So, i have a V3 of AlterBan ready. And i am wondering if i should release this version as-is or work a bit more to have an "ultimate" version before trying my hand on something else (and also, generate a few pictures, i have been working too much on checkpoints/LoRAs and less on having fun with those ^^)

That's why, i am doing this article as an announcement and asking for your opinion (there is a poll below).

Current state

First, here is the AlterBan contenders:

And both old versions of AnBan plus BancinIXL:

Based on this very limited sample test:

• Alter V1 is delivering something that both V2 and V3 aren't anymore BUT...

• Even if V3 feels less "fun", it got the "simple background, red background" better and didn't add an "overhead light" that is NOT in the prompt.

• The old V1 is really too muted for my taste and has some issues in composition

• The old V2 also has a few issues (what the heck is this katana?)

• BancinIXL is the crazy checkpoint indeed. Alter is really going the other way: better fidelity, less random effects (that could be fun but mess the intended result)

Here is two other pictures generated with V3 to help:

Poll

Now, the poll (if no answer feels ok, tell me in comments):

Thank you all! 💖

Additional tests

To give some more examples, here is first a test of V3 + V1, V3 + V2 (at 0.1, CosineB) and a 50/50 merge of those as "V3plus2plus1".

The katana holding is better in the last two in my opinion and the pose is more dynamic (hand switch from left handed to right handed).

And here is the original AnBanV1 merged at 0.15 (standard merge) with V3 (plus pure V3 for comparaison)

More details in the outfit that in the pure V3, interesting result even though we also got the hand switch katana holding change.