CoD discussion

[SD_Ryoko]

Even if it uses multiple skins, those can be resized

Like if he used a whole image for the face, you can resize that.

If you ever saw my UVW tutorial, you can see why. Each vertext location on a model uses

%x %y %z

So its percentage. No matter what size you make it (provided its WC3 compatable...32, 64, 128, 256, 512) then it will still fit the vertexes appropriately.

 

[Sud]

Yea, they can be resized, but you have to go in and eye it and assess how much damage will occur to what.

It depends on the skin from what I'm experiencing. On the BESkin.blp, when I resize that to 128x128, the fairly delicate facial features turn to mush (the eyes start to blend in with the face) and the whole thing looks god awful.

On some of the other models, typically those with harder or sharper features, it has little effect and degradation, so these are perfect candidates for resizing.

I think the hammer one can be put to 128x128 without an issue, as he's just using a texture for that one. The one he's using for facial features is ruined by 128 or at least from what I saw, but he's only using it for those features, thus I can black out all the rest of the skin, and compression will do the rest.

Blacking out the unused portions of those skins should be actually somethig done to the skin no matter what the size. For example, in the attached ZIP file, say the test1.jpg is the original skin. test2.jpg demonstrates how much potential space I could save via compression (it is 3kb, of the 42kb file it originally was), and test3.jpg simulates blacking out all but the parts I want (assume the stuff you see on the right was the parts of the skin I wanted to keep). 9kb of the 42kb which is a really good ratio.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

The algorithm for compression is quadradic.

'square' blp always acheives the best possible.

Less colors makes a huge difference in the way its stored.

It involves 'areas'. Saying 100x30 black pixels takes WAY LESS than saying '100x30 pixels each with this unique RGB'.

Distortion? What resample meathod? Bicubic, Bilinear (my prefered) or nearest neighbor?

 

[Sud]

So the question on everyone's mind is

why the hell aren't modellers using these methods on their models

 

[DM Cross]

why the hell aren't modellers using these methods on their models

It's like asking why an elephant has a nose the size of a person.

Evolution, my friend Evolution.

 

[Sargon]

Because they're artists, and you cannot limit the art.

Really though, I'm betting that he didn't think of the size issues. More concerned with making a good-looking model.

 

[Sud]

Warcraft's a special case though, as most modellers are painfully aware of the 4mb limit to maps online. If you look on wc3search, the guy who did the lothar model got a ton of praise mostly for reducing the size of it (which he did do pretty admirably, there's no wastage whatsoever).

The smaller the model the more of your models people can fit in their map = the better a modeller people will regard you as. You can't be a modeller for WC without having SOME technical knowhow because of all the crap you have to go through with GMAX and converting the model over.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Well some of your skins are just huge in size. I understand though, its tough to reduce those.

Textures\Dmain.blp (184k)
Units\chaos\HeroShadowCrafter\dsparil.blp (100k)
Textures\Lothar.blp (97k)
Textures\Hammer2.blp (97k)
Textures\RDZMech.blp (82k)

DISBTN's are important for cooldowns and spells.

But passive DISBTNS can be a black box. Its passive anyway. The only time you'll see black is when you go to the menu, or get doomed, or something.

And I dont think anyone would notice

 

[Sud]

Surprised you missed herounholyabomination, that one is huge.

Almost all of the skins I can do some kind of optimization to.

Icons are mainly for items, and when shifting items around in an inventory (or when an item is disabled) (or as you said menu). Quite a bit of item shifting occurs due to the completion of sets so those may be left as is. 90% of the icons are for items. There aren't too many passives in there using custom icons, nothing comes to mind off the top of my head.

Annoying as hell that you can't leave out the DISBTNs but it causes the War3 crash issue if you don't put them in.

I need to verify if the new Vexorian Mapopt works with this. It was good for 100kb reduction, but it caused the map to be unhostable on bnet (supposed to be fixed by now). I'd really like to use widgetizer because I've got that god-awful load time issue, but adding to the size of the map isn't appealing either.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Vex's 'Optomize string use' does what the widgetizer does, and inlines strings for the loading effeciency.

Widget does it more in depth level, into game constants and more.

If vex is still choking on the mp3's, you can try this.

Make a working copy.

Open winmpq. Remove MP3's (actually, extract them so it keeps the DIR paths right)

opt it.

Open again. Drag and drop them in. Close.

 

[Sud]

Thanks that's a good tip. He really shouldn't be trying to compress an MP3 at all considering it's a much better compression type for that type of media.

I still have some load time despite using the string enhance options, though it's not bad unless we get some guy with a 200mhz e-machine. They usually complain about the game running at 2fps anyways though.

 

[SD_Ryoko]

Not trying to "compress" an mp3 really

Whole MPQ is a compressed format. So it must be processed by nature with the others.

Load time?

If every map & comp loaded the same, no one would have bragging rights at our lan parties. And what fun would that be?

 

[Sud]

The problem is, 9 people loaded. Waiting for players...

Doofus w/ Pentium 90: "HUR HUR THIS MAP LAGS"
Everyone else: "No, it's your shitbox computer"
Doofus "HUR IMA LEAVING"

 

[Cres]

Anyone want to play CoD today? dota is really getting old

 

[Myzteryz]

I would be in..
I haven't played CoD in so long!
Last time I played, It was lagggy throughout the whole game...

also we should, sometimes, get together and play dota, maybe me, cres, ryoko (if he wants) and who ever else plays it

 

[Sud]

Sure, Saragog and 56k might play too if there's some way to attract their attention.

ugh, it looks like I'm going to need that PhotoImpact software to preserve the alpha channel or the skin's transparencies are going to go to hell. I'm not too keen on downloading 80 megs for a flipping 30 day trial though.

 

[Sargon]

I'm actually going out to eat today, so not right now. Sorry.

 

[Sud]

Eating can be done any random day, we have nubs to squash!

 

[Cres]

Well, PB and I are on, Sargon isnt and i think your on but idk, when do you guys want to play?

 

[Sud]

Whenever, I'm not doing anything right now