pixellate effect and opacity weirdness.

Example CAPROJ example file

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZqIwk7ZFT4PfJUDUUFEYhoV9trz95Ej3Ikk

Hello, I wanted to used the pixellate effect, but I realised that it doesnt actually work like a true pixellate effect unless you change the opacity to less than 100.

example image https://imgur.com/a/li7qv

I found this by accident.

When I say it doesn't work like a true pixellate effect, when an object rotates with a pixellate effect at opacity 100 it just rotates as normal and the pixellate effect does not mosaic the rotated angles.

(You can see this more clearly if you set the right most sprites pixellate effect to something very low res like 32 in the project file)

However, with the opacity <100 it gives the effect it should, whereby the rotation is mosaiced..

Secondly, when this is placed over the pixel shader effect it has a crazy edge glitch which renders it unuseable.

I have 3 questions regarding the mosaic effect.

Question 1 : is this <100 opacity mosaic effect a feature or a bug?

Question 2 are there any other mosaic effects out there that actually mosaic an image correctly, (as seen on the left side of my CAPROJ file and example image) that will work over the pixel shader effect??

Question3 : as this effect is relatively simple, are there any XML settings within the effect file I could change to A: make the effect work like the example on the left at any opacity, including 100%, B : get it working correctly over the shader effect?

Thanks.

Hey work3!

Let's go step-by-step...

1. Rotation/Opacity Issue

Yeah. This seems to be a bug. Is it THAT bad if you set the opacity to 99%, instead of 100%? I noticed that if you do that it will pixelate as it should, so it may be an acceptable workaround.

2. Pixel Shader Edge

It seems to me this is a bug in how the shader is dealing with transparency in the foreground objects. Note that, when the opacity is set to 100%, no edge is shown. Can't think of a way to solve this.

So... Apparently you'll have to pick one: shader on the background or pixelate effect. Unfortunately.

Hi brunopalermo Thanks for your input as always.

Yeah, I already know there is the most simple option of just not using one or the other, but the mosaic thing, at the <100 opacity option actually has a very unique feature, which is why I am dying to use it.

My game is pretty effect heavy as I am going all out for visual impact, so I'm not gonna give up on the shader just yet as I have some pretty amazing effects relying on it..

I added another question regarding the pixellate effects XML file, and wether there would be anything in the effect file to change this issue.. I wonder if it is the opacity that creates the glitch or the shader?

Thing is, this mosaic effect set at <100 actually has some very useful applications for a pixel artist.

Say for example you want smooth 1:1 square pixel zooming, so you use high quality scaling settings.

When you rotate an object in C2 at high quality, the fake low resolution "pixels" get rotated, so you actually see diamond shaped pixels during the rotation, which kinda looks crappy and flash-gamey to me.. same would go for animations made in spriter I assume?

However applying a "true" mosaic at the same pixel ratio as the pixel size removes this, and voila! instant authentic pixelated sega saturn / snes style rotation !

example image

https://imgur.com/2qNJcV7

I know to some this may seem super picky, but I'm an old school pixel artist with lot of old console game credits and I can't help but want things 100% on point.. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

I understand. It's a pity this conflict between both effects.

Maybe you could achieve the shader effect using another effect or plugin? Or maybe another pixelate effect or plugin... There must be something out there.

Sorry for not being able to actually fix the problem and good luck on your search.

Yeah, I have been looking for another mosaic effect, but havent found one that does squares.. As the bug seems to be within the mosaic effect, I would rather find another..

I wish I could program, as it seems the amount of code needed for the mosaic effect is really minimal..

OK, having been through the XML I have seemingly fixed the problem! - however I have no idea if my change to the XML file will cause any issues as I am NOT a programmer!

In the pixellate XML file, changing the two zero values in the part shown below from 0 to 2, not only fixes the glitch effect but also fixes the incorrect mosaicing of the 100% opacity version too..

<!-- Extend the bounding box for effect processing by a number of pixels to show the edges

of effects which go beyond the object edges, e.g. blur and warp. -->

<extend-box-horizontal>0</extend-box-horizontal>

<extend-box-vertical>0</extend-box-vertical>

Now as I said I am not a programmer, so I would really appreciate some advice wether I am doing something volatile or not with the code!! brunopalermo do you know who I can consult about this??

As far as I know, I don't think it would cause any other problems. Maybe Ashley could help us.

But people at Scirra will usually tell you not to tweak these things...

It's a bug. Please file a report following all the guidelines.