New login background

[krayon]

best for now to maintain full compatibility with the original EL one.

So yes, 1024x1024, and also, probably importantly: make it an 8bit (256 color) bitmap.

so when exporting the image for usage in the client you need to convert to an indexed mode.

Nope, 800x600 works fine and is therefore "compatible" I would think.

Nope, 24 bit colour also works and is therefore "compatible".

EDIT1: See pwned below
EDIT2: Ha HA!  I disagree again later

[Korrode]

1024x1024 is more appropriate considering most people will be running EL in 1024 width minimum, and 8bit colour is preferred for this anyways, as using only 256 colours really isn't as bad as you'd think when a good palette has been generated (as i just showed u irl krayon ;p) and makes the file 1/3 the size.

What would be best is if the client supported PNG's, or even JPG's.

[EndorVaeros]

I would like to add that *she* did not make them 800*800, that you can blame squarely on photobucket. Also, enjoy them in all their 8bit (256 color) goodness

Background 1:


Background 2:


Background 3:


Edit: Don't download these ones, I have them g-ziped... and these ones I have converted to pngs for faster load times.

[krayon]

1024x1024 is more appropriate considering most people will be running EL in 1024 width minimum, and 8bit colour is preferred for this anyways, as using only 256 colours really isn't as bad as you'd think when a good palette has been generated (as i just showed u irl krayon ;p) and makes the file 1/3 the size.

What would be best is if the client supported PNG's, or even JPG's.

Agreed sir.

[krayon]

Give them time to load, they are huge.

Hence why I suggested compressing them

[EndorVaeros]

Give them time to load, they are huge.

Hence why I suggested compressing them

Yeah, but I wasn't really listening.

[Korrode]

we just realised the client supports loading a GZipped Bitmap for the login screen image, and considering there is i guess some noteworthy degradation to the images @ 256colours, we'll use GZipped 24bit BMPs.

edit:
Just one little thing EV, in the image with "Lands of War" up the top (this one: http://l2fury.com/images/QELImages/login_back2.bmp ) the 3rd 'bloodsplat' over from the left kinda comes to a very abrupt stop, i assume left over from when it was being cut off by hitting the bottom of the image from the login screen where it was at the bottom.

[krayon]

1024x1024 is more appropriate considering most people will be running EL in 1024 width minimum, and 8bit colour is preferred for this anyways, as using only 256 colours really isn't as bad as you'd think when a good palette has been generated (as i just showed u irl krayon ;p) and makes the file 1/3 the size.

What would be best is if the client supported PNG's, or even JPG's.

Agreed sir.

Or not.  It would seem the Lands of War text looks especially ... degraded in 256.  But that's OK because the client supports gzip'd textures and we'll have the updater/installer all compressed anyway so it'll be coolies to use 24bit.

I will see what I can do about getting the client to properly support PNG too

[masohp]

I like em,
 But I am a * He * if that was directed to me

And yeh I did make it 1024x1024 but Photobucket has a little magnifier thingy and if you don't magnifie it wont show you 1024x1024 it will show you 800x800

So again my fault for using Photobucket

Btw you dont have to save it in 256bmp it should work in any bmp format, cuz 256 really distorts parts of the images colors imo

[EndorVaeros]

Anyhow, here are the textures, saved as 24bit BMPs, and compressed with gzip. (So, they are the same size as the 8bits, but look better.   ) There is no need to extract them, just delete your old login_back.bmp and put these in the same folder. The client can read them just fine.   Just be sure the one you want to use is named login_back.bmp.gz (use the post with the three images in it for a reference.

Download link is a nice big orange button under the advertisements.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/h3y9x8
http://www.sendspace.com/file/87zd9y
http://www.sendspace.com/file/f7bz0m

[Korrode]

@masohp
ya i know in photobucket you can magnify, those earlier comments were directed to EV.

@EV
Thanks

-----------------------

Now, i'd just like to take a second to show off Photoshop's ability to produce 256 colour palettes using it's 'Adaptive' filter :>

24bit:


8bit:


24bit BMP uncompressed = 3.1MB
24bit BMP GZipped = 2.1MB (sorry EV but they aint the same size at 8bit BMP's, they're still twice the size )
8bit BMP uncompressed = 1.0MB
8bit BMP GZipped = 419KB

EDIT:
erm just used GIMP to convert to 256 colours and it still looks great, in fact GIMP has done a slightly better job at retaining the darker red of the blood:



I don't know what you guys are using to convert to 256 colours, but it must be something using a static palette, not producing one optimised for the image being converted (that's what, for example, MS Paint does... uses a specific set of 256 colours (it's actually the same set Windows uses if you run it in 256 colour)).

[masohp]

Korrode yours worked fine....

AFTER I changed the extension from png to bmp after i downloaded it. It didnt distort the image at all, just made it work is all.

So if you download korrodes id change the extension after you download em. (BTw magnifie them with the glass b4 you download em or you will end up getting a 1003x1003 image

[Korrode]

hang on hang on... all you did was change the extension by renaming the file? you didn't open it up in some software and re-save it as bmp?

Cause all renaming a file does is just that; renames it, it doesn't actually change the format.

I didn't put these up for people to download and use, when it's time to use them we'll roll them out in a data pack/installer, i put them up just to show 256colour is fine which is why i put up PNG's, but very interesting to hear they rendered fine for you as PNG's (just with the extension renamed).

edit:
@krayon
lol masohp's discovery is quite right, the client already supports loading PNG's for the login screen, it also supports loading JPG's

At GIMP's JPEG quality 90 the filesize still comes out at 235KB, less than an 8bit GZipped BMP or PNG, and looks fine, so we'll probably use that.

edit2:

If someone running Windows could confirm this works for them that'd be great, here's the image in JPEG format (already renamed to .bmp):
http://www.paradoxcomputers.com.au/qel/login_back.bmp

[EndorVaeros]

hang on hang on... all you did was change the extension by renaming the file? you didn't open it up in some software and re-save it as bmp?

edit:
@krayon
lol masohp's discovery is quite right, the client already supports loading PNG's for the login screen, it also supports loading JPG's

The reason it works, (I've done this with other programs, not just EL) is because the client simply looks for the .bmp extension and loads that. It doesn't care "was it saved as a bmp". To most everything, an image file is an image file. The extension it was saved in is more of a matter of compression at time of saving than anything else. The only real problem is "specialized" files (like .psd which are more data files than image files). It's the same reason you can change a file from .txt to .html and it works fine. Both are text files, it's just a matter of how the computer and web browser are set to interpret the extensions.

This is why Windows users get the "If you change a file name extension, the file may become unusable. Are you sure you want to change it." Not to sound like a fun-ruiner, but don't give the client credit for being able to load the images that were saved as another extension, then had the extension renamed. It really has nothing to do with the client.

[kavvie]

adding .bmp on the end of a file doesn't change it to a bmp on my windows lol. It doesn't support login_back when it's a jpg file though, just comes up with a blank background.