GPSFS Utility Program

[Codaz]

Also, i'm trying to run your program on a spare win98 machine.

Version 0.3b isn't well prepared for win98. Too bad.
Screen resolution is 1024x768 so it should be good.

The status bar is gone ? So i can't see how far the analyzing/creation is...

Hope you can fix it.

[MIB.42]

Also, i'm trying to run your program on a spare win98 machine.

Version 0.3b isn't well prepared for win98. Too bad.
Screen resolution is 1024x768 so it should be good.

The status bar is gone ? So i can't see how far the analyzing/creation is...

Hope you can fix it.

Sorry, but I have no access to Win98, thus have no idea what might be wrong... I am using "standard" Windows services for the GUI...

[MIB.42]

I tried some things out with photoshop on several tiles and other images. Wouldn't it be good to do a 8 color GIF addon because it will give good viewable results.

8 bit diffused with restriction (216 web colors).

PNG 4bit I believe has definitely better compression for the PNG type maps than 8 bit diffused GIF.
I guess you're talking about instead of JPGs, right? That would require adding an other decoder into MapThis!, which I am not sure would buy a lot of extra features...

[Codaz]

Ok clear on that GIF addon. PNG-4 would be nice.

For the win98 testing, you could use the compatibility options of winXP.

So run this program in win95/win98 mode (right mouse click).

Or is there any way that i can use your tool within DOS ?
A command line prompt ? Would be very efficient, i don't want to see those tiles

[Codaz]

Beautiful that coders ask eachothers help.

MIB i will try the program out in a few seconds !

I'll report ASAP.

What's on stake for version 0.4 ?

========

Report:

Program is working VERY well, BUT i can't set the image quality of PNG maps with a slider or something.
On JPEG maps i can set the end size with the slider.

Also the Qcreate doesn't give an estimate of the size it will be.

A bit confusing is it now. It would be better if there was a build in comparison chart that says:

Process the map now and you get:

JPEG normal = 50 mb.
JPEG max = 20 mb
PNG normal (current) = 50 mb.
PNG max (16bit) = 18 mb.

Or something like that.

=====

I analyzed a 54,1 mb PNG map which gives with no compression a 82 mb JPEG map. WOW ! How does that come ?

If i say compress it to jpeg max compression it will look much worse (64 mb) than png 16 bit color which is only 28,1 mb.

So great job done, map is from 54 mb to 28. With png > jpeg on max it will only go from 54 to 64 and it looks blocky.

Why is the estimate size on jpeg conversion not right ? It says with max jpeg compression (slider set) it will be 46 mb. But i viewed the folder and it was 64,6 !

What do you say about this MIB ?

[MIB.42]

What's on stake for version 0.4 ?

I don't have anything planned... I have a thousand other projects waiting and this seems to work for now...

Program is working VERY well, BUT i can't set the image quality of PNG maps with a slider or something.
On JPEG maps i can set the end size with the slider.

Of course not. PNG is non-tunable ( ...well, as in I already set all the z-pmeters to max compression etc. ). There are simply 2 formats; 8bit and 4bit. These are included in 0.3b.

Also the Qcreate doesn't give an estimate of the size it will be.

Correct. The size is approx. half of the original one.

A bit confusing is it now. It would be better if there was a build in comparison chart that says:

Process the map now and you get:

JPEG normal = 50 mb.
JPEG max = 20 mb
PNG normal (current) = 50 mb.
PNG max (16bit) = 18 mb.

Or something like that.

I see. Well, I discourage making JPGs from PNGs. The 4bit version pretty much represents the best compression/quality ratio. You can still do it of course by clicking on the "Force JPG" if you really, really need to, but with the 4bit PNG version available now, there is no real need for it...

I analyzed a 54,1 mb PNG map which gives with no compression a 82 mb JPEG map. WOW ! How does that come ?

JPEG is really bad compressing lines etc. It was designed to work on "organic" images ( like satellite pictures )... PNG does a better job on geometric images, like vector type maps ( fonts included )...

If i say compress it to jpeg max compression it will look much worse (64 mb) than png 16 bit color which is only 28,1 mb.

Indeed. That's the nature of PNG vs. JPG.

So great job done, map is from 54 mb to 28. With png > jpeg on max it will only go from 54 to 64 and it looks blocky.

Indeed. That's the nature of JPG.

Why is the estimate size on jpeg conversion not right ? It says with max jpeg compression (slider set) it will be 46 mb. But i viewed the folder and it was 64,6 !

Hmmm, that could be an artifact of the quick JPG estimation, which accumulative produces this difference. I was debating for a while to slow down the compression in the analyze state to produce more evenly distributed GPSFS files, or do it faster with less even results... I voted for the latter, as there is no significant seek time impact on the PSP due this "minor" distribution difference.

Cheers,

MIB.42

[MIB.42]

Ok clear on that GIF addon. PNG-4 would be nice.

It is done in v0.3b.

For the win98 testing, you could use the compatibility options of winXP.

So run this program in win95/win98 mode (right mouse click).

Or is there any way that i can use your tool within DOS ?
A command line prompt ? Would be very efficient, i don't want to see those tiles

Oh, Lordy, lordy... You want a bit too much now, don't you?
( Would work under Linux a lot faster than on any other winblows versions, but hey, had to do it for the "masses"... )

[Codaz]

Ok ok i'll cool down.

You say there is 8bit and 4bit PNG present in your 0.3b release.

How to choose between it to see the differences ?

[MIB.42]

Ok ok i'll cool down.

You say there is 8bit and 4bit PNG present in your 0.3b release.

How to choose between it to see the differences ?

GPSFS_util only outputs 4bit PNGs if PNG maps are optimized. ( There is no reason to output 8bit ones, as that's what the original map was in )

What I usually do is to load 2 GPSGS_utils and browse the original (8bit) and the newly created (4bit) maps. If all went well, they are "almost" identical...

[MIB.42]

Bug fixes...