Enhanced 64x64 tiles for FAangband

[Valro]

Here is an improvement that I brought to 64x64 tiles on the variant FAangband.

I used G'MIC Smooth anisotropic filter (PhotoComiX) and some aditional filters in GIMP software.
My goal was to improve the big problem pixelated tiles David Gervais. In the original file, these tiles were double from 32x32 to 64x64 to fill the hole left by the incomplete Shockbolt's tiles.

I hope you enjoy!

p.s.: (sorry for my english, I'm a french speaker!)

Link to download the final file: 64x64.aa.png
Rename de file to 64x64.png and replace your original file.


Below, a sample of the results.

[Nick]

Very nice, thank you! I will use those when I ever update FAangband.

[Patashu]

IMO you can't improve pixel art by applying any kind of filter to it. The problem is, pixel art is already designed such that there IS no useful information left that an algorithm could 'extract' (if a detail is important it's blown up until it's legible in the process of spriting it to begin with, is what I mean, so everything is already as emphasized as it can be if it needs to be, or doesn't exist)

[Valro]

To Patashu :
I never claimed created more detail with nothing. I only used a filter to remove pixelation. And G'MIC anisotropic filter has done a very significant improvement.

[Valro]

To Nick :
I'm glad you like!

And thanks to you for your very great variant.

[Nick]

IMO you can't improve pixel art by applying any kind of filter to it. The problem is, pixel art is already designed such that there IS no useful information left that an algorithm could 'extract' (if a detail is important it's blown up until it's legible in the process of spriting it to begin with, is what I mean, so everything is already as emphasized as it can be if it needs to be, or doesn't exist)

Unless, of course, it's 32x32 pixel art being blown up to use as 64x64 tiles

[Patashu]

Unless, of course, it's 32x32 pixel art being blown up to use as 64x64 tiles

Yes, my point is you'd rather have the 32x32 pixel art.

[half]

While I agree with Patashu that such an algorithm can't create any new information, to my eye it has done a fantastic job of improving the simple doubled size tiles. Regarding information creation, both the pixel doubling and the smooth filter are on a par, both producing a 64x64 from a 32x32 and needing to interpolate the extra pixels in some way. For my tastes, I prefer the smooth filter versions. I'm also really impressed by how much it guesses the artist's intentions correctly, making curves when the artist wanted curves, diagonals when the artist wanted diagonals etc. This is particularly impressive in the various terrain/floor tiles. I couldn't have done better even knowing what the artist was trying to depict and using a drawing program to produce smooth versions.