Teletect PixSort

Pixel sorting is a glitch-art technique that sorts runs of pixels by brightness or hue, producing streaks that look as if the image is melting. PixSort is Teletect’s real-time take on it.

Threshold sets which source brightness can start a strand. With Threshold Polarity (Switch 8) on Above, pixels at or above the threshold seed strands; on Below, pixels at or below it do. The LCD shows the raw brightness value.

Colour Flow sets how quickly a strand’s color moves toward the color of each pixel it accepts. At 0% the strand holds its seed color for its whole length. At 100% it copies each accepted pixel’s color exactly. The response is spread over four bands, from very slow drifts to abrupt replacement.

Order sets how large a brightness reversal a strand will accept. In Bright sort look a strand favors pixels at least as bright as itself; in Dark sort look, pixels at least as dark. At 0% every pixel is accepted, for loose, aggressive smears. At 100% any reversal is rejected, so every strand stays strictly ordered from start to end.

Strand Length sets how far a strand carries. Brighter seeds start longer strands and darker seeds start shorter ones (between half and the full set length). At maximum, strands never expire on their own.

Luma Flow does for brightness what Colour Flow does for color. At 0% the strand holds its seed brightness; at 100% it copies each accepted pixel’s brightness.

Texture lets real source detail break into a strand. Where the contrast between neighboring source pixels exceeds a level set by this knob, the strand copies the source directly instead of easing toward it. Higher settings respond to finer detail. Texture never invents detail: uniform areas stay uniform, and channels with Flow at 0% stay held.

Threshold stops a strand as soon as the source leaves the threshold region, keeping smears inside qualifying areas. Length lets it continue into the background until its length runs out.

Seeds strands from pixels Above or Below the Threshold.

Reset starts every frame (and, for rightward strands, every line) fresh. Carry keeps strands running across frame and field boundaries (and across lines for rightward strands), so trails can persist from frame to frame.

Strands travel Down the picture or to the Right.

Sets the direction of Order: Bright strands climb toward brighter material, Dark strands sink toward darker material.

Mix blends the original and processed pictures, with exact dry and fully wet endpoints. It controls opacity only; strands keep evolving underneath.

Each pixel that passes the threshold can start a strand with its full 10-bit color, a lifetime set by Strand Length and its brightness. At every step along the way, the current source pixel is a candidate. Order decides whether the candidate is accepted. If it is, the strand’s brightness and color each move toward it by at most the step set by the two Flow knobs, never overshooting. Strands end when their lifetime runs out, or at the edge of the threshold region if Strand Boundary is set to Threshold. They don’t fade out and they don’t get an artificial bright tip.

PixSort uses no random numbers, hashes, dither patterns or oscillators. Everything you see comes from the source picture and the controls, so identical input gives identical output.

PixSort keeps one line of strand state (color, remaining length and the previous source brightness for each column). Downward strands read the line above; rightward strands use the pixel to the left. There is no frame store.