o hmm lol, square loading screens...? wow i guess no compression for DDS loading screens... is there anything better than DDS that works then? TGA probably works but its huge file size
its just that GIMP said there was no compression possible at those sizes, but isnt it not really ideal to have an uncompressed loading screen? which is why i inquired about compression
do ya guys just leave your loading screens as uncompressed DDS? or is there more smaller file size format for loading screens?
If you're using .dds for a loading screen, make sure you turn mip-mapping off in the settings, or else it will end up compressed and blurry. Mip-mapping is a technique that samples lower resolution textures for quicker loading times in game, a feature you don't want for a full screen splash image. It may also be the source of your problem of being unable to save in any resolution outside of powers of 4, because mip-mapping is dependant on square textures.
As it says in my article: SC2 generates its own MIP maps. If you have existing MIP maps in the file, it re-compresses them.
DDS is being internally compressed into the map file, so you needn't worry about that. And a good size would be 1920x1248,
keeping in mind 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios and basing the loading screen graphics on that. As far as I know SC2 cuts off the excess size of the image and centers the content.
Actually .tga is the best way to go. There is a nifty trick which you can do in PS quite easily. Simply put, you change the color mode from RGB to Indexed. Almost no loss in quality and very good compression.
Ok so I tried out some loading screens in GIMP, and tried to do BC3/DXT5 compression while saving
but its saying it cant be compressed because the dimensions are not multiples of 4
i specifically made the width and height in pixels to be 1600 X 1200, which is definitely divisible by 4
then i tried many other combinations such as 1200 X 800, or 400 X 200, and none of these could be compressed
So what size DDS loading screen actually can be compressed and work?
@HatsuneMikuMegurine
it means this:
4x4
8x8
16x16
32x32
64x64
128x128
256x256
512x512
1024x1024
2048x2048
...etc
o hmm lol, square loading screens...? wow i guess no compression for DDS loading screens... is there anything better than DDS that works then? TGA probably works but its huge file size
I had a loading screen that was 1920x1200, so I don't think that's the problem.
well i can save it as DDS, at any sizes,
its just that GIMP said there was no compression possible at those sizes, but isnt it not really ideal to have an uncompressed loading screen? which is why i inquired about compression
do ya guys just leave your loading screens as uncompressed DDS? or is there more smaller file size format for loading screens?
If you're using .dds for a loading screen, make sure you turn mip-mapping off in the settings, or else it will end up compressed and blurry. Mip-mapping is a technique that samples lower resolution textures for quicker loading times in game, a feature you don't want for a full screen splash image. It may also be the source of your problem of being unable to save in any resolution outside of powers of 4, because mip-mapping is dependant on square textures.
As it says in my article: SC2 generates its own MIP maps. If you have existing MIP maps in the file, it re-compresses them.
DDS is being internally compressed into the map file, so you needn't worry about that. And a good size would be 1920x1248,
keeping in mind 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios and basing the loading screen graphics on that. As far as I know SC2 cuts off the excess size of the image and centers the content.
@HatsuneMikuMegurine: Go
It doesn't seem to tell me anything about compression, but I'm sure it is especially how much smaller it is than as a .tga.
Actually .tga is the best way to go. There is a nifty trick which you can do in PS quite easily. Simply put, you change the color mode from RGB to Indexed. Almost no loss in quality and very good compression.
@Karawasa: Go
Doesn't that limit the image to 256 colors? And can't you do that, except save it as .DDS, and get even better compression?