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yves@garagecube · by **yves@garagecube** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:47 am

Please note that we don't do trilinear yet, only bilinear. Trilinear is nice but definitifly too slow for dynamic contain (rebuilding the mipmaps for each frame would be very time consuming). Now the 2.5 will have an option to turn off bilininear. Boris kindly proposed to create a special build with bilinear turned off (for all the medias) for those who really needs it right now. Just send an email to support if you want it.

ilan · by **ilan** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:40 pm

My apologies in using the incorrec technical term in these matters. Neverthless thank you so much for listening to our needs on this matter. The 'pixel' esthetic is something very desirable in the work we do. While it may seem regressive there is still lots of creative potential in the 'pixel' look.

best,
ilan

plasticpool · by **plasticpool** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:39 am

i am a lucky, lucky grad student. my program is going to reimburse me for my modul8 purchase.

Me am proud ownzor!

bring on the m8 know-how.

p.s. wow. i thought you (Ilan and Yves) were joking, one-upping each other with made-up words like 'trilinear' and 'mipmaps'. little did i know...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

sigmasix · by **sigmasix** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:07 am

cool, thank you! that's very intresting

yves@garagecube · by **yves@garagecube** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:31 am

Yes, Modul8 uses bilinear on all the medias rendered in the composition. Basically bilinear creates a gradient inside the pixel using the colors of the adjacents pixels, using a simple linear interpolation. It is "bi" linear, because it is achieved on both axis.

This technic appeared in real-time imaging with the first 3D cards on PC (Voodoo, 3DLabs, etc.). The bilinear can smooth a lot your texture especially when the resolution of the screen is higher than the resolution of the texture displayed on screen after transformation.

The problem of bilinear is that it does not reduce the anti-aliasing caused by a texture with a resolution higher than the resolution of the screen. Mipmaps can solve this by precomputing smaller images.

For instance, if your image is 16x16, you will create pre-computed version of the same image but at lower resolution, like: 8x8, 4x4, 2x2, 1x1. Then you choose the best possible mipmaps for the combination of the screen resolution and the transformed texture resolution.

The next step is to use trilinear filtering which basically interpolate also between the different mipmaps to smooth as much as possible the image, even when part of the texture needs to display pixels with a too high resolution AND pixels with a too low resolution. It will use for instance the 16x16 image for the closer area and 4x4 for a farer area and interpolates between the 16x16 and the 4x4.

This is used a lot in video games (look at the ground texturing in most of the video games). However in our case, it is difficult to use that without a big performance hit. In video games, textures are preloaded and mipmaps pre-computed once. In Modul8, the mipmaps need to be generated each time a new video frame need to be displayed or a new effects is modified. We prefere using our precious CPU time for other features.

Also mipmapping is not a true solution for anti-aliasing of a full composition. The reason is that it will never smooth anything outside the texture, so all the geometry will continue to generate aliasing (borders of the polygons, situations where there is a too high density of polygons/lines). Super sampling and other technics can easily give you better results (however not always easy too implement on the wide variety of the existing video cards). Well, I talk, I talk,

...

noise · by **noise** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 8:18 pm

Hehehe, this pixelly modul8 version is pretty rad, ive been doing some incredible visuals with it, thanks so much guys, you are the best!

Guest · by **Guest** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 8:23 pm

Where is it?

ilan · by **ilan** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:59 am

How can I get at this non-bilinear version? Hmmmm?

ilan

yves@garagecube · by **yves@garagecube** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:47 am

Send an email to support[at]garagecube.com with your serial...

boris · by **boris** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:08 pm

Yves, It's Ilan

(not an unknown)

ilan · by **ilan** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:18 pm

OH well. Same thing no?

ilan

yves@garagecube · by **yves@garagecube** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:14 pm

boris wrote:Yves, It's Ilan
(not an unknown)

Well, he's not the only one to ask for this version...

Yves.

plasticpool · by **plasticpool** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 11:12 pm

Thanks again for the custom version. My gig went great and the uninterpolated sprites looked fantastic.

You guys rock.

Guest · by **Guest** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 11:16 pm

Yes! Bleeping amazing! The way it should be.

ilan

Akira · by **Akira** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:14 pm

Can't wait for v2.5 to test this (I want no hack'um vershan!

)
CAn the filtering be activated/deactivated on a per-layer basis?

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