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[analmux]

Just tried this on a real machine, and I must say I can hardly believe we're seeing such wonderful images on stock video hardware. This is a superb project.

I second that!!!

[frogstar_robot]

emkay:

i have BAT:

r.exe 1.jpg /filter=box /h=200 /pal=laoo.act

 

but i dont see any XEX file

 

A run of RastaConverter will produce a number of output.png.* file. There is a Generator subdirectory in the same place you are running RastaConverter from. Copy or move the output.png.* files to the Generator directory. Change to the Generator directory and run the bat file that is there.

[w1k]

yes, i have it, works, thanks all.. sometimes its strange with me, i know

great project

[snicklin]

This is such a step forward in terms of stock Atari graphics, I think that a mention in Retro Gamer might be worth having.

 

Well, as long as the fact that this isn't a game doesn't get in the way!

[ivop]

what about osx?

 

I am fairly sure that you can compile it for Mac OS X too if you install the necessary packages from http://www.macports.org/

There's both freeimage and allegro there.

[+AtariNerd]

What might be a nice cheeky thing to do, would be to convert the Amiga Juggling Demo frame-by-frame and create some sort of play-back for it. Should fit in less than a megabyte.

[frogstar_robot]

What might be a nice cheeky thing to do, would be to convert the Amiga Juggling Demo frame-by-frame and create some sort of play-back for it. Should fit in less than a megabyte.

 

That's been done already but using the TIP animator:

 

[Heaven/TQA]

sneak preview... no... no game under way...

[ivop]

I got about 10% speed increase by the following procedure: (on Linux)

 

first, compile with -fprofile-generate (add to CXXFLAGS) and link with -lgcov (add to LIBS)

run the resulting rastaconv for about 100k itterations, exit with ESC.

you'll see a bunch of .gcda files appeared in your src directory.

make clean, change -fprofile-generate to -fprofile-use and remove -lgcov from LIBS

make again

 

the resulting binary runs about 10% faster than the original build on my humble AMD 32-bit Sempron 2400+

 

Basically, what g++ does, among other things, is that it logs which codepaths are more likely to be run and uses this information to optimize branch prediction.

 

 

(edit: numbers where against profile-generate build and not against a normal build; still, it's 10% faster)

Edited May 7, 2012 by ivop

[Irgendwer]

Have you also access to the Intel compiler? Maybe worth a try... (free for non profit use under Linux)

 

Profile based optimization is also available for Visual Studio, but not in the free Express Edition.

(Of course we could collect money and donate an Intel Compiler for Windows - to have faster builds... )

[w1k]

some testing

 

w1k-*.xex is my photos..

 

http://www.podstromami.com/photos.zip

[1NG]

w1k-*.xex is my photos..

w1k-lounge is unbelievable good!

[+RevEng]

w1k-w.xex is very nice too!

[MrFish]

w1k-*.xex is my photos..

w1k-lounge is unbelievable good!

 

Yes, this one is very good.

[+Stephen]

some testing

 

w1k-*.xex is my photos..

 

http://www.podstromami.com/photos.zip

Nice work.

[frogstar_robot]

I've discovered that if there is a part of the picture that is not getting optimized then it is possible to force changes in that area. Say one part of the picture is a bit brighter than the rest and is being rendered as a large blob of one color. Load the source image up in an editor and darken that part of the image. Save it and continue.

 

Or what if detail lines aren't being made that are possible but the random walk isn't finding them. Again, load the source image in an editor and put some thin black outlines, like one pixel thin, around them. Then continue.

 

Yes this defeats some of the purpose of it being a totally automatic tool but the kinds of edits I'm talking about are simple and nudge results where wanted pretty quickly.

 

I'll post one up in a bit when it has been ground on some more.

[frogstar_robot]

The left chest stayed a one color blob and the right fingers of the gryphon weren't defined at the ends. I lowered the brightness of the left chest area and added some one pixel black lines in the ends of the fingers and continued.

 

21st.xex

[Rybags]

Original / actual

 

fc1.xex

 

One I left running last night, got through about 120 million iterations.

[frogstar_robot]

Here is the green pedestal variant of the gryphon. No attempt to guide the program was made.

 

21st_green.xex

[emkay]

Any idea to resolve this?

 

The right picture is the destination, the left is the ouput.

 

 

 

There still seems a logical error happening.

The black marked region shows it.

 

The error here seems that the converter is deciding "less" changing lines to keep "less"...

In the lower range, where many colour changes happen, the colour on the "sietch" are defined. In the brighter lines.. with actually less changes per lines, it doesn't change the content of the "sietch-stone".

 

If this is solved , pictures could be converted in some minutes.

[+AtariNerd]

Great work... must make those pixels submit! W1, I love that greyscale spider! :E

 

Sometimes, if you have a large flat area of very subtle shading on the brighter or darker end of the spectrum, it helps sometimes to deliberately outline those areas and color reduce them using a dithering pattern. This will sometimes give them a bit more "grit" and contrastyness, giving the program something to bite into. It can wreck the natural detail, of course, so would avoid it most times; but just another idea for the pixel-wrangling toolbox.

[ilmenit]

I don't have time to add promised features to RastaConverter yet, but meanwhile here are some nice pictures (Altirra PAL palette)

beautiful-day.xex

bliss.xex

truck.xex

Lonely.xex

parrot.xex

spring.xex

autumn.xex

afghan.xex (laoo palette)

Edited May 8, 2012 by ilmenit

[+Stephen]

Great work to everyone here! The convertor is awesome, and these pictures look great.

[Heaven/TQA]

They all Kick ass esp autumn and spring

[1NG]

I don't have time to add promised features to RastaConverter yet, but meanwhile here are some nice pictures (Altirra PAL palette)

Great pictures! Wow! Awesome.

 

BTW: Did you went to holiday because all your computers were busy rendering pictures?