Today's Gemini-enhanced TES Oblivion screenshot sees my avatar and Neeshka engaged in close-quarters combat within a cavern:

<link> Close-quarters Cavern Combat with my avatar and Neeshka, a first-playthrough Gemini-enhanced image <links>

Gemini gave me an excellent enhancement on the first pass with a few quibbles, the chiefest of which being that it created four visible light sources not present in the original. I could ask Gemini to remove them but liked the lighting of the characters. After mulling it over a few days, I returned to Gemini and asked it to remove those added light sources but to keep the enhanced lighting seen on the characters. To my surprise, it complied!

As to other changes, I asked for the proper area of my avatar's face to be seen through the eyeslips of his helmet; Gemini again complied. Neeshka's red eyes are, surprisingly, faithful to the undoctored screenshot, though Gemini enhances their intensity. I really like what Gemini does for my avatar's helm, especially the decoration on top.

(There is a bit of oddness seen near the lower left corner. I'll look into it at some point, but for now am letting sleeping dogs lie.

One of the first Oblivion screenshots I asked Gemini to enhance shows, in its undoctored form, my avatar and Neeshka inside the ruins of Fort Ash, examining the corpse of a dead creature. As a reminder, this is the enhancement, now linked from Google Photos rather than Imgur:

<link> Corpse examination at the ruins of Fort Ash, a Gemini-enhanced first-playthrough TES Oblivion screenshot <link>

It did not age well. I've no complaints with its framing or the quality of the enhancement itself. But there isn't enough going on within the image to hold my interest. A week or so ago I hit upon a potential solution, something added that would fit within the game world had the game engine been sophisticated enough and our Oblivion-generation computers been powerful enough to handle the workload. It took a week of failed enhancement attempts and me nearly throwing in the towel on numerous occasions for Gemini to finally produce the gist of what I wanted without any lease-breaking flaws:

<link> Corpse examination at the ruins of Fort Ash, a revised Gemini-enhanced first-playthrough TES Oblivion screenshot <link>

The irony here is that my instructions were for the flock to be traveling toward the camera, with a walking shepherd at its rear. As such, I at first dismissed the above as one of too many failed enhancement attempts. As is obvious, I grew to appreciate it over time.

I learned something while researching shepherds to find out if they ever led their flocks from the front rather than the rear. As it turns out, yes, shepherds lead their flocks from the front by various means of persuasion. It is sheepherders who follow behind, usually accompanied by sheepdogs, using forceful means to force the sheep in the right direction.

If I captured images of my avatar as a prisoner within his Imperial Prison cell at the start of either of my two full playthroughs, they can no longer be found. I did, however, capture such images during my short-lived third, experimental playthrough. None of them show Uriel Septim's initial confrontation with my avatar. I do have one tightly framed capture of the emperor and Baurus standing next to each other in the cell. Alas, the emperor's feet are out of frame.

The one decent picture of my avatar within the cell shows him seated at the cell's small wood table, his hands still cuffed. It is shot from behind so that we see a good bit of the cell all the way to the hallway. I decided to use this as my image-for-enhancement. To it were added the emperor and Baurus from the second screenshot, placed according to my commands. I hoped that Gemini would have the sense to reconstruct the emperor's feet. I asked for very few other additions, a partially eaten chunk of moldy medieval bread sitting on the table being the extent of it.

Gemini came through with flying colors; the emperor and Baurus were where I wanted them to be; the emperor's feet were convincingly restored. Still, despite the source material coming from my experimental playthrough with its improved graphics, the scene didn't "pop." I next commanded Gemini to make the cell floor look "moist" and for the walls to "sweat." This did the trick:

<link> Uriel Septim's chance encounter with a cuffed prisoner within the imperial prison, a third-playthrough Gemini-enhanced image. <link>

I regret not being able to show Captain Renault; my only screenshot containing her shows too little of her to reconstruct. We'll just assume that she is out of frame on the right, which makes perfect sense. The wall "sweat" could stand improvement, but it'll do as is, as Gemini is likely to give me no better.

Nicely done, Decrepit and Gemini!

What struck me was the moldy bread. Your directions were spot on. Great addition.

The source material for the enhancement seen below is one of the first TES Oblivion screenshots I asked free-tier Gemini to tackle. I expected little, since I have an excellent IC sewers mod installed that adds things like moist floors and sweating walls. My assumption proved correct. The screenshot and Gemini's enhancement are all but identical. Additionally, Gemini was up to its usual tricks and created a dark passageway opening at the extreme right. I wrote off the enhancement as a failure. There things stood until this afternoon.

Perusing my Gemini history for old enhancements that might be bettered, I spied this one and almost wrote it off again. But that added passageway opening gave me an idea. Collecting my thoughts, I told Gemini the following:

"Just inside the dark passageway at screen right, place a standing assassin in light armor with a short sword who is hugging the passageway's left wall in anticipation of attacking the man in the left passageway by surprise. Do not lighten the right passageway. Make no other changes."

<link> Imperial City sewers traversal with avatar and lurking assassin, a non-canonical second-playthrough Gemini-enhanced TES Oblivion image <link>

Gemini pulled it off with aplomb, easily bettering my expectations. It's just what the image needed. One can argue that Gemini's added passage invalidates the image, as I did early on. Nor will I argue against that viewpoint now. One other item of note: I have labeled this a second-playthrough image based solely on my avatar's armor, which, hard to see though it is, looked to be of better quality than the iron armor he wore during my third/experimental playthrough. I might be wrong.

ADDENDUM: I have appeased my concerns as to the legitimacy of this enhancement (caused by the added passageway) by adding "non-canonical" to its title.

Although different from game, your changes bring out the spooky and dangerous nature of the tutorial dungeon. Nice!

Another good one. I can almost see the story play out.

Today's entry is a rarity because, instead of capturing an image of my avatar and his entourage going about their daily affairs, it is a posed publicity photo that shows my avatar up close on the Cyrodiil-Shivering Isles portal island, with the portal itself in the background. What's more, instead of giving Gemini lengthy, detailed instructions explaining what I wanted and didn't want, I instead simply stated, "Transform this Elder Scrolls Oblivion screenshot into a photorealistic image." From experience I know that such requests can trigger Gemini to product its best enhancements. Conversely, it can also produce its most bizarre misrepresentations.

<link> Here is the original screenshot. <link>

<link> Here is what Gemini makes of it. <link>

I am totally pleased. Yes, it gives my avatar a slight beard and mustache, but it's in keeping with what he might have grown on his own had the game allowed it. I had Gemini remove it, but I decided I prefer the bearded version. It also, amongst other things, betters the portal heads.

What a fabulous transformation Gemini did!

I agree - that was a great transformation!

Today's entry is enhancement number fourteen, a seemingly early enhancement. Such is not the case. Three enhancements have sported that number, all deriving from the same screenshot, each cropped and framed differently. The first two were more or less variations on a close-up of my avatar and Vilja in an Ayleid ruin examining a corpse. Neither pleased. Yesterday, chancing upon the original screenshot again, I realized that what I wanted was not small and tight but rather a large canvas telling a more complex story.

<link> In the depths of an Ayleid ruin, Vilja and Hamfat are distracted by an elven corpse, likely downed attempting to purloin a Welkynd Stone, while silent enemies move in for the kill. <link>

As usual, Gemini didn't do exactly what I asked it to do, but in truth, it came closer to fulfilling my wishes than I expected it to.

Goblins moving in! Hopefully Vilja sees them soon!

This is a very tense scene

Today's entry is a reworking of an enhancement posted here some time ago. It is the first image in my four-part series chronicling Martin Septim's journey from Weynon Priory to Cloud Ruler Temple near the beginning of the Crisis.

<link> Here's Gemini's first enhancement. <link>

From the beginning, I felt it was the weakest of the four images. A few days ago, being more experienced with Gemini, I decided to tackle it again. The result this time is more to my liking.

<link> Escorting Martio Septim to Cloud Ruler Temple, part 1: Departing Weynon Priory, a Gemini-enhanced early-Crisis second-playthrough image. <link>

The sendoff committee was, of course, created as per my instructions.

Adding well-wishers is a good touch.

Today's entry posed something of a dilemma for me. In its undoctored form, it shows my first-playthrough avatar, atop Arrowspeed, traveling solo along what I'll call the Colovian Highlands trailway toward Chorrol, with Kvatch seen in the background. Gemini did an excellent job with the scenery, also moving my mounted avatar slightly forward along the road to a better position within the frame. It had all the earmarks of a top-notch enhancement, except... Except that my avatar and Arrowspeed looked little like themselves. Yes, Arrowspeed is correctly colored. Yes, Arrowspeed and my avatar sport cloth coverings in the appropriate blue and white colors. But beyond that, there's no resemblance. I routinely bow to Gemini's whims and accept varying degrees of inaccuracy, but this was more than I was willing to accept. As much as I liked the image, I reluctantly set it aside.

The matter rested for a couple of weeks until it dawned on me that the image didn't need to be of my mounted avatar with Kvatch in the distance. It could instead be a scenic view of Kvatch seen at a distance with a mounted warrior in the foreground. That settled, I needed to add something to further differentiate the warrior from my avatar. That something proved to be an idea I'd been mulling over for some time. With that idea now implemented, I present to you:

<link> A scenic view of Kvatch seen at a distance, with a mounted warrior in service to Kvatch, en route to Chorrol, seen in the foreground. <link>

Gemini knows about the game. When I told it what to place on the pennant, it knew what the Kvatch city emblem was without me having to go into detail. I thought about having Gemini replace the three stars on the warrior's tunic with the Kvatch emblem but decided not to press my luck.

Very nice scenic! The flag/pennant atop the warrior's lance is great and really tells the story.

Today's Gemini-enhanced screenshot, simple as it looks to be, was a multi-pass battle with an A.I. that insists that all eating tables within Cyrodiil dining establishments must be covered with plates, foods, drinking vessels, and so on, whether or not anyone is seen seated at those tables; in other words, just like the game itself. That makes sense in-game, but not when attempting to portray a realistic dining situation. I asked AI to clear the tabletop and then I told it what I wanted on it and where. AI constantly loaded the table with unasked-for items and placed those items I did ask for in nonsensical places. I probably used up almost the whole of yesterday's processing quota getting the table to look reasonably like I wanted it to look. Compromises remain, the chiefest being that AI steadfastly refused to place three lit candles in the center/middle of the table, instead placing them at the table's edge near my avatar. Be that as it may, flaws and all, I present to you the following:

<link> Dining solo in the Imperial City, with a barmaid hovering nearby in case my avatar wants dessert: a Gemini-enhanced third-playthrough image. <link>

Oh my. 'Lifts Her Skirt' does indeed look likes she's ready to show Hamfat the desert tray.

Ooh my, how did we get back to Daggerfall?
"Lifts Her Skirt, " "A little desert fer ye, cap'n?"

Today's enhancement sees my first-playthrough avatar and Neeshka within the ruins of Fort Wooden Hand, examining the contents of a treasure chest. My contributions are as follows: repositioning both of my avatar's arms and what is held on them; repositioning one of Neeshka's arms; a slight repositioning of the chest; opening the chest's lid; adding contents within the now-open chest; making it so that the appropriate part of my avatar's face is seen within the eye slips of his helmet. Aside from Gemini's positive visual improvements, it errs in misrepresenting Neeshka's head. In the original, she wears an open-faced helmet with a nose guard. In the enhancement, she wears a cowl. I asked Gemini to correct this; the correction was farther off the mark than what it replaced. Ergo, she is seen cowled. To be fair to Gemini, in the original Neeshka's head is little more than a hard-to-decode silhouette, making faithful reconstruction difficult at best.

<link> Neeshka and Hamfat examined the contents of a newly opened treasure chest found within Fort Wooden Hand, a first-playthrough Gemini-enhanced image. <link>

The below enhancement is sourced from a third-playthrough screenshot captured solely because this stretch of the Gold Road near its beginning shows high-quality graphics improvement mods to good effect. The original frankly didn't need visual enhancement; Gemini agreed and gave it none. But at the end of the day, it was an image of an empty road, save for a lone mounted legionnaire, with little of interest beyond the quality of its textures. I have nothing against purely scenic images but felt that this one needed something more. With that in mind, I requested that Gemini do the following:

"Using this scenic Elder Scrolls Oblivion outdoor screenshot as a reference, re-render it to be a hyperrealistic photograph. Apply a deep depth of field with everything in sharp, detailed focus. Add subtle film grain and natural lighting and shadowing for the time of day, locale, and atmospheric conditions the image represents. Ensure textures like skin, fabric, wood, stonework, and metal look physically accurate and tactile. Create a troop of 15 heavily armored medieval cavalry who are seen in loose formation traveling forward along the road. All horses are to be given leg animations so that they are seen to be walking forward. All horses should be clad in the same covering as the existing horse wears. All horses should be of the same breed as the existing horse, though their coloring should vary. The near end of the traveling cavalry should be just behind the existing mounted warrior. All created cavalrymen should be seen in a mixture of visorless helmets and helmets with raised visors. All cavalrymen should be seen carrying spears in an upright position, with slight variations in angle between individual riders. The existing mounted warrior should also carry a lance; his lance is to have a small pennant showing the Septim Dynasty emblem."

<link> A troop of patrolling heavy cavalry is seen near the beginning of the Gold Road. <link>

As usual, Gemini didn't follow my instruction to the letter, but it nails the gist of it. The horse breed, which seems to me to be appropriate for heavy cavalry, is from a mod that gives this type of horse to all vanilla mounted legionnaires.

Nicely done! Love the heavy horses.

Really liked the treasure chest pic.

Of my last two entries, I too favor the cavern treasure chest.

Today's entry is numbered 005, thus an early enhancement. It shows the second-playthrough gang traveling through Faregyl Village (an Arthmoor mod) at nighttime. Gemini does a good job here. All characters look reasonably like themselves, never a given with free-tier Gemini. The scenery is well done, as is the sky. This was enhanced before I realized that I could request basic things like "give the horses reins that the riders hold onto," "give the animals animations so that they are seen to be walking forward along the road," and "reposition the wolf so that it is seen to be at the front of the traveling column, walking forward along the road." I attempted to add these things after the fact; it didn't go well.

<link> A nighttime journey through Faregyl Village, a second-playthrough Gemini-enhanced TES: Oblivion screenshot. <link>

Really like this one. The window lit cottages and torches provide perfect lighting and the sky looks beautiful.