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I've been experimenting with LiveTrace recently, I find that I have to tidy up the vectors to get a satisfying result. With this program, I don't need to!

Yeah, thanks to authors who spend their time creating these algorithm and release it to public without price just like Chris Jones who create AGS.

Well, I guess then you would have to resize the background without the sprites and objects first and then draw the sprites and objects resized with this filter in top of it otherwise these nice outline might be blended in with the bg. As much as I like crisp pixel art I'd surely give it a try. Maybe even optimise pixelart to this filter if it was ever implemented in the engine.

That doesn't necessary, because new filter called xBR have feature for not blending the image that we resize which mean there aren't additional colors in the result image. So the number of unique colors from original and the result remain same and pixel art will stay as pixel art but with smoother appearance as illustrated in following screenshot:

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I don't know if we are allowed to use the code under GNU GPL though (having engine under Artistic License). I apologise, but I am really not very well versed in understanding license restrictions and compatibilities  .

Yeah, GPL and Artistic License 1.0  is incompatible that means either AGS or xBR should relicensing its software under compatible license. I contacted the author of xBR and fortunately he willing to re-license xBR source code under LGPL that means AGS can adopt it as external library/module without the needed to relicensing AGS itself.

I am very curious to see next release of AGS with this filter.


Best regards,

RyanBram

The results look similar to the Illustrator LiveTrace function. Interesting.

Yeah, it is interesting. Thanks, Eric. But there is something more interesting. You can trace the original pictures above with Illustrator LiveTrace and see that ImageResizer will give better results than Illustrator LiveTrace  , because  it wasn't designed for tracing such a small picture. And the most interesting is ImageResizer is free and opensource.

Or you can see below comparison :
1. Image Resizer

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2. Illustrator LiveTrace

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[1. Description]

I started this topic for supporting another thread that I made in AGS Engine Development.

1. Description
Image resizer is a free software designed for resizing image especially for upscaling low res pixel art image multiple times. This software contains many pixel art scaling algorithm that only can be found in video game emulators as image filter.

Screenshot:

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2. Usage
The user interface is very straightforward, you just:
- Choose an image that you want to upscale;
- Choose scaling method that you desire (I recommended use xBR 3x <NoBlend>, but another method is also worth to be tried);
- Set another parameter if necessary;
- Save as your image.

3. Limitations
The limitation of these pixel art algorithm are they only capable for magnifying picture in predefined size, such as 2x, 3x, or 4x and cannot be used to shrink images. The solution when you want to resize you picture with custom size is to magnify the picture with the pixel art scaling algorithms first, then shrink it with lanczos or another filter to the desired size. For example, a pixel art image with dimension 2x2 pixel want to be scaled until 7x7 pixel (almost 4 times of its original size). So the solution is by using - let's say - Hq4x filter to magnify it until 8x8 pixel, then shrink it with lanczos filter to 7x7 pixel. The image will looks perfectly with this method.

4. Comparison
- This image is scaled four times:

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- This image is scaled four times:

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- Guybrush Threepwood sprite from  Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge  is scaled 12 times:

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NEAREST NEIGHBOUR


xBR 3x <NoBlend>

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5. Download
You can obtain the program at its main site, just make sure .Net Framework 4 is installed in your computer.


Best regards,

RyanBram

Current version of AGS (3.2.1) has three graphics filter. Those are Nearest Neighbour (2x, 3x, 4x), and Hqx (2x and 3x). But I just read that there is a new filter called xBR (stands for Scaling by Rules) developed by Hyllian. xBR seems exceeds Nearest Neighbour and even Hqx in term of quality as shown in below screenshot :

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I think it will be nice if AGS also incorporate this filter to giving better experience for players especially when playing low res games in HD screen.

The development thread can be found at: http://board.byuu.org/viewtopic.php?f=10=2248
And the source code (xbr.cpp) can be found at: http://sourceforge.net/p/paintown/code/7849/tree/trunk/src/util/graphics/sdl/
Standalone software can be seen at this thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=47954.0

Regards,

RyanBram

Hi, greetings.
My name is Ryan and I'm new here. This is my new post and english isn't my native language.
I just want to tell site admin that the AGS Main Site FAQ seems outdated especially in parts:

Q. Then can I have the source code, to port it myself?
A. Sorry, AGS is not open-source. There are many reasons for this which I will not go into here. The main two are:
(1) I made another application open-source in the past, and someone took it, changed the copyright and tried to release it as their own
(2) The AGS file formats are proprietary to make it harder for people to "hack" other people's games. If the source code was available, it would be easy for someone to write some sort of de-compiler for use with other peoples games.

Q. But the GPL will protect you... go on, can I have the source?
A. No it won't. In theory it does, but what happens when someone goes and breaches it? I don't have the time or energy to waste chasing up lamers who have blatantly ignored the license agreement. Sorry.

AFAIK AGS is currently open sourced under Artistic License. Am I right?