non-anime image reaction restoration

Similar to my W.A.R.i thread but this time make, or are at least attempt to make higher quality upscales using the Resrgan model Photo-HQ-W4xEX in waifu2x extension gui
1:1 1080x1080 is the goal but some might lose context so I'll get as close as I can to this but avoid going 16:9 since that doesn't look good on phones.
cwebp: -sharp_yuv -m 6 -pass 10 -psnr 45

2026-04-19·22:55·No.327

everyones_a_critic.webp(103 KB)

2026-04-19·22:56·No.328

look_at_me.webp(126 KB)

2026-04-19·22:59·No.329

prayer_works.webp(102 KB)

2026-04-19·23:55·No.332

>>326
Very cool, I remember waifu2x from a while back

2026-04-19·23:56·No.333·

>>335

>>336

Does waifu2x use AI in any way?

2026-04-20·00:49·No.335

varg.webp(139 KB)

>>333
Yeah but it's older, only trained with anime images, and doesn't use GAN so the upscales aren't as good as Resrgan ones. Also less tuning available, like 4 models vs 100s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network

2026-04-20·01:01·No.336·

>>337

Untitled.webp(185 KB)

>>333
In fact waifu2x can often make photographic images more blurry than the original. Dunno what will replace Resrgan in the future but it seems to hit a "good enough" upscale result for me. It's very nice for creating webp images since all that artefacting doesn't carry over and get worse.