1. Prerequisites
In order for ZTX37 to work, your computer needs
- to run Windows 10 or higher,
- have a modern NVIDIA graphic card,
- have at least 10GB free disk space,
- an internet connection.
If you have such a system, you can generate tons of images on your own computer without using on-line services. Once you experienced the difference you don't want to go back. The above is all you need,
ZTX37 might work on other systems but if it does, it will do so slow. ZXT37 uses as its kernel Stable Diffusion XL which requires a video card with at least 12GB. Though, with 8GB you'll do fine too.
You need a NVIDIA graphic cards because ZTX37 uses the CUDA protocol which is native to NVIDIA. However, if you have a modern AMD card, you could try using ZLUDA , that is a tool that emulates CUDA on a AMD graphic card.
High speed internet is not a requirement. You might want to download a few models but other than that image generation happens off-line.
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2. Get ZTX37
The installer is straightforward, allowing you to choose to install it for one user or all users, create a shortcut, and select the installation folder. It couldn't be more basic than this.
If you already have ZTX37 installed and want to update to the latest version, the installer will detect the existing installation and perform the update.
Please note that both the installer and ZTX37 are unsigned, so Windows
will display some warning messages. I apologize for this inconvenience. Obtaining a digital signature is quite costly, and I haven’t been able to prioritize it yet. If you would like to support this effort, please consider making a
donation to help overcome this hurdle.
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3. First run
ZTX37 is as an empty brain. It needs a model that fills that brain with valuable weights. ZTX37 uses Stable Diffusion XL models. There are a whole bunch of these available on-line, commonly for free.
ZTX37 notices at startup that there are no models yet and opens the model page for you with amongst other things a small list of models. Choose one and it will start downloading.
Downloading will take a while , and although you don't have to wait for it, it happens in the background, ZTX37 is still pretty useless, as it needs a model.
More about the models page, here...
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4. Done!
You can now start working with ZTX37.
A good habit is to create a small test image first. Just to see it working.
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5. Ini File
Normally you would not be busy with the ZTX37.Ini file, but I explain it here, for those with special needs.
For those new to ZTX37, or not used to edit Ini files, Ignore this:
ZTX37 does store its information, among which generated images, in its data file. This file can become pretty big. It is located in %appdata%\ztx37.
This database can become pretty big. Think about gigabytes when keeping 1000's of images in it.
You can specify a different location. For that find ZTX37.ini and follow the instructions in that file.
ZTX37.Ini can also come in handy for those who want two copies of ZTX37 running on their computer. This can be done following these two steps:
- Copy all files from the installation folder to a different folder
- In the new folder specify a different database location in ZTX37.ini
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Troubles?
It doesn't generate images!
You do have Automatic1111 running, with the --api command line parameter?
ZTX37 by default connects to the default URL of Automatic1111. Click the A1111 button in ZTX37 to check if that opens the Automatic1111 user interface. If you have configured Automatic1111 to use a different URL, go to the System tab in ZTX37 and provide that URL.
Clicking that button tests that you have Automatic1111 running and ZTX37 has the correct URL. It does not test if the --api command line argument is present. But if the button shows Automatic1111 and you still can't generate images, than, the only remaining cause can be a missing --api argument.
All I get is an error message on startup
A nerdy message about objects, pointers, references or any like that? Your PC might not have dot net 8 installed or ZTX37 is in a folder where it can't write its data.
It looks complicated
Oh! And we tried so hard making it look simple. Installation with its commandline arguments can be a challenge, making perfect prompts can be too, but using this software should be not.
Take the quick tour!
And join us on discord, where we all help each other.
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