-
Hey Guest! Ever feel like entering a Game Jam, but the time limit is always too much pressure? We get it... You lead a hectic life and dedicating 3 whole days to make a game just doesn't work for you! So, why not enter the GMC SLOW JAM? Take your time! Kick back and make your game over 4 months! Interested? Then just click here!
Graphics Sizes for Pixel Art Games
- Thread starter 11clock
- Start date
NightFrost
Member
For pixel art screen resolution I many times use 480x270, being a quarter of the rather common 1920*1080 display size. That can be stepped up if less pixely look is needed. Sprites and background tiles either 32 or 16 pixels, depending on type of game. Not a hard limit for my sprites, but tiling I usually restrict to those because I can speed up many calculations when a tile side is 2^N.
K
KriLL
Guest
Id say 1920x1080 is good bet these days since its the most common display. Im using vectors though which can scale to any resolution though.
11clock
Member
We are talking about pixel art games here, which are typically low res.
K
KriLL
Guest
True but you can still have pixel art at HD res. Id say best too keep the 16:9 aspect ratio.
Bingdom
Googledom
I use ranging from 16-32 pixel sprites. Commonly 24x24.
For small pixel games, I usually set my view to 640x360. Half of 720HD.
Sometimes my view is 960x540 for 32x32 sprites or larger. 75% of 720p.
I wouldn't recommend setting your views much lower than 640x360. The view can become choppy and smoother camera movement will be more difficult. That's just my opinion.
For small pixel games, I usually set my view to 640x360. Half of 720HD.
Sometimes my view is 960x540 for 32x32 sprites or larger. 75% of 720p.
I wouldn't recommend setting your views much lower than 640x360. The view can become choppy and smoother camera movement will be more difficult. That's just my opinion.
NightFrost
Member
Yes, staircase effect and pixel jitter in diagonal movement caused by fractional position changes can be noticeable if not smoothed out.I wouldn't recommend setting your views much lower than 640x360. The view can become choppy and smoother camera movement will be more difficult. That's just my opinion.
Siolfor the Jackal
Member
I always start in 256x224 because I think that was the default NES one. I just make sure to have pixel perfect scaling options.
G
gamedev4life
Guest
generally speaking, think of it like this: 8x8 is nes graphics (8bit); 16x16 is snes (16bit); 32x32 is ps1 (32bit) graphic styles. the characters in my game in the youtube in my sig are 32x64, and the space character in my portfolio in my sig is 32x32. hope that helps
NightFrost
Member
Also, what I have NOT found a good solution for is scrolling pixel art backgrounds at fractional speeds. When you move a background (or any image) in 270 or 360 tall screen at speeds like 40 / 60 (40 pixels across 60 steps) it creates a movement delta of 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0... While it is not exactly what one would call jittery, it leaves a clear impression in the eye that there's something in the movement that is not smooth. The only good solution seems to be to move 1 pixel a step exactly.
(We're talking about small pixel resolutions blown up to display size here, since some may be under different impression.)
(We're talking about small pixel resolutions blown up to display size here, since some may be under different impression.)
Hyomoto
Member
I have to disagree with @NightFrost and say the exact opposite happens when you don't use fractions, because at low resolutions it gives a very jittery appearance, especially if you are working at higher than 24fps. However, you do need to make sure that animated elements pass-through and stop on whole numbers or you will get visible distortion.
NightFrost
Member
That's interesting, I wonder how different methods we use. I'm saying integer speed is smooth because it creates no variance in time spent hopping from pixel to pixel. The 40/60 speed I mentioned above creates a situation where every third frame there is no motion. I'm not sure about the necessity of having whole numbers every step, as I don't think for example view position cares about the fractionals, as sub-pixel screen drawing obviously is not possible. However, just to be sure I always round positional information before use so fractions are never involved. Of course, if color interpolation is on things would be different, but I don' think that's a setting anyone should have turned on.
Hyomoto
Member
I do a lot of manual positioning and scaling, and for something like a tile it needs to be at a whole number when not in motion, however, during that time if I round the numbers off it makes it very jittery. GM does handle sub pixels pretty well as long as your math is correct, the only problem is when a static sprite is not on a whole number when drawn. Then you get pixel stretching and compression. We may actually be doing things very similar, but just describing it differently.
T
Tonydaderp
Guest
I am currently making a game for the next Gameboy jam on gamejolt and itch. So I have to have a screen resolution of 160 by 144.
NightFrost
Member
That might be it too, the only scaling I tend to do is app surface to screen.
Hyomoto
Member
Well, that's my favorite resolution to work in! For that you'll probably go with 8x8 sprites for a lot of things to maximize detail. This is my current project and it uses that resolution:
I make quite a bit of use of scaling and rotation and color, so it doesn't have a Gameboy aesthetic but the resolution is the same.