OM Workspace Update

[Bikie John]

My PC doesn't meet the requirements for the AI software either

I got the same message - it is complaining about the driver program for the graphics card being out of date. I took a deep breath and updated mine (it was at a 2020 level) and it was then happy to install the denoise component.

John

[IainMacD]

I updated mine too, but it still doesn't work

[Bikie John]

Sorry to hear that, it was worth a try. To be honest I didn't really expect it to work for me either, but thought it would be a good idea to get the driver up to date anyway.

[Olybirder]

I decided to uninstall Workspace 2.0 and reinstall it without the AI Noise Reduction (I'm not quite sure why!) I have uninstalled it but can't for the life of me find the Workspace 2.0 download page.

Ron

[Olybirder]

I have found the download page now but the download doesn't seem to be working. Too much traffic perhaps?

Ron

[Olybirder]

Thanks Lester. That is the page which I have been trying but nothing happens when I click 'download'. I just get a Gateway Timeout after a couple of minutes.

Ron

[Ross the fiddler]

Here it is. https://support.olympus-imaging.com/owdownload/

[BDennis]

Peter Forsgard has a good short review of the new OM Workspace here:

Worth a watch. I didn’t know about the focus analyser which can find the images with best focus. Also the sequential shot grouping. He indicates the AI Noise Reduction looks to be as good as DxO which is interesting. So if you have a graphic card that supports it some money saved. As he says, it just makes your processing workflow more complicated if you regularly process loads of images. Kind of a shame the AI process can’t be offloaded to the camera processor using the USB RAW edit function.

[AMc]

Thanks for that - just discovered that the AI Noise reduction won't work with my E-M10ii - or indeed any E-M10 so no point in upgrading my graphics card even if I wanted to!

[Dave in Wales]

No problems here, I'm using macOS Monterey 12.1

[GreyOldMan]

So far OM Workspace is a backwards step for me.

I have a 2019 MacBook Pro, plus external monitor, latest OS, 8GB memory but only 1.5GB of video ram. As video ram isn't a user specifiable feature, you just get what Apple built into the machine, so I can never upgrade this machine to meet OM Workspace's requirements. Ok, I can live with not being able to run de-noise in OM Workspace, although DxO can clearly make their routines work with the same available resources that OM can't.

However the major irritant is that when opening raw files, which all my images are, then the processing that follows the display of the initial embedded jpg as the image is rendered is now getting on for around four times as long as it was previously, at around 40 seconds for a 14Mb raw file. Yes, it's worth reading that sentence again to let the true horror sink in.

I keep my images on iCloud, though when I view them in Olympus / OM Workspace, Apple synch them back to the local disk. Interestingly there is no appreciable difference in the time taken to render the raw between images that I have pulled back from iCloud to local disk previously, and those that are being viewed for the first time since moving them to iCloud and so are being synched back to my local disk as they are being rendered in OM Workspace. Both test cases take around 40 seconds. So iCloud isn't the problem.

I repeated the timings for some of my moon images, where >95% of the image is black and the remainder is dark to light grey, so the histogram is basically the letter L. In a way that was even more disappointing as the render time for both local and remote iCloud images was still ~35 seconds, an improvement yes, but suggesting that the rendering is mostly missing the chance to look-ahead and see whether larger areas of the image can be included in the current patch being rendered instead of the piecemeal, fixed chunk size that you see snapping into focus as the raw file is processed.

So, same computer, same resources, same operating system, same images in the same locations, latest software from Olympus, response time before image can be edited is now 4 times as long.

For activities like comparing four images on the screen to decide which to keep and which to discard, then to go from around 15-20 seconds for the four images with Olympus Workspace to 108 seconds (yes, 1 minute 48 seconds) to render 4 images of the moon so I can select which one to keep is not what I call progress.

[Downwind Dec]

With a little effort and head-scratching, I'm up and running with OM Workspace and AI NR. I did, of course, have to update NVidia drivers and reboot before Workspace stopped complaining.
AI NR seems quite snappy, taking about 5 seconds to execute on my EM1.2 RAW files. A side benefit is that when navigating between images, the lag before they display properly is much better than before - I believe this is down to me updating the GPU driver and choosing the 'optimized for creative applications' pick when prompted.
I've only had time for a quick dabble so far. Standard NR, Resolution Priority seems to do a good job on noise; too early to tell if it's kind enough to detail.
For reference, I'm using a homebuilt pc with GEForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6 GB.

[Ross the fiddler]

While I only have 2GB memory in my video card & can't use AI Noise Reduction, I have noticed the highlight recovery seems to be much better than it used to be now.
Here is an original JPEG (E-M1) followed by a RAW edited (& cropped) in OM Workspace, pulling back the Highlight to -6. In the past (not sure how far back now) it would just go grey. Maybe not the best example, but I'd be interested to know how others find it.
BTW, this was a Water Skink that came inside & being relocated outside so it didn't become a dog chew toy.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

I too had the “Opencl.dll” problem, but a clean replacement of the Nvidia drivers cured it.

For me the OW2 seems to work quicker and I download an OM-1 sample ORF and was impressed by the quality of the image

[Olybirder]

I am tearing my hair out trying to get Workspace 2.00 to work as it should. I uninstalled it and have now reinstalled it after numerous attempts. However there seems to be some things which are not working properly. I can't find AI NR anywhere. I assume it should be in the Edit menu but there is no noise reduction option available. I tried downloading AI Noise Reduction again but it said it was already installed. Also I watched a Robin Wrong video on Workspace and in the White balance menu he used a picker to set the grey point. That is not an option in my Edit menu. I think I should delete every file to do with Workspace and start again but I don't know how to do it. Any suggestions?

Ron

[Ross the fiddler]

I am tearing my hair out trying to get Workspace 2.00 to work as it should. I uninstalled it and have now reinstalled it after numerous attempts. However there seems to be some things which are not working properly. I can't find AI NR anywhere. I assume it should be in the Edit menu but there is no noise reduction option available. I tried downloading AI Noise Reduction again but it said it was already installed. Also I watched a Robin Wrong video on Workspace and in the White balance menu he used a picker to set the grey point. That is not an option in my Edit menu. I think I should delete every file to do with Workspace and start again but I don't know how to do it. Any suggestions?

Ron

AI Noise Reduction has to be separately downloaded from the Help dropdown.

[Olybirder]

I have tried that but it tells me that Ai Noise Reduction is already installed.

Ron

[alcedo]

I've had the same problem with the upgrade. I ran OW 1.5 as normal to download some photos to my laptop, and it prompted me to update the software, which I did. It gave an "Update failed" message, but it still installed the software. However, when I try to run it, I get a System Error because it cannot find OpenCL.dll, and that reinstalling the software may fix the problem (which it didn't).

So now I don't have a functioning Workspace program. I can't find the previous download on the Olympus website, so I can't go back to the version which worked. I'm very unimpressed to say the least.

I note that under System Requirements in the Readme file it states "GPU : NVIDIA or a card with an AMD GPU". The problem is that my laptop is quite old and has Intel Integrated Graphics. OW did run slowly, but was fine for the things I was using it for, and I was hoping to use it shortly to try out RAW processing when linked up to the camera (EM-1 Mk ii). Now I can't use it at all.

I realise the best solution is to buy a new laptop!

[alcedo]

I've tried to update the video driver, but it says I already have the latest version. From the System Requirements it seems that OM Workspace 2.0 requires "GPU : NVIDIA or a card with an AMD GPU" for it to be able to run, yet previous versions run fine on Intel Integrated Graphics. Olympus Workspace 1.5 didn't inform me of the updated system requirements, nor did it check that the system had the correct graphics hardware before doing the update.

I've contacted Olympus support about this issue, and they have said they will pass the issue on and also ask to make the previous version available.

[Miketoll]

I don't know how you have got on Alcedo but I uninstalled my OM Workspace then updated the video driver directly from the manufacturers website (not through Windows) then restarted the system and downloaded OM Workspace again and all worked as it should including being able to properly install the noise Ai part. Hopefully you have it all working now anyway.

[alcedo]

I complained to Olympus Support and they gave me the same info about requiring NVIDIA or AMD GPU.

I've tried updating my video driver, both through Windows and via the Intel site and in both cases they said there was no newer driver available (since 2016).

I still unimpressed that OW1.5 prompted me to update the software without checking the system requirements or even displaying the system requirements, and that Olympus didn't provide a backout procedure for the case where the update failed. This is all basic stuff when performing a system upgrade.

Fortunately a contributor to the DPReview forums had the same issue and made available his copy of the OW1.5 setup program, so I was able to re-install the old version.

[Downwind Dec]

I've must say, the new NR in Workspace is really rather good. I've been toying with it since release, and it compares very favourably (to my eye) with DXO and Topaz. I'm pleasantly surprised, and pleased to see Workspace getting some attention from OM System's developers.

[Growltiger]

I've had the same problem with the upgrade. I ran OW 1.5 as normal to download some photos to my laptop, and it prompted me to update the software, which I did. It gave an "Update failed" message, but it still installed the software. However, when I try to run it, I get a System Error because it cannot find OpenCL.dll, and that reinstalling the software may fix the problem (which it didn't).

So now I don't have a functioning Workspace program. I can't find the previous download on the Olympus website, so I can't go back to the version which worked. I'm very unimpressed to say the least.

I note that under System Requirements in the Readme file it states "GPU : NVIDIA or a card with an AMD GPU". The problem is that my laptop is quite old and has Intel Integrated Graphics. OW did run slowly, but was fine for the things I was using it for, and I was hoping to use it shortly to try out RAW processing when linked up to the camera (EM-1 Mk ii). Now I can't use it at all.

I realise the best solution is to buy a new laptop!

I have no problem running OW 2.0 on a laptop with just Intel integrated graphics.
Perhaps you have a very old type of integrated graphics. It certainly works with my spring 2021 laptop. It is an Acer and its graphics are called "Intel® Iris Xe Graphics".

[Ian]

It's not the application itself, just the new AI noise reduction element.

[Growltiger]

But Alcedo clearly said he couldn't run the software.
"So now I don't have a functioning Workspace program. I can't find the previous download on the Olympus website, so I can't go back to the version which worked. I'm very unimpressed to say the least."
"Now I can't use it at all."

[alcedo]

My Acer laptop is from 2011, and has Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics - so it's an old laptop, but even so it ran OW1.5 ok except being rather slow in displaying images in full resolution. I can accept that the graphics chip may be too old, but the upgrade procedure didn't allow me to reinstall the previous version, as it wasn't available on the Olympus website.

I've tried updating my video driver, both through Windows and via the Intel site and in both cases they said there was no newer driver available (since 2016).

Fortunately a contributor to the DPReview forums had the same issue and made available his copy of the OW1.5 setup program, so I was able to re-install the old version.

[blu-by-u]

It's this Free AI noise reduction.

[Ross the fiddler]

Free if your system can handle it.

[blu-by-u]

Unfortunately system need an upgrade. So looks like topez won over the upgrade.

[Ross the fiddler]

I have a new laptop (last years model) with GPU but only 2GB RAM, so topez is it for me too.