I am experiencing the following issue on my Macbook Pro and my Mac Pro Desktop computer both using the Mojave latest update and Topaz Studio 2 as a plugin.
The Problem:
When I invoke Studio 2 as a Photoshop Plugin and make any adjustment. For example, lower the saturation using the basic adjust to -1 and send it back to Photoshop and zoom into 100% you will see that the image becomes slightly softer and slightly misaligned from the previous state before sending into Studio 2. This makes Studio 2 unusable as a Photoshop plugin. In other words, no matter what alterations you make in Studio 2 when you send it back to Photoshop it will be a softer image and slightly misaligned.
Lightroom and Stand Alone Test:
I made this same test from Lightroom to Studio 2 and noticed no softening or moving of the images position. I also tested it as a stand alone app and had no problems with softening or the image shifting its alignment.
I suspect the problem has to do with the way Studio 2 is rendering the image before it sends it back to Photoshop. I have been using Topaz for over 7 years and have always loved this company but this is hard to take on a new release that is basically useless to me as it stands. I am sure I am not the only one who uses Macs having this problem because I have the same issue on both of my Macs. I have made support tickets about software issues to Topaz lately on other problems I have had with their software and it literally takes weeks if not months for them to get back to me. I am truly disheartened. I hope Topaz fixes this issue soon.
Test Your Computer:
Whether you are using a Mac or a Windows PC and are using Studio 2 as a plugin. Carefully check your image when it comes back into Photoshop. Zoom into 100% and check for image softness and a slight misalignment. A quick test would be to make a duplicate layer in Photoshop and send to Studio 2 and make a very slight adjustment in Studio 2 and send back with that adjustment to Photoshop and Zoom into 100% and see if you see the softening and the slight misalignment.
I can confirm, I’m seeing the same thing on my Windows 10 machines and using Affinity Photo. I’m getting a very soft image almost like it is applying a Gaussian Blur filter!
As a side note: I posted a ticket exactly one month ago about the last issue I reported as a bug on this forum about Topaz Adjust AI (The Precision Details Control Issue) and Topaz Studio (the Precision Detail Adjustment Issue) and I have never heard a peep back from Topaz except for the initial email stating they received my ticket and would be in touch soon. This is a bit disappointing. I am and have been a big Topaz Fan for many years now and have all of the Topaz Products.
Yes sometimes the lack of updates is frustrating and they could do a better job there. I believe also there are others having an issue with precision detail but it seems to affect Mac users with the lastest OS more than Windows 10.
There are also reports about Win 7, which is at its end of life, and I have seen it only occasionally on images that are JPG and have large area of single color.
Hopefully they will start to pay more attention to updating on the progress of support issues.
Thanks Don for your understanding. I meant Precision Detail and not contrast. The Precision Contrast actually works fine for me. Sorry for the mistake. I will edit the posts.
Windows 10 Pro 1903 with Studio 2 used as plug in from Affinity Photo.
Both blurring (or softness) and the apparent very slight displacement occurring.
Ticket 184587 raised with original image, recipe used and comparison shots
“issues” is an understatement it is totally broken and unusable in studio, studio 2 and adjust ai. I can understand that it takes some time to fix bugs but to launch a NEW product after they know for a month about the problems with the very same bugs is a little too much for me and unique also. I also have never encountered a software company so ignorant and silent, the only thing they do is send out automated standardised emails asking for more evidence …
great that it works for you , but what are trying to express by pointing this out ? mac user are less important because they are only a small fraction of the customer base or topaz has only lousy mac developers so this is no surprise ? a month is a long time for an unsolved problem like this even adobe is much faster this days.
If you had read what I said is that hopefully they can identify and fix the problem.
I have no idea of the customer base spread, didn’t say any type of customers were less important and I certainly can’t comment on the capabilities of the engineers.
I’m on Windows 10 and I’m having the same issues. I don’t understand your statement that Windows isn’t having issues? Also I’m not even using Adobe products so this is more widespread I’m using Affinity Photo.
I take it your PC is a desktop, try downloading the lastest driver from the NVIDIA website, install that and see if it helps. I believe the current version is 431.60.
Actually this is my laptop, I do have a desktop with very similar specs, only difference is that it has a nVidia GTX 1070 with 8 Gb VRAM that computer has the latest Drivers. There is no difference between the 2 computers (same problem) the latest drivers do not help.
My mistake because the lastest driver is supposed to be 431.6/430.86 (Studio) - it was previously reported here that versions 419.xx until 430.86 had issues with the 1050, 1060, 1070 that caused crashing with Topaz products using dialogs from the menus.
You need to raise a support request at the Topaz Labs website then.