Surface Blur Filter broken in PS CC 2018?

[davidloehr]

Just updated to the 2018 version of Photoshop CC.

And then found out that the surface blur filter is not working correctly.

- I get like 5-6 1px wide vertical lines across the layer as a result. rest of the layer gets transparent (was a fully "pixel filled" image layer before)

- changing values (threshold / blur radius) does not do any difference. Only when values are very high, the layer stays "pixel filled", but gets unicolor due to the high blur radius)

- deleting prefs + reinstalling photoshop did not solve the problem.

My Machine:

MacBook Pro 15" mid 2015, 2.2 ghz, OS X 10.11.6

Anybody else got this problem?

Thanks for answers!
David

PS: Median filter works (both were "performance improved" according to the update / patch notes)

[KanikaS]

Moving to Photoshop General Discussion​

[Jeff Arola]

What is the image mode and bit depth of your image?

How big is the image in terms of pixel dimensions?

Could you post a screenshot?

You've tried on other files?

[davidloehr]

image is:

- RGB, color profile eciRGBv2

- 6925x4623px total

- yes, tried other files. always the same, filter seems generally broken.

attached are three screenshots:

#1 no filter applied, original material at zoom 100%

#2 filter applied as intended, shows the broken result (settings: threshold 13, radius 90)

#3 filter different settings. at some value filter works, but that setting is, of course, not what i want to use! (if is slide up to threshold 86, the filter is working. 85 and below always gives the 1px lines... radius stays at 90.)

[davidloehr]

oh i forgot: bit-depth is at 8-bit.

best + thanks

david

[peterk2677293]

Am having the same issue...

Use this filter in an automated process and it now breaks.

I debugged the process and it is the Surface Blur step that fails.

Image goes white with thin reddish vertical line.

Appears to be an issue with 8-bit images as when changed to 16-bit, all is well.

But then Filter gallery won't work with 16-bit image...

I wish I had left CC 2017 installed

Hope that helps you and Adobe...

Kind regards, Pete

[davescm]

Hi

I've just tried this on a variety of images and couldn't replicate it.

I wonder if it could be GPU dependant. I am using an AMD HD7970 3GB card here with the current 17.10.1 driver.

There have been one or two other graphic  issues reported in this forum in the last couple of days, using NVidia's latest driver which were resolved by rolling back the driver. It may be worth a try if you are using NVidia GPUs.

Dave

[peterk2677293]

Hi Dave,

Am using AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB - Not nvidia.

Am on late 2015 iMac with 32gb ram - 1867 MHz DDR3.

Intel 4GHz i7

Not sure I can change the drivers.

Here is the system report

  Model Name: iMac

  Model Identifier: iMac17,1

  Processor Name: Intel Core i7

  Processor Speed: 4 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 8 MB

  Memory: 32 GB

  Boot ROM Version: IM171.0105.B26

  SMC Version (system): 2.34f2

Graphics:

AMD Radeon R9 M395X:

  Chipset Model: AMD Radeon R9 M395X

  Type: GPU

  Bus: PCIe

  PCIe Lane Width: x16

  VRAM (Total): 4096 MB

  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

  Device ID: 0x6920

  Revision ID: 0x0000

  ROM Revision: 113-C905AA-799

  EFI Driver Version: 01.00.799

  Metal: Supported

  Displays:

iMac:

  Display Type: Built-In Retina LCD

  Resolution: 5120 x 2880 Retina

  Pixel Depth: 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010)

  Main Display: Yes

  Mirror: Off

  Online: Yes

  Automatically Adjust Brightness: Yes

  Connection Type: DisplayPort

I hope that helps…

Be good to see it fixed.

Pete

[davescm]

My apologies for my mistype. I meant to write "can't easily change".

If surface blur is important, until this is resolved, you can install CC 2017 on the same PC as CC 2018. I have three versions installed here. You can do that from the CC desktop app.

Dave

[davescm]

Peter - If the GPU driver does not work for you then you can re-install CC2017 and have both the older version and the new installed at the same time . I have three versions installed here.

To do that go to the CC app - click the down arrow next to Photoshop and choose  "Other versions"

Dave

[davidloehr]

did the same thing as an interim solution and re-installed CC 2017.

well, graphics driver problem then? hope it will be fixed in a patch then!

best,

david

[davescm]

Did you check your graphics driver version ? It ​may ​be the cause.

Dave

[davidloehr]

No idea on whether and how to determine that could be connected.

my graphics is standard stuff, i cannot really change things there on my macbook pro. all hardwired.

Intel Iris Pro:

  Chipset Model: Intel Iris Pro

  Type: GPU

  Bus: Built-In

  VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 1536 MB

  Vendor: Intel

  Device ID: 0x0d26

  Revision ID: 0x0008

  Metal: Supported, feature set OSX_GPUFamily1 v2

Color LCD:

  Display Type: Built-In Retina LCD

  Resolution: 2880 x 1800 Retina

  Framebuffer Depth: 24-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

  Main Display: Yes

  Mirror: Off

  Online: Yes

  Rotation: Supported

  Automatically Adjust Brightness: No

Might be helpful to the Adobe developers.

Best,

David

[davidloehr]

btw updated to High Sierra OSX 10.13 but that did not solve things either.

d.

[davescm]

Hi David - I hadn't realised you were using a Mac. It is the Windows drivers that you can easily change

Dave

[peterk2677293]

Dave, that's a helpful hint for a short-term workaround but would be good to see this fixed really - My automated workflows are broken and I don't want to have to rebuild them every time I upgrade or it becomes self-defeating... If you get my meaning... Pete

[ravenb69307346]

I tried that but my computer is still opening CC 2018. I tried uninstalling 2018 and just reinstalling 2017 and still same issue.

[Ben_Kerns]

Yes... I am running on a mac.  I reinstalled Photoshop 2017 and now I have to make sure that I open files in PS17.   This works though so I have a fix until they update PS18.  So make sure that you are in PS17 and then use the open menu to open files.

Ben

[WA_Photo]

I experience the same issue with Surface Blur. All the other Blur filters work. I turned off the GPU acceleration in the preferences and restarted Photoshop but unfortunately this did not fix the problem. It looks like Surface Blur is broken on some configurations.

MacBook Pro mid 2017

Radeon 560 GPU

running High Sierra.

[peterk2677293]

Is there any news on this?

I'd rather be using the latest Photoshop rather than having 2 versions that I have to move between...

Are we likely to get a patch soon?

Thanks in advance...

Pete

[rosssydney]

Broken! Not working for me either. Image does not change at all, or completely disappears.

Using Macbook Pro 2016 Sierra 10.12.2.

Have tried 16bit and 8bit.

Ross

[EddieOsuna]

Still no update... Still not working on 8-bit images.  

[KIRTAN CREATIVE]

Yes same Problem any fix for this please let me know

[Ben_Kerns]

Same problem here. Surface Blur not working.  I will reinstall cc17 until CC18 Behaves better.

Radeon Pro 580 8192 MC Graphics card.

[alfeelalfeel]

same here, unusable under 105 threshold. waiting for a workaround or a fix.

btw the problem is only when I apply the filter to a non locked layer, like the background layer.