Update: January 2023 Roadmap
In addition to stability, our team is currently focused on three core areas in Topaz Video AI:
- Faster export speeds. We’ve identified a significant opportunity to improve export performance and we’re in the process of implementing it. After we test and release it, we’ll continue to find new ways to improve performance like vendor-specific optimizations.
- Smoother in-app previewing. The existing in-app video player often displays frames slower than expected, especially on larger video formats. We’re working on improving in-app playback speed and overall preview experience.
- Better video quality models. In the short term, we’re testing a new motion blur correction model and improved Apollo frame interpolation variants. Afterwards, we’re working on better denoising and upscaling with improved parameter auto-detection, and also exploring options for face restoration.
These are the greatest current app bottlenecks for us to resolve before anything else. We will significantly improve export speeds and in-app previewing before considering other major features like pause/resume or additional encoder support.
Why v2 to v3
Topaz Video AI v3 was a complete rewrite from the ground up. While the previous version was a self-contained app, v3 instead provides proprietary FFmpeg filters and a user interface that spawns FFmpeg processes. Total app rewrites are not easy or fun, but there were several major advantages to this approach that caused us to make the leap:
- Using FFmpeg means fewer video I/O issues in v3.0, better codec support, and better metadata/audio support. You can also extend or customize the FFmpeg commands to better fit your workflow.
- Using separate UI and FFmpeg processes allows you to process in parallel, which better takes advantage of newer GPUs. The app can also recover from crashes and (later) resume paused or crashed videos.
- v3.0 enables the development of new models and features that require multiple passes over the video. v2.6 treated video as a set of constant rate images, which makes new models like Stabilization impossible.
The disadvantage of a total rewrite, however, is that v3 doesn’t benefit from the years of bug fixes, stability improvements, and performance optimizations that went into v2. There are still some growing pains with the new app! While we’re improving Topaz Video AI every week, you can still install v2.6 alongside v3 if you prefer; the two major versions will not interfere with each other.
Please tell us what you think - feedback is a gift that spurs us to improve the product as fast as we can. We may not respond to everything, but we do read and consider every message. Thanks for your patience as we build a better app together.
