[Lightspeed]

Flipside, I think you still are not aware of the actual problem.

Chrono has the SAME file that I have. HE put it through the convertor and sent me the file.

All i did was saving it to JPG for posting it up here.

Here's the DDS file, just open it and save it as a JPG (good quality) - Then post it up here:


DDS file

[Flipside]

Ok :-



I get artifacts.... Though the DDS looked like it had them from the moment I opened it, even before the conversion.

Ok, this has got me hellishly confused.

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by SA22C
I think you're too picky Lightspeed.  The second image you posted doesn't look bad at all, at least here in the forum.

You, sir, have a broken monitor

Check the following Chart I put together:



The upper grey gradient shows qualityless fading, the second one was put through the DDS conversion. Now, am I picky or does it look horrible?

Check the lower part of the graphic.

You should see four rectangles on the black background (left one pretty faint, but still visible) and a box seperated in two parts with slightly different brightness.

If you cannot see four boxes, your monitor should be adjusted.

[ChronoReverse]

So it artifacts for you too, meh.  I wonder why it looked so nice.

Opening the file from school also shows the same artifacts.  Makes no sense, grrrrr.


[edit]  I'm going to try to use the SDK's compressor to see how well that works.  However, I need the alpha in a separate bitmap.  Is it possible to separate the alpha channel in the tgas and how is that done? [/edit]

[Lightspeed]

Phew, good to know Flipside's looks exactly the same as the one I posted.

Are you *sure* you used the right file for your comparison, Chrono?

[ChronoReverse]

I don't see how compressing the same file twice using lossless compression would yield two files of different sizes.  That was how I kept track of the files in fact.

[Flipside]

For those final unbelievers

That's zoomed up at 200%, it's not even gradient problems, because the lines don't seem to follow the curve of the planet, it's like a compression error.

[Lightspeed]

show the 'south pole' where you have ugly ugly colour edges.

Alternatively, look at my monitor test chart.

[Flipside]

This is the original DDS file zoomed at 200 percent, the problems are there when I open it.

[ChronoReverse]

Bah, I was hoping to have this work too.


/me still thinks that preloading all the textures in the beginning on a temporary object will help the stutters.

/me also thinks that the people making maps and effects should remember to use 2^n lengths and widths.

[Flipside]

/me Agrees with you on both counts there Though I think the first one is being/has been implemented.

The simple fact that your settings work shows it MUST be possible somehow, theres a missing link here somewhere.....

[ChronoReverse]

I'm actually beginning to think that Photoshop CS just played a weird trick on me.

I'm 100% sure I had both files opened and saved separately.  They were opened at the same time, I tiled the windows.  Logically that should be true as well since the pngs aren't the same size.  Yet somehow, as I open the dds file here at school, it show the artifacts.

[Flipside]

You use CS?

I use Photoshop 7.0, I wonder what Lightspeed uses?

[Lightspeed]

Photoshop 6.0

[Flipside]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.......I wonder if we are looking at some not-quite downwards compatability here?

[Lightspeed]

Definately not.

Freespace 2 open displays the artifacts too, and i'm sure as hell it doesnt care which version of Adobe PS I have installed on my computer.

[Flipside]

The first one is a straight JPG of planet Yuck
The second one was saved as DDS and then reloaded and saved as a JPG.

Here is the DDS, do you get artifacts on it?

http://www.aqsx85.dsl.pipex.com/Yuck.dds

[RandomTiger]

Originally posted by ChronoReverse

Generate MIP maps
[/edit]

Theres no point in generating mipmaps for background images like planets.

Technically any mipmap you save isnt actually used for even 3D object textures. Though that may change.

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Flipside

Here is the DDS, do you get artifacts on it?
 

it looks exactly the same as the one you posted, i.e. ugly colour edges on the shadow side of the planet, along with some other artifacts (just look at the point where the atmosphere glow ends - YUCK)

[Flaser]

I'm no expert in the field of image manipulation, but I have some experience with video encoding.

The thing you see is very similar to some post-processing errors I saw on DivX videos.

I now the two things are of an entierly different realm, but what if he has some post-processing filter that "smoothes" the picture.

If it's applied all the time he won't notice the blocky artifacts.

That's my 2 cents - though I could be entierly wrong.