Upscaling Retro 8-Bit Pixel Art To Vector Graphics [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

An anonymous reader writes "Two researchers — Johannes Kopf from Microsoft, and Dani Lischinski from The Hebrew University — have successfully created an algorithm that depixelizes and upscales low-resolution 8-bit 'pixel art' into lush vector graphics. The algorithm identifies pixel-level details (original paper — PDF) to accurately shade the new image — but more importantly, the algorithm can create smooth, curved contour lines from only-connected-on-the-diagonal single pixels. At long last, we might be able to play Super Mario Bros. on a big screen without stretching our beloved plumber's pixels to breaking point. You really must look at the sample images." Scroll down in the paper to see how their technique stacks up against some others, including Adobe's Live Trace.http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fsto ry%2F11%2F05%2F24%2F2355239%2FUpscaling-Retro-8-Bit-Pixel-Art-To-Vector-Graphics%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfa cebook) http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (http://twitter.com/home?status=Upscaling+Retro+8-Bit+Pixel+Art+To+Vector+Graphics%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fb it.ly%2Fk9D8gs)

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[Oobgarm]

Here's an image f what they're talking about if you can't get the PDF to load, like myself:

http://imgur.com/a/gRXPJ

It's an interesting idea, but isn't part of the charm of old games the pixelation?

[badinsults]

The Yoshi's Island Yoshi looks pretty ugly using this technique, as does the Battle Blaze character. I actually think that the HQ4x algorithm does a nicer job by the looks of things, but then again, I prefer the nearest neighbour extrapolation while playing.

[cynicalhat]

popular emulators do things like this and i always call it "the ugly filter"

[Bratwurst]

The implications of this are that low-res raster images of any kind have another option when converting into a vector graphic, and this looks to be more accurate.

[Drath]

This definitely some cool tech. Not necessarily for games, but low-res artwork and the like. At first when reading this, I though this was completely something else, like an algorithm that would vectorize pixels into vector blocks so that you could scale them without blurring/degradation, which would in fact be very useful for many applications.

[Bratwurst]

This definitely some cool tech. Not necessarily for games, but low-res artwork and the like. At first when reading this, I though this was completely something else, like an algorithm that would vectorize pixels into vector blocks so that you could scale them without blurring/degradation, which would in fact be very useful for many applications.

I thought that pretty much already exists, or at the least you can just scale a bitmap all day at nearest neighbor with a 1:1 ratio.

[BetaWolf47]

That actually looks pretty decent. Wouldn't mind seeing some classic games rendered like that in realtime. I'm with Evan_G on emulator filters though. Stuff like Super Eagle and HQ4x just makes games look like melted plastic.

[Drath]

I thought that pretty much already exists, or at the least you can just scale a bitmap all day at nearest neighbor with a 1:1 ratio.

Was going to see if somebody would bring that up. While it's true downscalling and upscalling in nearest neighbor will achieve this (kind of, i'll explain), they are still pixels, therefore, if you to scale down artwork that is already 1x1 pixel, pixels will get lost because you can't half a pixel. And because they are still pixels, you can't skew, rotate, or transform them without degradation. Now, if they were all "vector pixels", you could do all that and more, and in real time without re-scalling bitmap data.

Either way, sounds like I have a new weekend project, haha.