I’ve just bought a new one-year subscription (my second for this software). I’ve been trying to launch Starlight Sharp local for half an hour now, but to no avail. I’ve had to install and reinstall the software several times, but it still hasn’t worked! Could this be a bug?

I contacted customer support, and they told me that Starlight Sharp is now only available for Pro subscriptions when rendering locally. Yesterday, I paid $358 (including tax) to renew my Personal yearly subscription, only to find out that I can no longer use the model I rely on the most. That’s rea…

Ouch. Certainly not the resolution you’d hoped for.

To clarify, Starlight Sharp has always been under a Pro subscription since it was originally released. It will be moved in the future to be available to all users. We are preparing to move the Mini model to all users and are currently testing this in a beta. If you had a previous subscription, you …

Thank you for your prompt explanations and efficient service. I am very satisfied with your email support team. I wish Topaz Labs every success.

So Kyle, the question is, Has the issue with Sharp been resolved? It shows processing but never produces a result.

This is still being worked on for a full resolution, and is taking longer than expected to sort out. We have found that rolling back to v1.3.0 is an option if SL Sharp is needed for your workflow or running it through the cloud in short segments is an option.

How does the “Founder” tag work? Will I get it eventually, too, since I subscribed to the Pro plan?

If you have a Pro subscription, then you will have access to all of the Starlight models on a compatible system and will not need the Founder tag. It was created for users who had active perpetual license plans to the older apps when the new subscription-based apps were released.

Yes, I have a Pro subscription - thanks for explaining what this tag is.

Starlight Sharp Doesn't it work anymore? What?!

Topaz Video General

cbrillow July 9, 2026, 2:15am 2

This has been a problem with several recent point versions. In my case, it starts and wastes a lot of time looking like it’s processing, but eventually the elapsed time just keeps increasing with no further progress.

See here: