Tech writer Lori Grunin offered an extensive review of the new upgrade on CNET News, coming to the conclusion that Photoshop CS4's improvements to video and 3D rendering make it a "no-brainer" to install, while its improvements in photo-editing aren't significant enough to warrant the trouble.
Grunin explained that CS4 has updated its 3D engine so that it runs in on OpenGL, a popular platform for generating 3D images. Support for the OpenGL system is also included throughout the new Photoshop 3D experience.
"OpenGL support primarily manifests itself as some whizzy screen zooming and rotation tools that demo well but likely won't get used much," Grunin said.
The new version of Adobe's flagship application also includes an array of improvements to key 3D features, such as panels and filters. In additon, CS4 offers support for 64-bit Windows systems and 16-bit printing on Macs. Overall, Grunin said that Adobe's improvements are paving the way for future upgrades to Photoshop.
Grunin also criticized CS4's new interface for keyframe-based animation.
"[There's] still room for improvement," she said. "It needs better lighting handling and the ability to tile and more easily position textures, and several aspects of the interface." Grunin added that the interface relies too much on dialog boxes and often runs show when users build polygon-based models.
As for the standard photo-editing features, there's not much new, though Grunin did praise a new "spring-loaded" feature for keyboard shortcuts that will let users toggle most common Photoshop shortcuts much in the same way that the space bar currently activates the drag tool.
Grunin didn't like some of the interface's new look, though.
"On the other hand, I don't particularly like the icon representations of the adjustments in the new panel," she said. "You can't tell what they are without mousing over them and reading the text."
For more information, visit Adobe.com.