Impression - Only Black Image Saved

Firstly edit your profile and remove your email address from the name field.

The link above outlines the minimum technical specs you need and the recommended. Minimum will allow it to run and please help with a little more information such as:

  • What PC and specs do you have?
  • What Adjustment were you using at the time the screen went black.

Itā€™s very important to provide all the information. ā€œGeForce Cardā€ isnā€™t enough. There are GeForce GT 220 GPUs, and they arenā€™t supported.

PC is a brand new HP Envyā€¦ 16GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics with 2GB DDR3 video memory

It does it on any preset.

It does it when the image is 5472 pixels wide by 3648 high.
It does NOT do it when the image is 3468 pixels wide by 5472 high.
It does NOT do it when the image is 5184 wide by 3456 wide.

Impression v2.0.5

Does that narrow it down?

Does your PC have Dual GPUā€™s? For example it may have a Intel Integrated GPU which is the default. A couple of ways you can test are:

  • Right click on the Studio desktop Icon and if it comes up with an option of ā€œRun with graphics processor >ā€ select the High-Performance NVIDIA Processor option
  • Or type DxDiag at the Cortana or Windows Search box and run that.

If you like you can save the output as a TXT file and post it here and i can have a look for you.

I agree with AiDon. It sounds like your iGPU is being used, instead of the 940MX.

Itā€™s not doing it every timeā€¦ I cannot seem to duplicate it at the moment.

I am experiencing the same black layer being returned from texture effects and possibly others. I have a Dell XPS 15 9550. OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit. Processor: Intel(R) Coreā„¢ i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz Graphics card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530. This a new laptop and have not previously had this issue with previous laptop. Any other information needed to give me an idea of what the issue is? The previous threads donā€™t help as this laptop doesnā€™t use NVIDIA. Using photoshop cc.

It is a minimum recommended GPU but make sure that the drivers are the latest, I suspect that they should be available from the Dell web site.

Technical requirements for Studio are listed here:

If there are no updates or the update doesnā€™t correct your problem, raise a technical support request at the links in the header.

It looks like the XPS 15 9550 has the NVIDIA GTX 960M 2GB GPU, which you should configure to be used with TFX 2, instead of the ā€œAutomaticā€ graphics context switching, or the Intel HD Graphics 530.

https://support.topazlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/213614538-Using-Switchable-Graphics-with-Topaz-Labs

Iā€™m having a similar problem with Topaz Impressions 2. Every image is black - the example image that loads by default is black (but you can see it when you click ā€˜originalā€™); all of the preview thumbnails are black; and the saved output is black.

This is true for both the standalone Topaz Impressions 2 application and the ā€œImpressionā€ plugin for Topaz Studio. BUT the other plugins for Topaz Studio seem to work, i.e. the thumbnails appear and export correctly.

Also, Topaz Impressions 2 will sometimes freeze the entire computer when itā€™s trying to load a painting effect profile (e.g. Van Gogh 1), then log me out of my session. When I log back in, itā€™s prompting to reload the image.

Topaz Impressions 2 was working prior to installing a new video card (and running off the iGPU, an Intel HD Graphics 4600 1536 MB Integrated Graphics Card).

Hereā€™s my system setup:

MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
3.49 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM: 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 2047 MB

The video card has the latest NVIDIA Web Driver: 378.05.05.24f04

I believe the video card has successfully switched over from the iGPU, q.v.:

  • About This Mac>Hardware>Graphics/Displays says: Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
  • The BIOS was updated to select the NVIDIA card
  • a graphics heavy game that could barely run before now hums along nicely with high frame rate.

There donā€™t appear to be any relevant settings for the NVIDIA drivers (the MacOS control panel is very basic). The only seemingly relevant option was to switch over the OS X default driver (which sounds like a bad idea in general). Didnā€™t seem to help.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

P.S. I didnā€™t start a new question because I saw someone else referred back here.



Topaz Impressions 2, default image loaded:





Topaz Impressions 2, default image visible when you click ā€œOriginalā€:





Topaz Studio with Impressions plugin (initiated) loaded. Image and thumnails all black.




Topaz Studio, other effects are visible and export correctly.

Hi,

There are a couple of things that may help here:

  • If you have dual-cards on the system it may be that automatic switching is cutting in ā€¦ you can check what card you are using from the Help-> Graphics Info and if it isnā€™t using the NVIDIA card (only if you have the discrete GPU and the integrated GPU) do the following to disable GPU switching:

  • Go to the Apple menu and choose ā€œSystem Preferencesā€ and then go to ā€œEnergyā€ control panel

  • Uncheck the box next to ā€œAutomatic graphics switchingā€

  • Close out of System Preferences

  • Iā€™m not sure about the Mac version of the driver but for my 1050 on a Windows machine my driver version is 390.77 so yours seems a little old but I know mac versions are different but I see there is a 387.128 version CUDA driver on the NVIDIA web site.

Hi Don!

Thank you very much for such a prompt reply (late on the weekend no less!). It is very much appreciated, and truly above and beyond. Thank you!

You are probably on to something with the drivers! (as I recall, out-of-date drivers were the usual culprits on my Windows machines).

First, I donā€™t recall installing CUDA drivers at all, so perhaps thatā€™s the problem. (I presumed they were optional, but maybe not?)

Second, although my Web Drivers say ā€œUp to dateā€, perhaps thatā€™s relative to system version, which is about 4-5 months behind. (Iā€™m running MacOS Sierra 10.12.6. The latest MacOS is High Sierra version 10.13)

So my ā€œUp to dateā€ web drivers could also be 4+ months behind, like my OS. So perhaps thatā€™s the problem. (High Sierra has an entirely new file system, so it seemed prudent to wait for developers to catch up before upgrading).

I will investigate further when Iā€™m awake, caffeinated, and backed up in case I break something.

Thank you again very much for your help! And have a great rest of the weekend!

Davenhill


P.S. Replying to your suggestions:

As you correctly note, I only have one discrete GPU and one integrated GPU. It appears that the discrete GPU is appearing as expected. In Topaz Studio ā€œHelp-> Graphics Infoā€ shows:

As such, there is no option for checking or unchecking ā€œAutomatic graphics Switchingā€ in the System Preferences>Energy Save panel.

@davenhill, keep in mind that most everyone here is a user, just like you. Look for accounts like mine, for Topaz Employees. We all have a badge on our avatars. Also, we are listed in this group:

Further to your request, if youā€™re having trouble with Impression 2, but not Impression in Studio, then Iā€™d say use the newer version of Impression. Previous versions wonā€™t see any more updates, but Studio will.

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Thank you very much, @JoeFedric-TL. Iā€™m only just now getting a chance to revisit this.

Unfortunately, the black screen problem (as detailed above) persists in both in Topaz Impressions 2 and Topaz Studio program, version 1.8.4. (In Topaz Studio, all of the filters work except the Impressions plugin section)

I am running the latest Mac OS (Sierra version 10.12.16; note I have not upgraded to High Sierra on the assumption that the new new file system risks further incompatibility).

And I am running the latest nVidia Web Driver (378.05.05.25f06), the latest CUDA driver, version 387.128, and the latest version of Topaz Studio, v. 1.8.

Any suggestions on how best to proceed from here would be greatly appreciated. :slight_smile:

Impression 2 will not likely see a resolution, because it is no longer in development, with the update of Impression in Studio available.

Can you please submit a support request, here:

https://web.topazlabs.com/hc/requests/new

I will be sending you some instructions so we can collect files that will help us solve the black output issue youā€™re experiencing, with Topaz Studio. When you get a ticket number, just post it here, and Iā€™ll respond to your ticket.

I should note, weā€™ve just begun collecting extremely detailed raw logs from Topaz Studio, so weā€™re at the very beginning of the solution process!

I had this issue alsoā€¦it was working fine and then not. Butā€¦if you have an adequate system, which I do, all you have to do is process a smaller image. Itā€™s that simple. I was trying to process an image that was 6000 px on the longest side and I got a black image. I reduced the size of the image to 3500 px on the longest side and I got a perfect image.

Size does matter.

This problem has just begun to show up in my Topaz Studio, and itā€™s a serious issue. My drivers are all up-to-date, and my PC has top-of-the-line specs. I should note that I am a professional artist, and Topaz Labs markets the Studio without any caution that professionals should shop elsewhere. The only solution that seems to work is by tolefairy: reduce the image size. That is not an option for me; I am creating artwork that has specific dimensions and resolution, so I cannot just make it a little image so Topaz Studio can handle it.

If this requires a fix to Topaz Studio, do so. If Topaz Studio cannot handle files larger than a certain size (by megabytes or by dimensions and/or resolution), state that clearly in the sales information, and write code to prevent such files from loading into the Studio.

What GPU are you using? Note that most ā€˜top of the lineā€™ PCā€™s have dual GPUā€™s but default to the onboard GPU that has no dedicated memory so needs to use shared memory.

I have no issues with RAW from a 5DsR (8688 x 5792) as my second GPU is a GTX1050 with 4GB of memory.

Iā€™m having the same problem with the trial version; black output at any resolution, standalone or plugin. I was tempted to just forget about it since Iā€™ll save money if I just assume it doesnā€™t work on my machine. But curiosity wonā€™t let meā€¦

Firstly can you state the application you are using, either Impression 1 or 2 or the Impression Adjustment in Topaz Studio?

If you are using Impression 1 or 2, download Topaz Studio and Try Pro with the Impression Adjustment to see if that works better.

If you are using Topaz Studio please raise a Technical Support ticket from the link above or go to: