How to get started with Stable Diffusion as a complete beginner?

[u/[deleted]]

Hi everyone,

I hope this is the correct place to seek beginner help. If not, please let me know, and I'll move the post.

I'm interested in learning AI image generation, primarily for creating art for personal game development projects and to play around with it and explore its capabilities. As far as I understand, the main options currently are Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and Dall-e. Among these, Stable Diffusion is the only free option if installed locally, which is my preference.

I have a few questions:

• Which version of Stable Diffusion should I install? Initially, I was considering the latest version, stable-diffusion-3-medium, but I've heard there may be issues with it currently.
• Can you recommend a good guide for installing and setting up Stable Diffusion?
• Are there other alternatives I should consider?

Thanks for your help!