I just downloaded and installed the Nik 3.0 collection to test it and found, much to my surprise, that the promised new Perspective module is nothing but Dxo’s ViewPoint 3 module, converted into a Nik module.
I suppose that is helpful to those who don’t already have VP3 but not so much to me who does have it. A bit of a disappointment.
Yes, Nik seems to be in a very transient phase regarding its marketing… It’s always a good idea to read what you get beforehand, also because the installer is fairly destructive for previous versions… And I also feel a bit ho-hum with the current solution in order to make Nik “raw-savvy”.
Since you already have Viewpoint, what would you have expected Perrspective Efex to do that you can’t already do? While I have no direct knowledge of this, I suspect that eventually Viewpoint as a separate standalone application will go away. I have no idea how they will market the integrated PhotoLab Viewpoint palette, but certainly Viewpoint as a separate application is redundant.
Mark
If memory serves me correctly, VP was once a part of Dxo Optics Pro Elite version. If you wanted VP capability you had to purchase the Elite version because it was not available in the essential version. To reduce the price of Elite, VP and I think it was film pack were separated out and became independent applications, making them available to many host applications. That was when I purchased VP to use as a plugin to PS. Keeping VP independent will allow the application to be used in future versions of other hosts.
This is what they need to do with the DAM programing.
No - that doesn’t appear to be so, Mike: Someone made a similar comment some while ago (I forget where) - and it was rejected by a DxO staff member (tho I forget which one it was).
I reckon VP will remain as the tool that’s fully integrated with PL - whereas the Perspective tool in the Nik collection is targeted at non-PL users. There’s certainly no benefit for a PL-user to use the Nik version.
John M
John,
You may have misunderstood me. That is not what I meant. I was referring to the stand-alone portion of Viewpoint, not the integration into PhotoLab. They are two different things. The Viewpoint functionality appears to be in PhotoLab Elite by default. The license for Viewpoint just makes the feature visible and active, As a result, there is no longer a reason to keep the standalone version of View point, now duplicated in Nik, unless perhaps the price stays at the current $49.99 USD. I eventually see the Viewpoint features becoming a permanent part of the Elite version, which it should have been all along.
Mark.
Ah, OK … As a VP owner, I was not aware of that, Mike.
what would you have expected Perrspective Efex to do that you can’t already do?
Well, for one thing I would have expected that a perspective plugin might have some of the functionality that VP3 does not have. For example I would have liked to be able to drag a single corner of an image to correct perspective similar to the way that you can do this in PS. And I would have expected the interface to contain different controls. But above all I would have expected the engineers to correct the one thing about VP that has annoyed me since I bought the initial version of ViewPoint - the need to load the raw file to do automatic corrections.
Yes, I know. The software sends a tiff or jpg to the plugin and needs to have the information in the raw file to do the corrections, but there is no reason that I can see that the necessary information can not be sent to the plugin along. with the image path or the image itself. If they did that I would not have to browse to find the specific image to do the auto correction.
And I do agree with you that VP will probably be going away. It always seemed like a poor step-child to OP and PL.
yes
it would be logical that view point as a standalone application disappears replaced by perspectiv effect.
maybe the future Dxo (photolab4?) natively integrate these corrections?
This is what it is. VP and FP are built into PL and hidden until license codes are entered. Same thing for Essential/Elite. It all depends on license keys…
I think you have a very narrow view, so I’ll comment again for clarity.
If VP was not available as a standalone application, I and others that I recommended the application to, would not have purchased it. VP has a valuable function that I wanted to use in Photoshop as a plugin. View Point can also function in other hosts or as a standalone providing that same functionality. Embedding View Point into an unwanted application suite diminishes makes it less attractive to purchase.
The cost of the entire Nik Collection including the perspective efex module is not hugely more expensive then the regular price for Viewpoint alone. And, the Nik collection is a lot more popular as a plug-in to other applications than Viewpoint. The addition of the perspective efex module will only make the Nik Collection more popular.
It is not logical to assume that DXO added the perspective effects module to Nik for no additional cost but will retain the stand alone version of Viewpoint as a separate product. Perspective Efex can be run as a separate standalone program with it own icon which is identical in every way to running Viewpoint except that it does not give you a license to unlock Viewpoint functionality in PhotoLab.
Mark
BTW does anyone know how to get rid of the previous version, once you have loaded version 3.
I still have the old control panel popping up.
There didn’t appear to be any reference to this.