#5.4 and 2.0 image generation can't do alpha channels

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

umbral nymphBOT
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Reported by @silent crater

Bug Report: 5.4 and 2.0 image generation can't do alpha channels
`Steps to Reproduce`

It seems to be easily reproduced. Simply ask for an image with no background/an alpha channel for the background/RGBA/transparency layer for a background and it will consistently spit out a fake transparency layer like its feeding us jpgs.

`Expected Result`

before image 2.0 rolled out all my projects reliably spit out perfect cut images with transparency layers and now none of them do and new conversations also fail to generate transparency layers.

`Actual Result`

The new roll out of 2.0 just has critically broken image generation with alpha channels.

`Environment`

Windows 11, chrome

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Additional Information

Please provide relevant details to help resolve the issue, such as:

  • ChatGPT Shared Link (if applicable).
  • Screenshots or videos demonstrating the problem.

-# ➜ Need to contact support? Visit the OpenAI Help Center.

silent crater
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it spits out fake alpha channel images

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real vine
silent crater
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when you give it an image it can analyze and come up with transparency sometimes but if you generate an image from scratch it will not

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other people are also reproducing this same strange fake transparency issue

real vine
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As you can see from my shared thread it had transparency in the first generated image. I just let it add more to make it more clear.

silent crater
# real vine As you can see from my shared thread it had transparency in the first generated ...

I did the exact same prompt as you and did not get what you got, I still get the white fake transparency background. What model are you on pro or plus? In another thread here other users report the same issue now, this is a major change in workflow. Now the only way to get transparency seems to be to tell it to cut out the foreground and then it delivers the finished product as a file download instead of a normal image return.

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this started with image 2.0 release

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before that release my workflow was always the same and I always got reliable results, now 99.9% of image generations return fake transparency and if you ask it to analyze the image it will say that it lacks a transparency layer and it will then still redo another fake transparency layer.

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If I ask a basic conversation with zero context outside of a project, yes, you can get a transparent background. But inside of a project with context, it fails every time.

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Returning to my projects today just now, the first 3 attempts have yielded successfully rendered transparent backgrounds. So since I have done nothing to fix this, makes me think yesterday there were issues with image 2.0 or the roll out of 5.5

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Nope still breaking, it breaks even inside the same conversation with the same instructions:

image.png
real vine
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For the rest: I've never done image creation in a project, no idea what that uses or if it's any different – you should've probably include that in the bug report

silent crater
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bottom line image generation is very degraded as of this whole week, I still have the sub for another 2 weeks to try and see if you guys recover the functionality but I've already moved to Gemini subscription and will let this lapse. I can't afford for a week long service disruption, chatgpt should have given us the ability to keep using the old image generation while they worked out their bugs.

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it seems like the first image gets the good treatment and any other image in every single conversation gets the broken returns

silent crater
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Truly rest in peace Chatgpt, the king of transparency image generation, dead april 2026

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high forge
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@silent crater can you share your chat with me :)

silent crater
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for the first image generation in a conversation it can do transparency, if you continue in that conversation any other image generations utilize dumbed down returns and will always generate a fake transparency layer

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keep in mind that a week or two ago all of this never happened, images generated just fine with transparency/alpha channels. Its this 5.5/image 2.0 crap that has broken it. and reverting to older models do not solve this

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it also makes image generation inside of projects insanely painful as you have to make a new conversation for every image and the subsequent image edits or else you get the fake transparency in all future edits in the conversation.

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and directly tellinjg the ai that its screwing up does nothing, it still continues to screw it up

high forge
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I cant recreate your issues with the exact same prompts. Can you make a new project with memories turned off and try your prompts there?

silent crater
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where can you edit memories

high forge
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In a project you can hit the cog in the top right to swap it to project only while creating the project. In general, you can go to this setting under settings > personalization.

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silent crater
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trying to reproduce the last shared conversation and got the fake transparency again

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I will say this it does seem to be intermittent

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or most of the time its fine for the first generation and then just fails there after till you make a new conversation

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I went to manage memories and went through them all, 100% of them didn't need to exist so I deleted them all but saw nothing in there that would cause the issue, and after clearing them it still fails

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also when trying to diagnose this issue, after a bit you just sorta kill the AI and it just constantly makes the same broken image over and over it doesn't even try to hink you get fast answers even with extended thinking on

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when it begins to meltdown and break quickly the image generations begin to appear differently too with a weird mini square setup to the right of them:

image.png
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what isn't seen in all of this is how when it is failing to generate initially, it goes through a very long thinking process and you see it talking to itself how to resolve the transparency layer but then just punts and gives a fake one.

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heres an example of it just giving up, no image return:

image.png
high forge
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I think the model is passing "do not add a fake alpha channel" to the image model prompt and causing it to add a fake checkerboard. This may also be due to its existing memory of you asking for a real alpha channel so much. ChatGPT keeps both your explicit memory and a vector database memory of your previous chats. Try to make that project with the memory setting turned to this project only, and avoid talking about an alpha channel (just say "transparent background").

silent crater
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I don't know how to do as you ask

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to have to completely wipe and make new projects would be so insanely disruptive to my productivity

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is there not a way to just rewind to 5.2 or 5.3 and image 1.0?

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this also happens with memories off in regular new conversations

high forge
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Just make a new project for testing and during creation swap it to project memory only. If that works then we know that the memory is the issue.

silent crater
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it does seem like all my projects are old so they don't have the bells and whistles of this new project

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gonna try the older models again see if that fixes things but last time I tried it seemed like the old models didn't change anything

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yeah still fake transparency

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maybe if I could set instructions that when it feels the need to do checkerboard if it did white or black instead then I could photoshop easier, but then again if I have to photoshop why bother paying for chatgpt