ID:968345
 
Keywords: filter, graphics
Applies to:Dream Maker
Status: Open

Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
I was recently playing Casual Quest and the graphics filter was acting strangely. For some odd reason, it was flickering on and off.

I had the game's window setting at 2x zoom. The game's original icon size is 16x16, so the zoom brought them to a perfect 32x32. Now, one would think that a perfect 2x scale would have no need for a filter but it filtered it out anyways making everything look hideous. I used to just put up with this while playing Casual Quest (16x16 was just too small of a window size for me). However, since the filter was turning on and off I got to see how spectacular the game looked without it.

Here's two screenshots comparing when the filter was on and when it randomly turned off: http://files.byondhome.com/Fugsnarf/ CQ%20Filter%20On%20Off.png

Notice that when the filter is on while the game is perfectly scaled 2x, some things are tainted so drastically that they're barely recognizable, such as the bird in the first screenshot. Now, instead of making this a bug report (because I have no idea what the issue might be) I simply want to propose that there be an option to manually disable the graphics filter.

Let me show another odd thing about the graphics filter. It, for some reason, doesn't filter when something is perfectly scaled down. Here's an example of what I mean. Awhile ago I worked on a Zelda game. I decided to scale up the sprites from 16x16 to 32x32. Thus, the icon size is 32x32 for the world. Here's a screenshot of 1x zoom, 1/2x zoom, and 2x zoom: http://files.byondhome.com/Fugsnarf/Zelda%201x%202x%203x.png

The 1/2x zoom does not filter at all, which is weird. The 1x zoom also obviously does not filter. However, the 2x zoom does filter, and it doesn't look nearly as good. So, my point is made. There's no reason why games that are perfectly scaled 2x, 3x, or even 10000x should have a default filter on them. It only makes it look fuzzy and mushy instead of crisp and pixel-perfect. I propose two things. I'll list them below:

Requests
1. A preferences option to disable or enable the filter in real time made available to all players.

2. An option in Dream Maker (whether via code or the interface editor) to force disable the filter for the game. (Players could still re-enable it themselves if they actually want a filter).

Reason
The filter looks horrible when it's implemented in a perfectly scaled environment. There are also many players out there that feel like puking when they have to play a game with a filter instead of crisp, pixel-perfect graphics (such as myself).

It just makes sense for this to be an option, and it shouldn't be a difficult thing at all to implement. The screenshots prove my point.
I agree. This is one of the largest hang ups I have about working with 16x16 graphics and upscaling them since they become blurry unrecognizable messes. Being able to disable the filter would be lovely.
It's come to my attention that BYOND does not actually have a built-in filter. Regardless, something needs to be done about this because there are many problems with scaling.

My graphics card is by no means out of date. I have a brand new laptop with all the best up-to-date stuff I could get. There's no reason that my graphics card (especially considering it's not an old one) should decide whether I get a disgusting filter on my scaled BYOND games or not.
...Am I the only one who doesn't notice this? My game works perfectly with upscaled graphics at 32 pixels.
I've noticed this to.
Some graphics cards never go blurry. That is, each pixel has sharp edges at all times and it doesn't switch.

Some graphics cards always show the map blurry regardless of scale. It'd be nice if this were optional, because some art styles might actually call for it.
In response to Kaiochao
Kaiochao wrote:
Some graphics cards never go blurry. That is, each pixel has sharp edges at all times and it doesn't switch.

Some graphics cards always show the map blurry regardless of scale. It'd be nice if this were optional, because some art styles might actually call for it.

Mine seems to switch constantly depending on the amount of colors on the screen from various icons.
Question is: is there even anything to disable? Is it the graphics cards reacting to something? Is there a filter of any kind being activated at all?

If there is a filter of any kind, whether it is activated on the client side or not (whatever the heck is going on), I propose it have an option to be disabled.
In response to Kaiochao
Kaiochao wrote:
Some graphics cards never go blurry. That is, each pixel has sharp edges at all times and it doesn't switch.

Some graphics cards always show the map blurry regardless of scale.

I want to know why this is.
Yes, there is something to disable. It's a linear interpolation setting for textures. Some graphics cards default to nearest neigbor, some default to antialiasing.
There have been requests for this in the past, but to no avail. http://www.byond.com/members/ WarlordFred?command=view_post&post=96897
In response to Metamorphman
Metamorphman wrote:
There have been requests for this in the past, but to no avail. http://www.byond.com/members/ WarlordFred?command=view_post&post=96897

And not even a single response, that's just sad.
Lummox made one response asking to get more details. I think plenty of details have been given and I've made it clear what I'm asking for. Hopefully we'll see a response of some kind soon by Tom or Lummox.
Luckily my card defaults to NN instead of AA, however since others experience this issue, I'll modify my Gi2W entry to strictly use multiples of 32 in icon-size instead of letting the stretch handle it.

I agree with this though, we should have the option to turn this on/off/use a different algorithm for the filtering. Perhaps a setting that video cards use per-program that can be overridden?
I've been looking into the graphics because there seem to be a lot of issues, so hopefully we'll come up with something better.
Whoo, Tom, you rock my socks. =)
In response to Tom
Tom wrote:
I've been looking into the graphics because there seem to be a lot of issues, so hopefully we'll come up with something better.

OpenGL wrappers have evolved a lot since you last declined them, Tom. It might be time.
Yeah, people have been doing some crazy stuff with OpenGL recently.