12 ms·

I draw, I paint (more than draw), I animate. Daily. So, I have a bit of a different perspective on this. Pixel art is one of the hardest disciplines I've tried.

I draw, I paint (more than draw), I animate. Daily. So, I have a bit of a different perspective on this. Pixel art is one of the hardest disciplines I've tried. It's ridiculous. I wouldn't do it again. I only spent with it a bit to see what it takes, and it takes A LOT. If it's not outstanding, it won't get noticed as well. So, it's really tough on psyche. Somewhat like animation. There's another thing I want to mention. I have a broadcast-quality CRT with consoles of ye olde hooked up, and pixels you see on sprites, especially on the edges, aren't there on CRTs. Magical scanline blends them together and looking at the pixel art on CRT is different than on anything else. Almost like they are anti-aliased, but they're not (smudged). I think that's a key component today we are missing from enjoying pixel art. When it was dominant in game industry, you couldn't see actual pixels. Today, they are fetishised.

creshal 10y ago
> have a broadcast-quality CRT with consoles of ye olde hooked up, and pixels you see on sprites, especially on the edges, aren't there on CRTs What about the thousands of games for hand-held consoles, which have always used LCDs, and were using pixel art for much longer than their counterparts elsewhere out of sheer necessity?
- Keyframe 10y ago
  Smaller screens though.
  - creshal 10y ago
    You could (and can) still clearly identify individual pixels on them. (Especially when you're a kid and keep your nose mere inches off the screen.)
    - Keyframe 10y ago
      Maybe, but you have to lean in very close: http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ This is on AGS-101, probably the best screen (backlit) of old handhelds. Whole screen is a fine grid of pixel units which are visible and negate (interlace with) pixels in pixel art. Also, when things start moving, it becomes a blur - due to both laggy screen and small size of it. I've seen some graphics demos (and games) overlaying grid mesh over art and it looks better, more like original seen here. Your point stands in theory, but in practice it also doesn't look anything like pixel art on modern screens. edit: to be clear, I'm mostly talking about the edges on the sprites. That's where it's most visible. It's not as clinical or smudged as on modern monitors / upscales.
      - creshal 10y ago
        > Maybe, but you have to lean in very close: http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ Curse you, nostalgia. I definitely remember it being… pixel-y-ier. I stand corrected.
StavrosK 10y ago
> When it was dominant in game industry, you couldn't see actual pixels. Exactly! I didn't like the author's dig at rescaling algorithms, but he seems to be forgetting that pixels never looked like that! The pixel art he likes so much was never like what he does today. This article has good screenshots, although I think they're emulated: http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/2982-a-link-to-the-past-how-to-add-crt-filters-to-16-bit-games-on-pc/ http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/2982-a-link-to-the-past-ho... If you like pixel art, go ahead and make pixel art. Some of the artwork in the article is stunning, and I like the aesthetic a lot. However, don't romanticize it and claim that old games looked like that, because they just didn't. I think better scalers and shaders that can reproduce the look of CRTs are a nice effort, since I want to play old games the way I actually remember them, not with visible pixels that were completely alien the first time I played Zelda on an emulator.
- rcthompson 10y ago
  This is the best article I've seen on CRT emulation: http://www.piratehearts.com/blog/2014/03/28/crt-simulation/ http://www.piratehearts.com/blog/2014/03/28/crt-simulation/
  - eridius 10y ago
    That article was so good, I promptly bought (and beat) the game. I wish someone would take these techniques and bring them to an NES or SNES emulator.
    - TD-Linux 10y ago
      They have - Retroarch has CRT shaders that emulate many of these effects (and I believe other emulators can also load the same shaders).
      - eridius 10y ago
        Huh, I hadn't seen Retroarch before. Interesting.
- deleted 10y ago
parenthephobia 10y ago
You definitely could see pixels. They just weren't simple flat-colour squares with sharp edges. The appearance of a pixel was influenced by its neighbours, the viewing angle, and what that pixel was doing previously. Great artists that worked in the medium knew how to make art within the restrictions of the medium that didn't look like it had been restricted by the medium; as great artists do in any medium.
- Keyframe 10y ago
  They were 'blended', yes. Even squareness wasn't the case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio
Jemmeh 10y ago
I enjoy it as a hobby. It feels kind of like doing mosiacs, you're forced to go slow so it's kind of relaxing. But doing it on a rushed schedule is stressful and can suck.
- Keyframe 10y ago
  You've described it perfectly. Like piecing together a delicate mosaic.
eveningcoffee 10y ago
Well, it really depends on the scale. If you do small sprites then it can be really satisfying. Pixel art is a niche but it is still alive and I have been considering to investigate up-scaling methods that are more suitable for it. For example there is a game OpenTTD (https://www.openttd.org https://www.openttd.org) that is based on the pixel art and while attempts have been made to great higher resolution graphics based on the renders then most of these attempts, with some exceptions, have fallen flat. So people play with mixed graphics and such methods could make it more enjoyable if the up scaling of the lower resolution sprites would work better. You can check out the forum https://www.tt-forums.net/viewforum.php?f=26 https://www.tt-forums.net/viewforum.php?f=26 and mostly inactive http://www.simuscape.net/simutalk/index.php http://www.simuscape.net/simutalk/index.php for examples of custom graphics made for this game (and older hack, TTDPatch).
ideonexus 10y ago
> I have a broadcast-quality CRT with consoles of ye olde hooked up, and pixels you see on sprites, especially on the edges, aren't there on CRTs. I think this is very insightful. I learned about this when setting up a home MAME arcade. The vector-graphic games looked perfect, but Space Harrier and other pixel-based games looked wrong to me, less impressive than I remembered as a kid. The forums told me I could try running a pixel-smudging mask to make the games look right, but it would be graphics-card-intensive. Instead, I went out and found an old used CRT monitor and everything looks great.
- Keyframe 10y ago
  Oh, I envy you! As soon as I get more (living) space, that's what I want to do. ASAP. I just have to figure out how to make an elegant mechanism to run both horizontal and vertical monitor alignment (tate or whatever the name is). Few of my favorite games run like that and I want then to have fullscreen glory.
bkmn 10y ago
Related how pixel art on a CRT is different from anything else: Darren Walls Kickstarter-funded book 'The Bitmap Brothers' will use a special form of pixel art printing! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenwall/the-bitmap-brothers-universe/posts/1295727 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenwall/the-bitmap-b...
qwertyuiop924 10y ago
That's a thing more relevant on PC: this video has some more information on the phenomenon (I think) you're talking about: https://youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc https://youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc
- Keyframe 10y ago
  I already knew about this, but it always blows my mind when I see it. Composite was magic. Dark magic, but still magic. Life is a lot easier today for us in film and video though, I would not like to go back except for nostalgia.
  - qwertyuiop924 10y ago
    Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
warfangle 10y ago
Gamasutra published an in-depth article last year on how the developer of Super Win the Game implemented a shader to emulate the scanline (and phosphor decay) of CRTs. It's eyeopening, and was the first time I realized why my emulated NES classics looked so different from what I remembered from my youth. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KylePittman/20150420/241442/CRT_Simulation_in_Super_Win_the_Game.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KylePittman/20150420/241442/C...
- acqq 10y ago
  Thanks! In short, this image summarizes: http://i.imgur.com/Pq2Yra4.png http://i.imgur.com/Pq2Yra4.png And if you ask how, the answer is: analog. Every transition was driven by the analog circuits, the phosphor response was analog. Analog all around, but especially to form the pixels one after another: all the transitions, response curves, persitences, dispersions working their own magic.
samstave 10y ago
Can you please PLEASE do a write up more on this!? I would love to see some more concrete examples of what you're stating as I an ignorant of that which you speak but super curious.... Can you please explain in pics what youre talking about?
city41 10y ago
I strongly disagree (and have so in the past here on HN). Pixel art really did look like that back then. High quality, top of the line RGB monitors you'd find in arcade games looked like that. The Amiga, IBM PC and Macintosh looked like that. The Neo Geo Pocket Color, Wonderswan and Gameboy Advance looked like that. Here are some high quality CRT examples: http://imgur.com/a/Ad0pe http://imgur.com/a/Ad0pe
- Keyframe 10y ago
  Images you've linked to exhibit 'blended' pixel edges I am talking about. Also, top of the line monitors were not those Wells Gardner and similar monitors in arcade cabinets. Top of the line CRTs were/are broadcast reference monitors by SONY and to a lesser extent JVC and others. I have a BVM-20F1E. It looks better, sharper, than regular CRTs (mostly due to high line number) but it exhibits same 'effect'. I have a theory what contributes to that 'blended' effect. Well, at least for the most part. It's the masking in-front of the beam. If you look at the sister comment here I made with portable AGS-101 screen from Gameboy SP, it's the same effect. Most prominent while moving. That (resolution) masking grid (with squares on LCD or oblongs on CRTs) somehow interacts with neighbouring pixels and blends all together. It's not from the composite signal, that's for sure. I know, because I run my consoles with RGB output and I still don't see that sharp look that doesn't look right.

creshal 10y ago

> have a broadcast-quality CRT with consoles of ye olde hooked up, and pixels you see on sprites, especially on the edges, aren't there on CRTs What about the thousands of games for hand-held consoles, which have always used LCDs, and were using pixel art for much longer than their counterparts elsewhere out of sheer necessity?

Keyframe 10y ago
Smaller screens though.
- creshal 10y ago
  You could (and can) still clearly identify individual pixels on them. (Especially when you're a kid and keep your nose mere inches off the screen.)
  - Keyframe 10y ago
    Maybe, but you have to lean in very close: http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ This is on AGS-101, probably the best screen (backlit) of old handhelds. Whole screen is a fine grid of pixel units which are visible and negate (interlace with) pixels in pixel art. Also, when things start moving, it becomes a blur - due to both laggy screen and small size of it. I've seen some graphics demos (and games) overlaying grid mesh over art and it looks better, more like original seen here. Your point stands in theory, but in practice it also doesn't look anything like pixel art on modern screens. edit: to be clear, I'm mostly talking about the edges on the sprites. That's where it's most visible. It's not as clinical or smudged as on modern monitors / upscales.
    - creshal 10y ago
      > Maybe, but you have to lean in very close: http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ http://imgur.com/a/ovuhZ Curse you, nostalgia. I definitely remember it being… pixel-y-ier. I stand corrected.

StavrosK 10y ago

> When it was dominant in game industry, you couldn't see actual pixels. Exactly! I didn't like the author's dig at rescaling algorithms, but he seems to be forgetting that pixels never looked like that! The pixel art he likes so much was never like what he does today. This article has good screenshots, although I think they're emulated: http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/2982-a-link-to-the-past-how-to-add-crt-filters-to-16-bit-games-on-pc/ http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/2982-a-link-to-the-past-ho... If you like pixel art, go ahead and make pixel art. Some of the artwork in the article is stunning, and I like the aesthetic a lot. However, don't romanticize it and claim that old games looked like that, because they just didn't. I think better scalers and shaders that can reproduce the look of CRTs are a nice effort, since I want to play old games the way I actually remember them, not with visible pixels that were completely alien the first time I played Zelda on an emulator.

rcthompson 10y ago
This is the best article I've seen on CRT emulation: http://www.piratehearts.com/blog/2014/03/28/crt-simulation/ http://www.piratehearts.com/blog/2014/03/28/crt-simulation/
- eridius 10y ago
  That article was so good, I promptly bought (and beat) the game. I wish someone would take these techniques and bring them to an NES or SNES emulator.
  - TD-Linux 10y ago
    They have - Retroarch has CRT shaders that emulate many of these effects (and I believe other emulators can also load the same shaders).
    - eridius 10y ago
      Huh, I hadn't seen Retroarch before. Interesting.
deleted 10y ago

parenthephobia 10y ago

You definitely could see pixels. They just weren't simple flat-colour squares with sharp edges. The appearance of a pixel was influenced by its neighbours, the viewing angle, and what that pixel was doing previously. Great artists that worked in the medium knew how to make art within the restrictions of the medium that didn't look like it had been restricted by the medium; as great artists do in any medium.

Keyframe 10y ago
They were 'blended', yes. Even squareness wasn't the case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio

Jemmeh 10y ago

I enjoy it as a hobby. It feels kind of like doing mosiacs, you're forced to go slow so it's kind of relaxing. But doing it on a rushed schedule is stressful and can suck.

Keyframe 10y ago
You've described it perfectly. Like piecing together a delicate mosaic.

eveningcoffee 10y ago

Well, it really depends on the scale. If you do small sprites then it can be really satisfying. Pixel art is a niche but it is still alive and I have been considering to investigate up-scaling methods that are more suitable for it. For example there is a game OpenTTD (https://www.openttd.org https://www.openttd.org) that is based on the pixel art and while attempts have been made to great higher resolution graphics based on the renders then most of these attempts, with some exceptions, have fallen flat. So people play with mixed graphics and such methods could make it more enjoyable if the up scaling of the lower resolution sprites would work better. You can check out the forum https://www.tt-forums.net/viewforum.php?f=26 https://www.tt-forums.net/viewforum.php?f=26 and mostly inactive http://www.simuscape.net/simutalk/index.php http://www.simuscape.net/simutalk/index.php for examples of custom graphics made for this game (and older hack, TTDPatch).

ideonexus 10y ago

> I have a broadcast-quality CRT with consoles of ye olde hooked up, and pixels you see on sprites, especially on the edges, aren't there on CRTs. I think this is very insightful. I learned about this when setting up a home MAME arcade. The vector-graphic games looked perfect, but Space Harrier and other pixel-based games looked wrong to me, less impressive than I remembered as a kid. The forums told me I could try running a pixel-smudging mask to make the games look right, but it would be graphics-card-intensive. Instead, I went out and found an old used CRT monitor and everything looks great.

Keyframe 10y ago
Oh, I envy you! As soon as I get more (living) space, that's what I want to do. ASAP. I just have to figure out how to make an elegant mechanism to run both horizontal and vertical monitor alignment (tate or whatever the name is). Few of my favorite games run like that and I want then to have fullscreen glory.

bkmn 10y ago

Related how pixel art on a CRT is different from anything else: Darren Walls Kickstarter-funded book 'The Bitmap Brothers' will use a special form of pixel art printing! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenwall/the-bitmap-brothers-universe/posts/1295727 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenwall/the-bitmap-b...

qwertyuiop924 10y ago

That's a thing more relevant on PC: this video has some more information on the phenomenon (I think) you're talking about: https://youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc https://youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc

Keyframe 10y ago
I already knew about this, but it always blows my mind when I see it. Composite was magic. Dark magic, but still magic. Life is a lot easier today for us in film and video though, I would not like to go back except for nostalgia.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

warfangle 10y ago

Gamasutra published an in-depth article last year on how the developer of Super Win the Game implemented a shader to emulate the scanline (and phosphor decay) of CRTs. It's eyeopening, and was the first time I realized why my emulated NES classics looked so different from what I remembered from my youth. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KylePittman/20150420/241442/CRT_Simulation_in_Super_Win_the_Game.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KylePittman/20150420/241442/C...

acqq 10y ago
Thanks! In short, this image summarizes: http://i.imgur.com/Pq2Yra4.png http://i.imgur.com/Pq2Yra4.png And if you ask how, the answer is: analog. Every transition was driven by the analog circuits, the phosphor response was analog. Analog all around, but especially to form the pixels one after another: all the transitions, response curves, persitences, dispersions working their own magic.

samstave 10y ago

Can you please PLEASE do a write up more on this!? I would love to see some more concrete examples of what you're stating as I an ignorant of that which you speak but super curious.... Can you please explain in pics what youre talking about?

city41 10y ago

I strongly disagree (and have so in the past here on HN). Pixel art really did look like that back then. High quality, top of the line RGB monitors you'd find in arcade games looked like that. The Amiga, IBM PC and Macintosh looked like that. The Neo Geo Pocket Color, Wonderswan and Gameboy Advance looked like that. Here are some high quality CRT examples: http://imgur.com/a/Ad0pe http://imgur.com/a/Ad0pe

Keyframe 10y ago
Images you've linked to exhibit 'blended' pixel edges I am talking about. Also, top of the line monitors were not those Wells Gardner and similar monitors in arcade cabinets. Top of the line CRTs were/are broadcast reference monitors by SONY and to a lesser extent JVC and others. I have a BVM-20F1E. It looks better, sharper, than regular CRTs (mostly due to high line number) but it exhibits same 'effect'. I have a theory what contributes to that 'blended' effect. Well, at least for the most part. It's the masking in-front of the beam. If you look at the sister comment here I made with portable AGS-101 screen from Gameboy SP, it's the same effect. Most prominent while moving. That (resolution) masking grid (with squares on LCD or oblongs on CRTs) somehow interacts with neighbouring pixels and blends all together. It's not from the composite signal, that's for sure. I know, because I run my consoles with RGB output and I still don't see that sharp look that doesn't look right.