Wow GraXpert AI one-click gradient removal blew me away on the first try! I had just spent 10 minutes adjusting boxes in Siril's Background Neutralization. Then I tried the 1-click GraXpert way. The final result with GraXpert is noticeably better: darker more contrasting background, numerically better noise scores, less vignetting in the corners! Thanks and Clear Skies!
Tried it out on an uncropped image, got same results as you did with your Orion image. Cropped all the stacking artifacts out. Re-ran GraXpert and worked great. I have been removing gradient from each nights' session, then stacking the various sessions together.
I think that was a great finding to know it has to be cropped first. Something things like that are simply assumed to be obvious, but then they are not ;-)
This is the way I have been using the original version. I stack each session, crop each of them, then remove the gradient. Then stack all the sessions together.@@viewintospace
Thanks for the video. You are great instructor and we all appreciate it. Just some advice to the Mac users. I opted for a version (on RUclips) that will allow me to download anything outside of the App Store. However, regardless of what method is chosen. You must restart your Mac after doing so and the Graxpert AI installation must be done after you have allowed your Mac to run applications from outside the Apple App Store. It took me a while to figure this out. BTW. after installing it I got a message of a new version......!!!. I think I will wait a while before going through this again :-) .
Thanks Sascha, I remember watching and using this initially but I was using Windows. Now that I have a Mac I’m glad this is covered toov 7:54 because it’s a little more clunky to install vs Windows. And cheers to you for being so responsive!!
The first image in your test worked well, though the gradient was very subtle. The second image hadn’t been cropped yet, and had some black edges. The gradient removal didn’t look great to me, and I wonder if it’s because the tool might be designed to work on cropped images/images that don’t have black on any of the edges.
Thanks for the video and description of steps to download. I've been using GraXpert all the time instead of DBE. So, this really is great news and I agree it will just get better as the machine learning refines the process.
Another great video! I just downloaded it to my windows pc. However, I see no AI function in the dropdown box. Would you happen to know why? For now I have to select samples. Bummer. Thanks!!
Either you did not download the AI version but the regular one (ensure it is the AI beta) or you did not put the unzipped background model in the same directory as the graxpert.exe file
Important to know that it is still beta and the AI needs some more training. Therefore you might or might not get the best results. But you can help by sending them examples (before/after, but linear) where you had good results working it out manually with graxpert or siril (no other tool).
Correction - I was using the Open command from the menu bar. Using the Load Image button sees .xsif format. That being the case - where best to employ? Individual integrations, or after doing a Channel Combination?
Before reading your reply I forged ahead and ran each filter through GraXpert, then did my channel combination. I seemed to work well, over the weekend I'll do a comparison to after-combination.@@viewintospace
Well... you are right... it might be a beta but it works like a charm. If they were to make this into a pixinsight process, I'd be more than willing to pay for it.
Thanks for the Video, which is espacially helpful for MacOs Users! For Mac Users its a bit of a struggle (it was already with the original GraXpert Version) because Apple has some restrictions for software developers. Btw. here is the official Video ruclips.net/video/AzDDafSrZ7k/видео.htmlsi=2FhHzgUCad_y8eI5 Your example images are a bit difficult. In the first one I can´t see any gradient to be removed, which makes it hard to see a good before and after. Also in my video i pointed out, that we didn´t had much monochrome images in the training. So this is yet not the best example to proof the power of the AI. The 2nd image I would technically describe as a mosaic. There are large overlapping areas. GraXpert can not handle those! (nor any other Gradient removal software). So either you crop it down, to a point were both panels overlap completly. Or you stack them separately, remove the gradients, and sticht them together.
Great video! I’ve actually been using DBE a little less lately as I see it does remove some of the faint details so I’ve been looking for an alternative to try out!
Not that big an issue as Graxpert supports xisf format. Save pic in Pixinsight as xisf, open it in Graxpert, remove gradients, save as xisf, open it again in PixInsight
OK. So I now got a pop up saying that there was a new version with bug fixes !. When I erased the original and downloaded the "new" version, it doesn't have the AI option !!. I just erased and reinstalled the original version !. BTW, I use an Intel Mac.
Yes, this is deceiving. It always tells you that because it regards the regular version higher than the AI beta. So you can simply disregard this message
Great Heads up, but would have been good to see it working on an image with a real gradient, your bubble image did not have barely a gradient, and the M42 had bad stacking artefacts, so not good examples….I will stick with PI tools for now, but will keep my eye on this for the future….👍🏻
I would agree, they were not so good examples, but at least it brought to light how important it is that there are no stacking artefacts left. Will surely do a follow up video one this project is a bit more advanced.
That might very well be. They are still in the process of training the AI. When I played around with it yesterday I got about 40% good result, 30% mixed results like the Orion Nebula and 30% bad results. But I have high hopes that when they are finished with training the AI the tool will work great!
I was able to download the AI beta version and the bg_model and contents all into the same folder. And when I open GraX I can see the "AI" listed in the box but when I click on calculate I get an error message saying 'No folder or file found in ....bg_model'. Any suggestions? Much appreciated!!
Yes, hi Sacha, the issue is I'm having a hard time putting it all together. I can download the Toolbox, I can download Graxpert but then things get confusing. The Graxpert that pops up in Pi doesn't create background model and it doesn't allow me to go back one step. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but any input is appreciated.
Few things - if you have a Windows PC there might be some issues - check here in comments - some people have left some good descriptions how to solve it. But basically, ensure you have the correct version of GraXpert downloaded, ensure in the script you click the wrench and enter the correct path for the graxpert.exe file and ensure you have selected the background model in the script - that should do the trick.
Same happened to me. Solution: unzip de bg_model zip file and place the newly created directory in the same folder as the .exe. Now it finishes calculation but the results are worst.😪😪😪😪
As it is a beta Version which still has some issues, you can either wait and try the next version or report your issues in Github - the developers are pretty responsive.
The calculation should only take a few seconds. It is important that the bg_model folder is already unpacked and that it is in the correct folder which depends on your operating system
Wow GraXpert AI one-click gradient removal blew me away on the first try! I had just spent 10 minutes adjusting boxes in Siril's Background Neutralization. Then I tried the 1-click GraXpert way. The final result with GraXpert is noticeably better: darker more contrasting background, numerically better noise scores, less vignetting in the corners! Thanks and Clear Skies!
Tried it out on an uncropped image, got same results as you did with your Orion image. Cropped all the stacking artifacts out. Re-ran GraXpert and worked great. I have been removing gradient from each nights' session, then stacking the various sessions together.
I think that was a great finding to know it has to be cropped first. Something things like that are simply assumed to be obvious, but then they are not ;-)
This is the way I have been using the original version. I stack each session, crop each of them, then remove the gradient. Then stack all the sessions together.@@viewintospace
Köszönjük!
Thanks a lot - appreciated!!!
Thanks for the video. You are great instructor and we all appreciate it. Just some advice to the Mac users. I opted for a version (on RUclips) that will allow me to download anything outside of the App Store. However, regardless of what method is chosen. You must restart your Mac after doing so and the Graxpert AI installation must be done after you have allowed your Mac to run applications from outside the Apple App Store. It took me a while to figure this out.
BTW. after installing it I got a message of a new version......!!!. I think I will wait a while before going through this again :-) .
In Linux you have to save the background models to a folder and then, in the advanced tab, choose that folder
Thanks Sascha, I remember watching and using this initially but I was using Windows. Now that I have a Mac I’m glad this is covered toov 7:54 because it’s a little more clunky to install vs Windows. And cheers to you for being so responsive!!
The first image in your test worked well, though the gradient was very subtle. The second image hadn’t been cropped yet, and had some black edges. The gradient removal didn’t look great to me, and I wonder if it’s because the tool might be designed to work on cropped images/images that don’t have black on any of the edges.
Very good point!
That's it!
That's correct, the AI was only trained with cropped images. Stacking artifacts or borders can throw it off quite significantly.
Thanks for the video and description of steps to download. I've been using GraXpert all the time instead of DBE. So, this really is great news and I agree it will just get better as the machine learning refines the process.
Thanks for saving me 2 hours of time in installing the Mac-Version !!
Another great video! I just downloaded it to my windows pc. However, I see no AI function in the dropdown box. Would you happen to know why? For now I have to select samples. Bummer. Thanks!!
Either you did not download the AI version but the regular one (ensure it is the AI beta) or you did not put the unzipped background model in the same directory as the graxpert.exe file
Important to know that it is still beta and the AI needs some more training. Therefore you might or might not get the best results. But you can help by sending them examples (before/after, but linear) where you had good results working it out manually with graxpert or siril (no other tool).
Yes, 100% agree!
Correction - I was using the Open command from the menu bar. Using the Load Image button sees .xsif format.
That being the case - where best to employ? Individual integrations, or after doing a Channel Combination?
After channel integration - the AI seems only to work good on color pics - at least that is what the developer team is stating presently
Before reading your reply I forged ahead and ran each filter through GraXpert, then did my channel combination. I seemed to work well, over the weekend I'll do a comparison to after-combination.@@viewintospace
Well... you are right... it might be a beta but it works like a charm. If they were to make this into a pixinsight process, I'd be more than willing to pay for it.
Thanks for the Video, which is espacially helpful for MacOs Users! For Mac Users its a bit of a struggle (it was already with the original GraXpert Version) because Apple has some restrictions for software developers. Btw. here is the official Video ruclips.net/video/AzDDafSrZ7k/видео.htmlsi=2FhHzgUCad_y8eI5
Your example images are a bit difficult. In the first one I can´t see any gradient to be removed, which makes it hard to see a good before and after. Also in my video i pointed out, that we didn´t had much monochrome images in the training. So this is yet not the best example to proof the power of the AI.
The 2nd image I would technically describe as a mosaic. There are large overlapping areas. GraXpert can not handle those! (nor any other Gradient removal software). So either you crop it down, to a point were both panels overlap completly. Or you stack them separately, remove the gradients, and sticht them together.
Another great/useful video. If I already have GraXpert installed, do I need to uninstall and reinstall it?
Nevermind I figured it out
Sorry, was away, but great that it works now for you!
Everyone told me Macs were supposed to be easy and that’s the beauty of them.
They are - as long as you play by the rules. But as soon as you deviate, it gets complicated.....
Great video! I’ve actually been using DBE a little less lately as I see it does remove some of the faint details so I’ve been looking for an alternative to try out!
I think that this code must be implemented inside a pixinsight script, how an external software can be used inside a pixinsight workflow?
Not that big an issue as Graxpert supports xisf format. Save pic in Pixinsight as xisf, open it in Graxpert, remove gradients, save as xisf, open it again in PixInsight
Anyway to use GPU Tensorflow acceleration?
OK. So I now got a pop up saying that there was a new version with bug fixes !. When I erased the original and downloaded the "new" version, it doesn't have the AI option !!. I just erased and reinstalled the original version !. BTW, I use an Intel Mac.
Yes, this is deceiving. It always tells you that because it regards the regular version higher than the AI beta. So you can simply disregard this message
Great Heads up, but would have been good to see it working on an image with a real gradient, your bubble image did not have barely a gradient, and the M42 had bad stacking artefacts, so not good examples….I will stick with PI tools for now, but will keep my eye on this for the future….👍🏻
I would agree, they were not so good examples, but at least it brought to light how important it is that there are no stacking artefacts left. Will surely do a follow up video one this project is a bit more advanced.
At my first few tests it appears like it removes also some faint data along wiht the gradient
That might very well be. They are still in the process of training the AI. When I played around with it yesterday I got about 40% good result, 30% mixed results like the Orion Nebula and 30% bad results. But I have high hopes that when they are finished with training the AI the tool will work great!
I was able to download the AI beta version and the bg_model and contents all into the same folder. And when I open GraX I can see the "AI" listed in the box but when I click on calculate I get an error message saying 'No folder or file found in ....bg_model'. Any suggestions? Much appreciated!!
Did you unzip the bg model?
@@viewintospace yes
how, or where you found bg_model?
At the second link in the description: bit.ly/3PtzX39
AI link not found?
Hmmm..... Could you be a bit more specific what you need or what the issue is?
Yes, hi Sacha, the issue is I'm having a hard time putting it all together. I can download the Toolbox, I can download Graxpert but then things get confusing. The Graxpert that pops up in Pi doesn't create background model and it doesn't allow me to go back one step. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but any input is appreciated.
Few things - if you have a Windows PC there might be some issues - check here in comments - some people have left some good descriptions how to solve it. But basically, ensure you have the correct version of GraXpert downloaded, ensure in the script you click the wrench and enter the correct path for the graxpert.exe file and ensure you have selected the background model in the script - that should do the trick.
Thanks, I'll check all this out.
When I have mine set to AI it just says calculating forever and doesn't do anything. Any tips?
Same happened to me. Solution: unzip de bg_model zip file and place the newly created directory in the same folder as the .exe. Now it finishes calculation but the results are worst.😪😪😪😪
As it is a beta Version which still has some issues, you can either wait and try the next version or report your issues in Github - the developers are pretty responsive.
The calculation should only take a few seconds. It is important that the bg_model folder is already unpacked and that it is in the correct folder which depends on your operating system
Better than ABE?
At the moment it is not as stable as ABE but for the pics where it works, definitely better then ABE
Would be interesting to compare with SiriL. Yes SiriL needs a few steps but my main interest is which yields the better image…
@@chrislee8886 Siril actually used the GraXpert code to do gradient removal.
the AI model is not accessible!!
It is not needed anymore, it is now all in one package.