New AI Enhancer update: more detail and control for large surfaces

It’s now possible to enhance large surfaces using the Chaos AI Enhancer. Advanced controls allow you to add dirt, wear, or ageing to a surface to improve realism while staying in control of the result. This update improves the appearance of large surfaces such as pavement, brick, and asphalt, helping exterior scenes feel more detailed and believable.

Key takeaways:

• The Chaos AI Enhancer now provides users with greater control over the appearance of large surfaces.

• Easily increase the fidelity of pavements, bricks, asphalt, and other surfaces.

• Default enhancements provide cleaner geometry, better textures, and shadow improvements.

• Exterior scenes in particular will benefit from the new functionality.
  
  

New controls arrive in the AI Enhancer

The original AI Enhancer was built around simplicity: upload an image, hit Enhance, and let the AI clean up people, vegetation, and details. Our users told us that they’d like more control over what the AI does and how it looks. So we got to work 😊.

With new support for large surface enhancement, you can now:

• Target specific objects with precision using object masks straight from tools like Enscape, V-Ray, Corona, or Envision.

• Define how much a surface is changed, without altering the creator’s original intent.

• Use default enhancements to provide:

  • • Cleaner geometry from refining low-poly meshes, adding smoothness where it's needed, and defining better edges.

    • Better textures so your detail pops and doesn't get lost.

    • Shadow enhancement to better blend your work with the rest of the scene. We add more shadow resolution, contact shadows, better ambient occlusion, and we match your light source.

    • Custom modifiers like age, damage, and dirt that allow your surfaces to change more drastically and make your scene “lived-in”.

    • Dirt/age/damage modifiers provide additional controls for each surface. We recommend using them with low or medium creativity for milder results.

              Before and after image of a pavement enhanced and upscaled with the AI Enhancer

How do you enhance large surfaces with the AI Enhancer?

You can select large surfaces simply by hovering over them and clicking. Once selected, the new enhancement options appear, giving you more control over the final result.

The blue dot shows you which surfaces have already been enhanced.

If you already exported layered .exr files and uploaded them to Chaos Cloud Collaboration before, you need to re-upload them so that the new controls become available to you.

The workflow stays intuitive:

1. Export your .exr with layers from your favorite Chaos renderer.

2. Upload to Chaos Cloud Collaboration.

3. Open the edit panel and choose global or object-level enhancements.

4. Fine-tune as needed with the new advanced control sliders.

5. Creating a new enhancement is a non-destructive process. You can generate any number of enhancements on multiple objects.

6. Once you are happy with the collection of enhancements, click the “Save as new version” button in the bottom-right corner.

7. Once the saving is complete, you can click Compare to compare the versions. 
   

This tight integration ensures the tool stays in the flow of your design process.

New upscaling method: better enhancements, fewer surprises

A major issue with AI workflows is inconsistency. Now we’ve paid attention to the smallest details and have upgraded our upscale process. We have improved the speed, detail accuracy, and stability when bringing your images to 4K.

Now you can upscale images with: 

• Sharper clarity and stronger preservation of your original design intent.

• Richer colours with improved colour composition.

• Reduced misinterpretation of assets like people and plants.

• More predictable results that hold up through multiple design iterations.

This makes the AI Enhancer not just faster, but also trustworthy for client presentations and final outputs.

Left: enhancement with the old upscaling method. Right: enhancement with the new upscaling method.

What’s coming next?

Now that the large surfaces are out, we are planning to build on top of the mask selection functionality and soon introduce object refinements. With them, we aim to:

• Preserve the overall intent of the object while tailoring key elements.

• Focus on storytelling (e.g., how objects are integrated in the scene) without sacrificing environmental consistency.

• Add additional modifiers, both for objects and large surfaces, that give you more control.
  

This mixed approach is a step toward a future where AI doesn’t replace creative control, but instead, amplifies it.

Share your feedback and help us improve the AI Enhancer

The AI Enhancer advanced controls are currently in public beta, and we encourage you to share your feedback. What works well? What could feel more intuitive? Your input helps shape future updates, so please use the rating feature on any selected enhancement. Simply click on 'Rate' as shown in the image below.

FAQs

Which Chaos products support large surface enhancement?

Large surface enhancement works with images exported from Enscape, V-Ray, Corona, and Envision, as long as you export layered .exr files. The object masks generated by these renderers allow the AI Enhancer to detect and target specific surfaces such as pavement, brick, asphalt, walls, or furniture. After exporting, simply upload the layered .exr to Chaos Cloud Collaboration to access the new object-level controls.

Do I need to re-render my project to use the new controls?

If you previously uploaded layered .exr files before this update, you will need to re-upload them to access the new large surface controls. You do not need to redesign your scene. As long as you can export a layered .exr from your existing project, you can use the new enhancement options.

Will enhancing large surfaces change my original design?

No. The Chaos AI Enhancer is non-destructive. You can generate multiple enhancement versions without overwriting your original render. You also have control over how strong the effect is. Using low or medium creativity allows you to introduce subtle dirt, ageing, or surface refinement while preserving your design intent. If you want more dramatic variation, you can increase creativity or apply modifiers more aggressively.

Is the new upscaling reliable enough for client presentations?

Yes. The updated upscaling method improves clarity, color accuracy, and consistency when bringing images to 4K resolution. It also reduces common AI misinterpretations, especially around people and vegetation, and produces more stable results across iterations. This makes it suitable not just for concept previews but also for final presentation visuals.