RealVisXL

Pollo AI: Free All-in-One AI Image and Video Generator

Try for Free

SDXL photorealism · open community model

RealVisXL — photo-like AI art on Stable Diffusion XL

RealVisXL is a Checkpoint Merge series by SG161222, built for photoreal text-to-image results. Explore version history from V1 to V5, learn official sampling tips, and try browser demos for V5.0 and older releases.

Try the playgroundRead the guide
Base
SDXL 1.0
Latest
V5.0
Try in browser
2 HF Spaces
Photorealistic portrait sample associated with the RealVisXL model gallery
Photoreal character sample highlighting skin and lighting detail

Why RealVisXL

Photoreal goals with a familiar SDXL workflow

Creators use RealVisXL when they want photo-like people and scenes on the SDXL stack, with both full-quality and few-step Lightning variants.

  • Photorealism as the main goal

    Official cards describe RealVisXL as a model aimed at photo-like results, with decent quality for both SFW and NSFW use under the model license.

  • SDXL checkpoint merge

    On Civitai it is listed as a Checkpoint Merge. The author credits merge work that used ProtoVision XL and DynaVision XL by socalguitarist.

  • Standard and fast variants

    The line includes full-quality BakedVAE builds and Lightning/Turbo few-step variants for quicker tests.

  • Clear public distribution

    Weights and cards live on Hugging Face (SG161222) and Civitai (model 139562), under CreativeML Open RAIL++-M / openrail++.

Lineage

From early betas to V5.0

RealVisXL grew across 2023–2024 as a focused photoreal SDXL series. Public sources show step-by-step version notes rather than a single long whitepaper.

  1. 1

    V1.0 (2023-09)

    Early BakedVAE release on Civitai, starting the RealVisXL SDXL line.

  2. 2

    V3.0 and Turbo (2023-12)

    Quality and detail improved; Turbo offered few-step sampling with low CFG.

  3. 3

    V4.0 and Lightning (2024-02)

    Anatomy and overall detail improved further; Lightning reduced noise versus earlier turbo-style builds.

  4. 4

    V5.0 and V5 Lightning (2024-08/09)

    Current mainline on the official Hugging Face RealVisXL collection — no public V6 announced.

Photoreal scene sample from the RealVisXL version gallery
Photoreal sample showing fine surface detail suitable for workflow demos

How to use it

A simple starting recipe

You can run weights in ComfyUI, Forge, or Automatic1111, or test ideas in our embedded Hugging Face Spaces. Start from the official recommended samplers.

  • 1. Pick standard or Lightning

    Use full V5.0 for quality. Use V5.0 Lightning when you want about 4–6 steps and low CFG.

  • 2. Use recommended samplers

    Standard V5.0: DPM++ SDE Karras (30+ steps) or DPM++ 2M Karras (50+ steps). Lightning: DPM++ SDE family at CFG 1–2.

  • 3. Try Hires carefully

    Official tips suggest Hires with mild denoise on standard builds, and short Hires passes on Lightning.

  • 4. Test in the playground

    Use the dual-tab playground to try a V5 Space and a V3/V4 comparison Space without installing weights first.

Playground

Try RealVisXL in the browser

Open the playground and switch tabs between a RealVisXL 5.0 Space and a RealVisXL v4 & v3 demo. No local GPU install required to start.

Both Spaces are third-party. Availability, listed models, and queue times can change upstream.

Launch playground
Photoreal sample inviting browser experiments with RealVisXL

Resources

Where to go next

Features, history & future

A junior-high-friendly guide to what RealVisXL is, how versions grew, and what public sources say about the future.

Read article

RealVisXL V5.0 features

What the latest mainline release includes, including Lightning, samplers, and where to download it.

Read V5 guide

Civitai model page

Official gallery, version files, and community samples for RealVisXL V5.0.

Open Civitai