Get the top HN stories in your inbox every day.
wruza
NayamAmarshe
Upscayl NCNN has several fixes (like latest vulkan, bug fixes, feature additions) and is coming up with more soon (we just haven't pushed the changes). Also working on CPU support.
If you're going to use Real-ESRGAN, you're going to have to deal with a lot of issues and a codebase that hasn't been updated in a long time. Afaik, Upscayl NCNN is the only project maintaining Real-ESRGAN NCNN as of now.
wruza
I've only used -i -o -n mode, but for me that just works. And when something just works, I tend to see "a codebase that hasn't been updated in a long time" as a good thing generally :)
(Don't take it personally, it's my burnout from modern software cycles.)
NayamAmarshe
I understand. With Upscayl it's a little more configurable.
For example, you can add compression to the images, change the format (which Real-ESRGAN can't always do), drag and drop images, have extra models not shipped by default and in future even have face enhancement.
__rito__
I came to the comments just to ask this.
I have used RealESRGAN for some years now, and several pictures hang on my house that were enlarged using this.
I enlarged a lot of old pictures from family albums, and then fixed the bad spots with something like Photoroom, Snapseed, etc., and then sent them to be printed.
Works really great.
And not only that, if I find an old picture on the internet that is low res with no high res found after much google-fu, Duckduckgo, or Kagi, I use RealESRGAN to upscale, and then use it as my wallpaper, presentation background or whatever!
NayamAmarshe
Yes! I Real-ESRGAN is still the best algorithm for enhancing images. The only algorithm better than it is Topaz's but that's to be expected from a paid product.
Real-ESRGAN can get better with a better trained model too, which is on Upscayl's roadmap.
sgc
Does anybody have experience training/finetuning Real-ESRGAN models? I downloaded one of their datasets to see what they are working with, and it has 800 images at ~3Mp resolution. I am curious if others have results based on higher resolutions + more/fewer images in the dataset? I would like to use it for fine art paintings by period / style, etc.
pluto_modadic
I mean... if people prefer a GUI that's not a bad thing...
amelius
Especially for something involving graphics.
mrbluecoat
I used to laugh so hard at those tv and movie scenes when they would "enhance" an image: https://youtu.be/LhF_56SxrGk
I guess yesterday's science fiction is now our reality.
palad1n
I think I've got a twitch now, when I think about this. How those stupid moviemakers would say, "enhance!" and I (along with many of my geek brethren) were like, "there are no more pixels, that can't be done!"
And now it exists. "Enhance" exists.
kyriakos
Or does it? If you enhance security footage to make a barely visible face recognizable it will make it but it won't be the person in the footage anymore.
kookamamie
It does not exist. The AI models generate "what could be" instead of "what was", i.e. they hallucinate heavily in upscale tasks.
wood_spirit
It would be really interesting to see what it upscales poor security footage to be when we know the people in the picture; how accurate was it?
spookie
The better example of "Enhance!" still remains this piece of software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19wgu5GZDhk
userbinator
It just hallucinates the details now.
pixelesque
Yes - I can't find it now, but a few weeks ago I saw a demo website for some other upscaler with an example image of a picture of food, and it was pretty clear that the upscaled "version" was different bread than the original lower-res version, and things like herb "sprinkles" (oregano?) in the original became pine nuts or something in the upscaled version....
NayamAmarshe
Yes, I personally think it's false advertising. AI Re-painter is not AI Upscaling. I even received a review on Mac App Store saying Upscayl is worse because it does upscaling instead of repainting like Magnific.
qingcharles
That bread is from the front page here: https://magnific.ai/
NayamAmarshe
> I guess yesterday's science fiction is now our reality.
That's actually what's written on https://upscayl.org, "From Science Fiction to Reality" haha
forgingahead
The correct phrase should have been "Hallucinate!"
holoduke
Except that when you try to enhance the numberplate of a suspected killer you get a platenumber which is based on avarage noise and mqybe different than reality.
zebomon
I tried this out back in December. It is very straightforward. Would recommend for anyone who is testing the waters and just trying to start exploring the various tools.
From my understanding though, the quality is pretty far behind that of the cutting edge. A friend recently recommended Topaz to me, but that isn't open source.
NayamAmarshe
The quality is actually comparable in some places. Upscayl being a free project though, does not have its own model yet and as such, we depend on community models (which are great in their own right).
I do have plans to create our own robust model though, once I collect enough money :)
https://ckovalev.com/midjourney-ai/guide/upscaling-ai-art-fo...
__rito__
What models do you use to upscale images other than RealESRGAN?
NayamAmarshe
We have a custom-models repository with several models. Upscayl by default ships with 6 models.
kristopolous
extras tab in a1111 is really the best results I can get. You need to know what all those options mean of course - it's a more complicated interface for sure
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK
xz utils is open source, so whats your point?
_fw
UpScayl is great, I use it a lot for work. Upscaling low-res graphics and illustrations for use in graphics in a pinch, upscaling portrait photos of people for print and photoshop… upscaling old copies of things for editing purposes, you name it.
It’s not perfect but no alternative is. Bloody useful though.
NayamAmarshe
I'm glad you like it! We're working on making it even better :D and with the introduction of Upscayl Cloud the possibilities for professionals will be endless (within reason of course, haha)!
_fw
Like it? My brother I was trying to hide my enthusiasm to look cool in front of people on YC.
I use UpScayl pretty much every day and doing so feels like magic every time. Your user interface tweaks here and there are always appreciated and UpScayl is a joy to use.
Feel proud, UpScayl is witchcraft and I love it
NayamAmarshe
Haha thank you so much! Always a joy to see a happy user!
Mind if I showcase your comment on the Upscayl website? :D
graevy
upscayl is very approachable, but lacked many features i needed. i ended up using https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui after upscaling became part of my regular workflow, but for someone who just needs a few images enhanced, it's an ideal tool.
jiveturkey
This should have been called Enhanse (sticking with the misspelling theme)
aktuel
I still find current upscalers surprisingly underwhelming compared to advances in other areas.
pvankessel
Are there any models out there for cleaning up an image, not just upscaling? I have a bunch of old photos taken on early low-res point-and-shoots that have JPEG artifacts etc and this seems like something a modern model could easily be fine-tuned to resolve, but every few months I look around and have yet to find anything
iampims
Check out these models: https://replicate.com/collections/image-restoration
Most of them can be run locally, but I’d recommend testing them with replicate before investing in understanding cog/docker/hf…
pvankessel
Oh this sounds like exactly like what I've been looking for, can't wait to give these a try - many thanks
yterdy
Unfortunately, for video, nothing I've seen yet has matched the quality of Topaz Labs' (paid) tool. Clarity and consistency always seem to be an issue with other implementations. If love to be proven wrong because I have a project that's stalled due to the low quality/resolution of the source.
ewuhic
On a related note, what would be the equivalent app for watermark removal?
sgilani
Is there something similar for video? Or is topaz still the only option?
NayamAmarshe
I still have video upscaling planned for Upscayl but we're just 2 people, working on Upscayl in our free time.
yterdy
Video2x/Waifu2x GUI. Unfortunately, the models they ship with are tuned towards anime.
p0w3n3d
Another upscaler, for images and video
Get the top HN stories in your inbox every day.
If like me you're using Real-ESRGAN-ncnn-vulkan [1] and are curious what upscayl-ncnn CLI [2] changed from it, there's not much and nothing substantial [3]. Not a criticism, just wanted to learn whether it's worth upgrading to for a CLI tool ($subj is a separate GUI app based on it).
[1] https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN-ncnn-vulkan
[2] https://github.com/upscayl/upscayl-ncnn
[3] https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN-ncnn-vulkan/compare/m...