Hi, Giovanni. At least the re-install process doesn’t take very long to get v2.1.1 back up & running. Hopefully, Joe & Co. can track down the issue with running under 10.11.6. Cheers!
If version 3.0.3 was an interface update only as claimed, then it seems it should work on El Capitan. Also, if color profiles were necessary for JPEGs in 2.1.1 to successfully convert and using the same file does not convert in 3.0.3 then this update seems to be much more than an interface update.
Alright, I spoke with the developer that rebuilt the interface and learned that the QT backend we use to build our software was updated from QT 5.6 to QT 5.12. The reason this matters is that macOS support is limited to the three latest versions as stated here in their documentation:
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/macos.html
This is something that was not included in the changelog because our entire build environment here at Topaz Labs has been upgraded from QT 5.6 to QT 5.12. Everything we release going forward will have this requirement, it appears. This is part of the reason we’re not able to support too many OS versions, as we cannot maintain multiple build environments with such a small team.
This is definitely an oversight on our end, and it looks like A.I. Gigapixel 2 will be the last version of this product that Mac OS X 10.11 users can use without upgrading to macOS 10.12. I’m going to speak with the team about this change and update our documentation accordingly. I’m not 100% sure on this, yet, but if this build environment change impacts all future updates, more products may be unable to launch for Mac OS X 10.11 users as they are updated with our new toolchain. The reason we made the upgrade is that QT 5.6 had many operational, performance, and system-level bugs that were plaguing our own build process and our end result products. We had to make the change eventually, and as Mac OS X support is gradually dropped, it was inevitable that this change would occur. We don’t actually have any more machines in the office running 10.11, so that’s another reason this was missed.
Sorry for the trouble, those of you on 10.11, but it looks like this change will be permanent.
Just had a followup chat with the dev, and it looks like Studio v1 will continue to update with QT 5.6, but it’s the only product that will receive any further updates with QT 5.6. Once Studio v2 is released, it will be built on QT 5.12, and will not work with Mac OS X 10.11. You will have to upgrade to macOS 10.12 to use Studio v2. Any new products that release will be built on QT 5.12, also.
Thanks for helping us dig this one out. I’ll be addressing this in our support materials today.
Are you saying all Topaz software product updates moving forward will no longer be supported on 10.11? I have the entire Topaz Suite running on 10.11 as well. If this is the case than I will have to stop updating all my Topaz products from this point onward on this OS. Having Topaz updates render my tools dead is not something I can have happen since I rely on them. Having to update OSs all the time is extremely expensive because many of us have software that only run on one OS and can cost thousands of dollars when we upgrade and try and keep everything current. It is a vicious cycle we are caught in.
What will be the status of the older Topaz plugins? Are they going to be updated and rendered obsolete or will they remain as they are and be functional?
Brand new products that don’t exist yet will not support 10.11 from this point forward.
Studio 1 will receive a few more updates, which will continue to support 10.11. However, Studio 2, when it releases, will drop 10.11 support.
These products, when updated, will use the newer Studio framework, which will likely be Studio 2. I suspect we will not release any In Studio updates that will move Classic plugins into the new framework (as we’ve done with Detail, Impression, etc.), until Studio 2 releases. This means the next updates won’t support 10.11. This is nothing new, though. When we updated ReMask 4 to ReMask 5, we dropped 10.8 and 10.9 support. There’s not a lot we can do about that.
We can hardly effect change on this. We have to update our stuff, too, just to keep releasing products. The blame here lies with Apple, who prefer to continually push new hardware on their users. We still support Windows 7 x64 because that problem doesn’t exist on that OS. We’re not super happy with Apple, either, but we do what we must to stay in business. We have to spend tens of thousands in computer hardware to remain competitive, so we feel your pain. I personally cannot afford to buy the machines we have to use to build our products. Such is life.
Does anyone have Gigabit installer for 2.0 for the MacOS that I could use to reinstall the old version that did work on my computer
Just scroll down a bit on the Downloads page to find the A.I. Gigapixel 2.1.1 update.
I have updated the requirements pages for both Studio and A.I. Gigapixel to reflect the dropping of support for 10.11. Sorry those of you stuck on 10.11, but progress marches on with or without us.
I agree with not being happy with Apple…I’m looking at my next major hardware and software upgrade as going back to Windows based platforms despite the increased problems you have with them, security being the biggest problem. Apple used to be a great company but now they are building throwaway hardware that costs twice as much as Windows based products. Unless you are rich they are pricing themselves out of the ordinary person’s market.
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I can’t disagree with you there. I purposely bought a 2015 MBP back in 2017, because of price and necessary ports (USB C isn’t there yet).
Now, their newer hardware is disappointing. The OS is a joy to use, but the hardware is terrible. Their unwillingness to support NVIDIA cards is also very bizarre. Anyways, this isn’t a diatribe about Apple, we have other folks in this thread that are having trouble processing their images.
Anyone wanna send me a photo that isn’t processing?
Maybe a just FWIW
Bearing in mind the issues reported I updated a tad reluctantly.
However, on W10 Pro 64bit here but with a below par GPU…on which v2.1.1 was fine and the processing speeds were OK’ish.
I have tried only a couple of test runs and there is a difference in speed, as in worse than v2.1.1 . It would be good if a .dot release gave back the speed a boost in CPU only systems but I fear I will have upgrade to an nVidia 1050Ti 4GB card (not higher chipset for budgetry reasons ;( )
Also, did I miss seeing it on v2.1.1 but have seen the x0.5 button i.e. a downsizing choice. Possibly a little strange in a program whose raison d’etre in large scale upsizing.
Recommended card memory is 8G.
You can use the custom scale (…x) and set it to a lower percentage such as 50% but the preset scales have 0.5x in the new version.
I have 4GB of DDR5 memory on my video card and have never had an issue with upscaling even to 25000 px.
I ran a test of the 0.5X preset to see how it did, and noticed a fair amount of halos around lines and edges compared to doing the same thing in Photoshop using Bicubic Sharper. That’s with Gigapixel’s noise and blur reduction set to none, so it appears to always apply some sort default sharpening effect stronger than Photoshop’s to the reduction process.
Today’s minor update mentioned that the models had been updated for medium blur and noise reduction. The new user interface shows these as none, light, and heavy. Shall we assume that the update notice is just using the old terminology, or is there a medium setting that the UI forget to provide access to?
It was an update to the labels only.
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Regarding having to run OSX 10.11 for non-Topaz software: If you have hardware that supports Mojave, run 10.11 as a VM when needed. Don’t let an old OS drag you down and keep you from using the latest Topaz offerings if your hardware isn’t forcing it.
I could talk about “Mojave on unsupported Macs” for those of you stuck with pre-2012 hardware or “hackintosh” for those who like macOS but not Apple hardware ;-). But I won’t…
BTW Russell, auto-update did not offer me 3.0.4. I had to uninstall and reinstall to get the latest (Mac).
Labels still read None/Low/High.
