One Axis Upsampling

This project demonstrates a single-axis upsampling technique using SMAA (Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing).

Requirements

• Windows: clang compiler
• Linux: clang compiler, cmake, premake-cmake extension

Building the Project

• Run the premake script:
  • Windows: ./premake.exe vs2022
  • Linux: premake cmake

Compiling

• Windows: Open the generated solution file located in ./proj/vs.

• Linux: Open the project folder in CLion and select the generated CMakeLists.txt located in ./proj/cmake/.

  Select the OAUpsampler project in your IDE of choice (Rider/Visual Studio/CLion), set the working directory to be the same folder as the project root folder and compile the selected project

Project Motivation

While watching this video by Modern Vintage Gamer, I learned how original game developers of Resident Evil 2 managed to fit impressive visuals onto the limited N64 cartridge. Inspired by this, I combined a dynamic resolution technique with an anti-aliasing solution that scales well—resulting in an easy-to-implement upsampler that could serve as a lightweight alternative to DLSS and FSR.

How It Works

• Dynamically scale down your project's resolution along a single axis.
• Apply SMAA in the post-processing stack. This acts as a kind of "pixel putty" to fill gaps created by upsampling.

Example

Here’s an example of 85% of the pixels on the X axis being stripped: Screencast demo

Notes

• This technique works best when reducing pixels vertically.
• If rendering with OpenGL, flip the search and area textures for SMAA to account for Y-flip issues.
• The Linux pre-built binary can currently only be run via the command line.