About 18 months ago I set out to see how AI text to image generators did with prompts to make maze art. I didn’t go how I expected. But AI is being developed and improved very quickly, so I wanted to come back, use the same prompts and see how things have improved. Here are the key blog posts from my first attempt:
Can AI Generate Mazes? We Tested 12 AI Art Generators to Find Out
What I learned using AI to make maze art
Stable Diffusion was middle of the pack my first time around and I think it had a lot of room for improvement with the images it generated. Let’s see how it did 18 months later:
Making Maze Art with stable diffusion
You can access the Stable Diffusion website here. I did quick generations and generated only 1 image per prompt (last time I picked the best of 4).
Prompt 1 - Make a medium difficulty maze of the Eiffel Tower in black and white with arrows at the start and finish
2023
2024
Our new prompt did a better job executing what was asked for. I like the contrast of the white on a grey background. But 2023 is still interesting.
Prompt 2 - Draw a medium difficulty large maze of the Empire State Building with the start and goal embedded in the structure
I think the use of color in the new version is excellent. If you look at the top of the ESB you can see START on the building. There is even an attempt at a maze. The city stretching out behind the ESB is cool. 2024 wins easily !
Prompt 3 - Draw a difficult maze of the White House pixel art style
2024 lost the antennas that 2023 had, so that is an improvement. The marker style from 2023 was cool, but there was no maze…and barely one in 2024. The White House looks better in 2024 though, so 2024 wins again.
Prompt 4 - Draw a difficult maze that looks like a drawing of a famous building in sketch style
2023 looked like a museum or parliament or a stately residence. Oh, and there’s a small maze out front. Cool. 2024 is a sketch style with a nice walled maze. Pick the style you prefer.
Prompt 5 - Draw a maze in the style of doyoumaze.com of a skyscraper in NYC
2023 was a squished building blob. 2024 did a nice ESB maze like image. Easy winner.
Prompt 6 - Draw a maze in the style of Sean C Jackson of a scene from a large outdoor market
Despite each image being interesting in their own way, they are both a fail.
Prompt 7 - Make a maze of a slice of an orange in color
Double fail, but 2024 comes in second to last by a hair.
Prompt 8 - Make a maze integrated on top of a photograph of a king sitting on his throne looking cantankerous beside his beautiful queen
2024 wins this one by a huge margin.
Prompt 9 - Make a solvable maze that is very large and very difficult to solve because it is so complex
2024 is an interesting 5 point perspective wooden box maze. 2023 is….not.
Prompt 10 - Make a 3d render of a red and blue glossy cube maze
2024 only failed once, but 2023 failed 4 times, so there’s that !
Conclusion:
How did Stable Diffusion do ? I think it improved, but Stable Diffusion still cannot make a real maze. It seems to make some interesting ideas and concepts but it hasn’t made any maze art yet.
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