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[happymonster]

Here's one of the images I made that I have just enlarged. It is anti-aliased, although not as much as could be used:



It is not vector based, the shapes are bitmaps. That is why I need a layer of code on top of the basic tools to deal with triangle based lines, etc..

I can see why a full vector shape approach would be much more powerful, but that is beyond the scope of my abilities at the moment.

[happymonster]

Maybe you are right Lee, perhaps it would be better to try to use a pure vector based approach. It would involve gutting the engine and rewriting most of the code though. Perhaps for a future version!!

[Lee]

Ah, I see if it's all bitmap based with a graphics library interface then I can see how doing vector stuff would be a lot more complex. I wasn't meaning to push too hard with the vector stuff, just trying to show that it isn't necessarily as complex as you may have thought.

How are you enlarging and AA-ing stuff then?

[happymonster]

The original tiles are 64 x 64. Then as a one off I shrink the tiles in software with bilinear filtering and save them out as data files for each size. It makes it easy for me to add or change tiles with a normal paint program.

[surt]

Hmmm, for vector-like results from raster sources maybe you could do something interesting with signed distance fields as used for real-time rendering of scalable fonts.

[happymonster]

Funnily enough, I've read that article before. Very clever!

[happymonster]

Version 0.52 (Alpha):
--
* Fixed error where Tixel layer under mouse cursor was being incorrectly read when the camera was scrolled
* Stopped shape, orientation and pattern selections being made accidentally when scrolling the screen with the middle mouse button
* Added empty and filled box tool
* Added 2 smooth line variants for manual drawing of horizontal or vertical lines
* Added 3 types of automatic image area smoothing (favour darks, balanced and favour lights). Balanced produces the best results but tends to be harder to edit afterwards
* Redrawn icons
--

Please have a go and see if the new tools make things easier.

[happymonster]

Version 0.53 (Alpha):
--
* Fixed an undo related bug when the image was 1024 pixels in width or height
* Many improvements to the Balanced image smoothing!
--

I ran a brilliant mockup of Arne's (one of my favourite artists) through the new Automatic smoothing:

[happymonster]

I'm thinking of reverting back to 256 palette based colours. I wanted to have in the large colour palette to make it easy to select colours when drawing from scratch (which works), but I don't like how the colours change when an image is loaded into the editor.

I think it will be mostly used to edit existing graphics so I don't need to worry so much about selecting new colours.

Any thoughts?

[pmprog]

TBH, I've not really had much chance to play with this lately, however I love the look of your Ghosts 'n' Goblins mockup

[happymonster]

Thanks, but it's arne's work. I just ran it through the program as I also like it a lot and it has some nice curved areas to work with.

[happymonster]

I'm in the middle of changing the editor (and engine) to a palette based approach. A lot of work, but will make for accurate colours when importing images.

It also means moving Tixel to more of an editor of existing bitmap graphics rather than being more like a paint program.

[AxezDNyde]

did this paper http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kopf/pixelart/paper/pixel.pdf show up in this thread?

Your results remind me of this work.

[happymonster]

Yes I've seen this before, it's not the same approach as what is used in Tixel but it's still interesting!

[happymonster]

Here is how Tixel looks at the moment. As you can see I've changed the interface quite a bit and streamlined it (you now switch between shapes and patterns). It now works with palette based 256 colour images (although you can load true colour images as well as long as they don't have more than 256 colours).



A bit more to do with converting it all for 256 colour palettes though..

[happymonster]

Version 0.54 (Alpha)
--
* Changed the program to a palette based 256 colours approach. This means less colours available (and you can't edit them except in a paint program), but accurate colours and more suitable for editing
* Added a new default palette
* Streamlined the interface to work with a smaller palette: Palette area is smaller, changed the shape attributes and pattern attributes display into a toggle between the two types. Also removed the displays showing all orientations of shapes and patterns as whilst pretty they weren't really needed.
* Added Right Click on the New Image icon now restores default palette
* Some bug fixes
--

(Any old Tixel files will no longer load, but I don't think anyone has used this seriously anyway..)

[robberguy189]

I downloaded this today to try it out, but whenever I save tixel files as a png the result is a blacked-out canvas.  I'm assuming this is the only way to change the size of shapes -- saving the tixel file under a certain scale and then importing it.

[happymonster]

Hmm.. do you have the tixel file you are trying to save as a PNG so I can have a look? The normal editor workspace when you start the program is saved as 'editor.tixi'

With regards to changing the size of shapes, you can alter the zoom factor when you are editing. Is this what you meant?

[Impossible Realms]

Got an error saying "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)." Shame, as I was looking forward to trying it out, even though it's unlikely I'd use anything made with it in one of my games.

[happymonster]

Did you unzip everything before running it? It uses SDL so I thought it would work ok on most PC's.