AuthorTopic: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014  (Read 168920 times)

Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #300 on: December 28, 2013, 12:18:22 pm
I just discovered XZoom again.. paying more attention this time, I realize in addition to 'vanilla' magnification it can also have independent X/Y magnification (for widepixel/tallpixel previews in apps that don't support them well), rotation and flipping. In conjunction with the ability to use 1x 'magnification', this is pretty nice. Semi-realtime flipped/rotated view is wonderful for drawing.
Also has a 'grid' option, Mac 'FatBits' style. Even the option of keyboard navigation!

(Linux ..only?, if the name didn't clue you in. Might work on Mac.)

GraFX2 screenshot with magnifier mode, plus XZoom window providing widepixel view in top right corner.

If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline surt

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #301 on: December 29, 2013, 05:33:44 am
When converting less than 8-bits-per-channel colours to 8-bits-per-channel I can see three possibilities.
eg. 2-bit to 8-bit:

Code: [Select]
Lower range
0 -> 0
1 -> 63
2 -> 127
3 -> 191
Code: [Select]
Upper range
0 -> 63
1 -> 127
2 -> 191
3 -> 255
Code: [Select]
Stretched range
0 -> 0
1 -> 85
2 -> 170
3 -> 255

Lower and upper can benefit from bit-shifting, but lose much of the colour range.
Stretched maintains the colour range but can't take advantage of bit-shifting.

Is there any real reason to support options other than stretched?
Are there proper names for these?

Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #302 on: December 29, 2013, 05:49:00 am
When converting less than 8-bits-per-channel colours to 8-bits-per-channel I can see three possibilities.
eg. 2-bit to 8-bit:

Code: [Select]
Lower range
0 -> 0
1 -> 63
2 -> 127
3 -> 191
Code: [Select]
Upper range
0 -> 63
1 -> 127
2 -> 191
3 -> 255
Code: [Select]
Stretched range
0 -> 0
1 -> 85
2 -> 170
3 -> 255

Lower and upper can benefit from bit-shifting, but lose much of the colour range.
Stretched maintains the colour range but can't take advantage of bit-shifting.

Is there any real reason to support options other than stretched?
Yes, if you're an emulator.SMS, Genesis, SNES used a 'clipped' color range, of the type you label 'lower range' here.
Not really that relevant if you're not an emulator though.. unless you're going for an mild oilpainting/muted effect.
Or a washed out / pastel effect (in the case of 'upper range').
You could possibly use different variants for sprites vs tiles vs cutsceneish/portrait stuff to save space / enforce aesthetics, but this strikes me as serious overoptimizing.

Quote
Are there proper names for these?

'Normalized' is the correct mathematical name for stretched. What you call 'lower range' I call 'clipped', but this is not an official term, though it is a mathematical one. 'upper range' I like to call "why would you DO that!".. kidding, I hadn't even considered the possibility of doing things that way until you posted this.
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline surt

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #303 on: December 29, 2013, 08:16:12 pm
Another (useless) possibility
Code: [Select]
Centred (steps + half-step)
0 -> 31
1 -> 95
2 -> 159
3 -> 223

I only know the meaning of "normalized" from vector maths where it's scaling to the unit range which doesn't seem to fit here.

ProMotion seems to have just the lower clipped and stretched range ("Always stretch channel values to 0...255 range" is the terminology it uses).

I'm liking "clipped" and "stretched".

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #304 on: January 01, 2014, 01:46:06 am
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #305 on: January 01, 2014, 01:59:50 am
Happy new year, folks! Will this be the year of The Pixel Cluster? I hope it will!

 :yay:
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #306 on: January 01, 2014, 02:44:43 am
Happy new year, everyone :)
Discord: Ennea#9999

Offline Mathias

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #307 on: January 01, 2014, 06:38:49 am
Wow, 2014 already. Crazy.
I'm actually going to create some new pixel art this year. Mark my word! (oh god . . .)

Life is currently shifting around in drastic ways for me, some good, some bad. But nonetheless, I'm impelled to be more productive and learn faster, this year. FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS

Let's have a good year.

To Sven and the Pix mods; people who keep one of my all time favorite websites going - thank you!

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #308 on: January 01, 2014, 06:37:31 pm
Happy new year, may the goatlord look over you in favour

Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #309 on: January 06, 2014, 05:33:52 am
Just implemented 'Hard edge' and 'Winding fill' options for Krita 'Experiment brush', these options enable you to work exactly as you would with GraFX2's Contour-fill tool or TVPaint's cutbrush:


(shown shapes are the result of a triangle-in-triangle motion)

If I'm really lucky, this will end up in Krita 2.8. Otherwise it will wait for the next major release after that.
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.