AI Upscale - free AI video upscaler & frame interpolation for NVIDIA GPUs
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Free edition: free forever, no account, no watermark (with ads; clips under 1 minute, up to 2K).
Premium: $5 once - yours forever. No ads, any length, 4K, 60/90/120 fps, Max detail, a new look
and Bao the panda. No subscription; it never expires and works offline.

WHAT YOU NEED
  - Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
  - An NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card (RTX 20-series or newer). 6 GB+ VRAM recommended,
    8 GB+ ideal. Laptop GPUs work great (it was built on an RTX 5060 Laptop GPU).
  - NVIDIA driver 580 or newer (update via the NVIDIA App or nvidia.com)
  - About 12 GB of free disk space during the install (about 7 GB once finished) and an
    internet connection for the one-time install (~5 GB download)

INSTALL (one time, ~8-20 minutes depending on your internet)
  1. Extract this zip to a folder you own, for example  C:\AI Upscale  or your Documents
     (not "Program Files").
  2. Double-click  Install.bat  and keep the window open until it says DONE.
     It downloads a private copy of Python, PyTorch/TensorRT and the AI models from their
     official sources. Nothing is installed system-wide.
  3. Open "AI Upscale" from your desktop.

USING IT
  1. Drop a video into the window (or click to browse).
  2. The content type (Real / Anime / 3D Animation) is detected automatically.
  3. Pick a Quick preset (e.g. "Wallpaper" or "Crisp 4K") or choose resolution, frame rate
     (60/90/120 fps) and quality (Speed / Balanced / Max detail) yourself.
  4. Use "Compare looks" and the before/after slider to check the result, "Test 10s" for a
     short trial, then "Upscale video".
  The first render with a new model spends a minute or two optimising it for your GPU.
  Old, blurry or blocky video (480p, 720p, phone or messenger clips)? Turn on
  "Fix low-quality video" - it is switched on automatically for very low-resolution files.

UPDATING FROM AN OLDER VERSION
  Extract the new zip over your existing AI Upscale folder (replace the files) - your
  models, settings and history are kept. No need to run Install.bat again.

PREMIUM
  Click "Pay $5 - remove ads & support me" in the app (or visit the website). After paying you get a
  key like AIU5-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX: it is shown on the website, saved to your Downloads as
  AI-Upscale-Premium-Key.txt (the app picks it up by itself) and printed in your PayPal receipt.
  Or paste it in the app: Premium key -> Enter key. The key is stored on your PC and survives updates
  and reinstalls. Lost it? Contact me for troubleshooting: raiyanaukeli@gmail.com

WHAT'S NEW IN 1.2.1
  - New website address: https://ai-upscale.pages.dev/ (the Pay, Donate and ad links in the app use it).
  - Update: extract this zip over your existing AI Upscale folder - no reinstall needed.

WHAT'S NEW IN 1.2.0
  - Two editions: the Free edition (with ads) and Premium ($5 once, lifetime, no ads, no limits).
  - Premium: a brand-new design and Bao, a little panda who reacts to what you're doing.
  - A small Donate button for everyone.
  - Fixed: the render bar could get squashed at the bottom of the window.

WHAT'S NEW IN 1.1.0
  - Fixed: after pressing Start the preview could stay black for a minute or more and the
    render looked like it never started (the heavy Max models failed their GPU optimisation).
  - Faster on every GPU, and much lighter on VRAM: the heavy models (Real-ESRGAN x4plus,
    Anime 6B, CGIMaster, APISR 4x) now run 1.6-2.4x faster using about 1.6 GB of VRAM, and
    their one-time GPU optimisation works for every video size.
  - 1080p -> 4K with 4x models no longer renders 8K frames first: about 2x faster, same look.
  - New "Fix low-quality video" option for blurry, blocky or noisy videos.
  - Fixed: closing the app during a render left Wallpaper Engine paused and a broken
    half-finished video behind. The app now asks first, deletes the unfinished file, always
    resumes Wallpaper Engine (even after a crash) and closes completely.

UNINSTALL
  Delete this folder and the "AI Upscale" shortcuts. Nothing else was changed on your PC.

LICENSE
  AI Upscale is free to use under its own license (see LICENSE.txt). The AI models are made by
  their own authors and are downloaded from their official pages - see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.
  Some models are licensed for NON-COMMERCIAL use only: use AI Upscale for personal projects.
  Wallpaper Engine is a trademark of its respective owner. AI Upscale is an independent project
  and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wallpaper Engine; it only pauses/resumes it.
