ESRGAN Installation Guide for Windows

Please make sure that you have the latest driver version if you use a Nvidia GPU. Both the Studio and CUDA drivers are recommended. The CUDA driver on only gets updated when CUDA itself gets updated, but will be compatible with the CUDA version.

Also make sure that you have no existing Python installation(s) if you want to follow this guide (especially older Python versions)

Only Python 3.7.x is currently supported. Also only the Python installation as instructed below is supported.

No knowledge of Python or coding is necessary to follow this guide.

Support is here if you have problems. Make sure that you followed the instructions to the letter.

This guide will help you to install ESRGAN on Windows, by showing you step by step with images how to do it.

Our goal is to open up A.I. upscaling to everyone, not just to those who can pay lots of money or are good at coding.

Installing ESRGAN

Text / Picture Guide

1. Get the latest stable 64-bit Python 3.7.x release here: Python Download. At the time of writing this is Python 3.7.5. Python 3.8 is NOT supported currently.

   

2. Run the installer and make sure that Add Python 3.*x* to Path and Install launcher for all users (recommended) is selected, then click on Customize installation.

   

3. Make sure that every Option is selected and click on next.

   

4. Mirror my selections and click on install (Make sure that the install location contains no spaces).

   

5. You have now successfully installed Python 3. Click on Close now.
6. Press <Windows/Super key> + R. Enter cmd and click on OK

   

7. We will now install Pytorch:
   • If you have a Nvidia graphic card enter the following command in the cmd and press enter:

     pip install torch===1.3.1 torchvision===0.4.2 -f https://download.pytorch.org/whl/torch_stable.html

     

   • If you have an AMD / Intel graphic card enter the following command in the cmd and press enter:

     pip install torch==1.3.1+cpu torchvision==0.4.2+cpu -f https://download.pytorch.org/whl/torch_stable.html

     

   • If the command won’t work for you, please report it. In the meantime, you can get an up to date version here at the Pytorch Website. Select Stable, Windows, Pip, your Python version and your CUDA version (should be the newest) or None for AMD / Intel users.
8. Now we install the other requirements for running and training ESRGAN and SFTGAN. Enter:

   pip install opencv-python

   

9. Choose a folder where you want to install ESRGAN. Because of the maximum path length limitation in windows, I recommend something as short as possible like: C:\ctp\esrgan\
   1. Create a folder called ctp (That will come in handy if you want to install Deorders scripts later)
   2. In the ctp folder create a folder called esrgan
   3. Open the esrgan folder.
10. Now it is time to download ESRGAN:
    1. Go to the ESRGAN GitHub Repo (fork from BlueAmulet)
    2. Click on Clone or Download
    3. Click on Download ZIP

       

11. Extract the contents of the folder into your C:\ctp\esrgan folder you created in step 10. It should already be open and look like the image below:

    

12. Now it is time to get some ESRGAN models from our Model Database.
    1. Download a model of your choice. The default ESRGAN model is under the pretrained model section.
    2. Put the model(s) (.pth files) that you have just downloaded into your models folder in your esrgan folder
       1. For example in:

          C:\ctp\esrgan\models\

Video Guide

Princess Potato recorded the process of installing ESRGAN and IEU in a video for all of you to enjoy. Seeing someone do it and talk about the process might help a lot of people to install not just ESRGAN, but also IEU You will find the video on YouTube here by clicking on this link.

Usage

How to actually use ESRGAN (IEU for example), other useful information and important links are here.