There’s a known issue with edge aware strokes crashing the program. You can continue masking if you use normal strokes. You may also downgrade to a previous version of the program - the links are in each version’s post in this sub-forum.
Sorry the patch has taken so long to get out. I assure you we’re working hard to get it released in a stable manner as quickly as possible.
If you read my entire post the issue is NOT just crashing from edge aware brushes. I also can’t create a mask manually. The first brush stroke looks fine while I’m dragging the brush, but once I release the button the overlay sometimes stays where it is, other times it moves to another location in the image. Then when I click to add another brushstroke the entire image is covered by the overlay. If I cancel the mask to start over, when I click the mask button again it opens back up to the mask I cancelled. I have to actually close Sharpen without saving and reopen it to clear the old mask.
And so I went back to ver 3.2.2 and now when I try to open from Lightroom I get “Unsupported File Format” for a 16 bit TIFF that was just edited in Denoise.
Anthony, I don’t know if you have seen this bug in V3.3.3 . I think it is also in Denoise so it may be in a common software module. After selecting Out of focus and processing the preview, I selected Too Soft and the label didn’t change. This happens numerus times with different selections.
My 3.3.3 just started doing this, too. It won’t change, although the processing seems to be happening.
ALSO, comparison mode now most of the time won’t change any of the processing modes in a blue-highlighted window. Sometimes it unlocks, most of the time it just won’t change the mode.,
And this just started yesterday after a week of it being fine.
I reinstalled and still no fix. Very disappointing. Win10, AMD Ryzen 7, AMD graphics, 24Gb RAM.
All of a sudden it doesn’t change the blue highlighted sharpen mode when a new one is chosen. Reinstalled and same. Win 10. Often in the 4-window comparison the sharpening doesn’t happen AND the window modes won’t assign as requested. So many bugs for a product with such capability. Very difficult to stay excited.
Topaz Sharpen 3.3.2 crashes when creating mask with edge aware.
2nd issue found in ver 3.3.1
Brushing Sharpen Mask with Edge Aware creates outline around final selection. Noticeable after saving picture.
Alvin Robinson
Topaz is aware of this bug and a fix will come in the next release.
Obviously not fixed in the next release. I’m using ver 3.3.3 and I’m having all kinds of masking problems. When I use Auto Subject and then try to add to the mask with the brush it crashes. If I just try to create a mask manually with the brush it looks fine while I’m dragging the brush but when I release the overlay moves to a different part of the image. The second time I try to use the brush the over just completely covers the image. Undo doesn’t do anything and If I try to erase by subtracting with the brush I have the same problem.
Just downloaded and installed 3.3.3 from 2.2.1. Ran it as a Plug-in from PS, which first required me to move the new plugin to a different folder. Practically nothing works. For all but the “normal” models, I get “A file is needed for this model to give you the best possible speed”. Pops up for a split second, takes several tries to piece together the entire message. I went into prefs and set “download as needed” for model files, but that had no effect.
So I decided to just run “Motion Blur - Normal” and see how that went. The first preview update alone took 65 seconds to complete, but subsequent ones were faster. I hit “Accept” and it took about 90 seconds to process. I then exited Sharpen AI, but Photoshop was stuck pegging a CPU with “Very High” power usage for several minutes before I gave up and killed it before my laptop caught fire.
Guess I’ll uninstall and go back to 2.2.1. Wonder if I can get my upgrade $ back.
Ok, I probably should have played with this a little more before typing the above msg. Further tries did not have the problem of PS spinning its wheels after completion of Sharpen AI as a plugin.
So I’ll get more to the point of what should be the main concern of most users: is there an improvement in this version over previous ones? For me, not so far. I can’t create better files than running the same photos through v2.2.1. Of course without the beyond “normal” models missing maybe I wouldn’t.
I wish “extra noise suppression” was still an option. I used that often when in Stabilize or Focus modes in v2.2.1, quite effective. In v3.3.3 I’m finding it very hard to keep noise under control, so far. Even with the noise slider at 100 the result is very noisy.
Mike, you should go to the Help menu in SAI and copy the Graphics info and post. I suspect your machine is at a point where it is not up to the task. You didn’t say what size picture you were processing (16Mpx, etc.), what preview you were using and what zoom factor. The lower the zoom the more area the preview has to process. Finally, if you are using the CPU it will be much slower than a GPU.
For example in V3.3.3 I loaded a 16Mpx picture and used the side by side preview at 30% zoom. Using the Motion blur - Normal setting, it took 9 seconds to update the preview. Using 100% zoom it took 6 seconds. To process and save the whole picture took 13 seconds. Times are with my GPU.
Application & Version: Topaz Sharpen AI Version 3.3.3
Operating System: Windows 10 Version 2009 I’m really at 21H2.
Graphics Hardware: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
OpenGL Driver: 3.3.14742 Core Profile Forward-Compatible Context 21.8.2 27.20.22025.1006
CPU RAM: 32709 MB
Video RAM: 6128 MB
Preview Limit: 8000 Pixels
Tried on my other PC and same exact behavior. I7, NVidia graphics, 24Gb. Looks like a consistent bug.
Thank you for this. I’m trying to download 3.3.3 now (the app doesn’t seem to recognize there’s anything beyond .2). I’m new to Sharpen AI (picked up the Black Friday deal), and so far, I’ve been so disappointed in that the program seems to do absolutely nothing… or worse, it actually BLURS the image - even the built-in “demo” images with the default settings. So frustrating! My system isn’t even that old… 2019 Mac Mojave. I’m really hoping this fixes it.
I agree with Michael and David that this seems to be a bug. Auto settings used to dynamically change with every picture and AI model chosen. Please fix!
It seems that on Win 11 the mode and auto settings do change. These are three images used for testing and the settings are close enough to perfect:
Pleased to report that v.3.3.3 fixed my issues! Now I’m seeing the magic I expected 
Artisan-West, thanks for replying. As you suggest, I’m likely underpowered. I have
Application & Version: Topaz Sharpen AI Version 3.3.3
Operating System: Windows 10 Version 2009
Graphics Hardware: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620
OpenGL Driver: 3.3.0 - Build 25.20.100.6519
CPU RAM: 16178 MB
Video RAM: 1500 MB
Preview Limit: 3466 Pixels
I’m using split screen, zoomed at 100%, file dimensions 16-20 Mpix, 16-bit tiffs.
But GPU makes all the difference, approx. 4x faster than CPU. “Auto” appears to make the right choice. Preview updates now about 10 secs, final processing more than a minute, quite an improvement over 2.2.1. Quality of results at least as good, perhaps better, although I still wish the “extra noise suppression” toggle was still there. Maybe the “very noisy” models should be used for that.
Still can’t get the model mgr to work. If I select “as needed”, nothing ever gets downloaded. “at once” is better, but it still becomes very confused about what it says it’s going to do after I check and uncheck various models, can’t clear it’s head unless/until I exit and restart the entire application.
Ditto here.
Mike, one comment, your GPU is near the low end of what might be acceptable for these products. Below is a performance chart using a bench test of many GPUs. You can see the 620 near the bottom. One reason is that it is not using VRAM but is using the normal system RAM which is slower.
Note: Model preferences has been eliminated in later versions.
