RealCUGAN makes too thick and too black lines and lights up too much

[Platos]

I generall like RealCUGAN very much, but it has some minor downsides for me and im trying to fix that and so im asking for help here. (i dont want to do scene-specific-editing, because it takes like 100 time more time)

First issue with RealCUGAN is, it makes lines looking "blacker" and thicker. While sth like aWarpSharp2 makes lines looking not too thick and not to black, it makes objects smaller. So use aWarpSharp2 after RealCUGAN would be an option, but therfore it makes everything smaller, it's also a downgrade in some ascept. And you can se that escpecially on small objects quite good, like a windows which is far away or thin stuffs like grid or legs, which are thin because they are far away. Sometimes it makes Things looks strange, even more strange because old animes Drawing can sometimes look very bad on far away obects (which will get more visibale on upscaling so making it even worse with aWarpsharp2 is a downgrade in this scenes).

So that's why i think about, if there is a possibility, to let RealCUGAN itself makes a bit less thicker lines ? Or is there any other filter in Vapoursynth, which can do that (without the downgrade of aWarpSharp2) ?

Second Issue with RealCUGAN is especially on older Animes. They sometimes have an Artstyle which have sth like "textures", so they have sometimes a surface, which is not just a color, it looks like a surface with different brightnes, lines and so on. For example a tree, it's not just black lines with an uniform green or brown(trunk). But Real CUGAN makes these textures looking less "real" and more "childisch" "cheesy/corny" style.

Third Isse with RealCUGAN is brightness. It makes some parts shining more, like glossy. It's maybe the same issue like in the Second Isse. It also makes it looks more childisch, less "real". For example Faces, Eyes, mirror-effects and generally it makes everything makes looks glossier than before.

Does someone has an idea, how i can solve this 3 Problems by making RealCUGAN itself different or with filters (easier option maybe) ?

Ps. I know RealESRGAN, Waifu2x, Anime4k, srmd, and some VSGAN. RealESRGAN is worse than realCUGAN and very slow (i actually dont know, why its hyped so much) and the rest does actually no upgrade over player-realtime-upscalers and VSGAN is to slow atm for me.

But if someone knows some other AI Upscaling or some specific VSGAN, then tell me, if they are as fast as RealCUGAN. Because i actually dont know, who is really using RealESRGAN and similar things, because its just to slow.

Edit: i use RealCUGAN with Waifu2x-Extension-GUI.

[Selur]

That is how RealCUGAN works. One can try to limit the effects through clever masking, but RealCUGAN is what it is.

[Platos]

That is how RealCUGAN works. One can try to limit the effects through clever masking, but RealCUGAN is what it is.

Yeah, sadly, nothing is perfect

But maybe someone has an idea how to mask it with as little as possible additional artefacts like aWarpSharp2 does?

But about aWarpSharp2: I normally upscale everything with 1.5x scale, and most of things i upscale are (then) 720p. Then, aWarpSharp2 with 128Threshold and 8 Depth is quite visible on smaller things. But if you upscale to 1080p (doesnt matter what input resolition was), it's way less visible, if you then use aWarpSharp2 with same setting.

So it could be an option, to Upscale to 1080p insteat to 720p and then use aWarpSharp2 with 128Threshold and 8 Depth. But the problem is, the more you upscale the more you see unrepairable ugly things (because Anime Art ist often sloppy drawn in some scenes, where charakters are far away. At least on older ones).

But i still hope for someone, who has an idea for a better "masking" these problems.

[Selur]

You might want to read https://guide.encode.moe/encoding/masking-limiting-etc.html to better understand what I mean with masking,...

[Platos]

Thanks, i will read that. I started already with this guide (and the others you send somewhere) but it's alot. I will read this chapter, thanks.