IMAGE QUALITY QUESTION

I know that as a general rule, you'll want to keep image quality higher than what it's gonna look like in game particularly for Non-retro look integer scaled projects.

In my past projects I resized the images on the outside (CASE 1 in picture below)

This is a pain that I had to apply this for every image since you had to adjust both height and width of the images and you can't simply scale using a multiplier (at least outside of the actual game)

I just realized that I can to all my scaling inside the Sprite's menu (CASE 2.) saving me a lot of time instead of having to do the former.

My question is, using the same multiplier (say 0.6-0.8 of the original size) can I expect the same image quality for both cases???

I think the best practice is to target one screen resolution (high enough, but not crazy high) and prepare all images for this resolution.

So you export images in the correct size from some external program, import to C2 and use them without resizing.

When you scale down images in Sprite Editor, you reduce their quality.

When you scale down images on the layout, you also reduce their quality and wasting video memory.

I think the best practice is to target one screen resolution (high enough, but not crazy high) and prepare all images for this resolution.

So you export images in the correct size from some external program, import to C2 and use them without scaling.

When you scale down images in Sprite Editor, you reduce their quality.

When you scale down images on the layout, you also reduce their quality and wasting video memory.

This was what I did when I first started but I noticed a decline in quality of the actual game on a phone with unscaled images compared to shrunk images.

I found a quote by Toby that one should export images at 1-1.5x the size of your target resolution and have gone by this rule ever since.

Can anyone confirm this?

I think this is true if you want your images to look better on a higher resolution screen.

For example, let's say you make your game for 1080p screen and put two identical images on the layout - one is 500x500px resized down to 250x250px (resized on layout), another 250x250px (real image size).

On a 1080p screen both images will look the same.

On a 4K screen the first image will look slightly sharper than the second.

But it will also use much more memory.

I think this is true if you want your images to look better on a higher resolution screen.

For example, let's say you make your game for 1080p screen and put two identical images on the layout - one is 500x500px resized down to 250x250px (resized on layout), another 250x250px (real image size).

On a 1080p screen both images will look the same.

On a 4K screen the first image will look slightly sharper than the second.

But it will also use much more memory.

I see. Thank you for clearing this up.

Question now is, will the size reduction/scaling apply for both 1st and 2nd cases in the op post?

Given both have same source images, one is scaled down in Sprite menu, the other is scaled down in side bar

EDIT:

When you scale down images in Sprite Editor, you reduce their quality.

When you scale down images on the layout, you also reduce their quality and wasting video memory.

So to my understanding, I should continue reducing them in layout to keep that sharp look for both small and large screens?

So to my understanding, I should continue reducing them in layout to keep that sharp look for both small and large screens?

Yes, if you don't mind using more memory.

Also, some images (pixel-perfect, vector graphics) may visibly lose in quality when resized in C2.

Returning to my example from the previous comment - on 1080p screen the second image with 250x250 original resolution may look slightly better, than the 500x500 image scaled down to 50%.