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January 8th, 2004, 11:15 PM
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General
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Sweden
Posts: 4,463
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Re: Maps available
Quote:
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
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Hmm, it is probably not too difficult to make a smaller Version. I'll take a look, as I have some spare time.
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January 8th, 2004, 11:26 PM
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Shrapnel Fanatic
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Vacaville, CA, USA
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Re: Maps available
OK now http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion/Dominions2/ has a zipped file added for Miirunst if people have the ability to unzip files.
__________________
-- DISCLAIMER:
This game is NOT suitable for students, interns, apprentices, or anyone else who is expected to pass tests on a regular basis. Do not think about strategies while operating heavy machinery. Before beginning this game make arrangements for someone to check on you daily. If you find that your game has continued for more than 36 hours straight then you should consult a physician immediately (Do NOT show him the game!)
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January 8th, 2004, 11:43 PM
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General
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Sweden
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Re: Maps available
The illwinter one is also zipped. 8 meg IIRC.
I have experimented with rescaling. At 1/4 much of the nice information on the map is lost. Also all capital dots disappear entirely (impossible to guess where they should be). For the mapfile to be consistent they must keep their actual position relative the other capitals. Thus they must be rezised so it is possible to see where they are. Then a new white dot may be placed on the smaller map. 1/2 might be better.
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January 8th, 2004, 11:44 PM
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First Lieutenant
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Bordeaux, France
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Re: Maps available
Quote:
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
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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?
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January 9th, 2004, 02:18 AM
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Shrapnel Fanatic
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Vacaville, CA, USA
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Re: Maps available
What about dropping the colors. Do the TGA actually use alot of colors between the 256 and the 16 million territory? Thats one of the things I usually recommend for JPG's on peoples web pages. The view doesnt tend to change all that much. You need the 16 mill setting to do alot of fancy things in decent paint programs but usually once the image is done you can pull it back to 256 with a big save in size. I just dont know if TGA makes a difference in that plan
[ January 09, 2004, 00:23: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]
__________________
-- DISCLAIMER:
This game is NOT suitable for students, interns, apprentices, or anyone else who is expected to pass tests on a regular basis. Do not think about strategies while operating heavy machinery. Before beginning this game make arrangements for someone to check on you daily. If you find that your game has continued for more than 36 hours straight then you should consult a physician immediately (Do NOT show him the game!)
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January 9th, 2004, 03:27 PM
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Corporal
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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Re: Maps available
And here I thought everyone had unlimited bandwidth  I made em big cause when you zoom in to the level of playability they look better in the higher resolutions. Least, I like em better.
Anyways, I would be happy to scale em down a bunch, I have enough mid-creation Versions of them that it should be no problem. I've been using Macromedia Fireworks and Gimp (I'd love to get gimp 2.0, but was slashdoted yesterday).
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January 9th, 2004, 05:03 PM
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Major General
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: 500km from Ulm
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Re: Maps available
Actually, "Miirunst" uses ~270 000 colors (IIRC - checked yesterday) only. Reducing that to 256 makes especially the red gradients rather pixelated (sp?), but it's something I could live with.
File Size goes down significantly, but I'll have to check again when I'm at home. IIRC it was 16MB than.
One problem with the DOM2 maps is that they compress rather badly - thanks to .tga only beeing able to to RLE compression.
Now Miirunst and the Illwinter maps have lots of microstuctures. These look good, but compress very badly, especially with RLE. ...
STefan
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As for AI the most effective work around to this problem so far is to simply use an American instead, they tend to put up a bit more of a fight than your average Artificial Idiot.
... James McGuigan on rec.games.computer.stars somewhen back in 1998 ...
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