Inkscape , Pixel art & GameSalad (blurry)

freneticz

Hi

Im trying to make a game with pixel art (never done before) i make a 8x8 px picture i have anti-alising off and i pixel-snap before i export it in 90dpi ....its look good in inkscape and after i export it but after i import it to gs its little blurry.

Do GS smooth it out or should i export it 3 or 4 times bigger (read that its best to make pixel art in that size you will have it)

Anybody here that use inkscape and making pixel art? and can point me in the right direction.

UncloudedStudio

@freneticz I was working on an iPad project with pixel art but it always looked slightly blurred no matter how big or small the artwork.

I've investigated the problem extensively with @socks and there is a workaround by changing the camera origin X and Y by 0.5px

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/92719/blurred-artwork

I tried everything to get it to look crips but no luck and i'm not happy with the camera origin 0.5px workaround and so I abandoned the project.

In this thread someone is experiencing similar problems
http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/588106#Comment_588106

Does it look blurry on your desktop, phone, viewer?

freneticz

@UncloudedStudio

Hmm dont sounds good, why not happy with camera workaround...is it not working?
I will anyway get my game done i build in iphone 5 landscape (dont know why) but i want to have it in 160x144(gameboy) but when i change camsize to that its get even more blurry

Will see how this going to be

UncloudedStudio

@freneticz it's working but it's not perfect.

It's just that this problem needs to be fixed by GS and I know they're not going to fix it anytime soon so I don't want to release my game and possibly kill it's potential because the artwork is blurring sometimes (even with the offset trick).

Forumninja said he would look into it after the GS update, he was hoping on the next week, that was 3,5 months ago.

freneticz

@ForumNinja take a look here we need this fixed ...

tatiang

Not sure if this is the issue but I believe you still need to import images at 72 dpi.

Socks

@tatiang said:
Not sure if this is the issue but I believe you still need to import images at 72 dpi.

The resolution of your images has no effect beyond telling GameSalad what size your actor should be, a 256 x 256 pixel image at 800ppi is identical to a 256 x 256 pixel image at 72ppi (or 0.02ppi or 10,000,000ppi), so if you're importing a 400 x 400 pixel image that you are going to apply to a 200 x 200 pixel actor the resolution of that image is irreverent as in this case you are not even relying on GS to size your actor, as you already know it's 200 x 200 pixels . . . . . make sense !?

freneticz

I just read that 90dpi is best for pixel art, but i dont know.......anyway i do all my art in 90 now

its nice when 1px is 1px in inkscape

RowdyPants

@freneticz One thing to try if your art is blurry is to make sure your actors are being placed exactly on the integer coordinates. Remove any .5 or .628 etc. from the actor's X and Y coordinates. Also, try to draw your art so that your actor size is divisible by four. If you can, keep your camera size at a nice clean ratio to your screen size (1:1 or 1:2 or 1:3 like GS defaults to in alignment with the 'points' (not pixels) of iDevices.

Don't worry about dpi so much as addressing each pixel on the screen. If you leave your camera at the default size on say an iPhone 5 preset it will be 320 x 568 which is half of the iPhone 5 screen resolution 640 x 1136 which means to address each pixel you'll just make your art at 2x which means when you bring in your say 64 x 64 image you'll put it in an actor that is 32 x 32.

You can always make your camera size and screen the same as the device you're building for and then to address each pixel on the screen you'd just use your art at 1x so when you bring in a 64 x 64 image you'll put it in an actor that is 64 x 64.

freneticz

@RowdyPants said:
@freneticz One thing to try if your art is blurry is to make sure your actors are being placed exactly on the integer coordinates. Remove any .5 or .628 etc. from the actor's X and Y coordinates. Also, try to draw your art so that your actor size is divisible by four. If you can, keep your camera size at a nice clean ratio to your screen size (1:1 or 1:2 or 1:3 like GS defaults to in alignment with the 'points' (not pixels) of iDevices.

All this i always do.

Don't worry about dpi so much as addressing each pixel on the screen. If you leave your camera at the default size on say an iPhone 5 preset it will be 320 x 568 which is half of the iPhone 5 screen resolution 640 x 1136 which means to address each pixel you'll just make your art at 2x which means when you bring in your say 64 x 64 image you'll put it in an actor that is 32 x 32.

You can always make your camera size and screen the same as the device you're building for and then to address each pixel on the screen you'd just use your art at 1x so when you bring in a 64 x 64 image you'll put it in an actor that is 64 x 64.

Well i building universal, one game for all sizes

freneticz

@Socks said:
The resolution of your images has no effect beyond telling GameSalad what size your actor should be, a 256 x 256 pixel image at 800ppi is identical to a 256 x 256 pixel image at 72ppi (or 0.02ppi or 10,000,000ppi), so if you're importing a 400 x 400 pixel image that you are going to apply to a 200 x 200 pixel actor the resolution of that image is irreverent as in this case you are not even relying on GS to size your actor, as you already know it's 200 x 200 pixels . . . . . make sense !?

So the ppi/dpi do not matter at all?

And make the art 2 or 3 times bigger then the actor you will use it in is not going to do any different ??

Socks

@freneticz said:
So the ppi/dpi do not matter at all?

If you know the absolute pixel size (for example 400 x 400 pixels) of your actor then you have all the information you need, the ppi value is irrelevent, just make sure the image is 800 x 800 pixels, you can make it 800 x 800 pixels at 100ppi or 4ppi or 40,000ppi if you like, it will have no effect on the image.

@freneticz said:
And make the art 2 or 3 times bigger then the actor you will use it in is not going to do any different ??

I don't know what this means ?

Socks

@freneticz said:
Im trying to make a game with pixel art (never done before) i make a 8x8 px picture i have anti-alising off and i pixel-snap before i export it in 90dpi ....its look good in inkscape and after i export it but after i import it to gs its little blurry.

What is the size of your actor ?

freneticz

@Socks said:

@freneticz said:
So the ppi/dpi do not matter at all?

If you know the absolute pixel size (for example 400 x 400 pixels) of your actor then you have all the information you need, the ppi value is irrelevent, just make sure the image is 800 x 800 pixels, you can make it 800 x 800 pixels at 100ppi or 4ppi or 40,000ppi if you like, it will have no effect on the image.

@freneticz said:
And make the art 2 or 3 times bigger then the actor you will use it in is not going to do any different ??

I don't know what this means ?

I mean if i want a actor with size 16x16 there is no use to make it 32x32 (4 times bigger)in inkscape?

freneticz

@Socks said:

@freneticz said:
Im trying to make a game with pixel art (never done before) i make a 8x8 px picture i have anti-alising off and i pixel-snap before i export it in 90dpi ....its look good in inkscape and after i export it but after i import it to gs its little blurry.

What is the size of your actor ?

In this case 8x8 , but same on all 16x16 24x24 whatever

Socks

@freneticz said:
I mean if i want a actor with size 16x16 there is no use to make it 32x32 (4 times bigger)in inkscape?

I've not said this.

Socks

@freneticz said:
In this case 8x8 ,

Ideally the image should be twice the resolution of the actor, here you have an 8x8 pixel image on an 8x8 pixel actor, which will appear soft/blurry on - for example - Retina devices.

@freneticz said:
but same on all 16x16 24x24 whatever

Sorry, I don't know what you mean here ?

freneticz

@Socks said:

@freneticz said:
I mean if i want a actor with size 16x16 there is no use to make it 32x32 (4 times bigger)in inkscape?

I've not said this.

No, but that was my understanding you mean so but ok i will make all art in that way from now on.

freneticz

@Socks said:

@freneticz said:
In this case 8x8 ,

Ideally the image should be twice the resolution of the actor, here you have an 8x8 pixel image on an 8x8 pixel actor, which will appear soft/blurry on - for example - Retina devices.

Yes will do like i said in last post

@freneticz said:
but same on all 16x16 24x24 whatever

Sorry, I don't know what you mean here ?

You ask what size my actor was, and i mean i have many different actors in different sizes
all get blurry.