How to Make Pixel Art Crisp in OBS Studio

This guide explains how to use the “Scale Filtering” feature in OBS Studio to prevent pixel art games from looking blurry during streams or recordings. By changing the scaling algorithm to Point scaling, you can maintain sharp, crisp edges on retro and pixel-art style games.

When you capture a low-resolution pixel art game in OBS Studio and upscale it to fit a high-definition canvas, the software applies a default scaling method. This default method—usually Bicubic or Lanczos—attempts to smooth out edges to make the image look natural. While this works well for 3D games and camera feeds, it blurs the distinct square pixels of 2D games, making them look muddy and out of focus.

To restore the sharp, blocky aesthetic of pixel art, you need to change the filter to “Point” scaling, which uses the nearest-neighbor algorithm to resize the source without blending pixels.

Follow these steps to apply the setting:

1. Open OBS Studio and locate the Sources dock at the bottom of the screen.
2. Right-click on the capture source containing your game (such as Game Capture, Window Capture, or Display Capture).
3. Hover your cursor over Scale Filtering in the drop-down menu.
4. Click on Point from the list of options.

Once selected, the blurry scaling is disabled, and your game will instantly appear with perfectly crisp pixels in both your preview window and the final output.

For the absolute best results, try to scale your game source in integer increments (such as 2x, 3x, or 4x the original resolution) within your game’s settings. This prevents “pixel shimmer” or uneven pixel sizes when the Point filter is applied in OBS.