Bringing D&D/AD&D campaign settings to life with Stable Diffusion

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

GPT (text generation) is similarly "creative". After using it for a while, you can start to see the patterns in how it puts things together, predict it and manipulate it.

And it makes me more conscious of how my brain puts together sentences and comes up with words. How many things do I say that are just patterns that I've learned to use? Expressions I rely on, my personal writing style etc.

I think what these AI experiments will show us in the long run is that certain aspects of "humanity" are overrated and over-mystified; in reality, there are just a few simple processes at play with some randomness involved.

See, I disagree with this though. I think of AI from a utilitarian perspective, but I don't want to demean true human talent, or think that AI can truly replace it yet. It may be able to match or beat a human in results at times, but it isn't actually being creative or intelligent. And I think that's a flaw that can't be overcome. The results may exceed humans entirely, but they still won't have humanity.

It's the difference between a robot dog and an actual one. No matter how many upgrades you put in the robot, it still won't match the ugliest bulldog in the world as a companion. They both may have four legs and be the best hunting device in the world, but the real dog's real qualities make it a better pet, since it's flesh and blood just as you are.

Though I do think we can learn from AI's similarity on some level. How do we learn? How do we process? How can we do better?

AI brings forth the opportunity for the truly skilled and brilliant to shine, and for all the imitators and hacks to be decreased in value, since machines can copy better and faster than they can.

 

[Rincewind]

See, I disagree with this though. I think of AI from a utilitarian perspective, but I don't want to demean true human talent, or think that AI can truly replace it yet. It may be able to match or beat a human in results at times, but it isn't actually being creative or intelligent. And I think that's a flaw that can't be overcome. The results may exceed humans entirely, but they still won't have humanity.

It's the difference between a robot dog and an actual one. No matter how many upgrades you put in the robot, it still won't match the ugliest bulldog in the world as a companion. They both may have four legs and be the best hunting device in the world, but the real dog's real qualities make it a better pet, since it's flesh and blood just as you are.

Though I do think we can learn from AI's similarity on some level. How do we learn? How do we process? How can we do better?

AI brings forth the opportunity for the truly skilled and brilliant to shine, and for all the imitators and hacks to be decreased in value, since machines can copy better and faster than they can.

Oh yeah, I pretty much agree with you on all of that. Ultimately, it boils down to "but what's the point?" Plus just because we can do something, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good idea to do it (for many reasons).

What I meant is that furthering our understanding of humans and other living beings cannot be a bad thing. Living beings have to obey the same laws of physics and matter as anything else; how I see it, "we" and all creatures are automatons, albeit very complicated ones. So complicated that from a practical perspective one would seem almost autonomous and having free will, etc. But my personal conviction is that everything, including living beings, is entirely 100% deterministic. I guess you can say I'm a materialist or whatever, and I wouldn't vehemently disagree with that categorisation.

But... when the interaction of trillions of individual factors make everything seem "random" and "alive", does it really matter that it's deep down deterministic? I guess not, from a practical sense. But I find it cool to gain a glimpse into how creativity probably works through these AI models.

 

[NecroLord]

AI can never overcome true human passion and talent. Sure,it sees patterns and all that shit,but it only imitates based on the output of others. This human fascination with AI and bestowing "humanity" on artificial constructs and robots is dangerous and could even lead to horror shows like Skynet if it gets out of control.
You can stare at a work of Michelangelo for entire minutes because it is an expression of his genius. The work of an AI is an expression of what? Algorithms
and programming?

 

[udm]

I've been able to get more decent portrait results after my last attempt. Half-orcs still look like fiercely savage motherfuckers (as they should, actually, but I really wanted to get one that doesn't look like he wants to eat babies), but the elves do look pretty good.

I've also been trying to do battle scenes between adventurers and undead, but couldn't get the right prompts. Zed Duke of Banville have you had any luck on this front?

 

[Dexter]

There's apparently a https://www.reddit.com/r/dndai/

 

[Lagole Gon]

I've also been trying to do battle scenes between adventurers and undead, but couldn't get the right prompts. Zed Duke of Banville have you had any luck on this front?

Pretty sure you can't get good character interactions with this toy.

 

[A horse of course]

This is basically a porn thread at this point. Not that I'm complaining.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

For the Ravenloft campaign setting of gothic horror, I directed Stable Diffusion to an art style based on Henry Fuseli, Zdzislaw Beksiński, Nicola Samori, and H.R. Giger.


Azalin the Lich, lord of Darkon:

...

Monsters.

More Ravenloft:


Quickwood, a living tree that eats people:

...

This is basically a porn thread at this point. Not that I'm complaining.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

This is a misunderstanding on both parts. All of these AI generated things are simply compilations. There is nothing that it does that hasn't already been done for it.

By that logic, nothing that you've done in your life has been done by you, since you absorbed the data of others and the world around you in order to learn to do everything you know.

"But I put my own spin on it! But I combined it with other things so that it looks nothing like what I originally learned from!"

Uh huh.

No, this is the average journo's interpretation of AI, but it isn't true. If it were a mere compilation, there would be some file with every image the AI was trained on stored in it. It would be many terabytes in size. Instead, what exists is a file that stores what it's learned from these images, not the images themselves. This is why it can appear to combine the ideas it's learned from these images so easily. A compilation would be a blend of the original images, not ideas.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Ah yes. The typical technophile's dismissal. The reality of AI as solely a compiling algorithm. It literally just takes what you give it and combines it. It literally does nothing but combine pictures together.

Ok, so can you tell me which pictures it's combining for this image, where they're stored in the AI and then post them for us to see?

I thought not.

You don't need a file to store every image. Simply connect the compiling program to the internet and allow it to simply pull from reference images through a google search in addition to whatever base images you want it to use.

Ok then. Show me where in the code it connects to the internet to pull these images. And please also explain how it can work without an internet connection.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Why would you spend money on server space to store images that the program doesn't need to reference anymore? Also, files aren't stored in a computer program. A computer program can only access and reference files.

So the images no longer exist online, but the images are being referenced by the AI from the Internet?

Why should I dig through code?

It might help you to look less ridiculous when discussing it.

The fact is that all of these image compilers draw are accessed and connect to the internet at all time.

I have it running on my PC and it runs without an internet connection just fine.

I refuse to believe you aren't trolling me at this point.

 

[Mortmal]

I've been able to get more decent portrait results after my last attempt. Half-orcs still look like fiercely savage motherfuckers (as they should, actually, but I really wanted to get one that doesn't look like he wants to eat babies), but the elves do look pretty good.

I've also been trying to do battle scenes between adventurers and undead, but couldn't get the right prompts. Zed Duke of Banville have you had any luck on this front?

Still very very hard to get a battle done right but it's getting there:

 

[Mortmal]

check out r/dndai

 

[NecroLord]

check out r/dndai

Honestly,looks like typical 5E shit art.
Soulless and lacking the passion of old D&D.

 

[Mortmal]

check out r/dndai

Honestly,looks like typical 5E shit art.
Soulless and lacking the passion of old D&D.

Except for cheap , done on under 1 min , good enough when doing a VTT custom campaign.

 

[Mortmal]

This one is my doing, exactly what i need for npc portraits:

 

[NecroLord]

Interesting.
Sort of an assassin/necromancer?

 

[Mortmal]

Interesting.
Sort of an assassin/necromancer?

Blackguard type of npc

 

[Rincewind]

Related. Quite good stuff; I actually want to be friends with the AI who did these images Very trippy!

https://stuckincustoms.com/2022/11/09/30-burning-man-photos-with-the-latest-ai/

 

[Anashel]

Far from being perfect and I guess it's going to be a long way before it gets to the level of quality you are looking for, but here is a model pack optimized for RPG.

• RPG v2 Model Pack for SD
• User Guide v2.1

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Been fucking with this for months more than actually gaming most of the time. Turns out weed, liquor, putting on some music, and then fucking around with AI for hours is the best use of a human being's time. I do often find myself in an odd spot where I sometimes want to put more effort into a picture and cleaning it up by hand, but since I just make pictures to amuse and entertain myself I lean most heavily into just fucking with prompts and pressing go rather than doing img2img or actual drawing on it myself even though the end results can be far, far better that way. Also tends to work best in pictures where AI weirdness can be a strength rather than a weakness, obviously. ALSO makes me want to upgrade my fucking video card more than any games since my crusty old 970 ain't exactly the best piece of tech for it but I have to be honest with myself in that I don't really need screaming fast hardware to make porn or fantasy shlock however much I may like it.

May have to try that RPG model up above there since I've yet to make satisfactory D&D stuff. Every once in a while I take a crack at some Dark Sun and it lets me down. You'd think having some basic scantily clad muscular men and women with crude weapons looking menacing in a desert shouldn't be difficult but I haven't got the right mix of MORE GOODERER LESS BADERER. Plus as I said above it's more satisfying to just do shit where the AI can be weird and you have fun interpreting AI bullshit rather than getting pissed at it trying to get specific results. Here's one I pulled out of my ass tonight.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

since I've yet to make satisfactory D&D stuff.

Well I say that and then I fall down the rabbit hole with it tonight and never actually make anything that feels like D&D but it feels interesting enough that I let my mind wander and think about what the setting would be if it was the art within a fictional D&D setting book and have an absolute fucking blast. Fucking AI bullshit IT'S JUST TOO GODDAMN FUN

 

[saint amchad]

since I've yet to make satisfactory D&D stuff.

Well I say that and then I fall down the rabbit hole with it tonight and never actually make anything that feels like D&D but it feels interesting enough that I let my mind wander and think about what the setting would be if it was the art within a fictional D&D setting book and have an absolute fucking blast. Fucking AI bullshit IT'S JUST TOO GODDAMN FUN

I am horrified and erect at the same time...

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I am horrified and erect at the same time...

Been obsessing on that shit ever since that night and every evening I fuck around with some wizards. On one hand there's nothing too unique about it, on the other hand it scratches my itch for fucked up evil wizards and magic being antithetical to reality so I keep dinking around with it. Have messed with adventurers and weebery but wizards doing wizard things is still the best I reckon.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Closest I've gotten for Dark Sun and I'm still not satisfied with it. Doesn't seem like something that should be so tricky but trying to get non-metal weapons gives the AI the shits and trying to get enough fantasy in with your desert is fucky. Her armor's also not that great but that's kind of the least of my concerns, fucking around with phrasing to get more fantastical leather "Armor" shouldn't be as tough as the rest. Haven't bothered with widescreen pictures since I'm still wrestling with it so much. One slightly funny point though is if you add metal to the negative prompt it fucks up the whole image, I can only assume because it's considering scantily clad barbarian women in the desert suitable for metal album covers and telling it to ignore metal mangles the composition even if it does (Usually) mean you get bone and chitin looking weapons. Which I've tried things like bone club but maybe I should alternate and do (bone club|chitin club) and the combined not-metal-ness and club-ness could lead it away from a sword or spear.

ADDENDUM: Set up the above post and didn't submit it and kept fucking around, here are a few widescreen Dark Sun attempts. Still not correct, could also be difficult to get art that evokes a setting that's primarily done by a single artist like Dark Sun (Case in point, look at modern Dark Sun art) but ah well. Also noticed the tits grew and I can't remember if I added bigger tits at one point between the square picture and the wide pictures or if it was just random chance, I do know I adjusted the muscles up a bit and did later scale the tits back as well as trying bone|chitin and adjusting armor on top of a whole pile of other shit. When it hits the "dragon sun" picture (Which I would've thrown out but to hell with it, call it the cover art to a book with a menacing defiler even though I'm not sure where it came from since I didn't even have "dungeons and dragons" in there for it to pull a dragon from) that's after most of the adjustments had taken place. Not sufficiently Dark Sun but fun to take another stab at it.