Reducing the SE4 footprint.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Lisif Deoral:
Can SEIV handle RLE (compressed) windows bitmaps?
Last year I was running short of disk space and tried to compress them, but I can't remember if it worked or not (I decided to buy a new hard disk

Edit: yes, it can handle them. Anyway, they're limited to a palette of 256 colors, so you'll need to reduce color depth (but IMHO the game won't lose anything).

D, you didn't comment on this one, not sure if you saw it. I tested too and the only difference in the images I can see is a slight increase in graininess. And unless you have the before and after images side by side it's not even perceptable. Although, I didn't try every race pic. Some may be more obvious then others.

Reducing the image files from 24-bit to 256 color reduces their files size by a little more than half. That's like one Meg per race. That might get you one one CD.

There are utilities that can batch convert those files too. Doing it by hand would take years. Irfanview is one.

Geoschmo

EDIT: Actuallly I am not sure I did the same thing as him. I am not sure what RLE compressed is. I jsut opened the image in paint and "saved as" 256 color.

[ May 16, 2003, 15:26: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Andr�s]

RLE encoding reduces bmp sizes much more than just 256 colors.
I used paint shop pro to batch convert most pictures. Unless those pics with many minis (planets, comps, facilities, ect) and the main background, all other pictures look fine when reduced to 256 colors, some can even be reduced to 16 colors with little noticeable difference.

Edit: Pictures of the shipsets I'm uploading now to KDY are RLE encoded. Check the unzipped sizes.

[ May 17, 2003, 03:40: Message edited by: Andres ]

[Urendi Maleldil]

I forgot not all of us have a broadband connection.

Don't bother sending me a CD. I live in the states. Postage is probably too much. I'll just do most of this myself.

[Krsqk]

Originally posted by Urendi Maleldil:
I forgot not all of us have a broadband connection.

Oh, to live in such a state of blissful forgetfulness...

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Yeah, I saw the Posts about redusing colour depth but I wouldn't want to do that- that's just not how the race authors wanted them to look.

You ought to experiment with it a bit. You might be suprised at how little difference it makes. I know I was. And the space savings would be tremendous.

Geoschmo

[dogscoff]

Yeah, I saw the Posts about redusing colour depth but I wouldn't want to do that- that's just not how the race authors wanted them to look.

as to mailing a CD to the states- I doubt it would be expensive, (the price of a pint, probably) so I'm happy to do it.