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Help and Support => Working with Platform Builder => Topic started by: Dezue on October 05, 2020, 06:09:54 PM

Title: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 05, 2020, 06:09:54 PM
Heyho!
So I noticed all my artwork is quite blurry in PB, no matter how far my viewing distance is.

(https://i.imgur.com/SNRmd3X.png)

I'd love to have a fixed game size with pixel-perfect, uh, pixels :D
Is there a way I could achieve this?

Thanks and stay funky,
Dez
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 05, 2020, 06:19:09 PM
PB sadly isn't able t display pixels like that. The @TingThing (developer of Platform Builder) tried, but I think that he should try again and maybe do a little research to fix this.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Antikore on October 05, 2020, 06:36:25 PM
Heyho!
So I noticed all my artwork is quite blurry in PB, no matter how far my viewing distance is.

(https://i.imgur.com/SNRmd3X.png)

I'd love to have a fixed game size with pixel-perfect, uh, pixels :D
Is there a way I could achieve this?

Thanks and stay funky,
Dez
Currently not possible, but I asked this many times so it could have a chance to be possible in the future.

Welcome to the forums, too
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 05, 2020, 06:38:13 PM
Aww, I see... Yeah, that would definitely be great!
The engine is superb otherwise.

Thanks for your answers!
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 05, 2020, 06:40:00 PM
@Dezue It certainly is amazing.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 05, 2020, 08:02:59 PM
@Dezue That's normal, PB use billinear flitering for window resizing so it makes the game blurry on resize. However you can set the zoom distance to 8 so the ingame part will become 1080p.
Sadly this applies only to the ingame part, not the hud, pause menu, etc. Plus you have to set the distance manually for every area. Of course you should be able to mod the UPE to fix this.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 05, 2020, 09:03:48 PM
Is there a way to have the original size of the window, without resize?
Zoom distance 8 works alright, but it's so far away playing the game becomes a lot less fun.

Unfortunately, I'm not a coder, so I can't mod anything.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 05, 2020, 11:05:38 PM
@Dezue Ugh...I keep telling TingThing to advertise PB better! "Coding" in PB is super easy. Trust me. It's super easy. It's not that hard to learn. You can just manually upscale your sprites. I know it's time consuming, but it should work. Just don't use any particular scaling size (set it to none that is) and it should scale without issues.

@warrior You can't move projects between the UPE and PB.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 06, 2020, 12:36:04 AM
Hmm, but would the scaling solve the blurriness issue @Christian Game Maker ?
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 06, 2020, 03:43:49 AM
At 1080p, yes.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Antikore on October 06, 2020, 05:51:50 AM
Hmm, but would the scaling solve the blurriness issue @Christian Game Maker ?
You'll have to increase size of sprites if you want to make it look as true pixel art.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Mechasaur on October 06, 2020, 01:17:43 PM
As you can see, we take great care in making sure everything is pixel perfect. Blurry pixels? Bugs? What are you talking about? We made it as accurate as possible xd
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 06, 2020, 01:24:08 PM
Hmm, so... How would I go about doing the upscaling of the sprites?

I have to admit I don't really like 'hacking' no-code engines (like, going against their standard toolset), since, in my experience, this can lead to all kinds of unforseeable problems down the line.
Also, as I understand, this would leave the UI blurred, right?
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 06, 2020, 04:41:00 PM
This is a codeable engine. It's just super simple.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 06, 2020, 05:16:04 PM
I have looked through the command prompt list (that's what you meant by coding @Christian Game Maker , right?) but haven't found anything relating to the scale of characters/tiles/objects yet.
Could you give me a hint on where to look?

My other question would be if the UI/HUD elements would still be blurry if upscaled the sprites.

EDIT:
I just found this in the Coming Soon! forum:
"But with the ability to upload larger character sprites, you could theoretically rig something in a higher definition. But don't forget that many things like pipes and doors are not designed to handle large characters, so you would have to get creative with commands."
That's a bummer actually  :'(
I'm guessing that, even if it would be possible to achieve non-blurred graphics, it would lead to too many complications down the line.

I guess I'll wait until a 'real' pixel-perfect feature is built in - fingers crossed!  :))
Thanks for your answers, guys!
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: TingThing on October 06, 2020, 07:06:53 PM
Hi Dezue,


So here's the deal:


Platform Builder allows different sized game windows and different sized views. Because of this, a setting is enabled to blend pixels together. If this setting was turned off, then any math that doesn't even out would cause some pixels to double up while other pixels remain single. You'd end up getting really weird effects.


One thing that I would like to look into is the possibility of disabling the pixel blend feature when the math does even out. I'm hoping that I can find a solution for this in the next version. No guarantees on this, but I suggest you hold out for a little longer.


Best,
TingThing
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Aeterna Games | Æ on October 07, 2020, 12:57:12 AM
@Dezue
Lol, I know you from the RPG Maker MV Forum. I‘m in there too, just not very active. It’s funny to see you here! ;D
Welcome here and have fun! :)

———

Lol, ich kenne dich aus dem RPG Maker MV Forum. Ich bin auch dort drin, nur nicht wirklich aktiv. Echt witzig dich hier zu sehen! ;D
Willkommen hier und hab Spass! :)
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 07, 2020, 01:19:38 AM
Heyho @TingThing !
That would be really awesome! I'll definitely hold out and am looking forward to the next version - thanks for considering my suggestion.
Fingers crossed you find a solution!  ^-^

@Aeterna Games | Æ Heyho :) Good to meet you here, too!

Stay funky, guys!
Dez
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 07, 2020, 06:12:29 PM
@Dezue Yes, I was referring to the Command Prompt. There's nothing in there about scaling (though I wish there was) I meant manually scaling the sprites themselves. This isn't very conventional either. You'd have to manually scale the sprites within a photo-editing program.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 07, 2020, 07:28:32 PM
The TingThing
Wow, he's so awesome he became a word. But he pretty much deserves it.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 07, 2020, 08:29:43 PM
@Christian Game Maker Ah, I see, thanks!
While this would be no problem in itself, I very much enjoyed working with the templates provided by PB.
Let's hope version 9 comes soon ;)

Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 07, 2020, 09:54:58 PM
Wow, he's so awesome he became a word. But he pretty much deserves it.

Uh, I didn't say that...did I?
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Gizgord on October 08, 2020, 06:46:42 AM
you did say that.
PB sadly isn't able t display pixels like that. The @TingThing (developer of Platform Builder) tried, but I think that he should try again and maybe do a little research to fix this.
but it's just a typo, no biggies
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 08, 2020, 02:43:36 PM
That was completely unintentional! I checked to see if I said that, but apparently I didn't check all of my messages. I think I began to start the sentence one way, then I thought I erased "The" but instead forgot and just mentioned TingThing then went on.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Mechasaur on October 09, 2020, 03:04:16 PM
good job
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Antikore on October 12, 2020, 10:14:53 AM
When you start a topic about pixel perfect graphics, but people ends talking about how the developer has converted into an own word xd
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 12, 2020, 01:19:29 PM
TingThing is an ailias (name) and a word. And names and ailias' are words.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 12, 2020, 06:46:12 PM
When you start a topic about pixel perfect graphics, but people ends talking about how the developer has converted into an own word xd
sry
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Aeterna Games | Æ on October 13, 2020, 10:06:07 PM
When you start a topic about pixel perfect graphics, but people ends talking about how the developer has converted into an own word xd
Better than ending up in religion and bible... xD
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 13, 2020, 11:42:40 PM
@Aeterna Games | Æ I don't see what's wrong with sharing the most important info you could ever hear.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Antikore on October 14, 2020, 08:26:34 AM
@Aeterna Games | Æ I don't see what's wrong with sharing the most important info you could ever hear.
...

Anyway, @Dezue just hold it as it is now, and maybe in the future TingThing will be able to add pixel perfect with no anti-aliasing.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 14, 2020, 10:37:03 AM
I'm looking forward to the day :)
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 14, 2020, 11:37:06 AM
@Antikore @Dezue

You could use Reshade. That might help make things less blurry. I tried it out myself in the PB title screen areas, and it really sharpened things up! Just download reshade https://reshade.me/ (https://reshade.me/)

and then after downloading, run it, find the Platform Builder.exe file, select one of the graphics API's. I think you want the Direct 9 one, or maybe it's the 12. I don't remember. But it's one of those ones. You may have to try different ones to get it working right. IDK which effect's pack you'll have to get as I don't remember which ones I got. You could just download them all (but that'd take some time to download probably) but I recommend just getting a few and looking for sharpening effects using the search. Anyways, just load PB, and then an overlay should appear. Press the Home button on your keyboard to bring up your settings or Shift+F2. If you don't see the overlay, this means you don't have the API correctly set. Just run the installer again, find the PB exe, then uninstall it, then just repeat the process until you find the right API that works.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 15, 2020, 10:29:50 AM
@Antikore @Dezue
You could use Reshade. That might help make things less blurry. I tried it out myself in the PB title screen areas, and it really sharpened things up! Just download reshade https://reshade.me/ (https://reshade.me/) and then after downloading, run it, find the Platform Builder.exe file, select one of the graphics API's. I think you want the Direct 9 one, or maybe it's the 12. I don't remember. But it's one of those ones. You may have to try different ones to get it working right. IDK which effect's pack you'll have to get as I don't remember which ones I got. You could just download them all (but that'd take some time to download probably) but I recommend just getting a few and looking for sharpening effects using the search. Anyways, just load PB, and then an overlay should appear. Press the Home button on your keyboard to bring up your settings or Shift+F2. If you don't see the overlay, this means you don't have the API correctly set. Just run the installer again, find the PB exe, then uninstall it, then just repeat the process until you find the right API that works.
@Christian Game Maker (CGM) Is this thing patching the exe directly, or do we have to patch the game everytime we restart it?
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Antikore on October 15, 2020, 01:05:20 PM
@Christian Game Maker (CGM) Is this thing patching the exe directly, or do we have to patch the game everytime we restart it?
That's a good question
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 15, 2020, 08:02:18 PM
It installs DLL's into PB's game folder. So that whenever PB launches, it will launch with the DLLs which enable the shaders overlay.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 15, 2020, 08:11:13 PM
It installs DLL's into PB's game folder. So that whenever PB launches, it will launch with the DLLs which enable the shaders overlay.
Cool, will try this tomorrow.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 15, 2020, 08:19:59 PM
Ok, so apparently it is also allowed to ship it with our game for commercial use as long as we give credits:https://reshade.me/forum/general-discussion/5412-reshade-as-part-of-official-game-binary (https://reshade.me/forum/general-discussion/5412-reshade-as-part-of-official-game-binary)
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 15, 2020, 08:30:16 PM
Cool. I didn't know that. ;)
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: TingThing on October 16, 2020, 02:56:28 AM
Or.....


You guys would wait until PB 9 comes out.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 16, 2020, 03:11:42 AM
...Ah. But reshade can do more than just that for PB.
...or we could do that.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 16, 2020, 02:54:52 PM
...Ah. But reshade can do more than just that for PB.
...or we could do that.
Actually that's better, we don't have to rely on third-party softwares to just fix a graphical issue. Maybe we'll even get a vsync setting?
Also @TingThing did you seen my post on the 9.0 commands thread where I talk about the new action buttons? (https://theplatformbuilder.com/forums/index.php?topic=1726.msg10815#msg10815) I think it's inmportant that you see this.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 16, 2020, 03:00:56 PM
The software sounds quite interesting, thanks!
I'm still tendind to wait for PB9, though ;)

Oh, a vsync option would be swell, too!
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: CGM on October 16, 2020, 04:55:23 PM
I've never had a ned for vsync.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: TingThing on October 16, 2020, 06:43:48 PM
Also @TingThing did you seen my post on the 9.0 commands thread where I talk about the new action buttons? (https://theplatformbuilder.com/forums/index.php?topic=1726.msg10815#msg10815) I think it's inmportant that you see this.


Yup, I saw that, thanks!
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 16, 2020, 08:16:34 PM
Yup, I saw that, thanks!
(https://i.ibb.co/HrrFYyk/cons.png)
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 24, 2020, 12:59:06 AM
@TingThing One more question regarding the pixel perfect solution:
Would you happen to have a ballpark estimate about the release of PB9? I don't mean to put pressure on you or anything, just asking for planning purposes - any estimate you can give would help me.
Thanks!
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: TingThing on October 24, 2020, 02:13:52 AM
@Dezue A lot of this depends on the new art being done, and that is not really in my control. But I would guess early 2021.
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: War on October 24, 2020, 09:24:09 AM
@Dezue yall better be working on teh game in the meantime
Title: Re: Pixel perfect graphics
Post by: Dezue on October 24, 2020, 11:45:34 AM
@TingThing Early 2021 sure sounds awesome, thanks! Looking forward to it!

I'm always working on games @warrior ;)