Question about resolution...

[Gasil]

Hello you all.

I'm having a tough time figuring out what resolution my game should have.

I'm really not sure if the size of the sprites are relevant to the resolution, I was expecting to use 1280*720 with sprites of 48x48; however I made a little mistake at the sprite creation and the characters are 48x48 and the tiles are doubled at 96x96...

If i resize the sprites to double, what resolution would you recommend me?

It's just that I'm not sure if I need to have some considerations when choosing it, or if any resolution goes well with any kind of sprite sizes.

Could you help me please? Thank you.

 

[CedSharp]

If you scale an image bigger, it will look fuzzy, you lose lots of visual quality.
If you scale an image smaller, it will look somewhat alright, you still lose a bit of quality.

If you disable interpolation and use a multiplier of the sprite size as a resolution, you can minimize a lot on quality impact.
(they call it pixel perfect resolutions. using 32x32 sprites? 1920x1056 is, for example, a multiplication of 60x33, while 1920x1080 (the hd gaming resolution) would give you a decimal for the height.)

If possible, try not to scale anything. Resize the sprite instead of the resolution.
If impossible, then try using a resolution that is a multiplication of a common base for all image size in your game.
If that is also impossible, then make sure to use a resolution where you have to scale your images smaller.

Avoid at all cost the need to scale any images bigger.

 

[Gasil]

If you scale an image bigger, it will look fuzzy, you lose lots of visual quality.
If possible, try not to scale anything. Resize the sprite instead of the resolution.
If impossible, then try using a resolution that is a multiplication of a common base for all image size in your game.
If that is also impossible, then make sure to use a resolution where you have to scale your images smaller.

Avoid at all cost the need to scale any images bigger.

Thank you kindly for the quickness.

Let's see, I don't think I want to scale anything, I'd do what you say and resize or create the sprite with the desired size. The only thing that could compromise the image quaility, is that I'd like to play with with the view cameras, sometimes I'd like it to zoom in and out in scenes, battles, etc.

If I use 96*96 sprites do you think a resolution of 1334*768 (divided by 96 it would be 14*8 squares, right?) is a good idea? And with the zoom in and out with the viewports, should I just zoom in x2, x4, x8 without risking quality?

 

[CedSharp]

If you want to be able to zoom on your game, the graphics that will be visible during the zoom should be already x2 (or x4 x8, whatever amount of zoom you use).
this way when you play, they will be scaled down, and when you zoom they will be full size.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

@CedSharp: You don't lose any image quality when you scale pixel art by integer values...technically, you don't lose quality in any image when scaling with integer values...you're just zooming in on the image, which makes the flaws of the image more apparent if you zoom in too far. The pixel density per square inch on a billboard is going to be much lower than the pixel density on a smart phone, but both look equally good to the viewer.

I don't think there are any pixel art games out there that don't scale the resolution on new monitors...not many pixel art titles designed for 4k, 1080p, or even even 720p, lol. My game is scaled by three...

For normal raster graphics, I agree...create them at their "zoomed in" size, and zoom out during the game, especially if you're using interpolation.

 

[CedSharp]

@CedSharp: You don't lose any image quality when you scale pixel art by integer values...technically, you don't lose quality in any image when scaling with integer values...you're just zooming in on the image, which makes the flaws of the image more apparent if you zoom in too far. The pixel density per square inch on a billboard is going to be much lower than the pixel density on a smart phone, but both look equally good to the viewer.

I don't think there are any pixel art games out there that don't scale the resolution on new monitors...not many pixel art titles designed for 4k, 1080p, or even even 720p, lol. My game is scaled by three...

What I meant is that if he leaves interpolation on, there will be a blurr effect and it'll look horrible.
Otherwise, you lose quality unless you zoom by integer like you say. If you use a fraction value, some rows/columns will be rendered with 2 pixels while their neightboor will have 1, which makes nasty distorded images.

By quality I'm talking ofc about what you see, not about the image itself. To the eye, the images looks either exactly like the original, or fuzzy/blurry which is what I call lost in quality.

 

[Gasil]

That's interesting, I think I understand now... Alright, I disabled interpolation in the options menu (GM2), My sprite is 48*48, and in Photoshop I scaled it to 96*96; so zooming to the screen x2 will show my "zoomed in" sprite. Am I right? Is zooming out more destructive than zooming in?

EDIT: No, wait, I'm confused still; while having double sized sprites, I can use the Zoom out as the default look of my game, then, zooming in will show the original sprites, with no scaling.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

@CedSharp: Well, yeah. Scaling by anything other than an integer value is going to result in the image being changed. It's best to avoid scaling by non-integers at all, if you can help it. If you can't help it, scaling down is better than scaling up for most normal art, when you're using interpolation. Scaling up for certain portions of the game is probably better for pixel art, instead.

I'd say it depends on the game, even with normal raster art, though. If the game only zooms in once every few hours, I'd rather play with native sized art than downscaled art for most of the game... better to have blur once in awhile than to have interpolated sprites the rest of the time.

And if your game was drawn to be displayed zoomed in, there's nothing wrong with zooming in the entire game. Pixel art is the most obvious example of this, but even normal raster art games don't suffer if they're zoomed by integer values - if I made a 1080p game this year with 1080p drawings, and patched the game next year to double the display size of the game to work on 4k tvs, would there be a loss of quality? Of course not - each actual pixel would just be drawn double wide and high, while the apparent picture to the viewer would stay exactly the same. That's why I was a little confused about your "never scale the resolution" comment. Maybe you just meant not to scale by non-integer values?

 

[Gasil]

Holy crap, I'm enlightened, thank you both guys, I think I know what I'll go with for the rest of the game, you are awesome.