Transparency layers no longer generate in latest build

[lunar dune]

No matter what I do or say the final image products are always fake transparency layers. Until yesterday I could always reliably get a transparency layered cut out image every time. But now you can literally iterate 20 times over the same image asking it to cut it out, asking for a transparent background, asking it to not draw a background, and every dang time it returns the same "jpg" of a final product with checkerboard background fake transparency. This seems like some sort of breaking bad patch to me as its suddenly rampant in all projects and all conversations and plain text prompting can't fix it for me.

[copper wren]

Hi, there. When I first tried, I had exact same result as you: the fake transparency background. This is what I did: I set the model to "Thinking-standard" mode and uploaded an image and prompted: "I want the girl and cat against a transparency background. Make sure it is actually transparent, not the checkered pattern that looks like transparency." What I got was still the fake checkered pattern I explicitly asked to avoid.

Then, I asked to review the generated image (attached) and evaluate whether it had a true transparency background. Here's what 5.4 Thinking said: "No. The generated PNG is not actually transparent. I checked the file, and it is saved in RGB mode, not RGBA, which means it has no alpha channel. So the checkerboard you see is baked into the image as visible pixels, not real transparency."

I opened a new chat, set the model to "Instant" this time. I uploaded a different image and prompted: "Isolate the round object and place it on a true transparency background. Use RGBA mode with alpha channel. You may engage any tools and methods at your disposal." This time, I got the true transparency background (first image).

I asked again to evaluate the background, and ChatGPT said no, it's not transparent, and offered to use other tools than image gen to get it done properly. It produced a downloadable PDF with a true transparency background but the edges were rather messy.

[lunar dune]

this seems broken it was not like this a day ago, suddenly it can only do transparency in extreme scenarios

[copper wren]

So it appears that GPT 5.4 and/or Images 2.0 may not be able to tell whether the background is truly transparent. However, if we specify "RGBA with alpha channel," we might be able to get the truely transparent background.

[lunar dune]

I will try to add that to my instructions and see if it yeilds results

[copper wren]

Not unusual an experience when the models change. Hope my workaround works!

[lunar dune]

yeah that helps alot lets see if I can fool my already trained projects to utilize the workaround

[lunar dune]

it doesn't seem to work at all for me, if I ask a new conversation I will see a transparent image maybe 5% of the time, any established projects, 100% failure when a day ago or so it was 100% successful

[copper wren]

Hmm, did you try getting the model to evaluate the image with fake transparency background? I have my memory turned on, so the prior discussion re: RBGA, etc. may have influenced the outcome. You can also try using the Project with instructions on RBGA?

[lunar dune]

Yeah I'm tryin all avenues here also reported this as a bug cause this is a major reversion in quality of product to lose the ability to reliably do cut outs

it just does not want to fix any images

this is severely hindering my productivity suddenly, you used to be able to downgrade models to escape these bad roll outs but even older models are failing this way

[copper wren]

Images 1.5 is gone from ChatGPT but might be still available via API (that is, if you use API)?

I got this one in one shot, no preambles or anything, with a simple prompt: "Can you cut out the main object (heart-shaped box) with no background?" So, it may seem that Memory is doing the work for me.