GraXpert AI - Remove gradients from astrophotos with just the push of a button // English Video

[@astrophotocologne]

PLEASE READ!!! GraXpert AI is not in a beat status anymore. So you can download it from our website. Also, there is no need anymore to download the AI itself. It will be installed automatically, when you first open and try GraXpert AI.

[@Calzune]

Finally an english video!:D GraXpert is awesome, looking forward to the AI update!

[@astrophotocologne]

Have Fun with it!

[@xtao]

This AI background removal tool really makes astrophotography processing much much easier, especially for those in regions with heavy light pollution. I truly appreciate that you guys made this tool free and open source. Thank you a million times!

[@astrophotocologne]

thank you for your kind words.

[@OigresZevahc]

This is the most wonderful tool ever, it's just fantastic! thank you very much for this!

[@astrophotocologne]

thank you!

[@flyingdockp]

Wow!!! This is awesome!!!! I’m surely going to share images for training The least I can do in return

[@astrophotocologne]

Thank you!

[@bobonajbolji]

Works great, thank you! iT would also be nice to have a regular web page with instructions how to install the software, sometimes it's more convenient than seraching through a 15 min video...especially if you want to install it a second time on another computer. Just a suggestion, thank you again for your great work!

[@astrophotocologne]

Good to hear, and thank you for your suggestion. We do have a Homepage, but as this Version is a beta Version, the distribution of the software is different. As soon as we do have a stable version, it can be downloaded via the homepage. And we (hopefully) update the homepage and ad some instructions, espacially for mac users.

[@ericspicts]

I can not get the "Ariel" v 2.0.2 release to run on Windows 11. I download it, launch the exe file, it displays the splash screen and then I just get "not responding" as the blue circle spins. I tried running as administrator. I had a similar issue when the program was in beta, was careful to place the exe in a folder next to the bg model. Also tried running the beta version from the command script, nothing seemed to work. Obviously some are getting it to work but I am having no luck.

[@astrophotocologne]

Hi Eric, let's see what the guys on discord will recommend. But my suggestion is, that it could probably be an issue of some anti virus software. Do you use such?

[@ericspicts]

I have been conversing on discord as we have been trouble shooting. I turned off antivirus and the issue remains. It will run using the command prompt.@@astrophotocologne

[@ericspicts]

for those having 404 error issues and problems with graxpert giving as "not responding" error when run directly from windows, let me tell you what solved things for me, running windows 11: 1) turn off antivirus 2) run graxpert for the first time from a command line. Put a sample fit file in the same director as your graxpert executable and run the command line: "GraXpert-win64.exe test.fit" this should return a gradient removed file "test_GraXpert.fits" . I believe that it also download the necessary libraries when running for the first time in this way 3) re the 404 error, be very careful when typing in the link for the repository. It seems to be case sensitive -- the P and I in PixInsight and the U in Utilities need to be capitalized when I did the above everything worked fine. there were now 404 errors, no issue with the toolbox not showing up in the scripts and graxpert ran fine the first time when called from the PixInsight script -- your mileage may vary, but it it can help . . .

[@loneoceans]

Thank you very much to you and the team who worked on this amazing project! I also appreciate all your other videos (I use KZbin's auto-translate). A question about the original sample selection method - is it important to try to select sample areas where there are no stars, or is it ok if the sample boxes contain stars? In addition, for images with a dense starfield, it can be difficult to find a patch where there is only background and no stars. What would your recommendation be for these scenarios? Thank you.

[@astrophotocologne]

Thank you, good to see you use the auto translation! Concerning samples: Its no problem to select areas which contain stars. The measures all values in the sample areas, and as soon as those values are above a certain threshold, they gonna kicked out anyway.

[@steffen1181]

For dense star fields I recommend to increase the box size such that the stars can be more easily rejected by the algorithm

[@reab111]

If one wants to contribute with data and background models, at what setting should smoothing be set to? In some cases complex gradients require smaller smoothing factor like 0.3. For first impressions of beta version this is amazing, great job!

[@steffen1181]

You can choose whatever smoothing works best. I usually start with 0.0 and very rarely have to increase smoothing to get better results.

[@Mrpaulgs]

This looks great, thank you for your efforts, I am going to try it out. I am not clear on what type of images it is processing - do you feed it stacked stretched images or stacked linear images?

[@astrophotocologne]

stacked linear images only. Stretched images don´t work well.

[@bitslizer]

Anyway to specify GPU Tensorflow acceleration?

[@astrophotocologne]

Not yet, and we are not sure if we support it. But its very fast anyway, takes just a few seconds on my computer.

[@fredmcneill2727]

When I attempt to Calculate Barkground, I get the following ERROR message "No file or directory found at C:\Users\mcnei\AppData\Local\Temp\MicrosoftEdgeDownloads\e5f13643-2e8a-4649-a2ef-b05c963aa01c\bg_model". Not sure as to what I have done wrong?

[@astrophotocologne]

on the right side there is the advanced tab. Open it and select the apporpriate folder unter AI model

[@AntonioPena1]

Frank, you guys did a great job, Hank’s for made it public, looks like your AI model is working great, just wonder if you have plans to create a script for Pixinsight? Thanks again for your allow us to use your tool

[@astrophotocologne]

We will try to make it a script. But will take some time and its not sure, if PI will allow it.

[@AntonioPena1]

@@astrophotocologne PI will love it, your work is phenomenal

[@astrophotocologne]

maybe they don´t love it because its so good !? :-) @@AntonioPena1

[@julesarcher8073]

It looks like GraXpert is using CPU Tensorflow library by default. Is there a version or setting for GraXpert that uses the GPU Tensorflow library? Thanks!

[@astrophotocologne]

I asked the authors and it seems like this will not work, sorry.

[@MrGuitar50]

This is so cool! I was able to download the AI version but when I select AI in the drop-down box and click calculate I get an error message saying it "can't find a subdirectory or file in the bd_model..." I ran my image in RGB instead and really liked the way it turned out!! Can you advise? Thanks!

[@astrophotocologne]

try to download the latest version, in this version there is no need to download the bg_model anymore, it does it automatically when u are using it the first time. You can download it from the graxpert dot com homepage.

[@VRzichtbaar]

I am having weird gradient issues with my RC8 on which I would love to see what can be improved with GraXpert. Unfortunately I get al sorts of virus warnings and the program keeps being removed. The messag I get is that the program is infected with the Win64:Malware-gen

[@astrophotocologne]

I am sure you can ignore those warnings. They are very sure a false positive message. Pls. follow the link beneath my current video to Cloudynights, where the issue is explained in detail. I will update the video within the next couple of days in english as well.

[@davidswinnard7565]

I tried the non-AI version a while back and was impressed with the results. Today (7-10-23) I downloaded the for Linux (Kubuntu 22.04) version and get an "Exception encountered when calling layer 'conv2d' (type Conv2D). error." when using the AI interpolation method (no sample points picked). Using any of the other three methods works fine. Note that these are mono images. I have submitted the images in question. Thanks for all your work on this, and for making it possible to contribute.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, unfortunately we could not reproduce your issue. Could you share the logfile with us? It should be in your home directory under .cache/GraXpert/log

[@davidswinnard7565]

I am away from home for another week. I shall do it when I get back home. Thanks.

[@pathdoctor1]

GraXpert is a great tool that I use often. Thank you! I have yet to try the AI version. I downloaded the new beta version (“Ariel” release) where downloading of the bgmodel file is not needed but ran into a problem. When trying the first image and selecting AI I got a message asking me to download the AI-Model. It starts downloading (very slowly) and about midway it crashes. I tried several times without succes. My PC specs are likely fine for the task I think. Is this a known issue or there is something that I need to do on my end to get it working?

[@astrophotocologne]

its not known yet. Maybe Steffen will read this, otherwise I will forward it.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, I haven't heard of this issue before. Could you send us your log file? On Windows, it should be located at ~\AppData\Local\GraXpert\GraXpert\Logs

[@liviulazar9387]

Hi Frank! I did exactly like you, putting the both files in the same folder but when I hit calculate the background, just show "calculating" since minutes... And I have a speedy one laptop. Can you suggest what could be wrong? Thank you!

[@steffen1181]

Hi, when everything is set up correctly, the calculation should only take a few seconds. If you are using macOS, follow the instructions at 5:28 . On Windows, make sure that you have unpacked the bg_model downloaded from the Google Drive link and that your folder bg_model does not contain a bg_model subfolder. If it does, copy the subfolder into the GraXpert directory and delete the other folder.

[@liviulazar9387]

@@steffen1181 thank you! I foind what was wrong and I set it up again, this time right, and it works fine!

[@parkofile1173]

THANK YOU!!!

[@astrophotocologne]

your welcome!

[@nikaxstrophotography]

Everything was working fine with GraXpeert until today on my m2macbook when all of a suddenly it just refuses to startup and hangs I've tried reinstalling restarting etc and nothing it just isnt working

[@astrophotocologne]

we had an server issue one day. Is it still persisting?

[@nikaxstrophotography]

@@astrophotocologne no it sorted itself out the same night, Why would it crash if there is a server issue? does that mean it will not work if there is no internet connection?

[@astrophotocologne]

It always looks for updates as far as i know. I think we fixed this in the current development @@nikaxstrophotography

[@nikaxstrophotography]

@@astrophotocologneI was using the latest version from the website

[@arunvijayp]

Hi I have been having an issue where the software is throwing me an error that says "No file or directory found at \GraXpert\bg_model". exe file and "bg_model" files are located in the same folder. What could be the reason?

[@steffen1181]

Hi, I recommend you to download one of the newer versions (v1.0.6cAI or v1.0.6dAI if you haven't already). Then you can go to the advanced menu on the right in GraXpert and set the directory of the bg_model folder manually.

[@arunvijayp]

@@steffen1181 Thank you for the help. I am, currently running v1.0.6cAI. Setting the directory worked..cant believe it was that easy..

[@saltydogbwi3]

downloaded and extracted bg model and graxpert into a folder but graxpert wont run. windows 11. I get a little spinning wheel like its trying to start after double clicking gaxpert exe but that goes away and nothing happens nothing opens. Any idea of what is going on?...I also tried disabling my AV software to run it but same thing happens.

[@steffen1181]

Hi, could you try to run GraXpert from the console? Other Windows 11 users have reported that this solves the issue.

[@saltydogbwi3]

@@steffen1181 It works from the cmd prompt. I think we had this discussion in the chat of another video I posted on :)

[@ericspicts]

I have the same issue in windows 11 running version v1.06ai . I have both the exe and the model in the same folder, it locks up when either double clicking on the exe or trying to run from the command prompt. Displays the splash screen and then I just get the spinning blue circle and "program not responding" at the top@@steffen1181

[@rudibarani]

Hallo Frank, gibt es eine Chance, dass GraXpert auch als Plugin für Pixinsight erscheint? Wäre praktisch, wenn man es direkt im Workflow und vielleicht auch in Kombination mit Masken nutzen könnte.

[@astrophotocologne]

Das ist alles sehr unsicher. Die PixInsight Leute sind da nicht gerade unterstützend.

[@rudibarani]

@@astrophotocologne Schade. Aber dann besteht ja immerhin Hoffnung 👍

[@JordanMorton-l5c]

Anyone else having a problem downloading the bg model from google drive? I hit download, then it says it’s downloading. But then nothing is there in my downloads.

[@astrophotocologne]

download the latest version of graspers from graspers dot com. Problem solved.

[@jaymsohn]

Thanks for your effort which should be very useful. But I've encountered the same error message for all images (FTS, XISF) I've tried when calculating in AI mode, 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xac in position 9: invalid start byte. What can I do to solve this error?

[@steffen1181]

Hi, have you unzipped the bg_model folder after download and made sure that there is no second 'bg_model' sub folder in it? If you are using the new version GraXpert v1.0.6cAI, you can also manually select the directory of the bg_model folder in the advanced menu on the right.

[@jaymsohn]

@@steffen1181 Thanks for the response, I just noticed you replied. Yes, i've unzipped after download and there is no second "bg_model" sub folder in it. I believe I am using the latest version, 1.06v which I could find in home page. There is no link named v1.06cAI, but I can manually select the directory of the bg_model folder in the advanced menu of the right. However with all above things, I've encountered the same error message.

[@steffen1181]

@@jaymsohn Have you selected the bg_model folder such that the path contains the bg_model in the end?

[@jaymsohn]

@@steffen1181 Yes, I believe. The folder name I selected is '~GraXpert>GraXpert_AI>bg_model' and it contains two sub folders, assets and variables. --> Update: I've solved this problem, while it's probably due to two bytes code name as Korean (~ part) for the folder name of the bg_model. After changing the name in English, it's gone. Thanks.

[@mattestabrook]

Thank you for creating this very promising new tool! I have trouble getting it to open on a Mac, it says that the developer needs to update certain security settings...? Hope it works someday soon, I'm anxious to try it out!

[@steffen1181]

Hi, you should be able to start GraXpert anyway by right-clicking the GraXpert icon in your programs folder and selecting open.Please let me know if it works or if not please send me the exact error message :)

[@mattestabrook]

Thank you--this did not quite work, but it worked once I did a better job of following the installation instructions! Thank you! @@steffen1181

[@Alexander_H]

For teh Algoritmuss =).....Dank mir später Frank 🤣

[@astrophotocologne]

come on

[@PCPointerDE]

Better using a Optolong L pro or other light pollution filters. 😊

[@astrophotocologne]

Gradients are introduced for many reasons, unnatural lightpollution is just one thing. The best way is to go to dark skies anyway and avoid any filters. Also, Filters can introduce gradients themselves. Most important: Filters block light that you want to record, and they change your colors. I would avoid such filters by any means.