It would be interesting to see a pixelart/emulator scaler that was temporally aware - that is, able to use context from near or all relevant sprite frames to get additional detail/context. This would require a compositing emulator, as some others have discussed, but I could see it producing notably superior results, given it would have much more source data to work with.
Depixelizing Pixel Art
111–120 of 164 posts
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a video: https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kopf/pixelart...
Am I crazy for preferring the one on the left (nearest-neighbour)? The other two really mess up certain details such as the point numbers, the stem of the fruits and pokey's eyes. They also tend to cause a very subtle distortion of the outlines of foreground sprites as they move over the background.
I preferred hq4x for much the same reason. Removed the large blockiness while still preserving the pixelated feel (and staying truer to the shapes in the original).
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you aren't. I prefer nearest-neighbor too, I think it preserves the "spirit" of the game. Generally speaking, I prefer it for any kind of "pixel art". That said, those algorithms are impressive, and I can see why someone could prefer them over a simple nn.
> I think it preserves the "spirit" of the game. The art-direction of games from this era wasn't done with the intention that these games would be played on pixel-perfect computer monitors, though. The art was designed and tested for CRT TVs, which would generally give you something like http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo299/muddi900/LTTP3xNTSC... , or even http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Kzdww8T9fUA/TRplyGIj6PI/AAAAAAA…
This reminds me of staring at those tiny screenshots on the back of NES boxes with sweaty palms as a six year old.. lol.. Pixel art was not yet embraced as an art form, I guess. (well, not by the adults)
edit: proof: https://www.google.com/search?q=nes+box+back&tbm=isch
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#114This is pretty amazing of a demo.
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Windows has had support for resolution independence where DPI is configurable across a continuum (rather than only available as 1x or 2x scale like on the Mac) for quite some time - the issue is that with a huge legacy application base, a giant morass of drawing technologies, and no shipped "HiDPI" or "Retina" Windows hardware until recently, there's been no real incentive for app developers to support it. In Windows…
It's not just the "legacy application base" or "app developers" which are at fault; even most of Windows itself is still using the old drawing libraries. As soon as you start digging into system properties, MMC, etc, everything is horribly blurry. But yes, apps are also broken, even very popular ones like Chrome and Steam.
There are parts just a couple clicks deep where you can see W2k-like controls.
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#116The Secret of Mana ones made my eyes leak, not gonna lie. Awesome graphics technology update not withstanding, that game was an integral part of my teenage years.
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#117Technology almost caught up with CSI.
There is a technique that might actually be able to do this called compressed sensing[1] that I first heard about it in a Wired article from several years ago[2]. The technique allows reconstructing images, music, etc. by sampling a portion of the original and applying an algorithm that reconstructs the missing information and is apparently used in MRI image processing to get by with shorter scans. Researchers from Rice University constructed a camera with only a single pixel image sensor that, using this technique, produced legible images with as little as a 2% sampling of the final image resolution, although more complex images required 10-20% or more[3]. I don't see why this technique couldn't be used to take already good quality images and "enhance" areas of them like in CSI.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_sensing [2] http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_algorithm/ [3] http://dsp.rice.edu/cscamera
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the video based on applying the algorithm to the entire screen, or is it applied to the sprites individually, then they are plotted to the screen? Just wondering, because the samples in the paper are all lone objects against a clear background. If the same object is drawn in front of a detailed background and then the upscaling is applied, this would affect the patterning. It's a little tricky to tell from the vid…
> Worst case, you could imagine Mario walking in front of the background and his shape shifting madly with every step he took? This brings up something interesting: In terms of media containing sprites and minimal layering (e.g. NES-like games), wouldn't it be computationally cheaper to perform the scaling on the sprites and textures independently of one another, instead of post-processing? I wonder if there is any e…
It'd be kind of hard, as what makes up a "sprite" lives in two different places - one that stores all the tile data, and another that basically describes which tiles make up which sprites. The latter is likely to change every frame, and potentially the former, too, so you'd still be rescaling some stuff every frame. You'd also have to rescale some things that are affected by palette changes, which sometimes change every frame (popular way to animate water, for example). Would you end up saving time this way? I'm not really sure. It's definitely an interesting idea.
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#119But the blocky versions actually look better than vectorized ones. Most of the vectorized sprites look hideous with the exception of Boo and dolphin.
Count me as another one who likes the pixel aesthetic. The title made me ask myself "why would you want to do this?"
(I also loathe most forms of antialiasing, including ClearType, so that might have something to do with it... I like sharp, clearly contrasted edges, including pixel edges.)
Re: Depixelizing Pixel Art
#120Kind of ironic that MSR is using an unregistered version of PhotoZoom.