THE PROBLEM

Old console games use dithering to increase color count, the low video bandwidth of TVs of the time would smooth out this dither pattern into a solid color. When these games are displayed on a computer monitor the dither pattern is clearly visible, a very obvious checker board replaces the intended solid color. Some existing filters try to rectify this by blurring the entire image, attempting to emulate the low video bandwidth of the TV. However I think this looks worse than the checker board. It would be desirable to eliminate the dither pattern without loss of sharp edges and detail.

EXPERIMENTAL SOLUTION

I have created a Fusion Render Plugin which attempts to detect checker board dithering and replace it with a solid color, (the average of the two colors of the checker board). My detection method is somewhat dumb and can yield false positives, it is also really only effective on games whose graphics have large blocks of color and smooth gradients with significant dithering. The overlapping of the layers and sprites mess up the results and cause artifacts, the results would be better if Render plugins could operate on each layer separately.

RESULTS

This render plugin was developed with Sonic3D and is most effective with Sonic3D, results with other games can vary due to the previously mentioned requirements for color and dithering styles. Examples from Sonic3D will follow, they are presented as before and after, MOUSEOVER IMAGE TO SEE RESULT. In the end I would conclude that it wasn't worth it, and the best render plugin is still no render plugin.


DOWNLOAD

Dither Smooth Plugin