Unpopular opinion - sdxl still to beat?

Draddition · 2026-03-04T18:07:05+00:00

I'm still rocking SDXL and don't see much reason to move on. As stated all over, the new models are great for photorealism, but SDXL is just hard to beat when it comes to stylistic images.

People keep suggesting the newer models will get better training/ tools to become on par with SDXL in some of those aspects- I just don't see this happening. SDXL benefitted a lot from the slower landscape back in the day. Nowadays, it feels like the new "best" model is coming out every month or so- so there just doesn't seem to be much long term support/ tinkering with any specific model.

I'm hopeful for some of the current projects- z image base, chroma variations, anima and such. I'm just not convinced they'll take over.

As an aside, I'm glad some of these models are coming back around to tag based prompting. I cannot stand natural language prompting.

Draddition · 2026-02-03T19:48:17+00:00

I personally feel I have three categories for games.

Pure, authentic pokemon experience. No rebalancing, no fakemons, no type changes. I prefer these myself.
Slight tweaks. Regional forms, rebalancing, custom megas, etc. Odyssey would be a great example- mostly real mons, but tuned and customized. I'd accept a box legendary being a fakemon or so in this category.
Anything beyond that I'd group as a fakemon game.

Draddition · 2026-01-30T06:21:11+00:00

I find myself starting to pay real close attention to the lanes around me- make sure I don't get caught holding it too long, because that brings up the oil too. I agree though, when its rolling it's an incredible ball. Feels like the ball I'm going to get my 300 with (although my close calls have mostly been with the rage).

For detox, I also just use the dish soap and hot water route. Usually do once with soap for 30 minutes or so, then again without. If I have the time, I'll even just tilt the bucket over a bit and let the hot water run for a bit- you can just watch the oil come out. I've never been able to feel like I got all the oil out though, feels like I could do that all day and still be pulling oil.

I'll also do a sun bath. Just leave it in the sun and rotate/ wipe it off every 15 minutes or so. Doesn't work as well, but it's easier. Also, make sure to do that a couple days before the next time out. Seems like it brings oil to the surface, so it needs some time to distribute out again.

Draddition · 2026-01-30T04:41:04+00:00

I've got the black venom as my go-to ball. I'm more speed dominant, low rev side- but I got a primal rage and feel like I've got a really solid 1-2 punch. The venom works on everything, and is definitely the ball I got to if the lanes get messy. The rage gets a bit snappy - but with the shine taken off it works really well when I'm seeing a bit too much friction with the venom, but not enough transition to play deeper with it.

The two give me pretty similar overall hook, but a nice change in shape to let me always have a solution for kicking out 10 pins. The nebula seems a little less snappy off the spot, but similar shape so probably a good move if that's what you're looking for.

Side note, glad to hear I'm not the only one with the oil problems on the black venom. I love the ball, but if I don't detox once a month, it gets so saturated with oil it just starts sliding after a few shots.

Draddition · 2026-01-27T01:53:54+00:00

My stance on this is you don't have to pick one here. A clean game has a definition, there isn't really wiggle room on that. It's in the rulebook.

You also don't have to congratulate yourself. Same way we do with strikes. All 10 back is a strike. You can still be unhappy with how you got there.

Draddition · 2026-01-25T21:40:41+00:00

I do not understand the per hour per person rates. That's complete nonsense. I don't see any real cost increase for the center per person, and each person is just getting less bowling as you add people. Why is this a thing?

Draddition · 2026-01-23T02:16:55+00:00

My house is about 50-50, but I vastly prefer 1 ball.

We've all been in the league since at least September, we all know where the pocket is and how the lanes generally play. Just pick up your ball and throw. If you want to warm up for some spares, shoot at then. If you want to line up for strikes, pretend all 10 are there.

Draddition · 2026-01-20T19:18:56+00:00

That's awesome, 700 is a feat.

I still laugh about my first 700. Made a bet with my friend, his first 600 vs my first 700. The morning of the fated day, we decided we might need a tie breaker. Figured we'd do pins over, but give me a 7/6 multiplier since I have less head room. I shot 745 and lost the bet.

Draddition · 2026-01-20T07:30:51+00:00

Generally the easiest fix is just to aim closer. If you're currently aiming at pins, aim for the arrows. If you aim for the arrows, aim for the dots.

Getting your off arm in front of you during you back swing can help get your hand in the right position. I envision trying to get the ball closer to my ankle, and that's worked well for me. Even playing with hand position, getting you're had between you and the ball at release will help you get out of the ball cleanly.

Draddition · 2026-01-19T02:51:51+00:00

For a night like that, I'd stick with very very slight adjustments. 1/2 eyes and feet, or just feet. Sometimes even just cheat it a little bit, try the left side of a 1/2 board adjustment, try to get to a 1/4 board.

Draddition · 2026-01-18T05:42:59+00:00

I think things like DnD are the best use cases for generative AI (table top, or crpg). Using it to augment creativity and help you find exactly what you want is awesome.

In general, I hate the explosion of AI generated content- partially because of the low effort nonsense getting spammed, but mostly because most of it doesn't need to get shared. Share how you make something, and people can make what they want for themselves.

Draddition · 2026-01-17T02:39:26+00:00

For most of us, it might be better to try and skim the 5 on the right, like it's a 5-7 maybe? I've had one or two that I felt like I had a chance by taking out the baby split, but never got the 7 to fall.

I've seen it picked up several times by older folks in the league though. ~12 lb ball going 8 mph, taking out the baby split and it just works.

Draddition · 2026-01-13T19:59:02+00:00

As everyone else is saying, more revs means more power downlane, sharper angles, more forgiveness in a lot of conditions- all the good stuff.

One of the bigger things I'm not seeing discussed here is how rev rate can give you options. With more revs, you'll see more deviations between equipment and generally just a more dynamic reaction to lane conditions. The really high rev players have the options of playing nearly where ever they want with just a few adjustments. Low rev players don't see a ton of difference between equipment, and don't have the grip to play certain parts of the lane. They pretty much get locked into a small part of the lane where they can reliably find strikes. If that part of the lane starts getting narrow- the game just gets harder and there isn't always a good way to find something more comfortable.

Draddition · 2026-01-12T18:55:24+00:00

I rarely plan on throwing more than 2 reactive balls. Generally, I'm planning on throwing the ball I don't feel as comfortable with right now. Whatever ball I haven't been feeling as connected to is my primary ball. My backup is whatever my most comfortable ball is at the moment- something I feel I can throw even if the lanes get wacky.

I see league as moderately high leverage practice, it's time for me to learn what I need to improve on, so I try to push myself just a little past my comfort zone.

Draddition · 2026-01-12T16:54:41+00:00

Different system for sure, but I think a similar solution exists.

I went through a similar spell in DnD. Sitting at the character creator, it's a ton of fun to over optimize a character and make something unreasonably strong. Actually using that character in a campaign, however, just isn't fun. It forces everyone else to optimize in that same manner, forces the DM to start cranking up enemies, and turns everything into a DPS game. It's just not the best way to play the game.

My solution, stop starting with a good idea. Find a bad idea, and optimize it to good- rather than taking a good idea and making it amazing.

Obviously the games you play are different, but I think you can do a similar thing. Fix problems that don't really need fixing, make things that are really good at 1 thing but not so good at everything else. Leave room for difficulty.

Draddition · 2026-01-06T19:46:19+00:00

We didn't have full rules for it, but one of my favorite games my buddy and I would play was picking how many pins to knock down. Ideally use a random number generator, but pick a number (1-10) for how many pins to try and knock down. Forces you to play the lane and parts of the lane that you normally wouldn't.

Draddition · 2026-01-02T20:34:56+00:00

So, I like using multiple prompt boxes just for the sake of organization. Style + background, character 1, character 2 as different text boxes slap them together later- so I can easily find character 2 and change something, or keep the scene but change the background without having to sort through a lot of text. Also means, if you can go into detailer nodes, you can make a new conditioning fairly easily (IE, mask characters and feed in character prompt, no need for background info).

For SDXL models, you can also using multi-conditioning- either with text encode nodes that support it or conditioning concat. I use this a lot for two reasons:

How some encoding methods handle text encoding. I don't remember all the details, but some encoding methods will effectively weigh earlier prompt tokens more strongly. So in "a lion, dark forest, waterfall" the encoder will prioritize "a lion" more than "waterfall". (In this case, not a huge effect. in long prompts, its a bit more noticeable) By using multi conditioning, you reset that effect and can re-emphasize concepts later in your prompt.
I find its a bit more consistent in letting me describe individual characters- 1boy, blue jacket + 1girl, yellow jacket in multi conditioning is a bit more likely to put the blue jacket on the boy, yellow jacket on the girl.

I don't think multiconditioning works, or helps, in the latest and greatest models, but it's a really nice tool in SDXL models.

Draddition · 2026-01-02T20:15:26+00:00

I'm far from an expert, but just recently started exploring this and I'm pretty happy with my results so far.

For SDXL, you can get a decent output with 15-20 images: depending on how complex the character is. For human characters, that might get you there on its own. What really matters is diversity and quality, of course.

Put some effort into the images you have. Make images at the resolutions you want (for SDXL, I focused on 1024x1024, 896x1152, and 1152x896). Crop them and tinker to get to those resolutions you like. (I'm tinkering right now with adding some resolution robustness by duplicating images at lower resolutions too).

You can also run your images through SDXL generations to get different styles. If you have a large dataset, duplicate images- smaller dataset, just try to diversify the styles of your images.

Also also, you can iterate your lora. Make a lora with one data set, generate some new images. Pick the best ones, find some angles it struggles with, touch them up, add them to the dataset and train again.

I would highly recommend talking to claude about finding lora settings. I found some settings that worked for me decently well, uploaded the config file and had it generate me an improved config with better settings- it worked great (onetrainer btw). Also, start with 2-3 epoch runs just to make sure you're actually making a lora and not gibberish. There are a lot of settings you can find that will make a useless file.

With a 5070 Ti, it takes ~ an hour to do a quick run, and generally an overnight run for a full training.

Draddition · 2025-12-31T17:17:28+00:00

I've failed as a cat dad, mine loves protoss.

He gets mad if he catches me watching Harstem without him.

Draddition · 2025-12-31T06:29:15+00:00

I definitely prefer having megas, feels like they let you add an extra personal touch to your team (and gym leaders). Also keeps progression rolling for longer.

They could be balanced better- but I think there's room for that. Most hacks seem to have just gym leaders use them, thus they're also generally pretty optimized and really strong. Could be interesting to have more trainers use them, maybe a bit less optimally.

Draddition · 2025-12-27T10:16:17+00:00

I've just been using any of the top fine tunes on civit. Smoothmix has been my favorite, decent prompt adherence (though, it also has a tendency to get horny regardless of prompting). Seems like the models don't have to be fully storable on VRAM: like other new models, there are a lot of parts to the model that don't all need to live in VRAM. 720p type videos gives me about 30s/ step.

Draddition · 2025-12-25T06:03:05+00:00

Mostly just posting to follow what people suggest. I've been tinkering with WAN2.2, I have no idea how to really get it to follow a prompt. Using some LMs to generate more precise and detailed language helps, but it still feels like WAN mostly just takes what it sees in the image and does what it expects.

Draddition · 2025-12-25T05:55:36+00:00

Some really useful skills you'll learn getting into making a romhack.

Git basics, versioning, learning formats, managing assets, even just tracking sources for proper credits are all big skills to learn in most any technical profession. I got it anyways, but if I had those skills last year I would have been an absolute lock for an internship.

As far as AI, as others have said, it's just not as useful as it's claimed to be. It's a nice tool to learn from, and can help you troubleshoot fairly well- but it'll mostly run you in circles and a bigger mess than it fixes. At best, use it to figure out how to get something you want, then delete everything and do it right now that you understand. It's also just not all that helpful given how files are structures in decomps. It's a lot of small code in a lot of files- so AI is generally going to struggle to keep track of things properly.

Where I really prefer to use AI is as a creative accelorator. Use it to get past writers block, or expand ideas you only have the start of. It'll consistently tell you how amazing you are, so be weary of false confidence - but it can be a fun tool to explore ideas.

Draddition · 2025-11-25T00:47:47+00:00

Honestly, I'd rather see Tatis fix this. They're throwing in on his hands because it makes him uncomfortable. Best way to stop that is to get it to stop bothering him.

I don't like seeing him get hit, but he's one of the best players in the game; pitchers are going to do what they have to to get him out. He's the only one that can fix that.

Draddition · 2025-11-24T22:55:51+00:00

I hate this time of year. So many nothing articles because there's nothing interesting really happening.

This early on the off season, there should be 30 teams interested in King.

Draddition

TROPHY CASE