Topaz AI Plugins

[pixartia]

Hi,

apparently for the moment Topaz AI plug-ins aren't even recognised within AP 1.8 version. Could it be possible to use them anytime soon?

- Topaz Adjust AI v.1.0.5

- Topaz DeNoise AI v.2.0.0

- Topaz Sharpen AI v.1.4.5

Thank you!

[MEB]

Hi pixartia,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
This is a known issue in the Mac App Store version of Affinity Photo. We already submitted a fix/update to the Mac App Store - It should be available shortly (today or tomorrow).

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[pixartia]

Hi MEB,

thank you for your prompt reply and your kind suggestion on my screen name's vulnerability.

Looking forward to these MAS updates soon and I'll keep you up to date about Topaz AI plugins.

Kind regards,

[pixartia]

Hi MEB,

just updated my AP copy up to version 1.8.1 from MAS, but unfortunately my Topaz plugins can't be launched while AP 1.8.1 produces the following error modal window:

"Affinity Photo quit unexpectedly. Click Reopen to open the application again. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple."

The same happens when I'm trying to launch Luminar 3 or Luminar 4, or DxO ViewPoint 3 as an external editor...

Any idea? Thank you beforehand!

Kind regards,

[MEB]

Hi pixartia,
It's possible there's some issue with the Topaz plugin specifically. I know they were working fine in the previous version. Give me some time install them all on my system and i will get back to you. I know Luminar 2108 and Aurora HDR 2018 were incompatible with Affinity Photo but never tried the newer versions as plugins. I will check them too. DxO ViewPoint 3 was never compatible with Affinity Photo.

[GregHH]

Comment deleted by author.

Edited February 27, 2020 by GregHH
Information wrong.

[pixartia]

Hi MEB,

thank you for your reply and your kind assistance. Looking forward to hear the good news from you soon. 

Kind regards,

[PhilipPeake]

I have installed the (evaluation) Topaz DeNoise AI, which appears to work, however the (evaluation) Sharpen AI plugin appears to crash. It begins processing, gets to 1% and vanishes. No visible difference to the image in Affinity Photo. Works fine stand alone. 

Edit: I don't really understand how this is, but if I fire up Sharpen AI on an image apply some sharpening and use the split screen, I can (of course) see a difference.

If I open the same image in Affinity Photo and run Sharpen AI as a plugin, I can move the sharpness slider fully over but it shows absolutely no difference in the split screen.

Maybe that will give someone a clue ...

Version 1.8.1

[pixartia]

I’ve tried to reproduce the case on two macs, in both cases all the topaz plugins work very well in stand-alone mode also within Photoshop CC 2020, but unfortunately always crash within AP 1.8.1...

[PhilipPeake]

Attaching a short video to illustrate the problem with the Sharpen AI plugin.

I suppose I should mention that this is the App Store version.

This shows the application running stand-alone. I think the resolution is good enough to be able to see that there is a difference in the split-screen when sharpening is applied.
The second half uses the same image loaded into Affinity Photo, and the Sharpen AI plugin run from there.
As you can see, with the same settings, there is no difference whatsoever between the two halves of the split-screen. It is just not working when run as a plugin (From AP 1.8.1).

Notice how quickly the "processing" pop-up closes when run as a plugin. Another indication that it is doing nothing.

[pixartia]

8 hours ago, PhilipPeake said:

Attaching a short video to illustrate the problem with the Sharpen AI plugin.

This shows the application running stand-alone. I think the resolution is good enough to be able to see that there is a difference in the split-screen when sharpening is applied.
The second half uses the same image loaded into Affinity Photo, and the Sharpen AI plugin run from there.
As you can see, with the same settings, there is no difference whatsoever between the two halves of the split-screen. It is just not working when run as a plugin (From AP 1.8.1).

Notice how quickly the "processing" pop-up closes when run as a plugin. Another indication that it is doing nothing.

 

Hi PhilipPeake,

Thank you for your very illustrative video. In my personal case Sharpen AI plugin doesn't even start, AP v1.8.1 (MAS version) shows a failure. 🤷‍♂️ 

The same story reproduce itself also with Topaz Adjust AI v.1.0.5 and Topaz DeNoise AI v.2.0.0 .

[MEB]

Hi pixartia,
I already have tested Affinity Photo 1.8.1 with Topaz DeNoise AI v2.0.0, Topaz Sharpen AI v1.4.5 and Topaz Adjust AI v1.0.5.
Unfortunately none of them is compatible with Affinity Photo 1.8.1 Mac App Store version. Some crash when using a few features (for example when changing the Auto Adjust AI mode in the Controls panel in Topaz Adjust AI v1.0.5), others crash on launch on Catalina (but run on Mojave) most fail to work properly: some panels don't display/are not accessible (Preset in Adjust) and/or some features/sliders do nothing. Previews also fail to work properly. I'm logging these issues to be looked at.

[pixartia]

Hi MEB,

thank you for diving into this issue and hope that finally and very soon we'll be able to use Topaz AI plugins from within AP.

[romanjanas]

Hello,

I wanted to confirm that behaviour reported by PhilipPeake is still present in Affinity Photo version 1.8.3 from Mac App Store and Topaz Sharpen AI 2.0.5 and DeNoise AI 2.0.5 plugins.

It is working as a standalone applications, however it does not work when launched as plugin via Affinity Photo. And I mean that the preview is not working and also moving the result back to Affinity Photo results in no change as if the plugin was never used.

I hope this will be solved soon.

[BGMALC]

I have the same problem with Topaz AI  - Sharpen , Denoise and Mask. I upgraded to Catalina and latest version of Affinity V1.8.3. I have tried a number of ideas to try and make it work plus a few found on Google. It appears to load the image but not launch the application itself.  I tried to load the apps as part of the PS plugin folder but that failed as well. All Topaz apps work free standing. I am not going to move across to Affinity Photo from Photoshop until this is fixed as I use Denoise in my work flow. I hope they sort it soon.

[pixartia]

5 hours ago, BGMALC said:

I have the same problem with Topaz AI  - Sharpen , Denoise and Mask. I upgraded to Catalina and latest version of Affinity V1.8.3. I have tried a number of ideas to try and make it work plus a few found on Google. It appears to load the image but not launch the application itself.  I tried to load the apps as part of the PS plugin folder but that failed as well. All Topaz apps work free standing. I am not going to move across to Affinity Photo from Photoshop until this is fixed as I use Denoise in my work flow. I hope they sort it soon.

Hope that everyone is ok with our current covid-19 situation.... 

But unfortunately there's still no solution and also no news from MEB (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/profile/59-meb/) since the beginning of March. 

I don't see any further steps in the Affinity Photo's roadmap in what concerns the Topaz Labs plugins compatibility.

Meanwhile the Apple Mac AppStore version of Affinity Photo (note!: which is sold at the SAME price point) is far not really the same in comparison with affinity standard version.

And even Nik Collection is not functional within that AppStore version. Pity that there's no real promise from Affinity. I hoped that Affinity could convert my AppStore licenses to the normal ones, but they keep silence, even during their grace period of half-price offer. It is generous, but not for people who's forced to pay twice for the same. Nevertheless... I still hope MEB that it is not a "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate" and hope you could answer soon.

[elec164]

After a back in forth on another forum I belong to about Topaz Labs working as plugins for AP I finally found this thread.

I appear to be in the same boat as pixartia in that I bought my version through the Apple App store thinking it's the same. While I can get my Topaz Labs to show up in the Filter/Plugin menu and when clicked on it's acknowledged in the History, the plugin doesn't start up.

Seems rather deceptive not identifying in the App store that's it's not the same as buying from Serif directly. Had I know I would have bought it directly rather than through the App Store.

Although unlike pixartia my Nik plugins work just fine.

[pixartia]

37 minutes ago, elec164 said:

After a back in forth on another forum I belong to about Topaz Labs working as plugins for AP I finally found this thread.

I appear to be in the same boat as pixartia in that I bought my version through the Apple App store thinking it's the same. While I can get my Topaz Labs to show up in the Filter/Plugin menu and when clicked on it's acknowledged in the History, the plugin doesn't start up.

Seems rather deceptive not identifying in the App store that's it's not the same as buying from Serif directly. Had I know I would have bought it directly rather than through the App Store.

Although unlike pixartia my Nik plugins work just fine.

Thank you elec164 for your support. It could be great if Affinity could recognise finally this disappointing mistake and would finally convert our Mac AppStore licenses into the normal ones.

I wish I could have them without paying twice.

[Cecil]

1 hour ago, elec164 said:

After a back in forth on another forum I belong to about Topaz Labs working as plugins for AP I finally found this thread.

I appear to be in the same boat as pixartia in that I bought my version through the Apple App store thinking it's the same. While I can get my Topaz Labs to show up in the Filter/Plugin menu and when clicked on it's acknowledged in the History, the plugin doesn't start up.

Seems rather deceptive not identifying in the App store that's it's not the same as buying from Serif directly. Had I know I would have bought it directly rather than through the App Store.

Although unlike pixartia my Nik plugins work just fine.

Is AP different or macOS Catalina?

[elec164]

2 hours ago, Cecil said:

Is AP different or macOS Catalina?

It appears the Apple Store version is different if I understand MEB's earlier post.

Quote, "Unfortunately none of them is compatible with Affinity Photo 1.8.1 Mac App Store version".

By stipulating Mac App Store version, I would think the Serif version is somehow different, otherwise why make the distinction.

[Cecil]

9 hours ago, elec164 said:

It appears the Apple Store version is different if I understand MEB's earlier post.

Quote, "Unfortunately none of them is compatible with Affinity Photo 1.8.1 Mac App Store version".

By stipulating Mac App Store version, I would think the Serif version is somehow different, otherwise why make the distinction.

I think it was Catalina upgrade, not a difference in AP versions of macOS and Windows, although Windows Ink and MAC do have differences.  You can verify  with source.

[pixartia]

2 hours ago, Cecil said:

I think it was Catalina upgrade, not a difference in AP versions of macOS and Windows, although Windows Ink and MAC do have differences.  You can verify  with source.

Cecil,

maybe it was not specifically mentioned above, but here we are discussing about the Mac AppStore version and the standard macOS version from the Affinity Store, and their principal differences. 

The Windows version unfortunately is not involved in this discussion. 

 

[elec164]

9 minutes ago, pixartia said:

 we are discussing about the Mac AppStore version and the standard macOS version from the Affinity Store, and their principal differences. 

I found another thread here in the Forums that deals with this. It appears there are four differences between the Apple App Store and Serif versions. Three of which have to do with activation mainly.

The only one I can see that may have an affect on this issue is that the App store version is sandboxed. Otherwise the two versions are supposedly identical.

Perhaps someone from Serif can confirm this.

 

[pixartia]

20 minutes ago, elec164 said:

I found another thread here in the Forums that deals with this. It appears there are four differences between the Apple App Store and Serif versions. Three of which have to do with activation mainly.

The only one I can see that may have an affect on this issue is that the App store version is sandboxed. Otherwise the two versions are supposedly identical.

Perhaps someone from Serif can confirm this.

 

Hi elec164,

you are absolutely right, the Mac AppStore version is sandboxed. Meanwhile if some functionality is transformed, restrained or completely disabled by some reason, normally it should be mentioned clearly.

We are speaking about two versions of the same software declared as identical ones, while they aren't the same having the same price.

So sandboxed it or not, it's not fair not to tell us about such a serious differences....

[Cecil]

14 minutes ago, pixartia said:

Hi elec164,

you are absolutely right, the Mac AppStore version is sandboxed. Meanwhile if some functionality is transformed, restrained or completely disabled by some reason, normally it should be mentioned clearly.

We are speaking about two versions of the same software declared as identical ones, while they aren't the same having the same price.

So sandboxed it or not, it's not fair not to tell us about such a serious differences....

I understand.  Both OS have Affinity Photo builds, as I understand, for each OS.  I also believe the Apple MAS and Affinity Serif Affinity Photo are the same application, so I don’t believe there is a difference in which store you download.  I could be 100% wrong.   Catalina update caused Apple Photos for me and many problems, which remain today.

I hope someone will notice this thread to provide more insight. Peace.