Weathered
Weathered is an SDXL concept slider for controlling the apparent weathering, age, wear, exposure, and deterioration of subjects and environments.
Positive weights progressively introduce the visual evidence of time and exposure: staining, discoloration, worn and uneven surfaces, accumulated grime, oxidation, cracking, erosion, organic growth, and increasingly severe deterioration. At stronger weights, maintained objects and environments can become ancient, neglected, overgrown, ruined, or almost reclaimed by their surroundings.
Negative weights move in the opposite direction, reducing accumulated wear and restoring cleaner, smoother, better-preserved surfaces. Depending on the subject and prompt, this can range from simple maintenance and restoration to an unusually pristine or newly made appearance.
Weathered was designed as a general-purpose modifier rather than a fixed aesthetic. It can be applied to architecture, vehicles, machinery, monuments, furniture, objects, landscapes and other subjects without requiring the prompt itself to describe decay or restoration.
The slider can also combine with other concept LoRAs. For example, a monumental stone subject can first be created or transformed with another slider and then progressively cleaned, aged, stained, eroded or overgrown with Weathered.
Usage
Typical useful range: -2 to +5
0 — Base model / unaffected generation-1 — Cleaner, better maintained, lightly restored-2 — Strongly pristine / restored+1 — Subtle age and environmental exposure+2 — Clearly weathered+3 — Heavy wear, staining and deterioration+4 — Severe age, neglect and environmental reclamation+5 — Extreme weathering — all hope is lost
The effect is deliberately progressive, so don't feel obliged to stay near ±1. +2 to +4 is often where the slider becomes particularly expressive, while +5 is useful when you actually want the subject pushed toward ruin rather than merely made old.
Extended negative range
The negative pole can be pushed farther than the nominal range under the right prompting conditions.
In testing, photorealistic / photographic language substantially improved stability at strong negative weights, allowing useful results to extend toward approximately -4 in situations where the model previously began collapsing around that point.
So I'd describe the negative range as:
General use: -1 to -2
Strong restoration/pristine effect: -2 to -3
Experimental extended range: down to approximately -4, particularly with photorealistic or photographic prompts
Results at the extremes remain checkpoint-, prompt-, and subject-dependent. If negative weights begin producing structural distortion or abstraction, back the weight off before assuming the concept itself has stopped working.
Weathered changes condition more reliably than identity. It isn't intended as an age slider for people. On figures and faces, some incidental surface/complexion change may occur, but the learned direction is primarily weathering and preservation, not human biological aging.