and so many wise people, scholars, and young people are also increasingly aware of how the world works.
After all, women only gained voting rights recently. Equality between women and men also arose. Before, women meant nothing. Slavery ended, then racial segregation. I still can’t imagine that in the 1960s there were separate entrances for white and colored people in buses!
People are smarter and smarter, although it happens extremely slowly. They hardly get rid of their privileges and superstitions, and unjust laws. Perhaps soon something will also change in terms of ownership and money. For example, instead of capitalism or communism, a different social system will be created, based more on the cooperative model, Holons and other goods distribution model than appropriating other people’s ideas in a zero-sum game.
If you want to read something interesting about it, I recommend two items:
Novel, two volumes, author: Daniel Suarez, titles: “Daemon”, “Freedom”. The model based on holons is described in the second volume, but both books form one whole, so read both items.
Popular science book, author: Harari Y.N., title: “Homo Deus”. Cross-section through human history and reflection on the future.
Maybe this Coronavirus, after killing 1/100 of the Earth’s population, will change something, improve something, because people will come to their senses and be better for each other? I do not know. I am not a futurologist. 100 years ago, Europe fell by 50 million people (some sources estimate 200 million) because it killed people with another virus, it was a Spanish flu. Every tenth person died. But people have not become significantly better after this epidemic. Then we had two world wars, including Hitler’s utopia, right?
In general, however, the speculations of futurologists are unsuccessful due to the butterfly effect and the phenomenon of deterministic chaos, which is affected by entropy - a next phenomenon as mysterious as time. Also, as I wrote earlier, people are getting better educated, so maybe the world will be better.
But I know that one way or another you always need to support small family businesses and startups, and other small businesses of all types, to help balance the market and give people, now and in the future, a chance for positive change and a hope.
Regards,
Lech
Hi Eric. Your statement of “We haven’t listed free upgrades on our website or communications for the past year” is wrong. It was listed on your Facebook company profile when MASK AI was released. How do I know this? Because I pointed it out in my discussions with your company when you made Remask owners purchase MASK AI. Please stop lying to your customers.
It’s true you never had it in your product license agreements … so you are free to hide behind that rather than honor your word. It’s your choice as to how you treat loyal customers.
Eric,
I like to support the products I use and I believe in paying for upgrades so I don’t have a problem with that. I think you are going to run into problems the way you are doing it though. (1) you are selling a period of time, (2) not guaranteeing there is going to be an upgrade major upgrade in that period, and (3) telling everybody they don’t have to maintain continuous upgrades, they can buy a new one year period anytime they like.
What you’re going to end up with is nobody is going to buy an upgrade period until they see an upgrade, and you’re going to have to convince them that upgrade is worth $50. That isn’t going to help your revenue stream any, and it really isn’t going to do much for your reputation.
I agree with the need for paid upgrades to fund product development, I suggest you folks discuss how you go about it a bit more.
relocating post
Eric Yang
I suggest in this turbulent time, you might reconsider your business model until the World gets back on its collective feet. And that will not be August 2020
Please send emails to each of your once loyal customers about this unwelcome news of paid updates, especially when they are released early, only to create artifacts.
I only found out about this because a webinar I tried to enter would not happen, and I logged onto Topaz Discussion to check.
You have not sent me an email about the betrayal of ‘free upgrades forever’. Perhaps you might be closed down due to COVID-19. I certainly hope not.
This is wrong I purchased your products for this reason alone I paid for lifetime upgrades you cannot just change your mind if you do this then I would expect a full refund for all my Topaz products. I cannot keep paying every few months for all the upgrades companies do.
Eric,
I believe these new charges you are proposing are valid. Your realization on product research and the cost is insightful however, why not extend the beta testing group further. For some users these plugins are used for advanced hobbyist whom never dream of printing much less printing from home. One the other side, some of us users actually do implement your tools professionally and with notable clients. I proposal y’all seek out these advance and/or professional users of your products and make them part of research to not only stay under budget but with real life, in-the-field use and with hard print results. I think a small curve like this can save your original vision of the free upgrade platform. What’s there to lose?
Thank you kindly,
-Michael
I guess I am a bit confused. The stream of revised products we have seen this year has been like watching a parade. Most of these newer versions are corrections to the originals. I can’t believe that you would regard these versions as income. I do understand that complete rewrites that can achieve new processes or make major changes to the product are worthy of rewards. I would hope that Topaz would differentiate. For example in the past 10 days, I have received 2 new versions of Sharpen. Should I be required to pay for these, since there doesn’t appear to any gain over the version I had 3 weeks ago, except for the removal of some bugs. I certainly hope to continue to be a customer in the future because over the past many years, your product and the way you have treated your customers is an example of how a business should be conducted.
