Ok. A change in numbers.
I am just afraid after reading a lot of posts that 3.x.x versions having just have questionable output quality I shall have worse output quality. I do not mean speed.
Perhaps someone who has the current version, but who wants to go back to an earlier one, could process an image in both and show the result here as a side by side comparison.
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I have tested a number of images using 2.2.4 as the gold standard against 3.1.1. (A pain to reinstall, uninstall and the reinstall. Wish we could use two versions) I saved 4 pairs which is 5 Gig of files. My opinion is like others. 2.2.4 is very good and slow while 3.1.1 has a number of problems, all of which I have seen noted on this forum. My question. Why don’t the developers do these A/B comparisons themselves before they release the updates. The differences are obvious even at 100% on a good monitor.
For all the Topaz products - older versions are here:
The older Topaz product releases are here:
2.2.4 was very good. The models could have done with more training - small (distant) human faces and/or text sometimes got hideously distorted, especially in slightly noisy images and using the auto settings.
Versions 3+ are just too unpredictable for my liking. Contrasty diagonals get halos on their upper edges. Strange random patches of low sharpening appear. Etc. etc.
Presumably speeding up of the program was the main goal in v3 and corners had to be cut …
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I’ve largely avoided this halo discussion because I’ve never seen any at all on my images (though of course I can force them to appear if I over sharpen) but I’m now going to throw a grenade into the discussion (and then beat a hasty retreat!). I felt there must be something to the subject given the number of people complaining about it, so I picked an image which I thought might be prone to haloing and put it through Sharpen AI v3.1.1 in standalone mode. When viewing the output TIFF file I get no halos in Faststone Image Viewer (which is where I normally view my output files), FastRaw Viewer, Affinity Photo, ON1 2021, Capture One or Luminar AI. But boy do I get them when viewing in Photoshop or Lightroom, along with strong colour changes.
Furthermore, I reinstalled v 2.2.4 and processed the same image with the same settings. Comparing them in Faststone I can’t see a scrap of difference. Stacking them in layers in Photoshop shows 2.2.4 as being a clear winner, but doing the same in Affinity Photo shows 3.1.1 as being much better.
What all this means I have no idea - you pays your money and you takes your choice I guess.
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Interesting! 
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I just want to show an image I’ve used before that was processed as a RAW file in SAI 3.1.1. Some additional work was done in Affinity Photo (Saturation and Levels). The same RAW image was developed in Affinity but not sharpened. You can compare the difference. The camera focused on the boy so the drummer was out of focus but both greatly improved. These are clips at 32%. One had a optics correction but not sure which one.
Original:
Sharpened in SAI 3.1.1:
Which mode was used?
Motion.
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It did a very nice job.
The problem with halos can be read in forums and also youtube talk about it.
Yes, I’ve read them. I don’t see halos OK?
Forum outside of the topaz labs forum.
I still don’t see them. I know others do but I don’t and reading about them isn’t going to make me see them.
OK - let me make it clear. I don’t see halos on my images. You can show me as many of your images as you like - that won’t make halos appear on mine. Now, please leave it alone.
