[HN Gopher] MMPX Style-Preserving Pixel Art Magnification [pdf]
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       MMPX Style-Preserving Pixel Art Magnification [pdf]
        
       Author : ingve
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2021-04-25 18:06 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (casual-effects.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (casual-effects.com)
        
       | kleiba wrote:
       | Are there approaches to this problem based on neural networks?
        
         | alphabet9000 wrote:
         | i wonder about this too. in my mind, i feel like some sort of
         | nn magic will eventually be able to miraculously transform A
         | into B - e.g. http://telnet.asia/yoshi_n.png
        
       | frabert wrote:
       | It is interesting that they don't seem to compare this algorithm
       | to hqx (hq2x), which in my opinion is the best looking of the
       | pixel art scaling algorithms.
        
         | tobr wrote:
         | If you actually read (or even just search), they do compare it
         | in the supplemental material, they explain in detail why it's
         | not the most appropriate algorithm to compare with, and it's
         | generally mentioned repeatedly across the entire paper.
        
       | Causality1 wrote:
       | It's certainly an improvement over nearest-neighbor, but one
       | thing it doesn't take into account is that pre-millennium pixel
       | art was designed on and for CRT displays. If your goal in up
       | scaling is letting modern audiences enjoy the art, you can't
       | ignore that.
       | 
       | https://i.imgur.com/jd0M8jI.jpg
        
         | pezezin wrote:
         | CRTs could display pretty sharp pictures, those blurring
         | effects where actually an artifact of RF/composite modulation.
         | 
         | Growing up as a PC gamer using VGA, I never experienced that
         | kind of blurriness, and in fact I though that consoles over
         | composite video looked awful.
        
         | mrob wrote:
         | Portable systems with LCD displays existed, and they used the
         | same pixel art techniques as on CRTs. VGA PC games used line-
         | doubled modes on high resolution monitors, where the individual
         | pixels were clearly visible. Some artists did intend their art
         | to be blurred, but this is not universally true, and even if an
         | artist intended it, it doesn't mean blurring is the best way to
         | view their art. There are games where checkerboard patterns of
         | individual pixels are used to represent fine detail, e.g. rings
         | on chainmail armor, or keys on a typewriter. The wide variety
         | of art styles and personal preferences makes it impossible to
         | definitely state any scaling technique is best.
        
         | tobr wrote:
         | That's not their goal, and they do take it into account, even
         | cautioning against using the algorithm that way for that exact
         | reason:
         | 
         | > MMPX is sufficiently fast and high enough quality for run-
         | time application in retro game/hardware emulators. Yet, we
         | offer two cautions about using any filter in this manner. [...]
         | true retro hardware and content was designed for cathode ray
         | tube displays. [...] Artists created content with these
         | characteristics in mind and often exploited them. [...]
         | Display-independent magnification algorithms will not properly
         | take frequency content and display filtering into account. They
         | produce net results that may be attractive and useful, but one
         | must acknowledge that the perceived image is not faithful to
         | the original artistic intent.
        
       | tyingq wrote:
       | I wonder if there's some applicability in other spaces. Maybe,
       | for example, in scaling up some part of a quilt, cross-stitch or
       | needlepoint pattern.
        
       | tobr wrote:
       | Nice. I can recommend trying the demo which compares with a few
       | other algorithms.[1] (Just drag in a PNG with some pixel art.)
       | 
       | This algorithm doesn't seem to do a good job of handling anti-
       | aliasing or dithering, which I would have expected to be listed
       | among their style-preserving properties. Their R vs Ia example is
       | a very good illustration of why that's difficult, as it could
       | also be interpreted as a small dithered gradient.
       | 
       | 1: https://morgan3d.github.io/quadplay/tools/scalepix.html
        
       | leshokunin wrote:
       | Really interesting. The examples in the PDF help sell the
       | difference. I could see this technology being used for 2D game
       | remasters. For example, several PS1 and Saturn eta titles suffer
       | from being low resolution. This could provide a first pass at
       | making the assets for a remaster. I could also see this being
       | used in the missing community.
        
       | [deleted]
        
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