At the end of the day, my hardware is not appropriate for SD, it works only through hacks like tiling in A1111. And while that's fine for my hobby experimenting, I would like other people, or even myself once I finally upgrade my desktop, to be able to recreate my images in better quality, as closely as possible (or even try and create variations).
I already make sure to keep the "PNG info" metadata which lists most parameters, so I assume the main variable left is the RNG source. Are any of the options hardware-independent? If not, are there any extensions which can create a hardware-independed random number source?
“Better quality” is an interesting concept. Increasing steps, depending in the sampler, changes the image. The seed mode usually changes image with changes in size.
So, what exactly do you mean with “better quality”?
Good call-out. My (naïve) understanding is that tools like tiling VAE to handle low VRAM, and lowing steps in the more stable of the samplers, are going to have a generally negative impact on the result, and a very similar image with better detail could be remade using similar variables on better hardware. Maybe that's a bit idealistic. Like you said, the seed mode usually changes images with size. (You said 'usually', is there a way to minimize this?)
edit: I'm aware 'better' and 'higher quality' are vague and even subjective terms. But I'm trying to convey something beyond merely higher resolution.
I have a few examples that I hope retain their metadata.
Seed mode is… basically, I stopped using Automatic1111 a long time ago and kinda lost track of what goes on there but in the app I use (Draw Things) there’s a seed mode called Scale Alike. Could be exclusive, could be the standard everywhere for what I know. It does what it says, changing resolution will keep things looking close enough.
Edit: obviously at some point they had to lose the bloody metadata….