g2kbuffetboy I can definitely see the difference between an older NA 3k video file with a AI-enhanced 8k video file (done by a fan, not by NA themselves).
do you have a link for that?
AI Upscale proof based discussion
doublevr Sure thing. I'll DM you on reddit because it is a "free" link and I don't want to support those on these forums =)
g2kbuffetboy otherwise can't really see any real difference. Neither it is going to be seen in VR. Can't justify any effort in that direction.
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doublevr I bought a copy of Topaz Labs video AI enhancement. It CAN do quite some impressive things. But there are many caveats and does not work in every instance.
PH default quality 400% zoom
AI Enhance
Been experimenting but the longer the video, the harder it is to get consistent results. So I'm looking into using different enhancements of the same video and then use masking/blending to try and get the best results. But it's a lot of work + am still learning.
None of that is seen in the headset ¯(ツ)/¯
You can when you know where to look. As the benefit is mostly seen in the background it is still very subjective if the upscale is really better, but it is there and in some parts undenieable.
Also the pink lights show less jaggies in the upscaled picture, and they are a huge distraction in an otherwise great video. Unfortunately they are still there, so it is not a huge improvement, but a slight one nonetheless.
I am wondering if and how much it would be better if the upscaling would have been done on the "RAW" material and not an already sharpened final output. This already has some slight sharpening artifacts which usually get worse with upscaling, and also limit how aggressive you can use sharpening during upscaling before it becomes too much.
Rakly3 if thats not proof i dont know what is
spacepirate That is not simply upscaling though. It's the AI interpreting the image according to parameters you set.
Rakly3 yeah but no one else is doing regular upscaling... theres no benefit to it
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spacepirate That's (imho) part of the problem- there are definitely studios who are just doing raw upscaling so instead of 5k they can release "7k/8k". Technically they're not wrong, but their image quality obviously doesn't improve with the increased resolution.
Topaz VEAI is a very cool application but agree with Rakly3 that it is challenging to actually get worthwhile results. I've been messing around with it for 6+ months in my personal life, and things can look hugely improved w/ a 2d comparative split screen of before/after...but then after spending a week to render 1 scene and putting on the headset to watch what you've made, it often looks either entirely too "artificial" or alternatively it only looks marginally improved from the original (meaning it was not worth the time & effort).
And the bigger argument to be made imho is that with camera improvements in the past year or so, along with the upcoming 8k cameras- there will be no need for AI upscaling. Already there are studios whose scenes I have not been able to "improve" at all using Topaz, even just with the 2d comparison.
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doublevr Wankz upscale looks absolute garbage to me. Seems like overupscaled. Totally unwatchable.
LOL, dude. Are you on one of your pointless crusades again? Such exaggeration is ridiculous. At worst, the AI upscales is hardly any different to the original file (despite being substantially bigger), at best, the picture is a bit more clear and less grainy.
Nobody said that you had to remaster any of your own scenes though. If you don't want to do it, simply don't do it. But maybe you shouldn't base your whole strategy on only your individual vision "aka I can't see it so nobody can see it". That's the best way to ruin VR since visual perception can be wildly different between different persons...
Rakly3 That is not simply upscaling though. It's the AI interpreting the image according to parameters you set.
That's also what Wankz is doing...
LordCrash wankz remasters are badly stretched for me. It feels lacking a lot and 0 immersion. Every body and object is very unnatural. Totally can't watch.
For some reason original videos were fine. No idea how did they manage to break it completely. At least for me.
Never understood you guys screaming for such remasters. Not the first time users are totally wrong.
doublevr think you are misinterpreting comments here coz i cant see anyone screaming for remasters
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can't really make sense of many things people are screaming for. glad it works for some of you guys seeing magic where there is none while we are sticking to proof based stuff.
once again, the "gains" you see with upscales posted here are not necessarily improving perception. many times the image feel very unnatural with that "AI" crap
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wankz remasters are badly stretched for me. It feels lacking a lot and 0 immersion. Every body and object is very unnatural. Totally can't watch.
They are bad compared to modern 6k/7k videos, but they are an improvement to their original videos.
That said there also sometimes quite huge differences how much they improve. I was pretty blown away how much better their first remaster was, I still have the original and the remastered file, and the difference is huge. (Gina Valentina and Bailey Brooke in Easter Bunnies).
The improvement of some newer scenes was quite a bit less, I am wondering if they cut back quality, to push out more remasters, as they said I think that it needs multiple days to upscale just one video.
I think the problem is more the expectation. Is an AI Upscaled video better then a video that is natively shot in the higher resolution? Of course not. Is it better then the original, well usually yes. If it is worth all the additional processing, well at least questionable, certainly for new things shooting with better cameras is always the superior solution. But for older things, where you either have the choice of a crappy video or a somewhat less crappy video most will prefer the latter.
ibins I was pretty blown away how much better their first remaster was
In the gearvr the remastered are not as noticeable, but since I got a quest 2 recently 
...
the remastered is very noticeable 
10 months later
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Just met Topaz creators. They confirmed its useless to upscale 4K to 8K. Also it's intended for flat content and significant work is required on their end to make it work with vr because of projection.
We arranged they will take one video and do their best to upscale the very center of the video to see if it is even worth doing any further research.
doublevr source: trust me bro
2 months later
No visual improvements? Are the improvements worth it should be a better question. Without a doubt there are visual improvements. Again, the source material must have good exposure and noise/block levels. Nothing will be able to fix that. If those old really blocky scenes were being upscaled, I can see why they would not work. I will work on getting some samples up for people to compare on their own.
Here are a couple of screenshots of an upscale from 4k to 8k that I am working. Would love to hear back from other users to see if they notice any difference. First is the original 4k version, second is the upscaled 8k version, and the third is the upscaled 8k with a little color tweaking for my preference.
Original 4k
Upscaled to 8k (No color grade)
Upscaled to 8k (color grade)
