Uh oh. Did I somehow miss the beta testing? 
I always check regularly and spend weekslong days/many hours testing, making notes & rptg. for new betas. 
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With people who have subscribed, it is easier to say how much money is available to me as a company, which makes planning easier.
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I didnāt see anything either, but I suspect it could be a product similar to the DxO Nik filters.
āBack to the rootsā.
One more beta coming soon here!
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Guess weāll see!
I only have the old, purchased from Nik and initial DxO Nik Collection (for Ps compatibility). I really loved the control points Nik initiated way back when to let me alter āzonesā of an image using different settings without me having to create precise masks - those flexible controls were fast, easy and offered a sort of a feathered gradient control (though, more accurate & less feathered masking is also desirable in certain cases for pixel level processing ā¦).
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Never fear, it sounds like they going to screw NVIDIA owners as well. Starlight Mini has a lot of rough edges, many of which have been worked on in the latest beta for the CURRENT desktop product, along with AMD and Mac support.
Those changes are really only the fixes and improvements to Starlight Mini that we were promised when the product launched and which they are STILL actively selling to new customers, but based on the responses here, Iād bet they have no intent of shipping those fixes, even though they exist.
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This is the second time Topaz Labs has changed the terms of service on me without my consent. I wonder if someone in Texas could check on the laws for false advertisment and deceptive business practices.
As for my subscription, I cancelled it last night. Topaz Labs doesnāt deserve any kind of trust at this time.
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You allowed them to do so, as we all did. All they need to do is amend the agreement:
15.5. Amendment. Topaz may, in its sole discretion, amend this EULA from time to time by posting the amended EULA on its website or by providing You with digital access to the amended EULA through the Software or other means. If You do not agree with any such amendments or any new versions of the EULA, You may terminate this EULA in accordance with Section 11.2 before such amended EULA becomes effective, upon which You must stop using the Software. By using the Software after the amended EULA becomes effective or otherwise
indicating Your acceptance of the amended EULA, You are agreeing to be bound by the terms of the amended EULA.
This is nothing unusual among software developers, BTW. We just like to assume that amendments wonāt be implemented in ways that irk us.
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Also, you donāt need to do anything as a company / developer - which is the main reason Iām against those subscription plans.
If there are single purchases of software the devs had to impress me with new features, speed improvements or anything that is enough to convince me to spend money on the new version.
With those subscription models the devs nearly doesnāt need to do anything as the users have to pay anyway improvements or not. Itās totally enough if he once coded a good app and heās fine like what feels foreverā¦
This is also a major difference to the semi-subscription TL had up to now: there, if TL had nothing worthwhile in the year of the āplanā one could simply stop and still use the bought app.
With that subscription madness youāre kinda caught as you lose access to what you already paid for if the dev chooses to not do anything but claim your money.
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To me it sounds like itās all about the subscription model. For example, I donā`t care if itās a subscription model and I think this could be a good deal. I pay yearly for various apps whether they are offered as a subscription model or not. Why? I want the latest features. No interest to stopping paying for a app that is offered with the perpetual model unless I have no plans to use it again. Thus the way I look at it is that the perpetual model or the subscription are the same. Obviously you donāt see it that way. Weāre you planing to stop paying for the perpetual subscription in the future?
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Maybe if the app doesnāt bring anything spectacularly new.
And with the perpetual license I then can still use what I have/need and paid for.
Why should I pay forever even if I donāt need new features or even worse if there arenāt any?
Itās not as if I paid the dentist a monthly salary for the rest of his/my life just because he once did my teethā¦
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Exactly. In contrary to NVIDIA users.
As I said: NVIDIA users will have a perpetual (sometimes extremely well) working Starlight mini - while AMD and Mac users that paid the same for their licenses and even were fooled into buying/extending their licenses due to what now turns into false promises at the beginning of this year/at the release of SL mini are left with either that bad excuse for a generative model that the current alpha of SL mini on those platforms is or the option to pay forever.
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That sure sounds like itās all about the subscription model.
Yes it is. I donāt condone subscription and if a software goes that way itās out here. Simple as that.
For obvious logical reasons as explained above.
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Still missing the point I seeā¦ For me itās still not as much about the new subscription model as it is about having paid for unlimited upgrades (I already posted that screenshot a numbers of times so I aināt gonna bother again) until mid February when my renewal would have come up, and I donāt think there is any doubt whatsoever that there will be a number of new feature stuff in the next months (for example the stuff thatās being beta tested atm) that will be added to the new Studio version of Gigapixel-whatever itās new name is,but not to a version I actually paid to get upgrades for.
Not as long as wouldāve been happy with the progress of the software. And if not Iād look at other options without feeling the pressure to stay or lose it all. Isnāt that also a way of keeping the pressure on Topaz to keep providing, while the user actually have the liberty to decide if staying is worth it?
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You still would get the same upgrades but in the subscription model for the money you already paid. Plus some additional features. Obviously the issue is you donāt want to go to a subscription model.
Youāre just not getting it. Iāve paid for updates until late November but unless I subscribe Iāll lose anything released after 16 September when my licences run out, even though Iāve already paid for them
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Another thoughtā¦
Call it a silly problem if you guys want but with the current subscription model I donāt need to feel the pressure to actually pay at a certain date no matter what. I can actually skip a couple of months and then pick it up again and still keep on editing.
Bad things can happen to anyone in life, and I sure as heck - being the hobby photographer I am - aināt putting my money into photo editing if I one day run into a temporary issue (think hospital, temporary unemployment, etc) The moment you stop paying with the new model your neither a founder anymore (like I care about a special title - ha-ha!) nor do you get to keep editing like you did last month. Suddenly youāre back to the latest perpetual version you paid for,until you get back to normal.
Just sayingā¦
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You only lose if you stop paying. For me, I stop paying when I donāt want the software anymore. Obviously you look at it differently than me.
You either really donāt get it, or you just donāt want to get it, even with so many posts trying to explain it, and Iām out of ideas on how to try to get through.
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