NoiseXTerminator

AI-powered noise reduction

SKU: NXT Category:

$59.95

NoiseXTerminator is a fast and easy-to-use AI-powered noise reduction tool specifically for astrophotography. While AI-based noise reduction solutions exist for general photography, they were not trained on astronomical images. As a result, they often mangle stars and invent detail that simply isn’t there. NoiseXTerminator was trained exclusively on deep-sky astrophotography, so its neural network is “familiar” with stars and the types of detail we see in our photos.

NoiseXTerminator is available as a plug-in for both PixInsight and Photoshop. The Photoshop version also works with Affinity Photo.

System Requirements

✅  PixInsight
✅  Photoshop
✅  Affinity Photo

NoiseXTerminator is available as a plug-in process module for PixInsight and Photoshop. The photoshop version also works with Affinity Photo.

NoiseXTerminator requires a computer with a modern CPU having “AVX” instructions required to run neural networks. Older CPUs, and even some modern stripped-down CPUs in mini-PCs and lightweight laptops lack AVX instructions and are not supported. Request a trial before purchasing to make sure NoiseXTerminator will work on your machine.

Neural network computations can benefit greatly from GPU acceleration. On Macs, GPU acceleration of NoiseXTerminator is automatic, leveraging the “CoreML” software library provided by Apple. Performance is particularly fast on recent Apple silicon based Macs (M1, M2, etc.) due to their extremely performant built-in GPU and neural engine hardware.

On Windows and Linux machines, GPU acceleration takes a bit more effort.

Additional requirements:

  • PixInsight 1.8.9-1 or later, or
  • Photoshop CS4 or later (64-bit only), or
  • Affinity Photo 1.0 or later
  •  MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
    • GPU/Neural Engine recommended for fast performance, but not required. External GPUs are not supported.
    • Apple silicon neural engines and GPUs (e.g., M1, M2) are supported natively
  • Windows 10 or later
    • Modern CPU capable of running neural networks (AVX, SSE instruction set extensions)
  • Linux (PixInsight only)
    • Ubuntu 18.04 or later, or equivalent (glibc 2.27 or later required)

Revision History

PixInsight Module
Version Date Comments
1.2.0 29 Aug 2023 Enabled real-time preview. MacOS 12+ only: enabled 32-bit floating point precision to eliminate histogram quantization errors (posterization). Adjusted normalization algorithm to prevent clipping in shadow regions. More intelligent validation/selection of AI definition files.
1.1.4 6 Aug 2023 Compatibility with PixInsight 1.8.9-2. Adjusted normalization algorithm to prevent histogram clipping in shadow regions. Fixed a Windows-specific issue causing a ghost border around minimized (iconified) process window. Updated process icon.
1.1.3 7 Mar 2023 MacOS only: fixed an issue that could cause repeated required entry of license key.
1.1.2 6 Oct 2022 Minor update to correct an issue that could required unnecessary re-entry of license key.
1.1.1 22 Sep 2022 Linear vs. nonlinear image handling is now automatic. The “linear” checkbox and the P.linear script parameter have been removed. Update any scripts and process icons to remove this parameter.

Automatically find the latest installed AI version. Older versions, if installed, can still be selected if desired.

1.1.0 27 June 2022 Improved handling of linear images to 1) correctly handle RGB images that have not had their background color neutralized, and 2) eliminate a subtle shift in the background level on some images.

Automatically find the latest installed AI version. Older versions, if installed, can still be selected if desired.

1.0.0 3 May 2022 Initial production release. Modified “Select AI” button to only allow loading of NoiseXTerminator AI files (prevents crashes from loading unrelated AI files).
0.1.0 30 Apr 2022 Initial beta-test release
Photoshop Plug-in
Version Date Comments
1.1.3 16 Apr 2023 Updated the Windows version to work under user accounts without admin privileges.
1.1.3 25 Nov 2022 Updated the MacOS and Windows installers to add installation for Affinity Photo 2.
1.1.3 29 Oct 2022 MacOS only: corrects a bug that could cause failure during license key entry when also running StarXTerminator.
1.1.2 6 Oct 2022 Minor update to correct an issue that could required unnecessary re-entry of license key.
1.1.1 1 Oct 2022 Added processing progress readout for Affinity Photo.
1.1.0 1 July 2022 Implemented processing of 32-bit images. Does not work on older versions of Photoshop (e.g., CS4) due to a Photoshop bug.
0.9.1 15 May 2022 Settings are now remembered. Fixed a crash on images of certain sizes.
0.9.0 10 May 2022 Initial beta-test release
AI Definition
Version Date Comments
2 22 May 2022 Improved reduction of low-frequency (large-scale) noise and retention of detail in faint areas and dark structures (e.g., galaxy dust lanes, nebula absorption filaments).
1 30 Apr 2022 Initial beta-test release