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Before anyone asks: All PhotoWiz plugins (ColorWasher, FocalBlade, LightMachine, PhotoFreebies) work in Photoshop CS 2. The same is true for all other plugins from The Plugin Site.

Harald,

I copied over my focalblade files from the CS directory to the cs2 directory. Focalblade worked once, but is now hanging up.

Any suggestions?

Rob Adams

Not sure what you mean with "hanging up". It should be a good idea to install FocalBlade again directly into Photoshop CS2's Plug-Ins folder.

Focal blade will stert to launch, but not open. Locks up photoshop.

XP pro
4gb ram
dual opteron box

Works in 8 bit mode, but not in 16 bit mode

I just tested it again and FocalBlade works fine on 16bit images in Photoshop CS 2 here.

Please remove FocalBlade and try installing again. Do you use the latest version 1.03?

Other than that I can only imagine that you are using very large image and a lot of data needs to be stored on the hard drive and the memory freed. That may take some time. But I think it would only happen if you have set the Memory Usage Preference to almost 100%, which isn't really recommended.

Just opened picture under CS, used Focalblade 1.03 on 16 bit image - All ok. 77 Mb file

Opened the same picture under CS2, focalblade 1.03 on 16 bit image.
NOT ok. 77 Mb file

Getting gray box outlining where focalblade is trying to open.

This is my favorite sharpener, what is happening?

Rob

I left it trying to open up for over an hour.....

No dice wth 16 bit.

Suggestions?

Rob

Please compare the Memory Usage value in CS and CS 2. Is there a difference? Please set the value from CS in CS 2. Hopefully that helps.

Moved it to 65%. Closed photoshop, re-opened and tried it again. Still won't work in 16 bit.

Summary of actions taken.

Removed focalblade
re-installed in CS2 plugin directory
set memory prefs identical to photoshop cs.

Is there an ini file that needs to be deleted?
Sure is frustrating to see it work in CS, but not CS2.

Rob

Sorry to hear that. You are the only person so far who complained about problems of FocalBlade with CS 2. I just tried it again with a 70MB 16bit image in CS 2 and FocalBlade worked.

Try deleting FocalBlade.ini and cloak.ini in the FocalBlade folder.

Tried all that, no dice.

Here is the
Error Signature
szAppName : Photoshop.exe szAppVer : 9.0.0.0 szModName : hungapp
szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 00000000

Want me to email you the appcompat.txt file?

My copy of CS2 is coming next week so I cannot be sure if my contribution is valid.

I had the same problem with FocalBlade with larger psd files (about 70MB) in photoshop. I droped the memory usage by photoshop to 40% and it has been working fine. FocalBlade seems to require more memory to work or will just hang.

Tried lowering memory to 40%. Still hangs.

Also tried on a very small (11mb) 16 bit file. Still hangs.

Geez, this is frustrating....

Rob

I don't think that the appcompat.txt file will help ... The percentage value is dependent on the instaleld RAM. I tested it with 512 MB RAM and 80% Memory Usage in CS2 and it worked. FocalBlade 1.03 needs relatively little memory, because it processes the image in tiles.

Do you apply FocalBalde on a layer or are there any other special things that you do or are worth mentioning?

I wish I were doing something different.

Using on a background layer, duplicating what I did with CS.

Absolutely nothing has changed from my CS setup to the CS2 setup.

My machine:
Dual Opteron 244's
Win XP pro sp2
4 Gb ram

Focalblade opens almost instantaneously with 8 bit images. 16 bit, even with small file size give me a gray box and then hangs the application.

Rob

There seem to be other problems with CS2. After installing CS2 over CS I discovered that CS2 wouldn't start without a host of messages about not being able to load various modules such as APXPlaser.dll (as I recall -- doing this from memory). Adode said this resulted from various plugins. So I laboriously delated the several I use, reinstalled CS2 with no improvement until I was down to ColorWasher and Focal Plane. When these were delated CS2 now starts normally. I should say that as far as I could tell CS2 ran normally before, but I had to deal with 4 or 5 messages everytime I started the program all saying the program wouldn't start because of the missing modules (which were present on the computer but just not being accessd for some reason). I haven't yet done the complete test which is to reinstall plugins one by one to make sure that CW and FP are really the culprits.

I must also say that I had a hard time uninstalling CW and FP. Both had been used with CS before CS2. I did the Windows uninstall routine, and they still showed up in the filters window. Told CS2 not to look in CSplugin folder and still present. Manually deleted every instance I could find of .exe files associated with CW and FL -- still present. Finally deleted all the.ini and .8bf files associated with CW and FP and thank goodness neither problem now appears in the filers menu (and CS2 starts normally).

I would hate to do without either CW or FL since they were the filers I used most often although the new sharpening strategies in CS2 may help. And I can (and often do) correct colors in other ways, although CW generally does it better than most other filters I have used -- manual is still best if inefficient if you know what you're doing. Still, really don't want to go through the hassle of installing both and then perhaps having to uninstall them.

Dave Schneider

In my last message I said Focal Plane instead of Focal Blade. I knew better.

DJS

Installing CS2 over CS is a very bad idea. I'm not surprised that you experienced problems. This has to do with some files that were left over from CS, but not with ColorWasher or FocalBlade.

Now that CS2 works fine, just install ColorWasher and FocalBlade into the CS2 Plug-Ins folder. I don't expect any problems.

Harald,

Any ideas on possible solutions for the issue I'm having with CS2 and 16 bit files? Tried various memory settings from 100% to 35%, and everything else you suggested higher up in the thread.

I hate not being able to use this in 16 bit mode.

Rob