Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

▷ Upscaling Enriquecido: Cuando la IA se Inventa Una Imagen

Aunque existen desde hace meses numerosas herramientas con inteligencia artificial capaces de mejorar la resolución de nuestras imágenes, el tramo final de

diarioia.com

The recent surge in AI-powered upscalers, particularly with tools like Magnific and Krea's Real Time Enhancer, goes beyond traditional resolution improvement. These tools not only enhance but also reinterpret and create entirely new images, raising questions about the definition of upscaling.

Summary​

• AI-powered Upscaling Trends:
  • Numerous AI tools have emerged in recent months, focusing on improving image resolution.
  • The final months of 2023 witness a significant shift in the upscaling landscape, where tools like Magnific and Krea's Real Time Enhancer redefine the boundaries of upscaling.
• Reinterpretation Over Resolution Improvement:
  • Recent tools like Magnific and Real Time Enhancer generate videos showcasing substantial quality improvements, blurring the line between resolution enhancement and image reinterpretation.
  • Upscaling, traditionally about resolution improvement, now involves AI creating entirely new images, challenging the conventional definition.
• Working Mechanism of AI Upscalers:
  • AI upscalers, such as Stability and Magnific, employ convolutional neural networks to analyze and understand image details, textures, and patterns.
  • The process involves adding pixels to the image, predicting colors and locations based on the AI's training on high-resolution image datasets.
• Magnific's Innovative Approach:
  • Magnific, despite facing criticism for its $40 monthly fee, distinguishes itself by not just enhancing resolution but creating new images closely resembling the original.
  • The tool allows users to control whether AI adds new elements to the image, introducing the concept of "enriched upscaling."

 

[mansoor1980]

neat , ryu and jill look great

 

[Comandr]

This is awesome.

 

[azertydu91]

Dennis go back to the bar...
It's a Philadelphia joke.

 

[rofif]

soul vs no soul

 

[dDoc]

Wow. Is this tech going to be used to revamp old games? Or it's just tech demos for now..

 

[Red5]

Honestly this looks ugly as sin. Jill has meatloaf biceps and Ryu has tiny hands, no artistic direction whatsoever.

 

[Three]

 

[Holammer]

This is what I expect from DLSS10 ten years from now. Raw gameplay looking like a flatshaded PS2 game with basic geometry & lighting. No textures to speak of as everything is handled by a trained AI model that applies pixie dust to the frame resulting in photo-realistic visuals.
I figure early uses of this will be for more generic stuff like water simulation and skyboxes, before it starts to handle the entire scene.

 

[ChiefDada]

Lol is this a joke?? This is awful! The ai render threw artistic intent completely out the window. The "realistic" character retained absolutely none of the original features.

 

[poppabk]

I like how the AI can't parse Lara's triangle breasts. In one it becomes a background rock, in the other a shaft of light.

 

[Hudo]

Isn't there a mod for the Steam version of FF9 that used some form of SR-GAN to upscale the background images and it worked quite well? I remember people saying that it's one of the quintessential mods.

 

[rofif]

That's one thing but what about that scary face in the rock lol

 

[mortal]

So it essentially removes all of the unique art design from games replacing it with sort of realism?
Beyond the pure novelty of it, I'm not a fan of the results.

 

[Red5]

That's one thing but what about that scary face in the rock lol

She has the anatomy of a Bobble head.

 

[adamsapple]

....

nope.

 

[Rayderism]

AI remasters. Probably going to become a thing.

 

[rofif]

She has the anatomy of a Bobble head.

It's one of those the longer you look at it, the worse it gets

 

[squidilix]

look like old 3D game when you put real face texturing.

 

[RoboFu]

 

[SirTerry-T]

Great! Now we can make all our characters look like every other post in a gallery from a random ArtSation account.

Get fucked, AI

 

[SmokedMeat]

Mixed results, but this is pretty amazing.

I can only imagine the awesome shit the PC modding community will do with A.I.

 

[Kataploom]

I hate this, it changes games art direction to the point it's something else but the game. Hope no "remaster" comes this way in the future

 

[amigastar]

As an artistic person i'm slightly terrified by AI.

 

[StereoVsn]

I hate this, it changes games art direction to the point it's something else but the game. Hope no "remaster" comes this way in the future

Unfortunately I can absolutely see companies do this (Ubisoft and MS as example).

Why spend money on artists when couple of interns and AI upscale will do? Yeah, results look like generic crap without any artistic direction, but “good enough for GamePass “.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Wait... where is beautiful Garnet ?

 

[PSYGN]

I like these posts. The people who developed it are proud of their efforts. The people who don't know anything about anatomy and art and design are amazed because, "wow, so realistic!". The artists and some others are disgusted by how the AI strips it of any art direction and applies realism to an otherwise unrealistic model ending up in disfigurements.

 

[Lucie Goosey]

Very cool and exciting stuff. There's a lot of games I won't even touch because of how jarring they are to play after going from 4K 120fps maxxed out in Halo Infinite. Having an AI remastered Half-Life 2, KOTOR, Bioshock, Dragon Age Origins, Dishonored, or Deus EX would be amazing. Also games I haven't played like Ninja Gaiden, or Morrowind.

Even an MMO like World of Warcraft would benefit from this. I could see old games getting revived with private servers, like Battlefield or Unreal Tournament or Quake.

If they could give the ability to choose what to improve, that would be useful too. Asking it to keep the original artstyle, but just improve textures, sound, or lighting. Or even doing bug fixing.

I fully support this and where it leads us.

 

[Raonak]

Cool tech, but janky as expected

 

[Icymanipulator]

I think Ryu and Zidane looks terrible. Nothing like their original art. Abomination imo.

 

[Porticus]

Big big AI turd.

How the fuck people can say this stuff is amazing is well beyond my comprehension, interesting yes, amazing not at all.

 

[kruis]

These examples are just static images with the human characters reinterpreted by AI. That's not the same thing as AI software creating fully realized 3D models with high res textures and and everything from drawings and photos. There'll be big market for such software in the games industry, so I'm guessing there's companies developing this as we speak.

BTW I'd be more impressed if AI software could create actual high res versions of lowpolygon characters that still look like their old selves. All these examples showcase hyper realistic characters without the charm of the original cartoony designs.

 

[kruis]

Big big AI turd.

How the fuck people can say this stuff is amazing is well beyond my comprehension, interesting yes, amazing not at all.

They were probably inspired by this Mario recreation. Same vibe.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Did you ever want your PS1 games to look to look 2000 era PS2 FMVs?


No?

Well FUCK YOU, HAVE AN EIGHT FINGERED MARIO AND AN AL SHARPTON DOUBLE TAKE VIVI

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

I am amazed. Imagine this tech in 10 years. This is industry transformative type stuff. The short sighted among us will eventually dwindle away and people will see it for what it is. This is the type of stuff I can see saving the game industry. Imagine years from now only typing in prompts into an A.I. generator and doing very basic flat layouts and sketches and then having the A.I. fill in the gaps. It will take years off of development time and save many man-hours worth of work. Time to completion will be down and budgets will be down. Incredible.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

It's interesting... that's about it. I'm curious what the practicality of wild swings like this will be once the tech advances and artists figure out how to direct it properly.

 

[Holammer]

I like these posts. The people who developed it are proud of their efforts. The people who don't know anything about anatomy and art and design are amazed because, "wow, so realistic!". The artists and some others are disgusted by how the AI strips it of any art direction and applies realism to an otherwise unrealistic model ending up in disfigurements.

The upsetting part for artists is that's it's difficult to prompt/coax the AI to produce the exact framing & pose you want, and it can spit out something which would take two full work days to draw in seconds. Non-artists on the other hand react with "Holy Shit! Two Cakes!" and plop the results into a commercial product without blinking.

The promising part of Image-to-image as shown in the OP is that artists can train their own AI with detailed model sheets and samples of scenes. Then feed the AI rough sketches and it spits out a product with your own artistic DNA.
There's a guy training an AI called stabletomboy based on Vanripper's art (Hellmaker) and it shows what can be achieved with such focused training. Even if the images are txt-to-img

 

[Knightime_X]

Lara's breasts look incredible.
Holy shit.

 

[Esppiral]

But this is not for free isn't it?

 

[StueyDuck]

It all looks terrible...

If it was doing something cool with the same envisioned art style I'd be all in but just slapping real humans on art looks pretty bad

 

[IFireflyl]

Isn't there a mod for the Steam version of FF9 that used some form of SR-GAN to upscale the background images and it worked quite well? I remember people saying that it's one of the quintessential mods.

Moguri Mod is what you're referring to. The game is borderline unplayable to me without this mod.

 

[Wildebeest]

When someone works out how to do something like a real time AI version of something like the rotoscope effect in the Scanner Darkly film, it will be a game changer.

 

[Red5]

I am amazed. Imagine this tech in 10 years. This is industry transformative type stuff. The short sighted among us will eventually dwindle away and people will see it for what it is. This is the type of stuff I can see saving the game industry. Imagine years from now only typing in prompts into an A.I. generator and doing very basic flat layouts and sketches and then having the A.I. fill in the gaps. It will take years off of development time and save many man-hours worth of work. Time to completion will be down and budgets will be down. Incredible.

So we can "enjoy" machine made products rehashed and recombined together from thousands of previous products without any thought of originality, devoid of human creativity and artistry, a mere imitation built on thousands of previous imitations. They will be produced by the thousands like the shovelware on Steam so Mega corporations like Ubisoft and EA can fatten their wallets while they trim down their expenses.

With games like TLOU we thought games might become a real form of art, with AI it becomes just another product.

 

[Pejo]

Damn it's like a soul vacuum, removing any bit of artistry and expression from the originals.

Amazing how much it ruins everything for an attempt at "realism".

 

[ShadowNate]

ok, this is ultra lol levels of meme stuff.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

neat , ryu and jill look great

No he doesn't

 

[MarkMe2525]

Jill is fucking ripped. That NBA Jam shot is awesome as well.

 

[Wheeljack539]

 

[Wildebeest]

Damn it's like a soul vacuum, removing any bit of artistry and expression from the originals.

Amazing how much it ruins everything for an attempt at "realism".

Nice summary of the last 20 years of AAA.

 

[Meicyn]

As an artistic person i'm slightly terrified by AI.

Don’t be. There is still an appreciation for artistry and always will be.