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How to upscale a Wallpaper Engine wallpaper to 4K

Lots of wallpapers on the Workshop were made at 1080p or lower. On a 1440p, 4K or ultrawide monitor they get stretched, and stretching only makes pixels bigger, so everything looks soft. AI upscaling rebuilds the detail instead.

Stretching vs AI upscaling

A normal resize guesses each new pixel from its neighbours, so edges turn into a smooth blur. An AI upscaler (Wallsmith uses Real-ESRGAN) has learned what sharp edges, line art and textures look like, so it redraws them at the new size.

480p stretched to 4KWallsmith AI, 4K

How to do it in Wallsmith

1. Open Wallsmith. Your Wallpaper Engine wallpapers are listed on the left; click the one you want (or open any video file).
2. On the Enhance tab, under AI upscaling, pick Fast (quick, good for most clips) or Best (slower, sharpest).
3. Under This video is, choose Anime / drawn for anime and illustrations or Real / 3D for real footage and game captures. The right choice makes a big difference.
4. Under Output size, pick Screen to match your monitor exactly, or 1440p / 4K.
5. Click AI preview at the top to check a frame, then export. To swap it straight into Wallpaper Engine, tick Put the result into this wallpaper; the original is backed up and one click restores it.

Free or Pro? The free version upscales with the Fast model up to 1080p / 1200p. 1440p, 4K, ultrawide 5K and the Best model are part of Pro ($5 once).

Tips

• Start from the best copy you have. Upscaling can't bring back detail that heavy compression destroyed; for blocky sources, tick Repair a blurry or blocky source under Clean-up.
• Need speed? Fast at 1440p is often enough for a busy, moving wallpaper; save Best for calm scenes you'll look at a lot.
• Upgrading Workshop wallpapers for your own screen is fine. Please don't re-upload other people's wallpapers; if you share a before/after, credit the original creator.