** A fully functional trial of CS3 Extended is available to download from Adobe now - be warned though - it's a biggie! **

Been using CS3 Extended for a few weeks now and thought I’d share a few conclusions so far for anyone interested in upgrading their Photoshop Apps. Feel free to add any additional comments you have after trying it out for yourself.

Own CS2 and looking at CS3 Standard? Don’t feel the need to upgrade unless you have a 64bit machine and want to make the most of it.

Own CS2 and looking at CS3 Extended? It’s quite a jump and the breadth of its extended abilities is very impressive. There are many simple additions that add to the whole as well as more complex improvements. It’s moved way beyond its previous remit but as a consequence can be a bit intimidating at first. It has definitely made sure it’s flag is much more firmly planted in the commercial users playing field a fact reflected by the computing power required to milk it of its full potential. Photoshop has never been shy about eating your computer’s memory resources and in the Extended variant, it positively savages it at times. The worst culprit is also one of CS3s best new features – the ability to apply filters as adjustment layers so that they can be adjusted/masked etc without destroying the original data. This works really, really well but can also increase your file size by more than a 1000%. Another big plus is the updated Camera Raw feature that all but negates the need for an expensive third party RAW processing solution. Is it worth the premium over the standard version? If you can in anyway justify the use of the additional features then yes – definitely. Is it worth the change from CS2? That’s kind of a tough one. Personally I wouldn’t be happy using it unless I could use it without the ‘puter struggling to cope otherwise there would be no point. If you already have or are planning on upgrading to a high spec multi core platform with lots of RAM then it’s a much easier decision – CS3 Extended would be a welcome upgrade.

If you aren’t in the market for such a machine then stick with CS2 until your needs change.

Thanks ..

1) .. could you describe what the "3D" capabilities are for the 'extended version'

2) .. give us an idea of the heft of the machine you ran it on (cpu, ram, scratch disk availability, etc)

3) .. do you feel any of it is 'bloatware'

like...Gas-X?

"the ability to apply filters as adjustment layers so that they can be adjusted/masked etc without destroying the original data" so i take it on top of the upgrade price you can add upgrading aftermarket filters to the cost if you use them,or do the older ones still work?
I havent tried it yet but people that have tell me unless you have a 64 bit machine its prtty slow.

to answer these in order:

1) .. could you describe what the "3D" capabilities are for the 'extended version'

You can import 3D objects onto new layers in a Photoshop document and perform basic transformations - rotations on any axis, scaling etc as well as being able to edit the models camera. you can also edit the models textures. the model formats supported natively are: 3DS, OBJ, DAE, KMZ (Google Earth?) and U3D although other providers such as Poser are already offering free plugin downloads to add their formats to Photoshop.

** EDIT just tried the Poser 7 to CS3 and that seems to work fine too **

2) .. give us an idea of the heft of the machine you ran it on (cpu, ram, scratch disk availability, etc)

I've tried the same file on two different Macs and a PC laptop. The first Mac was my own - a dual 2gig G5 jobbie with 4GB of RAM and 250GB of free scratch space. Most of the functions performed well including the 3D import and edit with no apparent lag. The filter adjustment layers caused significant lag that I would normally find as unacceptable. The second Mac was a quad core 64bit Intel based machine with the same ram/scratch. it performed all the same tasks with no lag at all and much smoother in general. The laptop is just a standard centrino based affair and it can handle a lot of the CS3 functions - even the 3D stuff well but the more memory hungry stuff killed it.

3) .. do you feel any of it is 'bloatware'

In its standard form maybe in the extended version no – they really have tried to accommodate a lot of users requirements whilst at the same time tried to streamline the interface and workflow.

‘so I take it on top of the upgrade price you can add upgrading aftermarket filters to the cost if you use them, or do the older ones still work?
I haven’t tried it yet but people that have tell me unless you have a 64 bit machine its pretty slow.’

The new filter function of being able to use them as ‘Smart Filters’ i.e. on adjustment layers appears to only work with the built in filters supplied with Photoshop. Tried a few aftermarket options and it was having none of it. Any filter though, including old aftermarket ones, can be used just as they were before with no change. I would imagine that software companies will before long begin to introduce upgrades to their plugins that accommodate the smart filtering technology.

As for the speed – yes the 64bit option certainly flies but you won’t see a major change unless you are using the new and more complex functions like the smart filters. It is, possibly, a tad slower overall on non 64bit machines but nothing to be overly concerned with.

Thanks ..

I have a 2.8ghz P4 (Hyper Threaded) .. 1.5 GB RAM .. 2 80GB HDDs (usually with less than 5 GB free on each at any given time

I think I'll sit this one out and wait for the next version .. the one that requires 640KB of Memory

(Bill Gates said "What would anybody need more than 640K for")



1) .. I was worried when I saw the inclusion of 3D, that it would BLOAT the resource requirements (already steep for some entry levelers) ..

you'd think so but that seams to have had little impact on it's memory needs.

man if that 3d part works good that would be awesome.But I bet its going to lag my machine like a mofo cause alot of 3d stuff lags my machine in the actual program Im working on the model in.

i've been trying to figure out the rationale for this functions inclusion - ( a ) genuine creative tool - ( b) previz production tool or ( c ) incidental option of A as result of creating B?