[Vasudan Admiral]

Eeep! Flying mirror syndrome! Fix!

The updated versions of all my ships are in here, including no more flying mirrors and more efficient models all round:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41374.msg917697.html#msg917697

Keep in mind that post there is intended to be so DaBrain can update everything properly from his version of the next MVP set - it's not really meant to be a release post, so you'll just have to work out where things go on your own. (Ask me if you're unsure though)

They're all set for the next MVP release, but that's taking longer than expected, so I'm going to begin pointing people to that thread a bit more, cos I hate the flying mirrors.

[Snail]

I kind of like them, but only on windows or glass (things that usually are mirrors).

[Vasudan Admiral]

Uh, that's kinda the point of the updates - env maps are great if applied properly, but as the current 3.6.8 VP Triton, Aeolus, Lucifer and TC Tri demonstrate, they look really silly if they're not.

[Snail]

And the Medusa... IIRC there was see something wrong with that one too...

[Commander Zane]

There's a WHOLE LOT of "something wrong" with the Medusa, looking like a reflective rainbow and everything...

[Snail]

Well I changed it by pasting over INFA's maps (and model too actually)... Seemed to fix it really.

[fsphiladelphia]

re: Flying mirrors -- is that where you pull up to a ship really closely and notice, say, a reflection of a planet or nebula glowing back at you?  I think it's kind of cool, but I agree that it's more or less 'wrong'.

[Snail]

I believe it's cool. I like the mirror effect, but they're all oddballs, so I did away with them.

[fsphiladelphia]

Herra - here's one of the above shots, however in PNG, hopefully it looks a bit sharper.  In retrospect, not much of a point of me creating a thread about high-res screenshots only to then compress them into lower res jpegs

[jr2]

Quality.  Not resolution.  The resolution remains the same; however, the quality of JPEGs is less.  However, if you use IrfanView, (free, google it), you can choose the JPG file's compression / quality settings yourself, instead of using the lame defaults that most programs use.

[Herra Tohtori]

Or GIMP...

GIMP's JPEG compressor makes good work in my honest opinion. Usually the files are practically similar to the original uncompressed down to 85% quality, and boosting the quality to 90 will make it almost undistinguishable. From 90 to 100, filesize is affected much more than quality. Also, it features a preview window that shows exactly what the saved file will look at that particular quality setting. Quite handy it is.

PNG is still preferable if absolutely all artefacts want to be avoided, because it uses lossless (theoretically anyway) deflation compression and also retains colour depth quite well.

I don't know what kind of features IrfanView offers, never have used it.

[jr2]

Well it's free... and it supports batch renaming / batch conversion... cool stuff.  I personally have both, but use IrfanView more, as I tend to view/save more than edit... although, I haven't checked whether IrfanView edits or not.

[fsphiladelphia]

I've been using GIMP for years.  I also  used to be a big Irfanview user, as well.  Right now for handling TGA's, I am using ACDsee, which is pretty good, as well.

[jr2]

...but not free (ACDSee), right?

[fsphiladelphia]

...but not free (ACDSee), right?

No, I don't think it is, but a registered copy came with my digital camera.

[jr2]

[fsphiladelphia]

Shot from the new Beyond The Red Line Battlestar conversion:



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The people responsible for this conversion should be commended; everything about it is top notch and the visuals are really at another level.

[Commander Zane]

Haha, yeah, like I could ever run that...

[Huggybaby]

That's some sweet anti-aliasing, oh, so smooth! 

[Snail]

AA screwed up retail FS2 for some reason... But it looks great on FSO.