Re: [Enigma-devel] New graphics

[Tacvek]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jen" <address@hidden>
To: "Tacvek" <address@hidden>; <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 6:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Enigma-devel] New graphics


> > Question: how are the smaller images being generated? Are they simply 
> > downsampled versions of the higher resolution graphics?
> > (Just curious)
>
> In this case, yes.  But it's important to note that I always start with a 
> large image, and then size it down to each size needed and check to make 
> sure each one still tiles well and do any sharpening or touch up needed. 
> One thing I noticed when looking at some of the objects currently in the 
> game - coins, spoon, key, etc. - is that they appear to all have started 
> at the smallest size, and then that small image was enlarged as needed. 
> You always lose some image quality when enlarging a small image.  It's 
> always better to start big and then size down.

Agreed. AFAICT some of those images were created when only the only size 
available was the smallest,
so the only thing that could be done to create the larger version was to 
scal them up.

One thing i will note: If you start with source images larger than the end 
sizes, and those source images
are still useful for creation of aditional images (Even though the final 
images have been hand tweaked to
appear properly) it is nice to include the original image.
The use case for this is that it assists in the creation of new images.
For example should somebody decide they wanted to create a floor tile
that shows a smooth transition between the grass floor, and say a metalic 
floor,
having original images assists with that.


> And for whatever it's worth, I'll be doing some of the objects in vector 
> format initially, which can be resized up or down without loss of quality. 
> But for textures like the grass/leaves, a large image carefully reduced in 
> size is more effeceint, in my opinion.

Agreed. That is definately what I have heard from others in digital artwork 
feild.
Textures for 3d games for example often start out an enormous images, that 
get
scalled down to the proper (often fairly small) sizes.

> [SNIP] So... no one has any suggestions as to what I should work on first? 
> Any comments on the grass/leaves?

To be honest. I have not yet had a chance to look very closely at that 
example tile.
It looked good from the quick look I gave to it.

As for what to work on next. I'm not really sure.
I would say the first priority would be any images that really don't look 
good even at the smallest resolution.
it-banana for example does not look that good even at 32x32.(Although it is 
not horrible either)

Then I would say look at those images that look really poor in the 48x48 
resolution. Many of those are images
that were clearly scaled up from a smaller size.

Perhaps somebody else has stronger feelings about what would be most 
beneficial to work on next.