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How to "compress" images using Paint.NET
#1
I accidentally opened sprites with Paint.NET to convert them from PNG to BMP, but I found a trick that made sprites take up less space with NO LOSS OF QUALITY! Please keep in mind that this is mainly intended for LF2 sprites. Without further adieu:


1. Open the sprite sheet you want to compress on Paint.NET.

2. Click Save (or Save As if you aren't using a bmp file). You should see some options pop up for you.
[Image: naf.png]

3. Choose 8-bit. The dithering is set at 7 by default, but messing with it produces no visible results. I raised it just because I could.
[Image: 12b2.png]

4. Click "OK" and you're good to go!


I don't know if this is a similar method to what Marti had done to make each BMP file smaller, but I see it working fine without any problem at all. If you have problems with this, please let me know.
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The first thing you must do to live a life of power is to find courage. You must reach beyond the boundaries of time itself.
And to do that, all you need is the will to take that first step...
Ask not what others can do for you, but what you can do for others.
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#2
(10-27-2013, 07:18 PM)Bat Tamer Wrote:  NO LOSS OF QUALITY!
Excuse me but there is no way to not loose quality if you reduce your bit depth.
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#3
unless he happens to use <= 256 colours

edit:
v more text = effort



Azriel~

Silverthorn edited this post 10-27-2013 07:41 PM because:
and yet, you still spell it with two "F" :p
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#4
(10-27-2013, 07:31 PM)YinYin Wrote:  
(10-27-2013, 07:18 PM)Bat Tamer Wrote:  NO LOSS OF QUALITY!
Excuse me but there is no way to not loose quality if you reduce your bit depth.

Not true. If you are only using 2^8 colors, then you lose absolutely no information by changing the bit depth. The LF2 bitmaps are all 8bit actually. The reason 8bit images normally look crap is because they'll be using the default palette and the majority of the colors are unused. Paint.Net (and photoshop, and probably other programs) will automatically figure out the optimal color pallette to use, so you don't end up wasting colors etc.

Edit:

^ YOU NINJA!
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#5
Seriously, dude. Why not try this for yourself? Do you see a quality loss on Anti-Davis's sprites in the pictures I show? The quality loss only happens when you try to copy an 8-bit depth to a non-8-bit-depth image.

Edit: I did not see you two post; that post was meant for YinYin. I didn't know that much about the color processing even though I know 8-bit ruins the quality using MS Paint.
To live a life of power, you must have faith that what you believe is right, even if others tell you you're wrong.
The first thing you must do to live a life of power is to find courage. You must reach beyond the boundaries of time itself.
And to do that, all you need is the will to take that first step...
Ask not what others can do for you, but what you can do for others.
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#6
Most sprites usually don't have 256 colors. If you compress images with a higher number of colors, this happens:
[Image: jQJECa8.png]
(24bit vs. 8bit)

200% zoom:
[Image: 2Pc5O0g.png]

Yes, that's not Paint.NET but it illustrates the concept of color-reduction quite nicely. Filesize is 1/3 of the original or so but quality goes down the drain.


@YinYin v: crappy dithering for emphasis :D
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#7
@Azriel, Doix, Bat Tamer: That's obvious. I am assuming your image actually makes use of its whole bit depth. If not it factually already is an 8-bit image saved in an unnecessarily high bit depth.
I always set the colour index of my images to the exact colours that are being used and only compress them down to 8-bit for release (to match lf2 qualilty and keep the size down).

Also thx BP. That is what I meant. And you have used a horrible dither there ...
It certainly is visible if you have a better quality sprite sheet to begin with.
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#8
Again, what is the need for compressing the bmps....to make it use less space, right?
After you sent it to rar or molebox it, it's size will reduce automatically.

BTW no one makes char sprites in 8 bit nowadays.
If someone want to make in 8 bit, first save the file in 8 bit and then start modifying it ;)
...............
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#9
AFAIK, loading less depth'd grids can cost less memory as well. This can be very important when you're having large projects where loading a lot of BMPS can buffer overflow your memory (a.k.a senseless "Couldn't create art surface" errors).
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