Hello everyone!

As I said in Tuesday's Showcase, I'm having issues with my AI workflow, and it's impacting my productivity.

So, let's talk about that!

The Basics

When generating pictures using AI, you choose a Model, and add LoRAs over it, to define what the visual style will be. I won't go into too much details on that though, because I probably don't know anything about it to explain it properly.

Netorase Phone uses the Pony XL Model. When I started making pictures, it was the most commonly used.

For 365 Days Before Us, and Netorase Phone: Iris, I've been using the Illustrious model.

While there are other explanations for the visual difference between these games, it can basically be summarized like that.

My Workflow

Because I'm not an artist, and I'm depending on what the AI can create, I cannot write content without getting the pictures first. If I write dialogues before generating the pictures, in most case they won't conform exactly to what I've written, forcing me to make changes, often important ones.

So, what I usually do is that I decide what happens, prompt the pictures, and let the results guide me to write the exact events.

It adds, in my opinion, a nice layer of unpredictability. The AI has sometimes produced pictures that were quite different from what I expected, making me write different events.

The issue it creates is that, until I get good pictures, I can't write much.

The Problem(s)

Apart from the visual differences between Pony and Illustrious, they have a major difference from my point of view: Illustrious is far, far more effective to use. The pictures it generates are more respectful of what I need (even though it keeps that layer of surprises), contain less mistakes, and are overall more consistent.

The result is that it takes me a lot less time to get usable pictures using Illustrious, than it takes with Pony. And when I say "a lot", it's A LOT. I can sometimes spend hours getting a proper Pony picture when I need something specific, when Illustrious will give me a proper result in minutes.

As an example, here's a batch of Pony pictures of Laura and Nathan:

While these pictures look okay at first glance, taking a better look at them show that every single one of them has issues making them unusable. It can be as small as an additional finger, or as large as a missing dick, or additional hands. Yes, plural, I sometimes have pictures with six hands for two people!

And this batch is one of the bests, sometimes I get things like that:

I'm challenging you to explain what's happening in these pictures...

For comparison, here's the exact same prompt with Illustrious, using Saffron:

While they're not absolutely perfect, they're miles ahead of what Pony gives me, and even the background is relatively consistent (I didn't specify a colour for the couch). I mean, take a look at this one:

Here's another example of the kind of glaring issues I can get with Pony, making the picture unusable:

And that's not even talking about the faces, that are becoming worse and worse, something a lot of people have commented on:

Why not abandon Pony then?

Well, for one simple reason: Illustrious, as good as it is, won't ever give me the same visual result as Pony. Switching to it for Netorase Phone would mean a change in art style, and that's not an easy decision to take. Basically, changing anything to my workflow will impact the end result (which is why pictures of Laura, Ashley and Tara made by other people look different).

Here are, for examples, a few tries to make Laura using Illustrious:

The Consequences

There are two major consequences to that.

First, these issues are impacting my workflow. There's a reason iris update had so much content. Yes, I worked on it A LOT, more than usual, but even then, Pony wouldn't have allowed me to make more than 100 pictures for a single update.

Second, these issues are preventing me from writing wilder content.

For example, I've been wanting to write lesbian content for ages. I'd love to have one of the girls licking a bull's cum from another girl's pussy. Or Laura licking your cum from Ashley's pussy.

Here's what I was able to generate, in about a minute, using Illustrious:

As comparison, here's Pony:

Yes, before you ask, that's the same prompt. Pony didn't even want to give me cum (don't laugh). Laura looks nothing like herself, her tongue looks like she comes from another galaxy, and do I even need to comment on the other girl's pussy?!

This is a single example, but the issue is the same for any "harder" content. Adding more people creates TONS of issues. Having multiple girls make them exchange physical properties, or make one girl with dual physical features, chimera-style (Ed... ward). So, lesbian content, or FFM threesomes, are basically impossible. Specific positions? Nah, keep dreaming. Sexy outfits? The AI will give me a different one for each picture.

What then?

Right now, honestly, I don't know.

There are a few things I considered, and none of them pleased me:

Finishing NTS Phone here and now. I don't really want to. There are still stories to tell about Laura, Ashley and Tara. But most of them are blocked by Pony, because we've reached a point where any progression will be "wilder stuff".

Switching the art style. It could work, but changing the complete art style of a game in the middle of it is so dangerous. On top of that, not every character works well with a different art style (I tend to design the characters around the art style I'll use).

Starting a Netorase Phone Season 2, as a different game, with a different style. It would probably work better than the above solution, but some of the linked issues persist, and it adds others.

Putting the game on hiatus while I look for a solution.

I'm still thinking about these issues and potential solutions, but basically, for now, I'm stumped. Chapter 63 has been progressing very slowly, because generating any unusual picture is a challenge, and my goal isn't to show Laura being fucked the same was she has ever been, again. Which means Pony is overtly hostile to what I want to show...

So, yeah, no definitive solution here, but I wanted to communicate about my issues, let you see what was happening in the background, why the pictures quality seemed to be declining, and why I'm having so many problems with NTS Phone. Since these issues happen constantly, and impact my whole workflow, they've made working on NTS Phone a hassle (something I had already touched upon when talking about the new schedule).

I also wanted to open talks on this topic. You might have ideas and suggestions that could be invaluable.

Anyway, thanks for having read all this! The comments are open, I'll see you there!