Hi Chris,
I hope you’re doing well. I’m Ahmad, a postdoc at the El-Shamayleh lab. We would like to present some natural images in MWorks (see attached examples Apple/Banana). When we load these images in MWorks, we notice that their edges are quite pixelated even though the original images are not and the original files are high quality. The edge pixelation is more noticeable when the stimulus size is small.
Do you have any recommendations on how to address this? Is there a way to apply anti-aliasing to images in MWorks, similar to what’s available in the parametric shapes plug-in?
Thanks for your help!
Best,
Ahmad
Hi Ahmad,
Are the example images you sent me the original images that you’re trying to display, or are they screen captures of how MWorks displays the images? If they’re captures, I don’t see the pixelation you’re describing.
It makes sense that the edges would look rougher when the stimuli are smaller. A smaller stimulus will be drawn using fewer display pixels, so there’s just fewer ways to make them look smooth.
No, there’s no way to apply anti-aliasing specifically to images. Anti-aliasing applies to the edges of geometry, which for an image is its rectangular boundary. Even if MWorks did try to smooth those edges, it wouldn’t affect the interior of the image at all.
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your email, That was the original image and I’ve attached the MWorks display in this email.
Best,
Ahmad
(attachments)
Hi Ahmad,
Thanks for sending the display image.
The “pixelation” you’re describing is quite literal: In the image, I can see the individual pixels of the display. Given the limited number of pixels available for drawing the image, I’d say MWorks and the graphics stack are doing the best job they can of making things look smooth. But you’re up against the fundamental limits of your display. There’s no way to make the image look smoother, other than switching to a display with higher resolution (i.e. more pixels per unit area).
In the display image, was the banana displayed on a VIEWPixx? If so, it’s worth remembering that that’s a 24-inch display with a resolution of only 1920x1080 pixels. If you’re comparing it with, say, a 14-inch MacBook Pro display with a resolution of 3024x1964 (almost 3x as many pixels in about 1/3 the area), then the images are certainly going to look much smoother on the MacBook.
Cheers,
Chris
