After spending a few minutes playing around with Neat Image 4.0, I must both congratulate and thank ABSoft for the remarkable improvement in speed that I've observed. On one test image I tried, processing time went from 125 seconds in Neat Image 3.17 all the way down to 55 seconds in 4.0; that's 227% times as fast! Very impressive.
The various other enhancements and new options are very nice as well, and are much appreciated.
However, I've noticed one glaring thing that bothers me greatly: The option to display filtration masks in the Component Viewer is gone! I rely very heavily on those red, green, and blue masks to help me fine-tune the Noise Filter and Sharpening settings -- so much so that I consider them essential. Using Neat Image without being able to see them would be such a handicap that it would severely diminish the effectiveness of the program for me.
I am disappointed that such a crucial feature would be removed from the product -- especially without notice. Please consider reinstating the feature; until then, I am sad to say that I will have to very reluctantly revert to version 3.17 of the program.
Thanks for reading, and thanks again for developing such a wonderful and valuable product!
Neat Image 4.0: Filtration masks missing in Component Viewer
Thank you for your kind comments and suggestion.
Yes, there is no masks anymore. This is done due to certain technical reasons in attempt to improve the other functions of the software. With mask removed, you still have before-after comparison in the Component Viewer, which, I believe, is practically even more useful than masks.
Please answer this: what would be more important for you - to have the masks or 227% faster processing if these two were mutually exclusive?
Thank you,
Vlad
Yes, there is no masks anymore. This is done due to certain technical reasons in attempt to improve the other functions of the software. With mask removed, you still have before-after comparison in the Component Viewer, which, I believe, is practically even more useful than masks.
Please answer this: what would be more important for you - to have the masks or 227% faster processing if these two were mutually exclusive?
Thank you,
Vlad
Thank you for your very prompt and informative response.
I do realize that the before-and-after comparison is still available in the Component Viewer, and for that I am thankful. However, as to your opinion that this feature is more useful than the filtration masks, I must respectfully disagree.
My normal workflow involves carefully observing the way the masks change as I move the sliders and and refine the Noise Filter Settings. The masks make it very clear and obvious exactly where the delineations are among the recognized noise levels in the source image. They allow me to precisely isolate noise to a degree that is simply not possible using a visual inspection of the Component Viewer's before-and-after comparison. They also allow me to see at a glance exactly what is going to be sharpened, without my having to squint at the Component Viewer while repeatedly switching back between the "before" and "after" states.
I fully appreciate that the new performance enhancements might have made it impractical or difficult (or perhaps even impossible) to keep the filtration masks feature. However, at least in my case, the removal of the masks will ultimately result in a reduction of quality in the filtered image, due to my decreased ability to properly set the Noise Levels.
So to answer your question: I would not hesitate to give up the huge performance improvement to get those filtration masks back. After all, in the end, it's the final result that really matters. If it takes longer to achieve that result, then so be it; after all, I've lived with the slower performance all this time, and I'm used to it.
As a matter of fact, I am making that choice by uninstalling Neat Image 4.0 and reverting to version 3.17. It's a very drastic thing to do, and I'm unhappy to do it, but I feel that I have no choice.
If the two features are truly mutually exclusive, then perhaps you could consider reinstating the filtration masks as an option (albeit a performance-degrading one), for users who feel that they cannot properly use Neat Image without that feature? I would really hate to be stuck at 3.17 forever, and miss out on all the great enhancements and new features that you continue to add to this product.
I do realize that the before-and-after comparison is still available in the Component Viewer, and for that I am thankful. However, as to your opinion that this feature is more useful than the filtration masks, I must respectfully disagree.
My normal workflow involves carefully observing the way the masks change as I move the sliders and and refine the Noise Filter Settings. The masks make it very clear and obvious exactly where the delineations are among the recognized noise levels in the source image. They allow me to precisely isolate noise to a degree that is simply not possible using a visual inspection of the Component Viewer's before-and-after comparison. They also allow me to see at a glance exactly what is going to be sharpened, without my having to squint at the Component Viewer while repeatedly switching back between the "before" and "after" states.
I fully appreciate that the new performance enhancements might have made it impractical or difficult (or perhaps even impossible) to keep the filtration masks feature. However, at least in my case, the removal of the masks will ultimately result in a reduction of quality in the filtered image, due to my decreased ability to properly set the Noise Levels.
So to answer your question: I would not hesitate to give up the huge performance improvement to get those filtration masks back. After all, in the end, it's the final result that really matters. If it takes longer to achieve that result, then so be it; after all, I've lived with the slower performance all this time, and I'm used to it.
As a matter of fact, I am making that choice by uninstalling Neat Image 4.0 and reverting to version 3.17. It's a very drastic thing to do, and I'm unhappy to do it, but I feel that I have no choice.
If the two features are truly mutually exclusive, then perhaps you could consider reinstating the filtration masks as an option (albeit a performance-degrading one), for users who feel that they cannot properly use Neat Image without that feature? I would really hate to be stuck at 3.17 forever, and miss out on all the great enhancements and new features that you continue to add to this product.
On the first image that I filtered with version 4.0 I was not satisfied with the default Noise Levels so I turned on the Component Viewer to manually adjust the Noise Levels and discovered that the masks were gone. I had to adjust the Noise Levels blind without being able to see what is happening to the masks. I know that you can click between the original and filtered results but that is not a substitute for seeing the masks. The new version did run faster but there was no net savings in time because it took me far longer to adjust the Noise Levels. In fact I never did find satisfactory settings to separate the noise from the picture detail I wanted to keep. That may have just been the nature of the image I was working on, but I have the dissatisfied feeling that if I just could have seen what I was doing I could have done a better job.
It may be that most of your customers never looked at the masks anyway and that I represent only a small percentage of your users. In that case your new design may be better for most users. I will try version 4 for a while before I decide whether to stay with it or to go back to version 3.
Robert
It may be that most of your customers never looked at the masks anyway and that I represent only a small percentage of your users. In that case your new design may be better for most users. I will try version 4 for a while before I decide whether to stay with it or to go back to version 3.
Robert
Robert, thank you for your comments too. We certainly will take your opinion into account in our further work. Probably there will be optional masks in the future versions. At the moment, it seems that indeed only small percentage of people really use them in previous versions of the software.
Thank you for your opinion.
Vlad
Thank you for your opinion.
Vlad
The Component Viewer has never left Neat Image, it is available there too.
Regarding masks, I think this feature is a bit outdated now after all the changes we have made to the filtration algorithms. It was used in earlier versions of NI algorithms, but not so much in the latest versions, so the opinion in our team is that it makes little sense to try to display any masks now.
Kind regards,
Vlad
Regarding masks, I think this feature is a bit outdated now after all the changes we have made to the filtration algorithms. It was used in earlier versions of NI algorithms, but not so much in the latest versions, so the opinion in our team is that it makes little sense to try to display any masks now.
Kind regards,
Vlad