Are Sharpen, Gigapixel and Denoise going to still be developed? I cannot run Photo AI on my machine as it does not have AVX. If the older apps are not going to be developed moving forward, I guess I will have to cough up and get a newer machine.
On the flip side, does Photo AI fully replace the older apps? Can you make manual changes if you wish?
Appreciate any advice.
Nick
I hope they sort out the actual AI model(s) before they fully mothball the other products… I still find it hit/miss in Photo AI vs GigaPixel. It seems to be slowly improving, but definitely not there yet (maybe not even close) to where I can confidently say Photo AI is better than GigaPixel every time.
Yeah I tried it on another PC and the results did not wow me compared to the separate apps.
But even so if they ARE going to mothball the oldies, I am going to have to cough up for a new PC :(.
So again… are they? And why I guess. I prefer the ability to tweak and not work on autopilot.
I continue to get much better results with the standalone products. I hope Topaz continues their development.
If PhotoAI were Topaz’ only image processing product, I’d look elsewhere.
Yeah it’s great to be able to run on autopilot and I am sure it’s a good selling point for many people, but I have always found that the more tweaks you can make, the better you can deal with each individual problem.
FYI - Yesterday I received the following statement included in a response from Topaz support: “Your recent purchase for the Photo Upgrade Plan is going towards the Topaz Photo AI updates. For complete transparency, it is unlikely that the individual three, DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI, will continue to be updated.” This is disappointing news to me. The company may be trying to attract more customers with the auto-pilot operation of Photo AI, but I still think the individual apps allow more control and better results. I would prefer to see continued refinement of the individual apps for better modeling of animal fur and other subjects.
The individual apps are not receiving regular updates for the foreseeable future. I don’t have an exact date for when they’ll be phased out, but as people have pointed out, there are certain cases where the individual apps perform better than Photo AI.
When Photo AI exceeds the performance of all the individual apps, it’ll make sense for that to be when it becomes the only available option.
Wow! So the hundreds of dollars that I have spent on products and upgrades for them is going to be negated by my having to pay $150 US because you are deciding to not develop any more…
I find it a bit fraudulent to ask for annual subs for products I have bough, only to find out that I am actually subsidising development of a product I am going to have to buy again.
Having been told that certain of your products are beyond my machine, I have started to look elsewhere and have already found some alternatives. I was blown away by AI processing when I first met it here, but it’s now just just one of the pack.
Tim, Thank you for confirming Topaz’s plan going forward. I must say there is no incentive for me to renew my annual Photo Plan if the only updates will be to Photo AI, which I never use. You conceded that the individual apps perform better than Photo AI in certain cases, and that is why I use them ALL the time instead of wasting time on Photo AI. The Topaz individual apps are wonderful, flexible tools, please don’t abandon them for a dumbed-down, trying-to-do-it-all, autopilot app.
I can’t speak to end of life of the individual products. That is in Topaz’s court to address that.
But, yes you can make custom, manual settings in PAI. It is not a fully automated only product. You can set Preferences for how automated it is to suit your processing needs.
Being able to make manual settings in PAI is good. In PAI, I don’t see an option for comparison view allowing the results of different models can be compared on the same screen (as offered in the individual apps). I use this feature most of the time because you can’t always predict which model is best what you are trying to achieve. The different model results can be subtle and it helps to see them all on the same screen. I notice some models (e.g. Low Light for denoise) are missing from PAI. I prefer interaction to automation, and to make my own decisions on what works best creatively. This is a good discussion and I want to thank contributors for the helpful comments.
You’re right. The Comparison View in the other AI products is absolutely valuable to assess which model to choose before making additional settings refinements. It should become an integral component of PAI too.
Thanks for mentioning this! The ability to adjust Autopilot preferences is available in V2 and later.
I’m having the same issue too. Photo AI is reproducing the jagged lines while Gigapixel just restores it with bold lines. RIP Gigapixel. We miss you.
Gigapixel
Photo AI
But seriously, it looks like Photo AI didn’t do anything except enlarge.
That PAI version looks pretty shocking you are right, it just looks like a zoom
Here is a straight 4x enlargement with Photo AI v.2 that worked for me.
Before:
I don’t see any jaggies until I zoom in 300%
Please reach out at support.topazlabs.com using the beacon at the bottom right corner of the page. They’ll be able to help you process any due refunds for unused renewal licenses.
Thanks for sharing, this is the expected behavior.
Can you upload the original so I can test it as well?
