[PhilD]

Originally posted by licker:
I can't remember the answer to this question so I'll ask it again...

Why are the .tga files so fricking huge? 30mb is a hella big file for a damn map no? I mean not all of us have the broadband

I read this and thought I'd do something useful for the community for once: load the various .tga files into Gimp, and do some scaling to make them easier to download for those without fast connections.

But it seems that, when doing this, the white dots that mark the centers of provinces tend to not remain white, which will most certainly mess the game up big time. So I'd have to convert said dots to white again, and that means it cannot be done quickly and with no effort...

Maybe the original authors could offer their maps (TGA files) in a variety of resolutions? I mean, the Ringworld map (just a random example) is nice, but with a 5000x1250, the .tga file is about 11Mb. A .5 scaling would reduce this by a factor of 4, and .25 would leave less than a Mb... unfortunately, I just checked, and doing it from the current file doesn't make it look too good, even without the white dot problem.

So, I'll suggest map makers try to provide a "smallish" Version of their files. Most likely you guys are working with some image manipulation software that would let you do it nicely, right?