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[Terry]

I figured I should start a new topic for this rather than continue to hijack the eegra thread

As previously promised in this thread, I've put together a little program to automatically generate subpixel messages. Here's an example of it at work!



That should be just about legible if you're using an LCD monitor set at its highest resolution! Each letter is 1x5 pixels in size.

I've got no idea what possible use this could have, but maybe someone else out there does! Download it here. Instructions included! I've included the source code too - consider it public domain!

Think of the possibilities! Sub-pixel roguelikes! Sub-pixel interactive fiction! Sub-pixel DISCUSSions!

[Jrsquee]

Good LORD that is some massive eyestrain right there.

I didn't get it at first, but holy crap!  It's like magic now that I can sorta read it.

[Farbs]

Haha, nice choice of text.

[Terry]

Thanks It was that or the lyrics to "Never Gonna Give You Up".

[Terry]

Oh, what the hell. I can't resist :D

[Inane]

My eyes hurt and I still can't read them. DAMN YOU

[Farbs]

Quick Q:
Why the full pixel gap between characters? Did it all get too mushy otherwise? You're currently using two pixels per character (including spacing), whereas you could shrink it down to only one and a third.

[Terry]

Quick Q:
Why the full pixel gap between characters? Did it all get too mushy otherwise? You're currently using two pixels per character (including spacing), whereas you could shrink it down to only one and a third.

I gave it a shot, but with the colours so close together at that resolution it's too noisy to make anything out For example, this is supposed to say "awesome":

[Hideous]

Yeah, that's unreadable.


Now someone go register the domain "nocrt.com" and use these to make a website CRT users can't read, with a new message every week.

[Annabelle Kennedy]

i have two monitors, and both LCD, and i was looking at it for the longest time trying to read the 'never gonna give you up' lyrics, and there were tons of unreadable bits that i just couldnt figure out.  after just about giving up - just for kicks i moved it to the other screen, which is smaller (both screens are at native res) and like magic it became readable, almost like, a second line appeared on some letters... i can't explain it, but now my brain hurts.

[Hideous]

ocx = bad choice of format.

[Farbs]

I think the main problem I have with viewing these is that my red and green elements are waaaay brighter than my blue, so usually I can't see the right column of pixels at all. Multiplying the whole image by (77,80,255) in 0-255 space made it much easier for me, though obviously the actual colour would depend on your monitor and its calibration.



The "awesome" text was almost legible under these conditions, but only after I gave it a bit black background to display against.

So who's going to be the first person to write an entire biography in their forum avatar?

EDIT: Added the following image. I'm sure everyone here understands how this works, but it's still really cool to see it up close. Nice one Terry.

[Zaphos]

So cool 

I can see Farbs' version better on my monitor, for what it's worth.

(... also: now my eyes hurt)

[Corpus]

I made a crappy monochrome ship sprite using 1x3 'pixels' and redrew it to use subpixels.

->

It wasn't very clear as black on white, so I tried the inverse:

->

I'm not really sure what I think. They're certainly visible, but I'm they're not as clear as I would like them to be. I'm going to try it using 2x3 pixels instead, so that lines are more spaced out. If that works well, I might see if I can write a program that takes a monochrome image and converts it into a subpixel image :}


EDIT: Sorry if this is a thread hijack. I thought it was related.

[Hideous]

I'm not sure that's even very subpixely.

[Corpus]

Well, it's constructed of blocks 0.333.. pixels wide and 1 pixel high.

[Hideous]

STill doesn't uhm "feel" like it has the same effect as the text, though.

[Corpus]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'll have to see how it works using 0.66 x 1 instead.

Anyway. Awesome stuff, Terry!

[Annabelle Kennedy]

i might try recommending what farbs did to the text for your sprite, becuase it seemed to make the text pop a lot more.

also - just in the general subject of subpixels, what if a game was coded that like, everything was displayed, including movement, in subpixels.  just like a super low rez space shooter or something as proof of concept.  maybe i'm crazy.  but it sounds interesting.

[Corpus]

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said about doing a game using subpixels in the Eegra thread. It would probably be tricky just in terms of visual design, but it would probably be pretty interesting, too. That might even make a good idea for the next TIG competition. Well, maybe another one sometime, since it isn't really that long since Gamma 256.

For the zoomed mode, like fullscreen or whatever, you could make the code just render the subpixels as whole pixels, or groups of pixels (rather than scaling up the pixels which create the subpixel effect, which would obviously just give you lots of colourful blocks...)

I found Farbs' thing more difficult to read, so I guess it depends on your monitor and maybe even on your eyes. Maybe you could do a similar thing to what he's done, but allowing the user to calibrate the colour offset.

Also, "like fullscreen or whatever." shudder.