Rune Skovbo Johansen explains Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering, a technique he invented and released as open source. It makes dithering stick to 3D surfaces and covers the experiments and shortcomings along the way, inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN recommends it as the original explainer for a clever dithering technique and the go-to video in dithering threads.
“a 4-days old video related to dithering which is really worth watching.”HN comment, 2025
“The video linked [0] to in the repo talks about experiments and shortcomings”
Covers experiments and shortcomings behind stable 3D dithering.
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To create a dithering effect for 3D scenes. Doing a straight 2D dither on each frame will result in noisy artifacts and won't be "stable". Doing an "ordered" dithering produces a "porch screen" artifact effect, where there's a stable pattern in screen space that can be seen. Trying to naively map dithering patterns as textures on 3D objects again results in unstable patterns as the dithering is dependent on the distance of the screen to the object and produces noise. This is a proposed solution that maps a dithering pattern as a texture that doesn't have the "porch screen" effect and is stable. The video linked [0] to in the repo talks about experiments and shortcomings from the above I just listed. This work is in response to some challenges the developer of the "Return of the Obra Dinn" game experienced when trying to create a dithering effect in game [1] [2]. [0] this video [1] link [2] link
RecommendsqwertoxJan 2025
“a 4-days old video related to dithering which is really worth watching.”
Worthwhile video on surface-stable dithering by an indie developer.
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On a similar note, yesterday I stumbled across a 4-days old video related to dithering which is really worth watching. " Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering " [0] by "Rune Skovbo Johansen, indie game developer and procedural generation enthusiast" [0] this video
RecommendsqwertoxApr 2025
“Somewhat related and worth watching: Surface-stable fractal dithering explained”
Related explainer on surface-stable dithering, with a follow-up.
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Somewhat related and worth watching: Surface-stable fractal dithering explained this video There's a follow-up video to that one.
Recommendsm12kOct 2025
“a couple videos about a technique that was inspired by the Obra Dinn's dither, but making it surface stable”
Explains a surface-stable technique inspired by Obra Dinn.
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And here's a couple videos about a technique that was inspired by the Obra Dinn's dither, but making it surface stable: this video (explanation) link (demo)
Recommendsm12kMar 2026
“someone diving even deeper into how to make the dither surface stable”
Goes deeper into making dither surface stable.
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If you find this interesting, you might also be interested in this video of someone diving even deeper into how to make the dither surface stable: this video
Cites itbiercarstenFeb 2025
“I recently whatched his youtube video on this”
Creator's video on the technique inspired by Obra Dinn.
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Ah, thats from runevision. I recently whatched his youtube video on this ( this video ) and "Return of the Obra Dinn" was also the first thing I thought of.
Cites itrunevisionFeb 2025
“The original explainer video is here”
Creator's own original explainer video of the technique.
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I'd like to expand with some more details and developments since the post I saw here a few weeks ago about my Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering technique. (That post (not by me) was here: link ) I've since made it work also in color (RGB dithering and CMYK halftone) and demonstrated what it looks like in true 1-bit (or 3-bit for color) at low resolutions as well. See the linked demonstration video for a variety of styles/aesthetics it can be used for: link The original explainer video is here: this video And the repository is here: link Lots of people both here and elsewhere has speculated about various alterations or different use cases, etc. I'd like to point to this FAQ that have a lot of common topics covered. If you have questions, suggestions or similar, it would be a good idea to check that out first (after the explainer video): link Furthermore, lots of people have been inspired to make their own implementations, or related effects inspired by Surface Stable Fractal Dithering. I keeping a list of the ones I know about here: link For example, Aras Pranckevičius got a simplified version of the effect to work on Playdate. Since the Playdate does not have a GPU, the effect (along with 3D rasterization in general) is implemented fully CPU-based here. link Ryan / InfernalWAVE is working on an implementation for Godot: link arColm made shaders for MineCraft: link I've been surprised and happy that the effect has gotten as much interest as it has, and I'm hoping w
Cites itjansanApr 2025
“unless you are trying to implement something completely insane like Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering”
Example of an extremely ambitious dithering algorithm.
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I think implementing a dithering algorithm is one of the most satisfying projects, because it is fun, small(ish) and you know when you are done. Of course, unless you are trying to implement something completely insane like Surface-Stable Fractal Dithering this video
