3 ms·
The thing about CRT pixel "bleed" is that it is a pure Gaussian blur, which is practically the best way of upscaling a raster image within a purely analog syste
by 0815test 7y ago
The thing about CRT pixel "bleed" is that it is a pure Gaussian blur, which is practically the best way of upscaling a raster image within a purely analog system. Strictly speaking, you can of course do much better with a digital-upscaling step, using e.g. Lanczos filtering (which is far better at preserving sharpness while smoothing out "blocky" appearances), or even with special "pixel-art scaling" algorithms that work strictly within the original palette. But still, even a CRT is much better than what can be shown on a fixed-resolution handheld screen!
- mrob 7y agoThat's assuming that the pixels are point samples, which isn't true of pixel art. Consider the typewriter on Crono's desk at the start of Chrono Trigger, where a single pixel checkerboard pattern is used to represent the keys. The best way to scale this is nearest-neighbor. The same technique is used in many games to represent chainmail armor.
- 0815test 7y agoIt's assuming that "a pixel is a point sample" is a better model, even of pixel art, than "a pixel is literally a small square". Checkerboard patterns are also used quite often for simple dithering (in pixel art with smaller-palettes) which is perhaps the polar opposite of your example! (And if you really don't want blurring, most pixel-art-specific scaling algorithms will nicely match nearest neighbor on that particular pattern, while still doing their best to smooth out "jaggies" elsewhere.)
- mrob 7y agoHow can the scaling algorithm distinguish between "checkerboard representing high spatial frequency detail" and "checkerboard representing intermediate color"? There are games that use both. The only scaling technique I know that can do this with acceptable accuracy (in real time!) is "human brain scaling".