Midjourney: The 2x and 4x Upscalers
The first look at these new features
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Midjourney just released two new features a few hours after the Weekly Office Hours today.
It’s excellent news for Midjourney fans. But as I’m also the writer for the Midjourney topic, I’m thinking, “Ohh… can’t they release the features tomorrow so that I can rest a day after writing the “Quick Midjourney Update?” Why must they cram everything into a single day?
The new upscaling features are the 2x and 4x upscale buttons. They will appear after clicking U1, U2, U3, or U4 upscale buttons.
Ironically, the Upscale (2x) has four arrows pointing outward, whereas Upscale (4x) has two triangles stacked on each other. If the developer could switch the buttons, it might be more straightforward and less confusing. But, in any case, this is unimportant.
The purpose of the Upscale (2x) and Upscale (4x) buttons is to increase the resolution of a selected image so that users do not have to rely on third-party upscalers and, in some cases, to add more subtle details to the image.
Here are the key points about the new upscalers that I’ve learned so far:
- Both 2x and 4x upscalers will consume fast hours. The developer is considering whether the features could be offered in the
/relaxmode. - (Update on 19th October 2023 by DavidH: In the meantime, the upscalers can be used with
/relaxmode now. So, a saving for your fast hours!) - The 4x upscaler costs roughly three times more GPU minutes than the 2x upscaler.
- There is no option to reset the image using [Custom Zoom] after using the upscalers. In fact, after upscaling, all outpainting and inpainting features will be lost.
- Given the fast hours that will be consumed and the loss of access to the inpainting and outpainting features, the Upscale (2x) and Upscale (4x) features are most likely the final steps in the image creation process in Midjourney.
- In other words, before clicking the Upscale button, make sure you are satisfied with the final image (i.e., no strange anatomy, random useless objects, etc.).
- You cannot upscale an image immediately after [Pan]. But, you can “reset” the image with [Custom Zoom] to regain access to the Upscaler buttons.
- The upscaler is subtle and tries to keep the image’s details as close to the original as possible.
- To use the upscaler features on older images, use the
/show Job ID method. - The new features support V5 or Niji jobs.
- (Update on 20th October 2023 by Clarinet) The upscalers will use the image prompts during the upscaling process. As a result, if the images in the image prompt are of poor quality, the maximum output quality will be affected or limited.
Known issues
- Right-clicking to save the image after upscaling will sometimes save the image file in WEBP format. Navigate to the web gallery and save the image in PNG format.
- The
--tileparameter is not supported by the upscalers. After selecting a seamless image, the Upscale buttons will not appear. — (Update on 30th October 2023 by Geeky Animals — there is a simple hack to upscale tile images.) - When upscaling, there is no option to edit the prompt with
/remixmode. - Upscaling will not remove the blur from a low-resolution image. (However, Vary (Region) inpainting can be used to sharpen a low-resolution image.)
- The upscalers may occasionally darken the image slightly.
- On very rare occasions, a black or corrupted image may appear on 4x upscales. (The developer is currently investigating this matter).
Other supporting images
/relax mode now. So, a saving for your fast hours!)A photo of a chameleon was created to differentiate the resolution of the original image versus Upscale (4x).
As expected, the upscaled images (2x and 4x) are clearer and sharper with higher resolution than the original image.
- (Update on 19th October 2023 by DavidH: The 4x upscaler has been updated to make it sharper (than soft)
The photo’s image resolutions with an aspect ratio 16:9 are:
--ar 16:9 (original): 1,456 x 816 pixels
Upscale (2x): 2,912 x 1,632 pixels
Upscale (4x): 5,824 x 3,264 pixels
If you use the tile parameter, there are no Upscale (2x) or Upscale (4x) options.
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Conclusion
- Today, Midjourney released two upscalers: Upscale (2x) and Upscale (4x).
- Using the upscalers will consume fast hours.
- All outpainting and inpainting features will be lost after upscaling.
- The upscaler is subtle and tries to keep the image’s details as close to the original as possible.
- There are some known issues with the new upscalers.
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