---
title: "Someone Used a Neural Network to Draw Doom Guy in High-Res"
description: "A series of AI algorithms and neural nets turned Doom Guy's classic pixelated mug into an HD, nearly-photorealistic portrait."
date: "2019-06-17"
modified: "2019-06-17"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neural-network-draw-doom-guy-high-res"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "Doom"
  - "media synthesis"
---

# Someone Used a Neural Network to Draw Doom Guy in High-Res

![A series of AI algorithms and neural nets turned Doom Guy's classic pixelated mug into an HD, nearly-photorealistic portrait.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/neural-network-draw-doom-guy-high-res.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: 1MightBeAPenguin/Reddit/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Doom Guy

Finally, the HD remake we've all been waiting for: a series of neural nets took the classic pixelated mug of the space marine from seminal 1993 first-person shooter "Doom" and churned out an almost photorealistic portrait.

The face, which looks sort of like a beefier Nathan Fillion, was [posted to Reddit](<https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/c1a9vc/neural_network_generated_drawings_of_the_man_from/>) on Sunday. And while the resulting thread reveals that the process wasn't as straightforward as it seems, the image is still a startling example at how adept artificial intelligence has become at filling in the gaps in a low-fidelity input — and spitting out something new and convincing.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/xok26jqf7q431.png>)
*Image Credit: [1MightBeAPenguin/Reddit](<https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/c1a9vc/neural_network_generated_drawings_of_the_man_from/>)*

## Step By Step

The final image is actually the product of several AI systems taking the improving on one another. According to the [Reddit thread](<https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/c1a9vc/neural_network_generated_drawings_of_the_man_from/ercpve4/>), the original "Doom Guy" sprite was fed into the AI of photo-editing programs including FaceApp, Waifu2x, and GIMP. That resulted in an improved, but still very pixelated and maybe pinkeye-infected [version of the face](<https://i.redd.it/c761yzybz0lz.png>).

From there, the image was fed into StyleGAN, the Nvidia AI system that people have used to [create photorealistic portraits](<https://futurism.com/incredibly-realistic-faces-generated-neural-network>) and nightmarish [Pokémon sprites](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/neural-network-pokemon>). StyleGAN churned out a more [realistic image](<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7VKYhJU0AEGJIN.jpg>) then took another pass to smooth it out. But because the original sprite had unrealistic proportions, the new image was manually reshaped, into this [final version](<https://i.redd.it/hr0pt7rev9031.png>).

## The Short Version

Basically, one algorithm couldn't take the pixelated blob that is Doom Guy and turn it into a real-looking face — it took a few steps to get there.

But once that process is set up, AI can do some cool stuff — the original Reddit post, for instance, shows how editing teeth into the pixelated sprite convinces the AI to create a very different portrait, reshaping Doom Guy's entire expression into a big beaming smile.

**More on StyleGAN:** *[This Site Tests Whether You Can Spot AI-Generated Faces](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/site-tests-spot-ai-generated-faces>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)