🎮 What do these games have in common with 100-year-old newspapers?
The answer lies in a century-old graphic design technique called dithering – and it’s making a comeback in modern indie games! In this video, we explore how dithering isn’t just about retro aesthetics but can create unique, eye-catching visuals that set your game apart.
Join me, Herman from Gamelogic FX, as we dive into the world of dithering:
✨ What is dithering? From its origins in early printing to its use in classic computer graphics, we’ll break down how dithering works and why it’s still relevant today.
🎨 How is it used in games? Using Return of the Obra Dinn as a case study, we’ll show how dithering can create moody, two-tone visuals and smooth transitions in tile-based games.
💻 How to implement it? Learn how to code dithering in shaders, from basic algorithms to advanced techniques like displacement mapping and morph shapes.
⚙️ Non-visual uses: Discover how dithering can be used for random event distributions, spawn intervals, and more in game design.
Whether you’re a developer looking to add a retro vibe or a unique visual style to your game, this video has you covered. By the end, you’ll have the tools to start experimenting with dithering in your own projects!
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Code
- You can find the code for this video here: https://github.com/Gamelogic-Code/Dithering
- The tool used to generate many of the ramps can be found here: https://github.com/Gamelogic-Code/Gradient-Texture-Generator
Additional Reading
- 📚 Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics Modeling, Rendering, and Animation (2002) by Thomas Strothotte and Stefan Schlechtweg. Chapter 2: Pixel Manipulation of Images.
- 📚🤿 Deep-dive beyond just computer graphics: Modern Digital Halftoning (2008) by Daniel L Lau and Gonzalo R. Arce.
- 🎥 1-Bit Graphics In Unity | Obra Dinn Tutorial – Shaderlab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap4fXGTOb7I
- 🎥 Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqGaIMVuLs
- 📝 Lucas Pope’s forum posts:
- 📝 Free Blue Noise Textures (2016) by Christoph Peters (includes texture downloads and a very informative technical description)
- 📝 Uniform 1D Red Noise and Blue Noise (2023) by Alan Wolfe:
- 📝Converting colour images to grayscale (2024) from Pixelcraft: https://pixelcraft.photo.blog/2024/08/16/converting-colour-images-to-grayscale/
- ⩖ Ordered Dithering on Wikipedia (Contains matrix calculations) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordered_dithering