Subpixel Rendering for Pygame
Will McGugan has just posted some Pygame code that will allow subpixel rendering, which should allow Pygame developers to render smooth looking graphics using software rendering only. I haven’t tried the code yet, although it says in the post that the rendering should be as fast as ordinary blits, but more memory will be taken up – I think that the trade off is more than worth it.
I learned about subpixel rendering only very recently after playing the amazing physics-based game BreakQuest, which utilizes the technique to allow great-looking particle effects to be implemented through software rendering. BreakQuest’s author Fèlix Casablancas explains the concept of subpixel rendering very well in a forum thread on his website, and I think it’s a good read for anyone who wants a clear explanation of the concept of subpixel rendering.
Will has other Pygame stuff on his website, and I’m sure there’s a lot more on the way – he’s the author of an upcoming Pygame book from Apress :). I’m excited already!
June 11th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
You haven’t posted in a while. What happened?
June 12th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Hi, Dave 🙂 Thank you so much for keeping in touch. I apologize for not being able to put useful stuff on the site for a very long time.
I hope that you don’t find this disappointing, but I’ve been spending some time away from Python/Pygame recently. But I’ve been doing game programming using other, more traditional game programming environments 😉 The reason for this is that I feel that if I want my game programming knowledge to grow, then I would have to look at other ways of making the simple games/demos that I make now, and hopefully have a more well-rounded view of game programming eventually.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to give more time to scriptedfun.com eventually, but it won’t be soon – I’m looking at mid-July as a good time to start activity on scriptedfun again.
In the meantime, I’m truly sorry for the absence of new content.
Again, thank you so much for the reminder 😉 It has served as an encouragement for me to continue pursuing this project. It wouldn’t have worked well these past months without the valuable feedback that I receive through everyone’s comments and e-mail. 😀