High Res map pixelated

How can I extract cleaner maps that don’t have pixelated artifacts, here’s a smaller section
of a diffuse 8k map png showing pixelation, does anyone know how to improve this? I used quick texture node for coloring.
Thank you. Artist Point 4031.



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It is a regular problem in a lot of graphics, and usually there are just a few options. First, enable anti-aliasing if the software can do that. Second, try over-sampling (render at 2x the desired resolution and then scale the result by half). And now, third, try AI rescaling (I either use the neural filters in Photoshop or Real-ESRGAN via the command line.

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Thanks David for your tips, the problem is that in some areas like in the snow is totally perfect smooth gradients from white to dirty snow and soil, the pixel seams to happen when
90 degree small details from rocks and cliffs introduce artifacts, yes is possible to go to 16k and see if improves but it takes too long. There’s no anti aliasing in WM that I’m aware.

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In such cases, that’s where I render at 8K, then AI upscale to 16K (then reduce back to 8K in Photoshop with bi-cubic resampling). I would recombine the revision with the original with a slope mask to get the best of both sets of detail.

A total pain in the posterior, but if it has to be perfect, what else can you do?

Good candidate for a Feature Request! That would save a lot of trouble.

Since you are hoping for a solution inside WM right now, shoot me a .tmd where you’re having a problem and I’ll see if i can find a way to hack it.

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Thanks again for your thoughts David, maybe Stephen will chime in with some extra info. Cheers.

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If I understand what you are finding objectionable in the texture up top… and you’re using the Quick texture device:

  • The first thing I would try is entering the macro and adding a small radius blur to the output of the Select Wetness device inside. Because of the way flow accumulation functions, that mask can have very sharp edges to it where you transition from flow to no-flow at the edges of a flow region.

  • You could also try simply blurring the texture output slightly to soften the hardest edges, although I usually find that loss of detail objectionable.

  • You could try running just the quick texture device at 16k and then downsample the result back down to 8k. This incurs the time and memory cost of 16k only for the one device, which might be acceptable. Set a resolution override on that device to upscale. To reduce the output back to 8k, create any simple do-nothing node like a Clamp device with default parameters and override that resolution back to 8k. Make sure you the resampling is set to use bicubic.

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I’ll try that Stephen and report back, there’s plenty of beautiful gradients in the textures but like I said, it gets weird when there are rocks and cliffs . Thank you.

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Hi again Stephen, I’ve tried your methods but the improvement was minimal, for now I’ll just leave as is since is not very visible on wide shots. Maybe something that can be improved in the future. Thanks for the help.

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