This repository implements a Normalizing Flows model, for which we use a simple real nvp like model. The repo trains on mnist dataset but rather training on images in pixel space we first use an autoencoder and train normalizing flows model on latent images. As of today the repo provides code to do the following:
- Training and Inference of a Normalizing flows model(similar to realnvp) on latent mnist images
- For this the repo provides both real nvp with linear layers as well as convolutional layers
- Training and Inference of a VAE trained with perceptual loss on mnist dataset

Linear Model - Left, Convolutional Model - Right


Image - Top, Reconstructions - Below

- Create a new conda environment with python 3.10 then run below commands
git clone https://github.com/explainingai-code/NormalizingFlow-PyTorch.git
cd NormalizingFlow-PyTorch
pip install -r requirements.txt
- Download lpips weights by opening this link in browser(dont use cURL or wget) https://github.com/richzhang/PerceptualSimilarity/blob/master/lpips/weights/v0.1/vgg.pth and downloading the raw file. Place the downloaded weights file in
models/weights/v0.1/vgg.pth
For setting up the mnist dataset follow - https://github.com/explainingai-code/Pytorch-VAE#data-preparation
Ensure directory structure is following
NormalizingFlow-PyTorch
-> data
-> mnist
-> train
-> images
-> *.png
-> test
-> images
-> *.png
Allows you to play with different components of normalizing flows and autoencoder training
config/mnist.yaml
- Linear normalizing flows modelconfig/mnist_conv.yaml
- Convolutional normalizing flows model
The repo provides training and inference for Mnist but for working on your own dataset:
- Create your own config and have the path in config point to images (look at
mnist.yaml
for guidance) - Create your own dataset class which will just collect all the filenames and return the image in its getitem method(for autoencoder) and saved latents(for normalizing flows). Look at
mnist_dataset.py
for guidance
Once the config and dataset is setup:
- Train the auto encoder on your dataset using this section
- For training Normalizing Flows model follow this section
- For training autoencoder on mnist,ensure the right path is mentioned in
mnist.yaml
- For training autoencoder on your own dataset
- Create your own config and have the path point to images (look at mnist.yaml for guidance)
- Create your own dataset class, similar to mnist_dataset.py
- Use the new dataset class here
- For training autoencoder run
python -m tools.train_vae --config config/mnist.yaml
for training vae with the desire config file - For inference using trained autoencoder run
python -m tools.infer_vae --config config/mnist.yaml
for generating reconstructions with right config file. Usesave_latent=True
in config to save the latent files
Train the autoencoder first and setup dataset accordingly.
python -m tools.train --config config/mnist.yaml
for training normalizing flows model using linear layers. Use config/mnist_conv.yaml for convolutional model.python -m tools.sample --config config/mnist.yaml
for sampling from normalizing flows model using linear layers. Use config/mnist_conv.yaml for convolutional model.
Outputs will be saved according to the configuration present in yaml files.
For every run a folder of task_name
key in config will be created
During training of autoencoder the following output will be saved
- Latest Autoencoder and discriminator checkpoint in
task_name
directory - Sample reconstructions in
task_name/vae_autoencoder_samples
During inference of autoencoder the following output will be saved
- Reconstructions for random images in
task_name
- Latents will be save in
task_name/vae_latent_dir_name
if mentioned in config
During training and inference of normalizing flows model, following output will be saved
- During training of normalizing flows model, we will save the latest checkpoint in
task_name
directory - During sampling, sampled image grid will be saved in
task_name/samples.png
.