Good free AI image upscaling program?

[Mark Kaine]

Does that exist? 

The problem is its really blurry and kinda pixelated pictures,  so a way to "unblur" would be great as well, im not sure it exists though?

 

i randomly tried img.upscaler which wasn't that bad but it did nothing about the blur and the pixelation was also almost untouched... basically it did an ok upscale job, missing the "AI" completely...

 

Thing is if a paid program is the only option and not too expensive id do it, but from what im seeing most "AI upscaling" is a scam... but i know it exists, ive seen "hd" videos made from old 80s footage (laserdisc) with excellent image quality,  and i would just want to do still pictures for now.

 

So what are my options here?

 

[Covelight]

AI Image Enlarger | Enlarge Image Without Losing Quality! (imglarger.com)

 

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[minibois]

What kind of image do you want to upscale? (Photo, comic, etc.)

[Mark Kaine]

Just now, minibois said:

What kind of image do you want to upscale? (Photo, comic, etc.)

Well screenshots from video, that would be a photo technically? (its not anime, real people)

 

id love to use it as desktop background,  but its too pixelated for that at 1080p.

 

[minibois]

5 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Well screenshots from video, that would be a photo technically? (its not anime, real people)

id love to use it as desktop background,  but its too pixelated for that at 1080p.

For real life photos (as opposed to anime/cartoon/etc.), Topaz Gigapixel is generally the best option, but it's not free. There is a free trial, so if you don't intend to use it after you've done this upscale job, the trial may suffice for that.

waifu2x does work for photos, but it's better trained for - as the name implies - anime/manga/cartoon/etc.

Those are really the two I have familiarity with.

 

Upscaling stills from videos may be tough though, as a you're working with stuff like interframe compression and motion blur, as well as possibly a poor resolution in general.

[Mark Kaine]

10 minutes ago, minibois said:

Upscaling stills from videos may be tough though, as a you're working with stuff like interframe compression and motion blur, as well as possibly a poor resolution in general.

i see, I'll look into those, i also thought waifu2x but wasn't sure it works for, well, humans... thanks.

Yeah, right i also think this might be difficult,  this video especially,  its not good quality,  filmed in a shopping center...and the person of interest doesn't ever stand still haha (well, rarely)

I'll might just go for another video, even though I'd really like this one specifically.

[Mark Kaine]

4 hours ago, minibois said:

For real life photos (as opposed to anime/cartoon/etc.), Topaz Gigapixel is generally the best option, but it's not free. There is a free trial, so if you don't intend to use it after you've done this upscale job, the trial may suffice for that.

waifu2x does work for photos, but it's better trained for - as the name implies - anime/manga/cartoon/etc.

Ok i tried waifux2... i downloaded some gui-version, idk if i did something wrong but imo there was zero (as in none, zip, nada) difference between "upscaled" and original... 

And i tried Topaz Gigapixel (confusing because they have several programs that do about the same) but i eventually got to it... and well, the results were "good", i guess, except the shopping mall video... there is no hope for that one lol (unless they release the secret super AI  )

 

i specifically tried some stuff i knew was pretty good already,  except really low resolution and another one from another video, which was also pretty good for what it is (wasnt an ideal frame for sure, but acceptable result)

 

Now im not sure i wanna pay 75 for that... ?

 

original: (photo)

 

upscale: (that said i didn't wanna upscale,  but i didn't see an option not to, they said it should work) and yeah, watermark : D

 

what do you think about photoshop as an alternative, doesnt that do about the same + more? 

[minibois]

On 1/1/2022 at 10:11 PM, Mark Kaine said:

i see, I'll look into those, i also thought waifu2x but wasn't sure it works for, well, humans... thanks.

On 1/2/2022 at 2:06 AM, Mark Kaine said:

Ok i tried waifux2... i downloaded some gui-version, idk if i did something wrong but imo there was zero (as in none, zip, nada) difference between "upscaled" and original... 

Keep in mind there are quite a few options, including change the "Model" to something else, including a photo trained model.

On 1/2/2022 at 2:06 AM, Mark Kaine said:

And i tried Topaz Gigapixel (confusing because they have several programs that do about the same) but i eventually got to it... and well, the results were "good", i guess, except the shopping mall video... there is no hope for that one lol (unless they release the secret super AI  )

You can try to downscale the video/image a bit before trying to upscale it. This may sound counter-intuitive, but can often hide some imperfections to the AI upscaling doesn't multiply those imperfections.

On 1/2/2022 at 2:06 AM, Mark Kaine said:

what do you think about photoshop as an alternative, doesnt that do about the same + more? 

Well if Linear/Cubic/Lanczos upscaling it plenty then it could work, but usually that's not enough.

When I upscale images (not much photos though), I typically also have to edit the photo, to bring out some details (which may have been lost by the upscaling, or may have not been there in the first place).

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, minibois said:

Keep in mind there are quite a few options, including change the "Model" to something else, including a photo trained model.

yup, tried that, no difference...not sure why it didn't work.

 

1 hour ago, minibois said:

You can try to downscale the video/image a bit before trying to upscale it. This may sound counter-intuitive, but can often hide some imperfections to the AI upscaling doesn't multiply those imperfections.

i see, yeah that's what i thought,  if it doesn't upscale it should have more resources for "improving", on the website it sounded like it could do this, gotta look into that more.

 

1 hour ago, minibois said:

Well if Linear/Cubic/Lanczos upscaling it plenty then it could work, but usually that's not enough.

Oh, thats kinda what GIMP does too, right? i tried that too, it did improve the image quality,  depending on the source its good enough,  but something like Topaz definitely has a bigger impact, especially on low resolution material (in my impression)

 

Well, at least its not a subscription... i think photoshop is(?) On the other hand i always wanted to get photoshop for modding,  there are other options,  but from what i see ps is the easiest/most compatible to work with (and i have no talent for this stuff whatsoever,  i still cant use blender properly... lol )

 

 

 

[minibois]

49 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i see, yeah that's what i thought,  if it doesn't upscale it should have more resources for "improving", on the website it sounded like it could do this, gotta look into that more.

A lot what goes into upscaling is trying different combinations of settings, input images and edits before and after the fact.

If you're interested in upscaling, 2kliksphilip has quite a few videos on upscaling, here is a playlist of his: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRDhcp_8c7uC_qN0-1hfzd6p70KupiZ5M

52 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

i see, yeah that's what i thought,  if it doesn't upscale it should have more resources for "improving", on the website it sounded like it could do this, gotta look into that more.

It's the whole idea of "garbage in, garbage out". If your original image has certain flaws in it, the AI will latch on to that with the upscale and produce a result with those flaws.

53 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Oh, thats kinda what GIMP does too, right? i tried that too, it did improve the image quality,  depending on the source its good enough,  but something like Topaz definitely has a bigger impact, especially on low resolution material (in my impression)

 

Well, at least its not a subscription... i think photoshop is(?) On the other hand i always wanted to get photoshop for modding,  there are other options,  but from what i see ps is the easiest/most compatible to work with (and i have no talent for this stuff whatsoever,  i still cant use blender properly... lol )

The linear/cubic/Lanczos upscale algorithms have been the default for years at this point, basically all image manipulation programs - including GIMP and Photoshop - would have those (and more) at this point. Programs like Topaz and waifu2x have different algorithms better suited to upscaling (or at least, more intelligent upscaling).

 

For me GIMP works fine for the little amount of image manipulation I do, but Photoshop is definitely the more robust fully featured program. The newest version is subscription based, although I know Photoshop Element can be purchased as a one-time-purchase. Not sure  how well that program works compared to the subscription based Creative Cloud version.

[Mark Kaine]

35 minutes ago, minibois said:

If your original image has certain flaws in it, the AI will latch on to that with the upscale and produce a result with those flaws.

yeah, i definitely thought of editing before the upscaling step, like i did something just with the basic windows editor (contrast) and that already improved it, as in made it cleaner, so i guess that could further improve the results.

38 minutes ago, minibois said:

The linear/cubic/Lanczos upscale algorithms have been the default for years at this point, basically all image manipulation programs - including GIMP and Photoshop - would have those (and more) at this point. Programs like Topaz and waifu2x have different algorithms better suited to upscaling (or at least, more intelligent upscaling).

i was actually kinda impressed with the results in gimp, the main difference seems to me, something like topaz is smoother, but also more "artificial", so depending on use case and source material either can be useful,  as for desktop backgrounds a bit of an artificial look isnt bad, as long the image is clear / not pixelated,  i guess.

 

well, tldr is, i probably should get Topaz... wish it was cheaper lol

[tikker]

5 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Well, at least its not a subscription... i think photoshop is(?) On the other hand i always wanted to get photoshop for modding,  there are other options,  but from what i see ps is the easiest/most compatible to work with (and i have no talent for this stuff whatsoever,  i still cant use blender properly... lol )

I've recently taken a liking to Affinity's products: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

I don't use it enough to justify Adobe's subscription of €25 per month per product, but still semi-regularly. Not sure about its upscaling capabilities beyond the mentioned standard algorithms, but they have 90-day trial keys, so it may be worth a shot to see if it suits your needs.

[Mark Kaine]

4 hours ago, tikker said:

I don't use it enough to justify Adobe's subscription of €25 per month per product, but still semi-regularly. Not sure about its upscaling capabilities beyond the mentioned standard algorithms,

sounds interesting and alternatives are always good in that market specifically,  and yeah you basically have to try it all out i guess... 

 

thing is photoshop would be specifically interesting for making mods, afaik paint.net works too, but its more difficult and may not work at all for some things... (because of missing plugins or whatever) although I probably should give that a try also of course... lol and blender... i kinda hate it, the controls are so counter intuitive (especially the camera) but yeah, for this specific use case (upscaling,  sharpening) im really not sure, the topaz software seems really pretty good and especially easy to use, it just seems expensive for what it does... not even transparent pngs or something...