I'm one of the folks who is not a big fan of the new sprites used in HD/Remaster collections for the Ace Attorney trilogy... I played the games in the format they originally came to the west in, on my DSi.
Now, these sprites were made for GBA I believe when they originally released in Japan, so there may be problems with them related to that to begin with. But, as far as I know the only versions of the games here in the west with the original style and not the updated art are the ones on the DS... which are now only accessible through physical carts on the DSI/DS,/3DS. (or emulation)
I was curious to see if the sprites could be adjusted to work well on higher resolution consoles (Like PC or Switch). I have no experience making texture mods or anything but I do have art experience and I use the TheVGResource pretty frequently for 3D stuff and 2D reference, so figured it might be interesting to look into.
I have found that you can resize pixel art in art programs, and have been using my go-to (Clip Studio Paint) to experiment with resizing the sprites for Gumshoe. I was curious to see if there were ways to resize pixel art for new consoles/resolutions without losing quality or detail (such as with blurring for example)
Resizing the original sprite from a base Nintendo DS resolution (256 x 192) to a Switch (1280 X 720) seemed to work alright, not without some issues, but hey the 'hard edges' scaling option actually worked ok, and it might be possible to resize them without redrawing every single frame on each sheet... as long as you are looking for and correcting issues I'd imagine.
naturally actually feeding the resized sprites to an emulator or to a mod for the PC collection is another matter entirely, and one I have no knowledge of, but this is an interesting experiment and one I wanted to learn more about. I am not a pixel artist, but I figure there are plenty around here who could tell me what I'm doing wrong or more on how this all works, so, please give me your thoughts.
The sheet I have used for this experiment is from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Dick Gumshoe (DS) and was ripped by Shoda.
Source on SR (Thank you Shoda! I did not rip this sheet)
Imgur Drop for edited images
I took one frame, and resized it from the size used on DS Res (161x192 pixels) to a size which could be used in 720p (562x720 pixels) using interpolation to avoid blurring.
Then I attempted to apply this same scaling to the original sheet which took it from 1336 x 2310 pixels to 4622 x 7992 pixels.
I am aware this doesn't account for larger resolutions (like 1080p at the very least) and that the proportions of the DS/GBA are unique, so you'd probably need a border to cover the 'empty space' even if you did resize everything, or come up with another solution.
Imgur explanation:
"Gumshoe Frame 1" - Original size used for DS Resolution
"Gumshoe DS Res Preview" - Original size used for DS Resolution, with extensions to show how it would appear on a DS screen.
"Gumshoe Resized Frame 1" - Resized, would be suitable for 720p
"Gumshoe Switch Res Preview" - Resized for Switch Resolution, with extensions to show how it would appear on a Switch screen, in 720p.
"Gumshoe Sheet Experimental Resize" - Entire sheet resize for 720p
Apologies in advance but they were too big to attach all to the post
If anyone has any advice on this little project (or also shares an interest in the og spritework) please let me know. Any critique or info is appreciated.
Thanks,
-erievet
Now, these sprites were made for GBA I believe when they originally released in Japan, so there may be problems with them related to that to begin with. But, as far as I know the only versions of the games here in the west with the original style and not the updated art are the ones on the DS... which are now only accessible through physical carts on the DSI/DS,/3DS. (or emulation)
I was curious to see if the sprites could be adjusted to work well on higher resolution consoles (Like PC or Switch). I have no experience making texture mods or anything but I do have art experience and I use the TheVGResource pretty frequently for 3D stuff and 2D reference, so figured it might be interesting to look into.
I have found that you can resize pixel art in art programs, and have been using my go-to (Clip Studio Paint) to experiment with resizing the sprites for Gumshoe. I was curious to see if there were ways to resize pixel art for new consoles/resolutions without losing quality or detail (such as with blurring for example)
Resizing the original sprite from a base Nintendo DS resolution (256 x 192) to a Switch (1280 X 720) seemed to work alright, not without some issues, but hey the 'hard edges' scaling option actually worked ok, and it might be possible to resize them without redrawing every single frame on each sheet... as long as you are looking for and correcting issues I'd imagine.
naturally actually feeding the resized sprites to an emulator or to a mod for the PC collection is another matter entirely, and one I have no knowledge of, but this is an interesting experiment and one I wanted to learn more about. I am not a pixel artist, but I figure there are plenty around here who could tell me what I'm doing wrong or more on how this all works, so, please give me your thoughts.
The sheet I have used for this experiment is from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Dick Gumshoe (DS) and was ripped by Shoda.
Source on SR (Thank you Shoda! I did not rip this sheet)
Imgur Drop for edited images
I took one frame, and resized it from the size used on DS Res (161x192 pixels) to a size which could be used in 720p (562x720 pixels) using interpolation to avoid blurring.
Then I attempted to apply this same scaling to the original sheet which took it from 1336 x 2310 pixels to 4622 x 7992 pixels.
I am aware this doesn't account for larger resolutions (like 1080p at the very least) and that the proportions of the DS/GBA are unique, so you'd probably need a border to cover the 'empty space' even if you did resize everything, or come up with another solution.
Imgur explanation:
"Gumshoe Frame 1" - Original size used for DS Resolution
"Gumshoe DS Res Preview" - Original size used for DS Resolution, with extensions to show how it would appear on a DS screen.
"Gumshoe Resized Frame 1" - Resized, would be suitable for 720p
"Gumshoe Switch Res Preview" - Resized for Switch Resolution, with extensions to show how it would appear on a Switch screen, in 720p.
"Gumshoe Sheet Experimental Resize" - Entire sheet resize for 720p
Apologies in advance but they were too big to attach all to the post
If anyone has any advice on this little project (or also shares an interest in the og spritework) please let me know. Any critique or info is appreciated.
Thanks,
-erievet