Artifacts in image: Boss Battle

The current picture on the page needs to be in a better quality, as there are artifacts visible, notably near Mario's fireballs and around Bowser. And where did the axe go anyway?

If we were to replace it with a better quality image without artifacts, should it be taken from World 8-4, where Bowser is also throwing hammers? Like here◊, for example.

Where are you seeing artifacts?

That being said, I do like the suggested pic better if we're going to stick with the same game.

It's a JPEG image, which means if you copy it into an image editor and zoom in, the blury artifacts become more clear.

I see the new suggestion as just an improvement of the same picture, as it's similar enough.

Ah, I see...generally speaking, when we're talking about artifacting as a problem in IP threads, it's at a level that doesn't require zooming in to notice.

I'm fine to swap the pics and call this good; yea/nay?

edited 6th Feb '12 5:58:19 AM by Willbyr

I, at least, can see the artifacts around Mario's fireballs and Bowser without having to zoom in.

Yeah, I'm fine if it's replaced. If anyone's curious, here's the image in question:

The compression artifacts are acceptable, but NES screenshots should really be in GIF or PNG format anyway.

edited 6th Feb '12 9:57:07 AM by Stratadrake

You people must have perfect vision because I don't see any artifacts

I can see them. They're faint, due to how Super Mario Bros. is generally simplistic in its artwork, but it's there. Having seen pixel art saved to JPG several times before makes it easier to spot, at any rate.

Kaiser: Zoom in (like 10x) on Bowser's mug and you'll notice various shades of green pixels where there should only be one. That's a compression artifact.

Bump...can someone swap the current for the OP suggestion so we can wrap this up?

Swap.

Worse than artifacts, to my mind, is the inexplicable missing axe. That is enough to make me want to swap.

How's that?(personally thinks the one there already is fine)

Sorry to say, but I'm afraid that it's worse than what's already up there. Here's why: it's shrunken (the NES outputs at 224-256 pixels in height; that image is 194), and it's still a JPEG, which, as gone over before, introduces tons of visual artifacts that simply do not belong in pixel art like this - combined, the problem is exacerbated, and now there are more artifacts than there were before. I also don't like how the logo was tossed in at the top, since I don't think it really adds anything to the image (it'd be potholed to the source, generally, making it a moot point).

The image suggested in the OP, however, is fine - it maintains the correct resolution, and saves it into a file format that can preserve original art without introducing any compression artifacts. I'd just run with that, honestly.

EDIT: Actually, Willbyr basically said go ahead and swap it - so I'm gonna do just that.

EDIT 2: Image swapped. I didn't leave the usual "don't change this image" comment/disclaimer, considering this is basically the same image as was already up there, just in higher-quality. If you still think it's worth one, though, be my guest.

edited 5th Mar '12 7:58:34 PM by ShadowHog

Yeah, since we've changed the image it's best to include the tag, which is now in place. Good work, everyone. Locking up.