@ Norb - Maps JPG - PNG

[pakfront]

Ah, interesting technique... I had not thought of turning JPGs evils to good!

[Little Powell]

Yeah its always a toss-up between file size and quality. Higher file size does impact performance. I have found that a high quality 2048x2048 JPG produces the same results visually as a lower quality 4096x4096 JPG. It's all on how much detail you want. Like I mentioned earlier, if you need the sharp edges (roads, field edges, etc.) then it's best to save at higher quality, or use a larger JPG like Garnier does. But for the layers that contain grass or dirt splotches on the map, or streams where sharp edges aren't required, you can get away with lower quality JPG's.

[Davinci]

All , is there a way of saving PNG files with a Alpha-Channel?

I can't figure it out, also I tried doing a Google-Search, but that didn't turn up any useful information.

davinci

[pakfront]

Yes, PNG supports alpha. What application are you saving from? Does this help?
http://www.axialis.com/tutorials/tutorial-misc001.html

[Davinci]

Yes, PNG supports alpha. What application are you saving from? Does this help?

pakfront Thanks, yes I found that article last night when I was trying my latest experiment.

I'll explain what I was trying to do, and if you don't mind tell me if it is possible.

The older sprite textures from the previous game are saved as dds which is 1025kb.

That same sprite texture saved as a png file is reduced to 270kb.

That is a big savings when there are roughly six-eight dds sprite uniforms running.

The problem is that I can't get them to save the Alpha-Channel when converting them.

Question - Can the uniforms support an Alpha-Channel?

*** I'm trying to find an alternative so that I don't have to splice-up thousands of images, so if I can convert the whole dds sheets, that would be great.

Thanks,

davinci

[pakfront]

This can be a real PITA, as Adobe changed the way it handles alpha since I last used it. Is the alpha channel coming in as a mask or as a separate channel? If it is coming in as a channel, I think you have to change it to a mask before saving.

Alternately there is a fantastic, open source image conversion tool called imagemagick which may help. It is a bit clunky to use, but you can script it to do very useful things.
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binar ... hp#windows

I believe the command would be, from a DOS prompt:
mogrify -format png *.dds

[pakfront]

Also, be aware that changing from DDS to PNG _may_ slow down map loading. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the game will have to convert the PNGs to DDS internally. DDS is setup for use on graphics cards and has things like pre-calculated mipmaps and graphics card friendly ordering and compression.

[Davinci]

pakfront , Thanks for the information and the Links, I'll see if this is possible.

When converting from (dds) to (png) the Alpha Channel is still showing as a separate-channel, but after it is saved the channel is no-longer there.

But, I have very-little-knowledge about Photoshop, Alpha-Channels, or any graphics.

Good point about the graphics-card working better with dds than png files, I didn't think of that.

Basically, I just like to experiment with doing things different to see if it will work, sometimes it does, other times not so well.

Thanks Again!

davinci

[Davinci]

Converting the JPG to DDS doesn't work too well, it gives the ground an optical illusion as if the ground is filled with moving grass.

Probably works well with some 3D glasses and a couple of drinks!

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davinci