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Overview (TL;DR)

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What is quality (--q)?

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🧁 “Quality” has to do with the time the model has to spend on rendering your image. If you’re into metaphors: it’s the time the image has to bake in the oven. It influences the number of steps granted to the job. The higher the value of --q, the more steps, the more time spent on the job, the more attention the model has available to give to the prompt and parameters, so the better chance of robust coherence, adherence, and aesthetics.

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"Steps" are like the number of times the AI works on the picture to make it look good.

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What is speed? (--fast, --relax, --turbo)?

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⏩  “Modes of Speed”, on the other hand, like relax/fast/turbo, primarily changes the speed of the queue you’re in (the line you wait in) to reach the moment when rendering begins. After rendering begins, everyone gets about the same quality image for the value of --qprovided.

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How do I use quality and speed?

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🧁⏩  Jobs will take approximately 40 seconds on fast (--fast) mode, and 18 seconds on turbo (--turbo) mode. This is mostly experienced as the time we wait for the images to begin rendering, but it’s NOT controlling how many steps are granted to the job. That’s in the hands of --q. So choose your speed based on the time you’re willing to wait, but quality based on the complexity of the prompt.

Quality Outcome
--draft This is the equivalent of --q 0.25 and offers low coherence, adherence, and aesthetics but renders almost instantly and is nearly free. Use this for the iterative prompting process that helps you develop the prompts that perform the way you prefer. Once you’ve got that prompt, take up the quality.
‼️ If you type --q 0.25 , it will become --q 1 not --draft. Yikes.
--q 1 Default. Good coherence, adherence, and aesthetics.
--q 2 An increased chance of coherence, adherence, and aesthetics.
⚠️ If it’s an uncomplicated prompt that doesn’t struggle to complete in ordinary --q 1 time, then Midjourney will use the extra time to iterate. The image may just become more detailed or ornate, which might be undesirable. (Think: “too many fingers”.)
--q 4 Even more chance for robust coherence, adherence, and aesthetics.
*⚠️ If it’s an uncomplicated prompt that doesn’t struggle to complete in ordinary --q 1 time, then Midjourney will use the extra time to iterate. The image may just become more detailed or ornate, which might be undesirable.
‼️ You may also see repeated elements, as Midjourney relies on running out of time as one of its “stop” conditions and it might not be running out of time in --q 4.
‼️ If you try to use --q 3 it will be treated as --q 4.*

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--q cannot be used in combination with --oref right now.

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Leave a Comment or Question

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