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Topic: [Implemented] Disable bilinear filtering per image (for Pixel Art)
Firstly, very cool program. I just found out about it, and I'm already using it for a project. :)
==== My suggestion:
An option to toggle between Bilinear filtering and Nearest Neighbor filtering (i.e. no filtering) on a per image basis.
Mainly to help PureRef display pixel art nicely at high zoom.
When working on a pixel art image, it would be handy to be able to view photos and pixel art side-by-side in pure ref.
While bilinear filtering is nice for photos, pixel art will appear blurry when zoomed in.
Probably not the most important feature, but it might be a cool addition for a pixel art workflow.
==== Possible problems with this suggestion & workarounds:
Pixel art tends to look best when displayed at integer scaling factors.
So scaling by 2x, 3x, or 4x, will look okay, but 1.7x not so much.
By default PureRef allows the camera to smoothly zoom in and out on the whole canvas, effectively scaling images by non-integer amounts, which could look a little weird for any pixel art images present.
One possible work around would be to add an integer snapping zoom feature for the camera, (e.g. bound to Ctrl + Wheel); and likewise an integer snapping scale feature for images, (e.g. Activated by zooming an image with a vertical drag rather than a horizontal drag. Maybe only available on images set to Nearest Neighbor mode.).
All that said, the issues with Nearest Neighbor pixel art and non-integer scaling factors are usually not that visible for factors over 5x, such that 5.1x will look okay-ish for the most part, even though there will be some row and column doubling. So another possible workaround would be to just assume people will zoom in until things are pretty looking. :)
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-09-04 12:03 by PureRef.
Adding an option to disable filtering might be a good idea, we will note it down and look into it for a future release.
We have had ideas to add keyboard shortcuts for fixed zoom levels but it also becomes hard to control when images often are scaled as well, so we will have to consider if it is worth the effort and if it can be made in a not so complicated way.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks for the reply. :)
Little update:
In the "Possible problems" section in my above post, in the last paragraph I mentioned the possibility of adding nearest neighbor (NN) mode and just ignoring the integer scaling issues. I wasn't sure how realistic an option that was, so I took some time, to pay attention to how I work with pixel art ref, to see if integer scaling really matters.
I noticed that in general, I zoom pixel art reference material to about 4x to 5x when working. That's about the size where the individual pixels become pretty visible. At this size the non-integer scaling factor is not really that noticeable. This is on a 1920x1200 monitor.
The reason I bring it up is that, if in the future you do end up adding an NN option, you may not have to worry at all about the integer scaling issues. When using pixel art as reference, in most practical cases the art will likely be zoomed to a size where non-integer scaling doesn't matter.
In my first post, I was thinking that perfect integer scaling would be more important, probably because I was thinking in terms of what is important for a pixel art game engine, rather than what is important for looking at pixel art reference.
Just wanted to share my realization. :)
tl;dr:
NN mode will likely work just fine without any integer scaling solution. Integer scaling can always be added sometime well after NN if it becomes important.
This feature is now implemented in PureRef 1.8.0. Alt+T toggles bilinear sampling on the current selected images. Let us know if it covers your need!
Hey, I just got the update a minute ago and saw the bilinear toggle in the change list. Very cool!
Just wanted to say thanks. :)