[redmenace]

Alright, I have become inspired to create a new patch.
But, what changes should take place or be included?

For starters there is an mispelled ani in the original vps that should be fixed.
Secondly, I would love to get Firecracks missles.
Third, would be the fixed deimos
Forth, would be the fixed satis

Please feel free to suggest additions. And yes, I am creating multiple threads for maximum exposure. So sue me.

[DaBrain]

I'd say build a completely new one.

We're wasting memory with the current Media VP.

There are two shockwaves in the VP. The 2d shockwave and some old(!) 3d shockwave frames.

I suggest to remove them and use just the most recent 3d shockwave frames.


I'd also like to investigate the animated beam glow issue. If EFFs are supported, we should toss the ANIs and use EFFs instead. They' cut down the memory usage by 50%. Enough to make them usable for mid-range systems.

BTW don't forget this one: http://www.game-warden.com/starfox/Non_SF_related_stuff/MediaVP_fix.rar
(http://www.sectorgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1932)


I also thought we were going to put the AB trails back into the VPs. (Maybe a slightly more subtle version.)


Edit: Is this FSU stuff now?

[redmenace]

yes, but I opened multiple threads for maximum exposure.

[WMCoolmon]

Just a side comment, I was able to reduce Aloqua_Anibitmap.tga to a 256-color PCX, because it only needed 96 colors.

J

[CP5670]

There are a lot of images like that in there, actually.

[WMCoolmon]

And I just cleaned them up.

Any TGA with less than 256 colors has been converted to a PCX with no color loss...however, there are a number of images that are TGAs that don't seem like they need to be, trails in particular. But when converted, they don't look quite so nice, so I'm considering making DDS images for _effects, and moving the tga to adveffects. Does anyone know what the best way to convert to DDS is, and which version one should use (or when one should use each version)? (WIKI OPPORTUNITY! )

Also, I am correct in assuming that a DDS will take much less space than any other format of equal dimensions once it's loaded?

[DaBrain]

DDS (DXT1) only needs half the memory compared to PCX and eight times less compared to TGA.


I kinda got the feeling PCXs use a different way when they are resized. (i.e. when you're very close to a PCX map/effect)

I might be wrong though. -PCX32 fixed this problem for me.

[taylor]

Also remember that DDS images don't have to be compressed.  You can have uncompressed 16, 24 or 32-bit DDS images that look the same as TGA versions.  They take up the same amount of memory as the TGA version too, but they don't require -jpgtga to be used.  My recent changes allow for uncompressed DDS images to be used even if your card can't support compressed DDS.  Also a 16-bit DDS would end up using the same amount of memory as a PCX image but has the advantage of using the full 16-bit color space rather than having to deal with the crappy 8-bit to 16-bit color conversion that PCX has to go through.  So if you need more color than a 256 PCX gives you, but not as much as a 24-bit image and compression doesn't work well, then go with a RGB5_A1 DDS image instead.  You can get the needed format by using nvdxt with the -u1555 option (and maybe the -swap option to convert to BGR order).  In nvdxt the -u8888 option produces the same result as a 32-bit TGA, the -u888 option produces the same result as a 24-bt TGA (no alpha).

As DaBrain said, DXT1 has the least memory usage but doesn't have alpha (for speed and other reasons the OGL code has been modified to use color DXT1 only, no alpha bit).  DXT5 offers 8-bit alpha just like 32-bit TGA does but since it has a lower bit depth per block it can introduce banding on gradients.  So if you are converting images which need an alpha component use DXT5, otherwise use DXT1c (the color only version).  If the compression artifacts are too bad then try for the uncompressed DDS versions mentioned above and go for 16-bit DDS if at all possible.