A few of us have been experimenting using Gemini and Chat GPT to enhance screenshots. Please make your AI enhanced screenshot full size and your original screenshot a thumbnail. Feel free to add any interesting details including what AI you are using. If this becomes popular then I may consider a contest format.
The quality you have achieved is astonishing. I cannot believe what I am seeing. 'The camera never lies' is dead as a phrase, it also means that every photo I now see on the internet is untrustworthy!
Definitely nice. I'm ambivalent about it: On one hand the composition is still ours, it's mostly just much better rendering. As such, it might be worth to fix up some of our favourite shots to make them publish-proof (printing, slideshow). On the other hand, it's removing the aspect of documenting the game. One risk we're running is that capturing fine screenshots becomes less important because you can not just ask for a fidelity boost (which is already an important factor) but possibly a mild composition fix as well. For me a big part of the screenshotting game is to try and make the best of it. At its extreme, some of the shots might as well come from TSW, RWE3 ;-) or something similar. Unfortunately, that's the reality for years. I had a run on Facebook where I appreciated a lot of nature shots and those of cute log cabins, until I realized that they are AI generated with the chimney above the window and somesuch. In fact, AI is used to generate traffic and revenue - hard business. On the upside, when stated (or otherwise known) to be AI it's nice to accept it as a what-if. For example, about two years ago some gardening company suggested that we plan ours in 3D, with its help - live.
I have had much better overall results with Gemini. I use the following base instructions then add additional such as make it Winter, raining, snowing, ect. Make this screenshot appear real (like it was taken with a DSLR camera). Do not change the type of train, shape of the locomotive, or paint scheme of the trains featured. You may adjust the items featured in the landscape, as long as you maintain the original setup of the image. Adjust lighting as needed to make the screenshot to make it look more realistic as needed.
Very nice, I'm tempted. You need to pay for Gemini, correct? There is really just one thing with the S1 pic, the shadows are very nice in most cases, except the loco itself is lit by a sun 70° apart from the scenery. Absolutely not important, just shows how much we're going into nuances to discover what's real. Well, and the Pennsylvania above the coach windows. This is crazy anyway. If your intention is to create fantastic images, the workflow of arranging in TSC and then using a good AI is already working. Who needs TSW anyway. ;-)
You will get a limited number of PRO enhancements per day for free. Always check the PRO option. Open Gemini and drag your screenshot into Gemni then add your instructions. After processing download your processed screenshot. Drag into Paint to convert from .png to .jpg.
One from Gemini and one from ChatGPT. Bottom one is Gemini (note watermark). I prefer the Gemini enhancement.
Definitely, with some mistakes. It did change the EMD into a GE. Less of a peeve but the ET44CH became bit of a Cyrillic garble. Regardless, it appears to understand the idea of objects and sunshine and obstruction. It appears to change the direction of the sun, but the result looks great.
First, after being on these forums for some years, it embarrasses me to admit I do not know how to create a "thumbhail" image. Instructions are much appreciated. With that out of the way... The free-tier Gemini-enhanced screenshot seen below shows a steam locomotive headed stopping passenger train in the process of boarding passengers at a station located along Golden Age Development's West of England Mainline third-party route. In the original, there is not a single person to be seen on the train's platform. I gave Gemini these instructions: "Transform this Train Simulator Classic screenshot of a steam-locomotive-headed passenger train, stopped at a station, into a photorealistic image. Create images of the train driver and fireman in mid-1950s British Railways attire, seen standing on the platform just outside the locomotive cab door, as if in the process of friendly chatter. Create around 15 passengers, in 1950s British attire, on the station platform in the process of boarding the train. None of the 15ish passengers should be trying to board the black locomotive, just the passenger coaches." As can be seen, my instructions weren't followed to the letter, but it's close enough for jazz, as we used to say during my long-ago musician days. Also, the locomotive should be using the old disk destination codes, not a lantern. I might at some point ask Gemini to correct this, but from experience I know that asking for one correction can sometimes do more harm than good. Lastly, this image seems to me to be more of an "enhanced screenshot with a nod toward artwork" than a true "photorealistic image."
Looking good. I have found that running the enhance screenshot "through again" sometimes makes it worse. I usually start again with the original screenshot and tweak the instructions.
