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From: forsythe@convex.com (Charles Forsythe)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Hexagonal Pixels
Message-ID: <1776@convex.UUCP>
Date: 15 Sep 89 18:31:28 GMT
References: <2477@canisius.UUCP> <22163@cup.portal.com>
Sender: usenet@convex.UUCP
Lines: 34

mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>mckee@canisius.UUCP says:
>> Just today I was discussing with a professor of mine about the use of
>> hexagonal pixels [in France].
>I heard that in France [stupid joke].
>Typical French incompatibility by design.

Could you portal-scum keep this garbage in alt.flame?

Back to hexagonal pixels:

	A lot of the anti-aliasing (and other sub-pixel) work I've seen
treats the pixels as circles.  This works OK, but often on high-contrast
edges (particularly on "medium-res" devices)  the approximation introduces
artifacts that cause unecessary blurring.  In many cases, implementing
square (pixel-shaped) filters is too computationally intense to be considered.
Circles have the blissful property that they look the same rotated and
are symetrical along any axis.

	Since hexagonal pixels are so much closer to circles, these useful
approximations could be used with better results.  

	The resulting hex-grid could probably be converted to a rectangular
grid using pixel-shaped filters easily and might generate an image with
fewer artifacts.

	Sounds like a reasonable idea to me...

-Charles
"I grew up being told the Russians were the enemy, they grew up being told we
were the enemy.  We were both wrong -- it's the French."
	-Billy Crystal in Moscow
forsythe@convex.com
#### This has nothing to do with Convex Computer Corportation -- obviously ####