Legend

Question

P: Photoshop 3D features are being removed

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
August 17, 2021
61 replies
178232 views

As of Photoshop 22.5, released in August 2021, Photoshop’s 3D features will be discontinued. 3D features have enjoyed long success within Photoshop over the course of 10+ years, however the personal computing industry has recently been transitioning away from use of OpenGL (having to do specifically with the use of GPUs, which is critical for 3D) toward native GPU APIs, which ultimately began the slow deterioration of Photoshop’s 3D features, all of which needed OpenGL. As difficult of a decision as removing 3D features from Photoshop is, the silver lining is that the next generation of 3D content creation tools from Adobe is already here. Check out the Substance line of 3D products.

For more details, please visit Photoshop discontinued 3D Q&A.

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mark@headTrix

Community Expert

wow, what a bummer, I loved the 3D in Photoshop, I already know a good dozen of the Adobe applications..... and not really so interested in trying to start over and learn another. With computing power so much stronger, and faster then a decade ago, it seems weird that it wouldnt be able to work. I loved cropping images and exgtruding them into 3D scenes.... was also a great project in my classes! You must be able to find a way!

headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting

davescm

Community Expert

"With computing power so much stronger, and faster then a decade ago, it seems weird that it wouldnt be able to work."

It is new computing power, in the form of GPU functionality that has forced the issue. With OpenGL deprecated, GPU functions in Photoshop are switching to Metal and Direct X. That would have entailed a complete rewrite of the very limited 3D functionality in Photoshop that has not really moved on since CS6 and was way behind modern standards in rendering. Adobe have taken the decsion to focus Photoshop on what it does best in the 3D pipeline - the 2D elements such as compositing.

Dave

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MrCetirizine

Participating Frequently

I understand that, what burns is that there's no drop in price to reflect the removal of the features. Just an off hand comment about their new apps (which they bought not developed) with no mention of their ridiculously high extra cost.

I've cancelled my subscription. There are now multiple viable alternatives for all of Adobe's products that are either more affordable and with perpetual licences, not the subscription theft model or free.

S

simo.b

Inspiring

I've found the Photoshop 3D toolset pretty unreliable since the 2019 version across a range of hardware and platform versions. Intermittent and sometimes repeatable bugs making the workflow pretty much broken, so

I'd agree there's been a problem with the OpenGL implementation. However, to call a full menu feature removal part of 'An Update' leads me to question what I'm paying a rolling subscription for ?

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mad_dawg

Participating Frequently

LITERALLY

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default8xznspe06wr6

Participant

My team and I use Photoshop to create 3D shapes to bring into Adobe Dimension. Please tell me if there is something else we can use to create shapes in Dimension!!!!! This is going to be a problem for our department, everyone has gotten use to 3D Formats. Yikes! Thanks. Lauren

davescm

Community Expert

Any proper 3D application can create objects to use in Dimension or Stager. Try Blender, it is free, powerful, and exceeds any modelling capability that Photoshop has/had.

Dave

D

defaultbh3l4sw7j06u

Participating Frequently

Hi,

This is unfortunate as I rely on Photoshop's UV creating funtion.

Honestly I am having issues with the way Substance Stager is creating UVs for some of my 3D models.

I have checked my topography to make sure there are no user issues.

I model with Gravity Sketch and I often have to create UVs in Photoshop, then output another .obj file.

I must then use the new .obj file in Substance Stager, and finally recreate UVs to ensure that textures map without error.

This is a crazy workflow and should not be necessary considering the price I am paying for Substance.

It will really be a problem if I ever need to update photoshop to the latest version.

Please, if there is something I can do to work around my issue I could use it.

thanks,

Dave Earhart

davescm

Community Expert

Use Blender for unwrapping, it is free and gives control over UV unwrapping that Photoshop never did.

Dave

rayek.elfin

Legend

Greed. Pure and simple greed. They started the subscription model for greed reasons and are continuing by adding extra products at additional cost and ensuring people pay the extra by needlessly removing features from existing products that the new products provide.

The mistake they've made is that there are much cheaper and in many cases better alternatives. They've lost my subscription.

@MrCetirizineNot quite so simple. The underlying reason is Apple's decision to deprecate OpenGL (a 3D application programming interface that allows applications to render 3d graphics on a system level).

This means that a cross-platform app like Photoshop must be completely rewritten to take advantage of Metal on Mac, and OpenGL or DirectX on Windows. It may be possible to use a 3d wrapper API such as Vulcan as well for both platforms, but all in all it requires a lot of work on the part of the devs to support.

On top of this the 3d functionality in Photoshop is extremely outdated, and in dire need of an update.

And since Adobe already aquired modern industry standard 3d apps for material/texture generation and painting of 3d models, it makes logical sense to drop 3D support in Photoshop.

They have no choice in the matter on the Mac platform: either rewrite everything, or stop supporting 3D functionality. Apple forced their hands, but I agree that Adobe side-stepped their responsibilty to keep the current 3d features in Photoshop up to date in the first place.

And I also agree that ripping out all related 3d functionality just because it is 'inconventiently' dependent on OpenGL, is not the best approach. Many users rely 3d features in Photoshop for 3d panorama editing, 3d overpainting for illustration work, lightning effects, and so on.

Hopefully the Adobe devs plan on reimplementing at least the basic features.

T

TheCliqueOnline

Participant

Well... That ends my time with Photoshop. I was a hold out purely for 360 editing. Havent been able to do this for ages thanks to lockdowns, so I am going to cancel my sub now, just no more need for this software.

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marekt93604610

Participant

This is a extremly bad decision. Insted of replacing it and going with the trends, you remove functionality with an update. This is not something I would expect from a company like Adobe. If the goal was to make people leave, well done.

Alex_R84

Inspiring

I URGE you to reconsider. So much of my digital painting relies on the 3D toolset to place dummies for paintovers and lay out scenes. Photoshop will have a HUGE hole in it if you go ahead with it. Images like this would have been impossible:

rayek.elfin

Legend

@Alex_R84Agreed, I use a similar workflow.

A work-around is to use Blender to set up the 3d elements for paintovers and import these into Photoshop, or if you need more integrated 3d tools switch to Clip Studio Paint: it does what Photoshop does, but in a more intuitive manner. And the 3d to lineart conversion is excellent.

PS Nice work!

Alex_R84

Inspiring

Will Photoshop retain the ability to import .obj?

D

default4qhtcas7q62o

Participant

This is frustratingly infuriating, Adobe.

Friends, I uninstalled my PS v22.5 and downgraded it to the 22.2 version. ALL of the 3d Features are on it and I'm able to bring in OBJs into a 3d layer, Create and extrusion, and export an OBJ file again.

Hopefully this helps some of you.

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A.L.5E2E

Known Participant

Why is the bump map/normal map filter being discontinued? This is a super useful, quick part of 3D workflow that I use every day when I want a quick alternative to baking normal maps. This will definitely make me reconsider whether or not to continue with these products.

A

A.L.5E2E

Known Participant

And as a follow up...are any 3D tools being added for those who currently pay for packages that include these features in photoshop as of before this feature cutback?

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MrCetirizine

Participating Frequently

I'm in the same situation, I create normal maps on a daily basis. I'm not going to pay the stupidly high price for Substance and as Photoshop and Illustrator do nothing more than Affinity once the 3D features are removed, I see no reason to continue my "All Apps" subscription that doesn't include all apps.

leds2097726

Inspiring

This is nothing but a greedy and cynical way of pushing subscribers to Substance. Adobe are shameless.

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