Right, I also wanted to mention using a Quadtree but that seems excessive for pixel art (or most applications, for that matter).
e: Another consideration would be keeping level-of-detail versions of each chunk of canvas as well, so zooming very far out loads/shows a lower resolution rendering. That would let you make a Google Maps style collaborative pixel art canvas or something.
e: Another consideration would be keeping level-of-detail versions of each chunk of canvas as well, so zooming very far out loads/shows a lower resolution rendering. That would let you make a Google Maps style collaborative pixel art canvas or something.