Affinity Photo and Topaz Plugins again.

[MartinHH]

Hi all,

I would like to come back to the Topic "Topaz Plugins with Affinity Photo".
I have a freshly set up Mac running Catalina (10.15.7). New Installation of Affinity Photo (19) and Topaz Denoise AI and Sharpen AI (newest Versions).
I have installed the plugin as described here:

https://help.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001129351-Serif-Affinity-Photo-Using-Your-Topaz-Labs-Plug-ins

So in my Environment it looks like this:

After restarting Affinity Photo I see the Plugins as expected:

But when I klick on a Plugin nothing happens.

Now I entered a "/" in "Plugin Support Folders". Now the Plugins start, but:

Denoise AI: First I get an error-message:

When I then klick OK the Plugin start, but it is impossible to do anything. Other Error-Messages, like this one, appear:

Sharpen AI: No Error-Message at Start of Plugin.

But when I klick on "Update" the Update-Button get's greyed out, but nothing happens. No Action, nothing changes.

Both Tools are running without any Problems as a stand-allone-Tool! 

Has anybody an Idea what is wrong? Something with my Config? Or is it a Problem with Topaz? NIK works fine, no Problems at all!

Thanks a lot for your Input!

Best Regards

Martin

 

[R C-R]

I don't know if this will fix anything but your Plugins Support Folders list is empty. For Macs, it is usual to set that to the top level of the startup drive (so it just shows the forward slash "/") by clicking on the Add button, navigating to the top level of that drive (usually named Macintosh HD), & selecting that.

[MartinHH]

14 hours ago, R C-R said:

I don't know if this will fix anything but your Plugins Support Folders list is empty. For Macs, it is usual to set that to the top level of the startup drive (so it just shows the forward slash "/") by clicking on the Add button, navigating to the top level of that drive (usually named Macintosh HD), & selecting that.

Hi and thanks,

19 hours ago, MartinHH said:

Now I entered a "/" in "Plugin Support Folders". Now the Plugins start, but:

I did it, and it works as I explained.

Meanwhile I've got an Answer from the Topaz-Support:

Did you buy Affinity from the Apple App Store or directly from Serif?
If purchased from the App Store, Affinity will not be able to interact with our third party plugins and the behavior you are describing would be expected. The conflict has to do with Apple restrictions placed on the app store download.
If this is indeed the case, you'll need to return the App Store purchase if able, and buy the program directly from Serif if you can. My understanding from Serif Support is that there is no way to resolve this conflict with an App Store based installation.

As I bought Affinity Photo from the App Store this is a possible Root-Cause. So I will ask Serif a Solution.

Thanks and best Regards

Martin

[Fixx]

Apple sandboxing is a challenge but Affinity is supposed to get around it with its MAS apps. I guess thats why there is the "Authorise" button here... (Edit: on a second thought, authorising is not necessarily connected to interapp functions but disk access...?)

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, Fixx said:

Apple sandboxing is a challenge but Affinity is supposed to get around it with its MAS apps. I guess thats why there is the "Authorise" button here... (Edit: on a second thought, authorising is not necessarily connected to interapp functions but disk access...?)

As I understand it, the Authorize Global button is supposed to get around this MAS restriction but apparently not.

[Don H]

I have downloaded Affinity Photo (directly from the Affinity site and NOT the Apple store) and installed same on a Mac Mini M1 (2020) running Big Sur 11.2.2.  I also have several Topaz Labs plugins (Studio 2, DeNoise AI, and Sharpen AI) and these all work as expected as stand-alone apps.  However, after more than an hour on a Zoom meeting with a Topaz Labs tech expert and the Operations Manager, we have not been able to get these apps to load and operate within Affinity Photo. We checked permissions on drives, folders, and files among other things with no success.  Can anybody suggest what else to try?

[lnewton]

I bought AP directly from Serif and use on an  almost new iMac running latest OS. Topaz Labs plugins are installed and show up under Filters but the final fly out choice is dimmed out in AP. If I open the file in Photoshop and save as a .tiff file and return to AP, the fly out choice for Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, etc are selectable and work. Now, why will they not work until after opening and saving in another program? Kinda defeats the purpose of plugins it would seem...

[firstdefence]

5 hours ago, lnewton said:

I bought AP directly from Serif and use on an  almost new iMac running latest OS. Topaz Labs plugins are installed and show up under Filters but the final fly out choice is dimmed out in AP. If I open the file in Photoshop and save as a .tiff file and return to AP, the fly out choice for Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, etc are selectable and work. Now, why will they not work until after opening and saving in another program? Kinda defeats the purpose of plugins it would seem...

The most likely reason is because the layer is an (Image) layer, this layer needs to be rasterised so that it becomes a (Pixel) Layer, you can do this by right-clicking on the (Image) Layer and selecting Rasterise.

[lnewton]

Well, thanks but nothing I do related to Rasterizing has any beneficial effect. Anything else?

[John Rostron]

You say a tiff saved from PhotoShop works OK. What file type were the files you loaded directly into Affinity Photo and how did you open them?

John

[lnewton]

AP produced a .tif file and PS saved as .tiff. It was opened in AP using the normal open dialog and opened in PS using Bridge. Flattening, Merging visible, Rasterizing... none has an effect. Also, in the plugins prefs, the Apply Global button remains dimmed. Deleting all links in prefs and resetting was ineffective 

Edited March 29, 2021 by lnewton

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, lnewton said:

Also, in the plugins prefs, the Apply Global button remains dimmed.

That usually means it has already been applied. 

[MEB]

Hi @inewton,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Check if the file you are working with is a 32bit image. If so, go to menu Document > Resize Format / ICC Profile and convert it to RBG/16 or RGB/8 in the Colour Format dropdown (on top). The Topaz plugins should then become available in Affinity Photo (most plugins only support these modes RGB/8 or 16).

[lnewton]

16 Bit... I found that if I flatten the image and export as .tiff. Then, reopen- the plugins are available. I make sure the Pixel layer is selected... Would be great to just be able to use, when the opportunity during the workflow is appropriate, rather than interrupting to do a sharpen or denoise and return

Edited March 29, 2021 by lnewton

[BruceC]

Further to the above.  My own investigation has found...

Affinity will not invoke Topaz plugins if the file has either been saved as an apf file, has had layers added, or was first opened in the Develop Persona before moving to the Photo Persona.

It works fine if the original file was a jpeg and nothing has been done to it. That is, invoking Topaz is the first edit within Affinity Photo.

If the photo has been edited in any way it first needs to be saved as a tiff. Then open the tiff file and the plugins work as expected.

The above worked on a Win 10 PC running Affinity Photo 1.10.1 and Topaz DeNoise 3.2.0    I had the same issue as some others - the last fly-out to DeNoise was greyed out.

Hope this helps.

BruceC

[John Rostron]

7 hours ago, BruceC said:

 has had layers added,

I always create a duplicate layer for the plugin to work on and both DeNoise and Sharpen both work OK.

John