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New Algorithm to Depixilize Pixel Art is Magical.
- Thread starter Green Biker Dude
- Start date
I agree with Yoshi's Island being one of the few games that look better with filters. Nintendo's artists were clearly going for a pastel impressionist look with that game, the pixelated nature of the art is a hindrance to that.
I can't actually think of any other examples of games where filters are a desirable option, though.
I can't actually think of any other examples of games where filters are a desirable option, though.
Wow, a lot of people jumping on this... a little defensive, maybe?
No, the new algorithm doesn't 'improve' the pixel art. No, the OP didn't claim that the 'result' is magical.
The algorithm itself is absolutely incredible, and could have some very practical uses for digital artists. There is some very interesting code behind these results, that could possibly be expanded into polygonal applications.
Kids need to relax. I love pixel art, probably more than anyone, and that artform is not going away. I won't be playing any emulator with this algorithm, but I'll marvel at what it does, and applaud the effort that went into it.
No, the new algorithm doesn't 'improve' the pixel art. No, the OP didn't claim that the 'result' is magical.
The algorithm itself is absolutely incredible, and could have some very practical uses for digital artists. There is some very interesting code behind these results, that could possibly be expanded into polygonal applications.
Kids need to relax. I love pixel art, probably more than anyone, and that artform is not going away. I won't be playing any emulator with this algorithm, but I'll marvel at what it does, and applaud the effort that went into it.
:Motorbass
Member
Soooo, I just want to know where or when to get this algorythm. Can't wait to try it out on my own pixel art.
Since we're speaking about pixel art, i'll drop that Awesome pixel art
It can perfectly be a legitimate form of graphics, without being "retro". Just I wold love to see a game done with this kind of style and quality. Just make the sprite 2 times bigger, without any sort of filtering. You'll have big enough sprite to make an HD game with a subtle but awesome pixelated look.
It can perfectly be a legitimate form of graphics, without being "retro". Just I wold love to see a game done with this kind of style and quality. Just make the sprite 2 times bigger, without any sort of filtering. You'll have big enough sprite to make an HD game with a subtle but awesome pixelated look.
From The Dust
Banned
You can always go the rotoscoping route. Guilty Gear/Blaze Blu does it I then. He latest King of Fighters games do it as wellJocchan said:
From The Dust
Banned
For those interested, I found the site where they detail the process of making KoF12's sprites
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/creation/index.php
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/creation/index.php
Oppo
Member
It's interesting as a transformative filter.
Pixel art is now an aesthetic unto itself. For some it invokes nostalgia, others it just screams of gaudy tile-art.
This filter is interesting in that it can take pixel art and transform it to another aesthetic, one that I find less pleasing, but definitely better than the typical scaling methods seen in the picture.
I have to admit I do like the aerodynamic Space Invaders. That's the only example that I thought was an interesting interpretation. The others are notable in that they just don't look quite as lame as the usual methods.
Pixel art is now an aesthetic unto itself. For some it invokes nostalgia, others it just screams of gaudy tile-art.
This filter is interesting in that it can take pixel art and transform it to another aesthetic, one that I find less pleasing, but definitely better than the typical scaling methods seen in the picture.
I have to admit I do like the aerodynamic Space Invaders. That's the only example that I thought was an interesting interpretation. The others are notable in that they just don't look quite as lame as the usual methods.
Pixel art on its own doesn't look very good, IMO. It was designed to be displayed through a CRT TV, which has a huge impact on the geometry of the picture. The end result is not nearly as sharp or as blocky as the source material, and the colors turn out very differently.
Just for comparison sake, here's the RAW image of the shot posted above, without the CRT filter (in 4:3, hence slightly rectangular pixels):
Just for comparison sake, here's the RAW image of the shot posted above, without the CRT filter (in 4:3, hence slightly rectangular pixels):
Princess Skittles
Prince's's 'Skittle's
I couldn't have said it better than myself.Lyphen said:
It makes me sick to my stomach, actually.
Ahoi-Brause
Banned
Needs more scanlines and screen curvature!TheExodu5 said:
FoxSpirit said:
Even if you take something like BlazBlue, I think it would greatly benefit from the image filtering that a CRT provides. Edges are still very aliased, and a simple bilinear filter does a huge disservice to the source material.
Ahoi-Brause said:
Someone on the BSNES forum a while back was working on one that included scalines and curvature...it was a screenshot of A Link To The Past. It looked downright amazing.
Still though, I think scanlines and curvature were imperfections that are not really wanted in the picture, so I'd chalk my liking of it more to nostalgia than anything.
plagiarize
Banned
the BSNES filter is just darker and slightly blurred.
i don't like it at all. i don't like the stuff in op either.
the MAME scanline one is good though.
i don't like it at all. i don't like the stuff in op either.
the MAME scanline one is good though.
Ahoi-Brause
Banned
I think they factored those things in too.TheExodu5 said:
Would make a lot of sense at least.
onken said:
It was always meant to look like that. Do you think that the artists never knew the screens they were drawing for? Or even drawing on?
Scanlines, slight blur, and slight curvature were always the expectation.
But yeah, you can customize it all. Geometry, scanline size and strength, whatever. And it will be in MESS.
Rustymonke
Member
On the OP, while it's obviously not preferable to pixel art in the slightest, it's has a completely different aim tbf, those are some fairly impressive results.
Mind blown. I have to try this. Super Metroid here I come.TheExodu5 said:
plagiarize said:
It has a different color gamut, and is displaying the image how it was meant to be seen on a CRT. Notice that there still isn't any black crush. NTSC had a pretty strong red/orange bias...if you've ever mastered any DVD material on PC, or used a CRT as a PC display, you'll notice how odd the colors seemed.
If you play any SNES game in raw format on an emulator, you'll notice that it will never actually produce blacks...they'll always be lighter than black. The resulting image on a TV was supposed to end up darker.
Rustymonke said:
One thing to keep in mind: the emulator is very demanding. It recommends a ~2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. For games like Starfox, it recommends a ~3.0GHz Core 2 Duo. It's a very inefficient emulator, as it's goal is to emulate each hardware component perfectly, without resorting to the usual hacks.
Also, when I last tried it (maybe a year ago), it has frame synchronization issues on Windows 7 (though not on XP). Hopefully that's fixed now.
plagiarize
Banned
i doubt that detail was supposed to be lost in the right edges of those towers.TheExodu5 said:
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Zenith said:
I think the problem is that the OP even followed up the post by saying people who like the pixel look of pixel art are blind or crazy, etc.
I'm sure there are a lot of interesting applications for the technology. It looks quite clever.
The problems with blindly applying the technology though are apparent in the OP's examples. Characters like the Ax Battler example sure do look "smoother" but turn into a smudgy mess with worse definition than the pixel version. Yoshi sprite's head is distorted with a bent nose, and so forth.
It's a bit like showing off the world's greatest film colorization technology then using it on Citizen Kane and chortling how much you've made the film "modern and non-assy".
Even shit like this makes me feel horrible inside. "Upgrading" with filters looks shit, but degrading the IQ on purpose, why? Nostalgia? Preference I guess, but personally I hate any sort of filter.TheExodu5 said:What I want is a proper CRT filter. Something to perfectly replicate the image you'd see on a CRT.
The BSNES NTSC filter (set to RGB mode) is not quite there yet, but it's very close! It's worlds better than the awful filter in the OP:
plagiarize said:
The detail is not lost, however. You're talking about the white pixels in each brick? Notice how unnatural that looks in pixel form. But on a CRT, it's blended in with the surrounding pixels slightly, giving a much better impression of a natural light reflection.
The same goes for Locke's eyes. Look how wrong they look in raw format.
The art was designed to be displayed on a CRT. On a CRT, it looks completely different. It was never meant to be seen in raw form.
People always complain how bad old consoles like the SNES look on an LCD TV. Hint: it's usually not because of the scaling. People then say old consoles actually look pretty decent on a plasma. Know why? Because plasma does not display images (pixel matrixes) in their raw format.
I'm sure that bad CRT flaws were taken into account when designing the pixel art. For example, not being able to use bright red next to anything else or dithering not working. But the reason pixel art was drawn like it was is because of the hardware limitations of the console it was created for. For instance, the NES had 8x8 pixel sprites with a total of four colors. And for the record, I played my NES on my C64 monitor, so it's pixels were perfect, and the games were and are beautiful.Orayn said:
EDIT: A lot of games were designed without CRT flaws in mind. Computer games (especially BW Macs) and portables.
Princess Skittles
Prince's's 'Skittle's
This is pretty much exactly how the games looks over CRT with the SNES hooked up via s-video.TheExodu5 said:
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
I suppose I would agree with most posters here that this is pretty useless when applied to actual pixel art, which has a beauty all it's own.
But speaking as a guy who has had to do graphic design in the dirty messy real world where business guys often don't have anything to give you for their own logo other than some low res scan someone did for them years ago, this shit looks like it might be pretty useful. I haven't bothered with Livetrace in a while, and Genuine Fractals has also disappointed me greatly, so I pretty much have taken to the habit of just spending time recreating low res images if I need them in high res.
This could be a big time saver.
But speaking as a guy who has had to do graphic design in the dirty messy real world where business guys often don't have anything to give you for their own logo other than some low res scan someone did for them years ago, this shit looks like it might be pretty useful. I haven't bothered with Livetrace in a while, and Genuine Fractals has also disappointed me greatly, so I pretty much have taken to the habit of just spending time recreating low res images if I need them in high res.
This could be a big time saver.