[435] Poor Quality Loading Screen Images

[Sensuki]

v392 had lovely high quality images for Loading screens. In v435 it either looks like they've been changed to lower quality jpeg images or there's something making them look bad.

 

 

Expected Result: same image quality as v392

[Sensuki]

I just exported this image from the game files, it's definitely a lower quality one.

[Luckmann]

Which game file? I've got the v392 version still floating around the hard drive, so we could do a side-by-side comparison.

[Sensuki]

resources.assets, you can open it with Unity Studio

[Sensuki]

I have the v364 Assemblies saved.

 

v364 used 1280x720p images that are about ~1.5 mb per image

 

v435 uses 1024x512 images with horrible compression that are about 500k per image

 

Here's some jpegs of the difference anyway (cbf uploading lossless versions)

 

 

 

I would prefer the higher quality images be used, please.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Sensuki

[cRichards]

Some images had to be compressed so the game can run more efficiently and so loading times and file sizes are smaller.

[Sensuki]

but muh image quality
 

[LadyCrimson]

Some images had to be compressed so the game can run more efficiently and so loading times and file sizes are smaller.

Couldn't there be an option setting to use the higher res ones for those who care/have rigs to support it? I don't know if that's possible with the way the game is designed/connected together etc tho....especially loading screens.

[Sensuki]

Yeah I'd really prefer to have the HQ images back - will save me modding them back in

Someone did HQ music and HQ movie patches for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, so it's gonna happen here too

[AndreaColombo]

Much agreed. I'll take longer loading times any time of day and night if that meant higher quality video or audio.

 

Please make this an option or revert back to high quality assets.

[Sensuki]

Well the images themselves are about ~1MB in difference each, and there's not like super heaps of different load screens - so it'd be about 30MB on disk and a few MB in memory usage (depending on how garbage collection is handled etc) - not that much of a difference.

 

The game is using up a lot less memory now, the max I've seen is around 1.6-1.7 GB which is good, and safe for 32-bit machines.

[BrainMuncher]

It's just a loading screen...

[Sensuki]

< gfxwhorecodex

[AndreaColombo]

It's just a loading screen...

 

It doesn't matter. With loading screens as with everything else, either do right or don't do it at all

Edited February 6, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[Luckmann]

I really cannot imagine that the loading screen images have that big of an impact on loading, no matter the rig, provided you meet the minimum system reqs.

 

I would very much prefer it if the game used the high-res uncompressed (or at least least-compressed) versions, or at least came with the option to turn them on. Just throw them in with the rest of the files, at least, so that even if you can't make a neat little button in the Options menu saying "Activate Space-Age Loading Screen Wizardry: Warning, Gargantuan Increase in Loading Screen TIme", we can simply flick something small in the game files to fix it.

 

Please? D:

 

It's just a loading screen...

I'm by no means a graphics whore, but I am really bothered by things that aren't as good as they can be, or where. I have a much easier time putting up with games that are actually terrible, than I have with games that are flawed but with good fundamentals.

 

And oh boy is PoE giving me an ulcer sometimes.

 

Just because it's "just a loading screen", doesn't mean it shouldn't aspire to be the best little loading screen that could, the best darn loading screen it can be. If it's "just a loading screen", people won't mind the fraction of a split second it'd add to load this up on their toasters, and I wouldn't have to casually sip pepto through a straw.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Luckmann

[agris]

Some images had to be compressed so the game can run more efficiently and so loading times and file sizes are smaller.

Perhaps the batch resize / compress could exclude these images? If the filesize difference is as Sensuki said (1 MB per image), you're not losing any memory by having this image in memory during loading, then flushed afterwards.

 

That, and Sensuki is right. The compressed images look decidedly worse- remember, 1920x1080 is normal now and standard resolutions will only increase in time. Ditto for ram.

 

 

 

 

edit: steam survey from 2015 on resolutions, ram size, etc.: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

Edited February 6, 2015 by agris

[cmergler]

@Devs: Hmm, so are there more images that had to be loss-compressed to save space for the 32-bit footprint? If yes, do we also get a 64-bit executable with perhaps the option to have the better images? Pretty please! 

[sp3cw4r]

I support highest possible resolution on all images. Games are artwork and the producers shouldn't be selling themselves short and all the work they put into it by handing it off butchered by compression. I understand the need to accommodate folks with lower spec'ed systems, but at the cost of gimping the game art, voices, music...  bah. In cases like this especially, where the benefits are minimal, it doesn't seem like the right call.

 

Reminds me of the music industry when heavy mp3 compression became so popular. They didn't raise enough fuss at how badly their product was degraded by it.

Edited February 6, 2015 by sp3cw4r

[aeonsim]

I would also prefer the higher quality images.

[Adam Brennecke]

I prefer it too, but we need to compress the images for things to work (like the build process). They are much smaller when loaded in memory by a factor of 10. 

[Luckmann]

I prefer it too, but we need to compress the images for things to work (like the build process). They are much smaller when loaded in memory by a factor of 10. 

 

We're fine with that. It's alright. Just give us the higher-quality stuff. It'll be fiiiiine.

 

 

You lost me at build process and factors.

 

[Sensuki]

I prefer it too, but we need to compress the images for things to work (like the build process). They are much smaller when loaded in memory by a factor of 10.

It was fine in previous versions though?

[Hassat Hunter]

Ehm, you said the game is far less memory-intensive now...

Do you think this might be part of the reason?

You can't say "it worked fine last build" AND "The game is using up a lot less memory now"

:/

 

Yeah I'd really prefer to have the HQ images back - will save me modding them back in

Someone did HQ music and HQ movie patches for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, so it's gonna happen here too

Obsidian/LucasArts released those.

And while the music is awesome, the movies really are a waste of disc-space...

[Sensuki]

You can't say "it worked fine last build" AND "The game is using up a lot less memory now"

 

Yes I can. They've been working very hard on memory optimization and likely done many things to reduce the memory footprint (most of that is probably dealing with Unity's cumbersome resource system). I'm not sure how many loading screen images the game would keep in memory at once, but if it's only a few it wouldn't make much difference to the running size or whatever.

 

I don't want to look at a horribly compressing loading screen. You have to look at loading screens very often in this game, and it would be nice if they at least looked good.

 

We have the higher quality images - Luckmann sent me his resource file from v392 and I've got all the files from most of the previous beta versions, in case anything gets changed that I don't like.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Sensuki

[Sensuki]

Oh wow, they compressed the background image for the inventory screen too  noticeably pixelated

[lordkim]

Im actually more worried to see nearly 5 pages of bugs in this beta (435)