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More Scaling Options and Vector Drawing!

A topic by dandyandroid created May 21, 2021 Views: 517 Replies: 9
Viewing posts 1 to 4
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I think this software is quite nice, but it lacks a few features that I think would make it a lot better. For example, when u import readymade pixel art, the rotation algorithm somewhat falls apart. The reason it starts jittering quite a bit is that it's working with an image with jagged edges—having a program made for pixel art that can't work well with pixel art images is antithetical.

I don't know much about Bresenham's algorithm, but concerning how this program deals with line primitives, it's evident that vector art would be the most suitable for it. Perhaps a vector art engine for drawing and filling in shapes, like a stripped-down version of adobe illustrator, would take this software to its highest potential. Splines that support keyframes so that they can be animated would be great.

Other than that, scaling options are a bit lackluster. I say that because with scaling algorithms like eagle, 2xSal, hqnx, xBR, rotsprite, among others, u could transform the scale of ur shader layer past 100%—something this program seemingly can't do. In addition, some of these algorithms soften the look of pixel art, which could help with the jitter when rotating imported pixel art.

So, imagine importing a pixel art image. Then, scaling it with hq3x, nesting this rescaled image, and shrinking it back down to 100% with the "softened" edges. I think this could help with jitteriness when rotating. Moreso, imagine drawing vector art in this program; that would be incredible. I like the workspace, and I believe pixel over is a great supplementary tool to have, but it could quickly become the only tool I use for pixel art if it did these things. Sorry if I got carried away with my wishlist!

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Hello, thank you for your suggestion, I'm agree with you and I'm currently working on this two improvements.

I made some test with HQnx but xBR should be more effective so I will implement this in the future.
(nearest / hq2x / hq4x)

Maybe I could make a custom algo to prevent these alone pixels on the edge too.

And I added simple shape available for next release. I will improve to add polygons in the future.

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How'd u do it so quickly?! That looks amazing. It's great to see the attention u pay to ur community, I'm glad I bought PixelOver. Cheers!

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Because I worked on HQnX implementation some times ago but I didn't finish because I wasn't convinced by the rendering and xBR gave me some trouble so I switched to another task. Now there is a need I'll finalize it.

And I was currently working on the shapes precisely when you asked for vector drawing so great coincidence.

Yes the community provides always great ideas, thank you !

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Ok, to update, I worked on this pixel art scaling, so HQnX not good results, I found the scalenX family MMPX which is really interesting. But the best with some fixes is the omniScale (which is even better than rotsprite sometimes while rotsprite is not a real time algo).


Maybe I can add an other fix on the lines but should be quite hard if the line is more complexe.

So I will add this on the next release too.

(2 edits)

I was going to open another thread to ask for pixel art scaling options, but I had a "deja vu", so I searched here, and yeah, as usual, you made what I wanted even before I knew it XD

I have been trying the omniscale option to scale up pixel art and it's amazing! :D 

Why are you not telling people that PixelOver have this feature on the main page? Seriously, this is great! :D

Having said that, would it be possible in the future to add also some other scaling algorithms? Not all of them act the same and some ones could be better for certain specific art than others. Maybe you could use even Rotsprite (even if it's not a real time algorithm, you could put a warning maybe?).

Just in case it's useful, some examples and interesting info here (you'd probably know them already though):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel-art_scaling_algorithms

https://www.datagenetics.com/blog/december32013/index.html

Edit: I have just seen it, you have it announced on the main page with "Transformation/Deformation. Stay pixel-perfect when rescale, rotate or deform an object.". Nice ^^

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I didn't find another really better than omniscale, do you want some particularly ? Rotsprite I can try but yes I need to apply it async may be problematic with animation and export, I need to check

Not any one in particular, I'd just like to have some of them to be able to test them (apart from the emulators I don't know any other software that let you choose many pixel art scaling algorithms, so I cannot really experiment with them).

This's a very low priority request though. I'm already superhappy with having omniscale and nearest neighbour in PixelOver :)

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Id be devils advocate and say that id like bicubic sampler and lanczos3 to get better sharpness + blur with non pixelart animations when rotating.

Lanczos might be too soft  , not sure until i try it in the program,  maybe something inbetween , more options is always good.

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Yes I need to implement more resampler to be able to better compare