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Description

This test was done a little more scientifically than the other two. None of the video game render attempts turned out well for any style. A pity, because Tabitha, of all characters in Swappernetters begs comparison to the Mirror's Edge franchise.

However, this is the Dozinematization filter process in Photoshop Elements being applied, sometimes with help from ReShade, to The Sims 4, as a control group. And the other panels are AI-generated attempts to re-create that same scene in various art house and director styles.

One thing's very clear about the AI engine utilized: it REALLY struggles with having more than one character in the frame at a time! It also doesn't like depictions of arrests or handcuffs. It also doesn't seem to understand police cars with flashing lights. It also struggles with the concept of Tabby's distressed mental state, as turning herself in to Throba in this part of season 2 weighs heavily on her.

STORY CONTEXT

=============

Bliksemhek is partially Tug-immune. Hates Swappernetters and Chrome Kite both. All of Arkansas is in danger. And hates Tabitha most of all! The rival that Erica Johann chose out of the blue, refused to take Erica's threat level seriously. But Tabitha's carelessness led to a Marlquaanite ruby falling into Erica's hands. As Bliksemhek, Erica now wants to kill everyone she believes has wronged her - and everyone Tabitha cares about, just to make sure Tabitha suffers maximum emotional damage, before killing Tabitha herself!

With her closest comrades in hiding, and on their way to Texarkana to head to SCALLOP, the Twirlflame Trio has all the intel they need. They're finally ready to go to SCALLOP with all the stolen intel, expose weaknesses in the Tug, and send in a special team to disable it - allowing the Sodality of Gerosha to breach Arkansas and liberate it from Hasam Arbini's forces.

Tabby and her friends aren't naive though: they fully anticipate that if they defeat the cruel regime and restore liberty to Arkansas, Rappaccini and the Society of the Icy Finger won't hesitate to retaliate somehow.

Regardless, too many are now dead because of Bliksemhek. And Tabby's past rivalry, and coldly abandoning Erica after a fight without regard for whether or not the Mercury Troopers captured her, now fueled a lot of Erica's rage. Getting under Tabby's skin, Erica has convinced Tabby that a good lot of the massacre that Erica is behind is really Tabby's fault, due to Tabby not killing Erica when she had the chance.

Tabby now feels responsible for the murder and mayhem that has been unleashed. She knows that her plan will require her to go to Texas with her friends. To sneak out of Arkansas. To meet up with SCALLOP, and be put in their internment camps under a protective custody deal.

She's still marked for political imprisonment in Texas. However, while she's not excited to go back to prison, she's willing to cut a deal if that means saving her friends and her home state. One of her only remaining options to avoid Erica, and get there safely, is to be smuggled in via allies in the police force - who only pretend to be loyal to the regime. To do that, she has to get arrested.

Knowing that her "Vanessa Chartreuse" identity is compromised, as that name is also associated by the regime with anti-regime activity, Tabby finally comes clean to Throba over a burner phone as to her real identity: the daughter of Hea Pang, the regime-captured sidekick of the Gray Champion!

Throba immediately understands that getting Tabby to his police station - and then transferring her to Texarkana, and then getting her out of the state - is critical to everyone's survival! He immediately drops his investigation elsewhere, to come and get her. Rescuing Tabby just became priority one!

Tabby, realizing she has to throw her freedom away to save the few loved ones (and enemies) that the banshee-screaming Bliksmehek hasn't murdered yet, informs Throba to meet her by the Donaghey Building in downtown Little Rock, next to the old bakery.

True to her word, she marches straight to the assigned location, and waits patiently for Throba to put her in handcuffs, willing to fully submit herself to SCALLOP's twisted sense of justice. And if Throba betrays her to the Chrome Kite, and they kill her? So be it!

Soaked in the rain, she marches, as if to her death, no longer sure if she even deserves anything better. If her sacrifice saves everyone else, she no longer cares! Besides...the most critical data is already in Texarkana. Tobias and Sarah already have redundant copies. Everything Tabby has left on her is optional data, to frustrate Ikomara's backup plans should the main Tug infrastructure suffer. If that data is lost, it would only be a minor inconvenience. And she'd rather die by regime hands, than by Erica's!

EXPERIMENT RESULTS

===============

Sims 4 (Control group): While the lighting in Sims 4 always has its issues, it captured Tabby's mental state perfectly.

Feeling responsible for Bliksemhek's creation, the guilt weighs on her soul. Her convicted conscience begs to make things right. She's about to be treated like a common criminal; but no longer feels like that's inappropriate for her. Turning herself in is the only way she can live with herself now.

She's partially in shock that she just outright asked to be arrested; but there's no turning back! Besides, hearing her desperation on the phone convinced Throba that if this plan failed, she'd try something even more desperate, and possibly suicidal. He's not about to let "Vanessa" kill herself, especially not when it would bring sick pleasure to that monster that's on the loose!

At any rate, Throba is now treating Tabby like a suicide watch case. Probably the best course of action, under the circumstances. And Tabby is beside herself that she'd worked so hard to liberate everyone else, only to be in a big rush to get herself incarcerated again! Worse: SJCC was destroyed by the Screwworms, and Tabby was now technically old enough to qualify as an adult. She'd be going to SWCC instead. It was a huge improvement over Mansfield overall, but it was still an upgrade from juvie to outright adult women's prison. She'd never be able to wipe that record clean, even if they couldn't pin her for any specific crime! She'd be tarnished forever.

It took an hour to make the Donaghey Building in Sims 4, but was worth it for geographical accuracy. The scene definitely feels like Little Rock!

Disney: Just like with Candi Flippo in similar circumstances 16 years earlier, Tabby's dilemma, and agreeing to go to prison to save her friends, is depicted by Wonder AI with 1990s Disney-style rendering. However, it once again failed to register the emotional weight in Tabby's expression, as it did Candi's. The fact that she's making a difficult decision that could seriously impact the rest of her life, for fear of what worse thing could happen to her loved ones if she doesn't, isn't portrayed well at all. It's like Wonder's "Disney eye" is blind to emotional distress.

Pixar: The Pixar filter at least managed to get a police car in the frame, even if it's driving in the wrong direction. Tabby seems confused, rather than filled with dread and pain. The Donaghey Building, just like with Disney, failed to render. I must say though: I'm not a fan of Pixar's art style. Blasphemy? I think not. If they can get the toys in Toy Story to look so realistic, but all human characters have to look bizarre, then that defeats the purpose of realism.

I'm not a fan of Tabby looking like Miguel from Coco. This makes me glad that Spiderverse dethroned Pixar. Good riddance to it.

Gore Verbinski: While this take on Tabby's arm tattoos is unimpressive, and Throba's absence in the scene is also readily apparent, the background to the left behind her could almost pass for the Donaghey Building. Lack of a nearby hospital parking ramp betrays that it isn't. It's unclear what Tabby is staring at, or whom; but the expression on her face of "Someone just kill me already" comes close to conveying what she's really feeling in that moment.

The colors are pretty spot-on, and so is her general expression of "Screw this. I'm done." Coloration and dread in the scene wouldn't look out of place in The Ring.

Christopher Nolan: The irrepressible warm tones of certain lights betray that Tabby's situation may not be as dark and hopeless as she once assumed it to be. Even so, she marches onward, prepared to surrender to her fate. A police car approaches, and she knows it's time.

The colors may be wrong; but it tells a decent story in its own right.

Zack Snyder: Tabitha's mental health has been pushed to the breaking point. Throba may be absent, but the anticipation of his arrival is enough. Tabby's expression is: "I don't care anymore, just take me!!!"

At the rate she's deteriorating, she may need a stay at the Gum Arabic Mental Hospital instead. Whatever trauma was done to her by Erica, she's not herself anymore.

Lack of Donaghey Building and Throba and proper police light siren effects notwithstanding, I like the Snyder look best of all. This is peak depiction of despair taking hold, as Tabby has lost almost everything.

CONCLUSION

==========

For accuracy of details, The Sims 4 isn't yet ready to die. But that being said, at certain elements of composition, AI has grown to the point that it can already do certain things about composing an image way better than any classic video game. Disney's Renaissance art has earned its place. It's a really old method, but a timeless one. However, it's not perfect. Pixar had its heyday; but the time has come to put it out to pasture. Verbinski's style, like Snyder's excel at depicting dread, even if Snyder is a bit over-the-top. Nolan is pretty hit-and-miss, but has a lot of his own nice touches.

Description

This test was done a little more scientifically than the other two. None of the video game render attempts turned out well for any style. A pity, because Tabitha, of all characters in Swappernetters begs comparison to the Mirror's Edge franchise.

However, this is the Dozinematization filter process in Photoshop Elements being applied, sometimes with help from ReShade, to The Sims 4, as a control group. And the other panels are AI-generated attempts to re-create that same scene in various art house and director styles.

One thing's very clear about the AI engine utilized: it REALLY struggles with having more than one character in the frame at a time! It also doesn't like depictions of arrests or handcuffs. It also doesn't seem to understand police cars with flashing lights. It also struggles with the concept of Tabby's distressed mental state, as turning herself in to Throba in this part of season 2 weighs heavily on her.

STORY CONTEXT

=============

Bliksemhek is partially Tug-immune. Hates Swappernetters and Chrome Kite both. All of Arkansas is in danger. And hates Tabitha most of all! The rival that Erica Johann chose out of the blue, refused to take Erica's threat level seriously. But Tabitha's carelessness led to a Marlquaanite ruby falling into Erica's hands. As Bliksemhek, Erica now wants to kill everyone she believes has wronged her - and everyone Tabitha cares about, just to make sure Tabitha suffers maximum emotional damage, before killing Tabitha herself!

With her closest comrades in hiding, and on their way to Texarkana to head to SCALLOP, the Twirlflame Trio has all the intel they need. They're finally ready to go to SCALLOP with all the stolen intel, expose weaknesses in the Tug, and send in a special team to disable it - allowing the Sodality of Gerosha to breach Arkansas and liberate it from Hasam Arbini's forces.

Tabby and her friends aren't naive though: they fully anticipate that if they defeat the cruel regime and restore liberty to Arkansas, Rappaccini and the Society of the Icy Finger won't hesitate to retaliate somehow.

Regardless, too many are now dead because of Bliksemhek. And Tabby's past rivalry, and coldly abandoning Erica after a fight without regard for whether or not the Mercury Troopers captured her, now fueled a lot of Erica's rage. Getting under Tabby's skin, Erica has convinced Tabby that a good lot of the massacre that Erica is behind is really Tabby's fault, due to Tabby not killing Erica when she had the chance.

Tabby now feels responsible for the murder and mayhem that has been unleashed. She knows that her plan will require her to go to Texas with her friends. To sneak out of Arkansas. To meet up with SCALLOP, and be put in their internment camps under a protective custody deal.

She's still marked for political imprisonment in Texas. However, while she's not excited to go back to prison, she's willing to cut a deal if that means saving her friends and her home state. One of her only remaining options to avoid Erica, and get there safely, is to be smuggled in via allies in the police force - who only pretend to be loyal to the regime. To do that, she has to get arrested.

Knowing that her "Vanessa Chartreuse" identity is compromised, as that name is also associated by the regime with anti-regime activity, Tabby finally comes clean to Throba over a burner phone as to her real identity: the daughter of Hea Pang, the regime-captured sidekick of the Gray Champion!

Throba immediately understands that getting Tabby to his police station - and then transferring her to Texarkana, and then getting her out of the state - is critical to everyone's survival! He immediately drops his investigation elsewhere, to come and get her. Rescuing Tabby just became priority one!

Tabby, realizing she has to throw her freedom away to save the few loved ones (and enemies) that the banshee-screaming Bliksmehek hasn't murdered yet, informs Throba to meet her by the Donaghey Building in downtown Little Rock, next to the old bakery.

True to her word, she marches straight to the assigned location, and waits patiently for Throba to put her in handcuffs, willing to fully submit herself to SCALLOP's twisted sense of justice. And if Throba betrays her to the Chrome Kite, and they kill her? So be it!

Soaked in the rain, she marches, as if to her death, no longer sure if she even deserves anything better. If her sacrifice saves everyone else, she no longer cares! Besides...the most critical data is already in Texarkana. Tobias and Sarah already have redundant copies. Everything Tabby has left on her is optional data, to frustrate Ikomara's backup plans should the main Tug infrastructure suffer. If that data is lost, it would only be a minor inconvenience. And she'd rather die by regime hands, than by Erica's!

EXPERIMENT RESULTS

===============

Sims 4 (Control group): While the lighting in Sims 4 always has its issues, it captured Tabby's mental state perfectly.

Feeling responsible for Bliksemhek's creation, the guilt weighs on her soul. Her convicted conscience begs to make things right. She's about to be treated like a common criminal; but no longer feels like that's inappropriate for her. Turning herself in is the only way she can live with herself now.

She's partially in shock that she just outright asked to be arrested; but there's no turning back! Besides, hearing her desperation on the phone convinced Throba that if this plan failed, she'd try something even more desperate, and possibly suicidal. He's not about to let "Vanessa" kill herself, especially not when it would bring sick pleasure to that monster that's on the loose!

At any rate, Throba is now treating Tabby like a suicide watch case. Probably the best course of action, under the circumstances. And Tabby is beside herself that she'd worked so hard to liberate everyone else, only to be in a big rush to get herself incarcerated again! Worse: SJCC was destroyed by the Screwworms, and Tabby was now technically old enough to qualify as an adult. She'd be going to SWCC instead. It was a huge improvement over Mansfield overall, but it was still an upgrade from juvie to outright adult women's prison. She'd never be able to wipe that record clean, even if they couldn't pin her for any specific crime! She'd be tarnished forever.

It took an hour to make the Donaghey Building in Sims 4, but was worth it for geographical accuracy. The scene definitely feels like Little Rock!

Disney: Just like with Candi Flippo in similar circumstances 16 years earlier, Tabby's dilemma, and agreeing to go to prison to save her friends, is depicted by Wonder AI with 1990s Disney-style rendering. However, it once again failed to register the emotional weight in Tabby's expression, as it did Candi's. The fact that she's making a difficult decision that could seriously impact the rest of her life, for fear of what worse thing could happen to her loved ones if she doesn't, isn't portrayed well at all. It's like Wonder's "Disney eye" is blind to emotional distress.

Pixar: The Pixar filter at least managed to get a police car in the frame, even if it's driving in the wrong direction. Tabby seems confused, rather than filled with dread and pain. The Donaghey Building, just like with Disney, failed to render. I must say though: I'm not a fan of Pixar's art style. Blasphemy? I think not. If they can get the toys in Toy Story to look so realistic, but all human characters have to look bizarre, then that defeats the purpose of realism.

I'm not a fan of Tabby looking like Miguel from Coco. This makes me glad that Spiderverse dethroned Pixar. Good riddance to it.

Gore Verbinski: While this take on Tabby's arm tattoos is unimpressive, and Throba's absence in the scene is also readily apparent, the background to the left behind her could almost pass for the Donaghey Building. Lack of a nearby hospital parking ramp betrays that it isn't. It's unclear what Tabby is staring at, or whom; but the expression on her face of "Someone just kill me already" comes close to conveying what she's really feeling in that moment.

The colors are pretty spot-on, and so is her general expression of "Screw this. I'm done." Coloration and dread in the scene wouldn't look out of place in The Ring.

Christopher Nolan: The irrepressible warm tones of certain lights betray that Tabby's situation may not be as dark and hopeless as she once assumed it to be. Even so, she marches onward, prepared to surrender to her fate. A police car approaches, and she knows it's time.

The colors may be wrong; but it tells a decent story in its own right.

Zack Snyder: Tabitha's mental health has been pushed to the breaking point. Throba may be absent, but the anticipation of his arrival is enough. Tabby's expression is: "I don't care anymore, just take me!!!"

At the rate she's deteriorating, she may need a stay at the Gum Arabic Mental Hospital instead. Whatever trauma was done to her by Erica, she's not herself anymore.

Lack of Donaghey Building and Throba and proper police light siren effects notwithstanding, I like the Snyder look best of all. This is peak depiction of despair taking hold, as Tabby has lost almost everything.

CONCLUSION

==========

For accuracy of details, The Sims 4 isn't yet ready to die. But that being said, at certain elements of composition, AI has grown to the point that it can already do certain things about composing an image way better than any classic video game. Disney's Renaissance art has earned its place. It's a really old method, but a timeless one. However, it's not perfect. Pixar had its heyday; but the time has come to put it out to pasture. Verbinski's style, like Snyder's excel at depicting dread, even if Snyder is a bit over-the-top. Nolan is pretty hit-and-miss, but has a lot of his own nice touches.