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Consider using Euler A for base image generation (including hires fix), and upscale further with DPM++ 3M SDE Exponential or DPM++ 2M Karras
For anyone wondering - I will not be supporting the merging of LoRAs such as Lightning, which quickens rendering speed at a loss of significant quality and flexibility, into checkpoints. Read my further thoughts in this article.
As a reminder, due to the various workflows, internal settings, UIs, etcetera... copying a prompt will not necessarily get you the same result as another.
Introduction
Introducing a new model iteration based on Pony Diffusion V6 XL, tailor-made for western art enthusiasts, especially those in animation and game design. Unlike its predecessor, which often fell short in rendering backgrounds with richness and detail, this version rectifies that flaw nearly entirely. While still capable of emulating the diverse styles encompassed by PonyXL, its sweet spot lies in capturing the essence of western art styles.
Moreover, this iteration accommodates SDXL LoRAs much better than PonyXL does, allowing users to extend their range of LoRAs used. Though not a fail-safe guarantee of working as intended, you will tend to keep good image results, unlike the hit-or-miss outcomes of PonyXL. It is advisable to elevate the weight of SDXL LoRAs, from the usually recommended 0.6 to a full 1.0.
Continue reading for more information and some tips and tricks.
I kindly request that you share your creations both here and on my Discord server, as I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to see them and motivate me to spend more time in further ventures here.

Pros and cons
Pros
Perfected for more western art, game and animation art. Think Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, Disney, Avatar (series), etcetera.
Much better saturation than base model.
Much better backgrounds, more contrast and detail.
Solely landscape pictures actually start looking good, compared to base.
Just as capable as Pony with regards to ... well you know.
Cons
Leans heavily towards female subjects.
You can get somewhat close to photorealism, but not recommended, use ZavyChromaXL for that.
Roadmap
Training ZavyChromaXL and ZavyFantasiaXL continuously.
Pioneering uncharted LoRA subjects (withholding specifics to prevent preemption).
Tips
Make sure you add score_9, score_8_up, score_7_up at the front of your prompt. While not as required as base PonyXL, it still helps add more quality to the image.
Don't use the SDXL refiner.
SDXL LoRAs are not always providing the expected result, it needs higher weight to see results than they do on SDXL, and some SDXL LoRAs will not work regardless. It will work much better than base PonyXL does though. Make sure that you use strong danbooru tags sparingly, or you will easily outweigh most SDXL LoRAs.
ComfyUI is the UI I use for my SDXL images.
SD1.5 LoRAs won't work in SDXL.
Make sure to use danbooru tags alongside the normal SDXL prompt.
To maintain optimal results and avoid excessive duplication of subjects, limit the generated image size to a maximum of 1024x1024 pixels or 640x1536 (or vice versa). If you require higher resolutions, it is recommended to utilise the Hires fix or similar.
To better understand the preferences of the model, individuals are encouraged to utilise the provided prompts as a foundation and then customise, modify, or expand upon them according to their desired objectives.
Prompts
Recommended positive prompt: score_9, score_8_up, score_7_up, sentence(s) about what you want, danbooru tags,
Recommended negative prompts: source_pony, source_furry, malformed, deformed, worst quality, simple background, bad hands, bad feet, watermark, censored,
Exchange source_pony, source_furry for precisely what you do not want to see from the Pony model.
For danbooru tags, see:
Recommended settings
sdxl_vae.safetensors (baked in).
Euler A for base gen, DPM++ 3M SDE Exponential or DPM++ 2M Karras for upscale (USDU especially).
Steps 30~50 (lower range for DPM, higher range for Euler).
Hires upscaler: UltraMix_Balanced or Remacri.
Hires upscale: Whatever maximum your GPU is capable of, but preferably between 1.5x~2x.
CFG scale 4-10 (preferably somewhere around cfg 6-7)
Lightning LoRA specific settings:
Not yet tested.
Model recipe
Trained from Pony Diffusion V6 XL.
Social media
You are welcome to join my recently created Discord server, where we can engage in discussions, share our experiences in AI, and showcase the things we’ve made with AI. You are encouraged to join and ask any questions or seek additional tips and tricks related to my models or AI in general. Your participation would be greatly appreciated.
Description
Further increased its lean towards a western art style, and its outer line thickness.
Keeps firmer within this style unless specifically prompted towards something else.
More ability to use both Clip_L and Clip_G, versus Pony's singular, but still recommended to use singular for most things.
FAQ
Comments (23)
YAY!! Version 2!!!
version 1.0 was listed as a Pony model, but 2.0 is listed as SDXL, even though the descriptions still says it's a Pony model. Is this an error, or is 2.0 not a Pony model?
I removed the file, file got corrupted during upload. Please give me a bit for reupload and making sure it works this time.
Edit: fixed upload.
I'm a beginner, what model exactly is the pony model since I find multiple versions when searching for it?
@1kFace8aby thanks! :)
I can't get this one to work for me in A1111.. I use lots of different SDXL and pony checkpoints and they're working fine, but all I get from this model is constant black output no matter which settings I use.
I've tried everything.. Changing resolutions, clip skip, deleting and re-downloading, comparing sha256, turning up/downcasting on and off, literally everything, but can't get anything other than completely black output.
ChromaXL and YumeXL works fine. Could this model be corrupt or something?
Had the same problem. Have you tried setting "FP8 weight (Use FP8 to store Linear/Conv layers' weight. Require pytorch>=2.1.0.)" to Disabled?
Do you train these models in Civitai or on a personal computer? I want to learn
One of my favorite for cartoonish but great on detail as well.
Amazing work but not sure if this is the place to ask this question.
Is there an img2vid model that works with this checkpoint?
I can't access this now as a model... what happened?
CivitAI is limiting which models are useable on their system. I believe only the top 200 of all models get a spot and this one didn't get enough traction to get in there I'm afraid. It goes completely contrary to their 'we attempt to give everyone equal chance to be top creators' and in essence will put all the benefits to a few, but it's where we are.
@Zavy must be a budget crunch. Darn. I'll do a bunch of pics on my home computer and make sure to upload them crediting your model.
Thanks @seanbrockest I'll see what I can do to get it back on. Maybe a v3 while I'm at it. Will be 2 weeks from now as the soonest, but eh, better than fiddling with Flux dev distill and not getting an universally better result.
@Zavy Oh I hope you don't migrate to Flux it is very costly in terms of buzz and I have no luck with NSFW stuff on it. So many wasted buzz on Flux ugh.
@NotRealDrawer I've spent the past couple weeks on a finetune, but due its distillation you can't really get it better than base. You can improve some concepts, but at significant detriment to others. Without largely or fully training that distillation out, it feels 'dead'. And since I only want to release things I consider an improvement, I'm unlikely to release a Flux finetune anytime soon. So will probably focus on LoRAs for it and keep with SDXL for finetunes for now. SD3.5 or something else possibly in a month or two.
WTF!!!! this was my go to. its gone now?
DAMNIT!!! I really need this resource back! I was getting very good quality images from it!
Great model, why not for civgen? I'll poto some result shortly. tnks for your great work
No longer able to generate with this checkpoint on civitai?
So happy you're back!!
…and your gone again.
Details
Available On (1 platform)
Same model published on other platforms. May have additional downloads or version variants.













