What's going on with Fo2PiX?

[yvonne]

I e-mailed Don Mccrae about somehow getting the activation code for Buzz pro or if somehow I could buy. He e-mailed me back with this response:

The business went bust and there’s no life after death. End of.



Cheers

Don

[skydog]

Please send me Don Mccrae email. I mentioned this before and I want to get his take. If the company no longer exists, can those that have Art Master, Buzz and the associated plug-ins treat them life freeware to share with others...

[greybeard]

Hi all,

The best outcome for us is to encourage some company to acquire the Fo2PiX products and continue their development.

As I recall, when you make any hardware change to your system that makes ArtMaster Pro suspect you have moved it from one system to another, it demands that you get another Activation Code from Fo2PiX. Some other software, like Photoshop, uses a similar copy protection scheme that keeps the parent company "in the loop".

That "in-the-loop" thing is just a minor annoyance, until your software's parent company goes bust. Then it becomes a major annoyance. I had been planning on upgrading my motherboard, but now I think I will not make any more changes to my system that might trigger my ArtMaster Pro to demand a reactivation. I'll just get a second computer to continue my hardware evolution. And I doubt seriously that I will be able to make my ArtMaster Pro function on it.

GB

P.S. On a completely different subject, Happy New Year!

[yvonne]

I hope it is ok to post this, if not feel free to delete. I found this in another forum, posted it in a forum I am an active member of. One of the members tried it and it works. You can still download the trial version of buzz pro 2 from cnet.com

Ok, for those of you with a buZZ demo and windows operating system, there's a file in c:/windows subdirectory (you'll have to un-hide everything in the directory) called buzzS1lic.dll -- delete it, and your demo use count will be reset. It will create a new dll file, which (I assume) you can delete again when you need to.
If you have pro2 the dll will look like this
buzzP2lic.dll

[Xntrik]

For what it is worth...... I back up my hard drive every few days with Norton Ghost and when I had a new motherboard and hard drive installed recently everything re-installed just fine and works just fine. Just thought this info would save some head-banging. Good luck. At least now you know that by using Norton Ghost you CAN re-install everything.... I did.

[mdijb]

I have posted this message in many places on the web with no response. I finally called Adobe and Corel aquisitions dept. directly and begged them to look into buying their assets and keeping the software alive. You can find their contact info on their websites. Anyone interested as I am. please make the call. The more people they hear from the better.


I have just found the thread about the demise of Fo2pix and am not surprised, but deeply dissappointed. When I found Buzz 7 years ago, i was amazed, stimulated, and started a small business of art creation based on it's use--please check out my website--www.mdiimaging.com--Others have liked it also and it's use has been included in several books about photopainting. I think when they introduced Photoartmaster, they went astray and aimed at some ill-defined market that directed them away from the usefullness of their product. There has been simply nothing that has generated the kind of results that software provided, and I have tried literally every product out there that has come along over the years. If one is interested in controlling the amount of detail lost or retained is photopainting, this is the only program that allows one to do so. All the major painting software does not even come close, in my opinion.

Whoever suggested that Corel or someone else pick up the rights to the software and continue to explore it is right on the money--I strongly hope that someone besides our small community thinks so and does so. It seems to me that interest in this area has exploded in the last few years, and I hope that some other company see's this trend and grabs this resource.

It is too good a program and technology to loose.

MDIJB

[zuka]

Can anyone help me get / buy / borrow another copy of art master pro roommate lost my demo help

[Jcrawf99]

A lite -- and, to me, much more intuitive-- version of ArtmasterPro is still available from several retailers in England, as well as UK eBay occasionally. The application is PhotoArtmaster Classic, also by fo2pix. It's a stand-alone program, not a plug-in. By trading back and forth between this program and your graphics program, you can do just about anything you could do with ArtmasterPro or buzzPro, and for a lot less money, and it doesn't gobble up memory as the two more powerful programs do.
If interested, google Photoartmaster Classic.

[tvalenway]

I have ArtMaster Pro. If you install it, it will ask to be activated - if you do not activate it (you can't since they are out of business) you will have 10 trials. So you might try this - set a restore point on your computer before installing. Then install. Use the 9 of the 10 trials and then restore your computer to the restore point just before you installed the software. Re-install the software and it will reset and give another 10 trials.
Just remember that anything you do or install since you restored your computer will also be gone. Yes, its a pain but so far that is the only way to keep Artmaster running. Anybody have a better solution???

[Bower Boy]

I was pretty surprised to see that fo2pix and gone belly up. I reallly like it and would like to continue to use it. I reconfigured my machine a couple of months ago and finally got around to installing AMP. There was a strange problem in that it wouldn't launch because it couldn't find MSVCR71.dll but downloading that and putting in the system folder solved that problem. I bought a copy and it took my key so that looks good. I bought two wizards that didn't come with it and installed them before but I can't seem to remember how they are integrated into the existing wizard group. Anyone know? I would like to keep in touch with anyone interested in continuing to work in AMP.

[greybeard]

Bower Boy,

The AMP Wizards reside in C:\Program Files\Fo2PiX\ArtMasterPro\Wizards\ as folders.

You can also make your own Wizards. On page 56 of the manual it tells how to do that.

GB

[skydog]

Manual...what manual?

[greybeard]

Skydog,

A hardcopy manual comes in the box of the purchased version of ArtMasterPro, and that is the one to which I referred.

GB

[Bower Boy]

Thanks Greybeard. I remember you from the AMP forum. It seems that that is how I added new wizards to the ones that came with the software but it doesn't seem to work that way now. In the wizard folders are a series of .f2p files and a .bmp example but the ones I bought and stashed away are single .f2pz files which I assume unpack or decompress somehow. As mentioned, I had no trouble before adding them but I don't get the steps this time when I put them into the proper folder. I even tried creating separate folders just for them. Have you tried to add new wizards after the fo2pix web site shut down?
Thanks
BB

[Bower Boy]

Hi all. Please disregard the previous post about the wizards. It worked today. Maybe just needed a restart but I sure thought I did it yesterday.
Thanks
BB

[greybeard]

BB,

Actually, I think I might have purchased a couple of extra Wizards, too. But I don't remember where I have the instructions for installing them.

I think that you are right, that a .f2pz file is probably a zipped bundle of .f2p files with possibly an image file included. The "z" might stand for zipped. I think I would experiment a little. Put the .f2pz file in the C:\Program Files\Fo2PiX\ArtMasterPro\Wizards\ folder and try just double-clicking it.

If that doesn't work, you could try right-clicking it to see what your options are. If that doesn't work, you could try renaming the file with a .zip file extension and see if it will unzip with that alias. If I had been the Fo2PiX programmer, it would have chosen the first, simplest option, namely double-click on the file name.

I don't seem to have a .f2pz file, so I can't experiment for myself. If I find any more old information from Fo2PiX on this subject, I will post another message here.

GB

(edit)P.S. Just saw your last message. OK. What exactly did you do to install the .f2pz Wizard file?

[Bower Boy]

I actually had the f2pz files in two locations so I tried the other set. I just dragged them into the Wizards folder, did a restart and they showed up just as they are supposed to. I am going to do a serious backup of all my AMP stuff as I really like the software and it looks like it won't be upgraded or supported anytime soon. I'll make some notes too about the 1.2 upgrade and the wizards.
BB

[Nga Le]

"I am wondering if reinstalling windows vista would help the install. anyone got it running on Vista. Anyone had the 1722 error when installing and found a solution."


The"solution" I found is to copy the whole directory of PAM Classic 1.2 from my old XP PC to my new Vista PC, and it ran with some complain about "change to basic Vista color scheme". I hope this help.

[UncleDannie]

They went out of business last year. See http://tinyurl.com/5jekd4.

[dougwaugh@comca]

I am trying to install ArtMasterPro on a new computer I bought, running XP. It installs, but when it prompts me for the activation code, a message comes up and says that the activation code has exceeded its activation count, and won't allow the program to run. I don't know how many activations Fo2Pix allowed, but I've probably installed it on my earlier desktop and probably two laptops since I bought the software. Does anyone know a workaround for this? I'd be really disappointed if I can't use the program any more on my desktop, and eternally grateful to anyone who can help.
TIA,
Doug

[skydog]

I asked this a while back. If the company is out of business can the software be legally shared as freeware. I'd really like to get my hands on some of the extra plug-ins.

[plugsnpixels]

Hey all, forget buZZ, ArtMasterPro and fo2PIX! There's a new game in town. Enjoy!

[0lBaldy]

Yeee Haaa! I am finally a Beta tester.. Thanks plugsnpixels!

[Kraellin]

thanks, plugs

[plugsnpixels]

I knew the folks here would appreciate the news! And a fully working beta to play with, no less.

[Joeven]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

Yeee Haaa! I am finally a Beta tester.. Thanks plugsnpixels!

I downloaded the beta after reading this. I just started playing with it and it's really good. Topaz is putting out some really good plug-ins. Good job. They built a better Buzz. That's pretty good.

Joe

[Nga Le]

Thanks, plugsnpixels.

Some samples of new toy are here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=30059569
and topaz is here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/topazsi...7609011480299/

[palms]

Or join in here

and a big thanks Plugs by the way

Palms

[plugsnpixels]

This was an unexpected surprise!

Steve, can you tell us how this came about? Some arrangement with fo2pix? The ReadMe is new but the software is old. There is no company or personal name in the ReadMe for attribution.

I already have buZZ.X (and Topaz Simplify) for Mac so I'm good, but this is an interesting development.

[plugsnpixels]

I'm still waiting to receive confirmation that this is sanctioned by the original developer and not just a casual post of abandonedware (such as we discussed in a related thread some time ago).

I could just as easily post the Mac OS-X version of buZZ.X for download, but no one from fo2pix has given me permission to do so.

At any rate, I'm more curious than concerned.