Images generated by RastaConverter

[kiwilove]

I do think it's great when someone wants to still create art using the old Atari computers - I did that back then with using Fun With Art - and the Atari Touch Tablet. Had a go with Technicolour Dream.

 

While I don't do any of that kind of graphics anymore - and don't really wish to. I prefer instead to work on in-game graphics - using development tools on the PC. I probably don't prefer going back and doing that kind of work, on the Atari itself - because it's much easier to do it on the PC - and it's the PC laptop these days - that does make it more convenient.

 

I'm not into using PC paint programs - and use it's most basic one, when I need to. For me, it's always an allure to work on A8 videogame graphics - and to see the result running. But it's still hit and miss, to get something just right.

 

Harvey

[AlegisDownport]

I thought I'd have a go with converting an image of my pet greyhound Millie whilst on holiday last year, visiting the abbey there. After some false starts, I've generated the attached image with the following settings:

Downsampled to 128 colours with XNConvert

Laoo palette
Floyd dithering
Number of solutions 10000
ciede colour distance

The source file looks like this:

 

 

which outputs after just over one billion iterations:

 

 

The XEX file can be downloaded from here if you would like to try it on a real A8:

 

AlegisDownport_Millie1.xex

 

Just want to say I'm enjoying playing around with Rasterconverter - thanks to everyone who has contributed to making the tool available!

 

 

[Bryan]

Just a suggestion, reduce the saturation in the head and collar so they resolve to grays. Then the background might get more definition.

[AlegisDownport]

Ah, good idea, I'll give that a go! Thanks for the tip!

[JD6502]

Here's my attempt at one of Chesley Bonestell's Saturn paintings.

 

 

 

CB_Saturn.xex

 

 

 

[José Pereira]

Hey, it looks fantastic!...

Edited June 14, 2016 by José Pereira

[+Stephen]

Here's my attempt at one of Chesley Bonestell's Saturn paintings.

 

 

CBSaturn.jpgoutput.png-dst.png

 

CB_Saturn.xex

 

 

 

That's really good.

[AlegisDownport]

Gorgeous image!!

[ilmenit]

More PAL images (laoo and altirra palette):

ilmenit_beach.xex

ilmenit_boat.xex

ilmenit_cigar.xex

ilmenit_clown.xex

ilmenit_fantasy_house.xex

ilmenit_mech_eye.xex

 

[MARIO130XE]

Great job done!!!

Beach Boat and Fantasy House are my fav. pics in this collection.

Edited July 7, 2016 by MARIO130XE

[MARIO130XE]

Hey ho, here are some new Rastas. Hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

Greetings - Mario130XE

Mario130XE_Atari 520 ST.xex

Mario130XE_Atari-glyph.xex

Mario130XE_Chromebabe.xex

Mario130XE_Proc10Title.xex

Mario130XE_RENO520ST.xex

Mario130XE_USS.xex

[MARIO130XE]

It's my try to have a bit of summer in good old 'n cold germany. At least in 8 bit.

 

 

 

Greetings - Mario

Mario130XE_Summergirl.xex

[+Stephen]

It's my try to have a bit of summer in good old 'n cold germany. At least in 8 bit.

 

Mario130XE_Summergirl.png

 

 

Greetings - Mario

That's great - not a single artifact in that image. Did you do any pre-processing? What was the source image?

[MARIO130XE]

Hey Stephen.

Yepp it was a lot of pre-processing. Pixel by pixel optimization the Picture, moving parts of the background up n down to reduce the colour-changes per line to a minimum, Pixeling the shadows on skin and the dress with only one colour, trying to not use any dithering to mak the picture look this perfekt after conversion. I'm a bit proud, even if ppl can't see all the work in this comic picture.

 

The source picture looks like the target picture but without the scanlines. I'm usng simple MSPaint for drawing the Layers in 320x240 using double x pixelsize and Photoshop to move the parts of the pic till they work perfect in rastaconnverter.

 

Greetings, Mario

[miker]

Simply great.

 

Bravo Mario!

 

[AtariNerd]

In case any curious passer-bys want to hop on and play.

 

https://github.com/ilmenit/RastaConverter/downloads

 

https://github.com/ilmenit/RastaConverter

 

And a GUI front-end. Haven't tried this for awhile, so I'm not sure if it works with the current iteration.

 

http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1342346143&archive=&start_from=0&ucat=1&ct=nowinki

 

Auto-translated into something approximating the language that I presumably am typing this post in, though of that, I'm admittedly not so sure.

 

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php%3Fsubaction%3Dshowfull%26id%3D1342346143%26archive%3D%26start_from%3D0%26ucat%3D1%26ct%3Dnowinki&usg=ALkJrhjNciL7xRjG7kQhSlPxRYXOi6ChYQ

[+Stephen]

In case any curious passer-bys want to hop on and play.

 

https://github.com/ilmenit/RastaConverter/downloads

 

https://github.com/ilmenit/RastaConverter

 

And a GUI front-end. Haven't tried this for awhile, so I'm not sure if it works with the current iteration.

 

http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1342346143&archive=&start_from=0&ucat=1&ct=nowinki

 

Auto-translated into something approximating the language that I presumably am typing this post in, though of that, I'm admittedly not so sure.

 

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php%3Fsubaction%3Dshowfull%26id%3D1342346143%26archive%3D%26start_from%3D0%26ucat%3D1%26ct%3Dnowinki&usg=ALkJrhjNciL7xRjG7kQhSlPxRYXOi6ChYQ

There's a much newer front end - the version I have is 0.0.2.1, I got it in June of 2013.

[JD6502]

There's a much newer front end - the version I have is 0.0.2.1, I got it in June of 2013.

Can you recall where you found it?

[+Philsan]

Can you recall where you found it?

http://www.arsoft.netstrefa.pl/programy.htm

[JD6502]

Thanks Philsan! A quick look shows a lot of new features.

[a8isa1]

I finally have a second computer powerful enough to attempt using Rastaconverter. I have a few questions about Rastaconverter and RC GUI.

 

Here's the picture conversion I'm currently working on.

 

Original Picture (from alphacoders.com wallpapers)

 

Doctored picture

 

 

Screenshot

 

 

See attachment for .XEX (in emulation use palette OlivierN.act)

 

Here are my questions.

 

- The picture I've chosen is in the original aspect. Cropping to 4:3 aspect would have chopped off part of the birch trees. In Rastconverter is there a way to center the picture (top to bottom)?

 

- I prefer the OlivierN.act NTSC palette. How do I add new palettes to RC GUI? I've tried placing the new palettes in the Palettes folder but I am unable to select or even see the new additions from within the application.

 

- I noticed that somewhere at between 4 billion and 5 billion evaluations (yes, "billion") either Rastaconverter or RC GUI resets the counter. I have not seen this happen but at one point the counter is above 4 billion and then it is much lower. I am not imagining this. It has happened 4 or 5 times for me.

 

Is the output picture being affected when this occurs?

 

- This is an observation not a question. In RC GUI when a details mask is being used the destination picture is covered up.

 

- My picture is a doctored version of the original. The original picture contains the autumn colors reds and oranges. With my first attempt at a conversion these colors converted to tans and browns. Increasing saturation of red created a picture I did not like but also did not resolve the problems, no orange or red in the output.

 

By reducing blue and green in the source the output presents some hints of red and orange. Unfortunately, the doctored picture and the output picture have a sort of a twilight appearance which isn't ideal.

 

Can someone offer any suggestion for better options?

 

I realize the Atari has poorly saturated reds but I'll take any level versus tans and browns as substitutes.

 

@Ilmenit and all, I've really enjoyed Rastaconverter and all of the conversions everyone has done. Please keep up the good work everyone, and please do some pics with NTSC palettes.

birches.xex.xex

Edited August 28, 2016 by a8isa1

[+Stephen]

A8 - I'll mess with a little bit tonight, and see if I can come up with anything helpful.

 

EDIT: - Initial progress is very promising. Kept original image colours. Bumped the saturation to 185%, slaced the image down to a 320*180, then added 30 pixel black bars top&bottom to keep the aspect ration. Using euclid colourspace, no dither, 1000 solutions. So far, at 1million iterations, I have a normal of 28.8.

[+Stephen]

A8 - I'll mess with a little bit tonight, and see if I can come up with anything helpful.

 

EDIT: - Initial progress is very promising. Kept original image colours. Bumped the saturation to 185%, slaced the image down to a 320*180, then added 30 pixel black bars top&bottom to keep the aspect ration. Using euclid colourspace, no dither, 1000 solutions. So far, at 1million iterations, I have a normal of 28.8.

progress.jpg

Here's the xex from about 250 million. I planned on running this overnight but was having PC issues (flash related of course). Normal distance is down to 25.5, but it's improving. I'll edit this post later this evening once it's at a few billion iterations.

birch.xex

[José Pereira]

The A8isa1 I even like and much more real for a raining Autumn colour/luminances forest screen than the original.

Edited August 29, 2016 by José Pereira

[a8isa1]

Here's the xex from about 250 million. I planned on running this overnight but was having PC issues (flash related of course). Normal distance is down to 25.5, but it's improving. I'll edit this post later this evening once it's at a few billion iterations.

Thanks Stephen. Good luck with your conversion. I'm now at 4 billion evaluations and norm. dist. has only dropped from 24.07 (at 3.2 billion iterations) down to 24.02.

 

The picture is about as good as it's going to get. One can recognize the scene and it's clearly an autumn picture. The yellow, orange, and reddish orange colors are needed to give the autumn look.

 

I should have mentioned the additional parameters I used for Rastaconverter. I believe I used YUV for distance (and preprocessing distance). Dither is line2, with randomness 0.7 and strength 7. I already mentioned that I used the OlivierN.act palette.

 

I prefer line2 dither when large portions of the orginal picture have gradients, as with water or sky. I find the geometric patterns of the other dithers too distracting.

 

-Steve

Edited August 29, 2016 by a8isa1