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FPSC Classic Models and Media / JPG's no longer supported. - Advice to modellers.

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Scene Commander
Support Manager
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Posted: 28th Jan 2013 15:20
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Hi all,

I can't claim to be a modeller in any real sense, but following some recent issues with V120 betas, in addition to actually getting time to play around with FPSC rather than work on it, I've noticed that a lot of old media and even some more recent models use the JPG format for textures.

.JPG is no longer a supported format by FPSC and should be avoided.

Static entites which use it will not appear in the test or built game but will still affect the light mapping. If you find models not appearing in this way this is the most likely cause. Changing the texture to PNG (remembering to alter the .FPE too) will most likely solve the issue.

Modellers should bear this in mind for future releases, I'd recommend PNG as above, but if there is a better format, I'm sure a 'real' modeller will correct me.

I hope this is useful to some users.

Thanks to everyone who continue to provide the community with many excellent and often free media.

SC
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BlackFox
FPSC Master
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Joined: 5th May 2008
Location: Knight to Queens Bishop 3
Posted: 28th Jan 2013 19:36
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Quote: ".JPG is no longer a supported format by FPSC and should be avoided."


If I recall, JPG was dropped in v1.18 which is quite a while back. It is only media that was released (both model packs or free media) that may still have JPG textures (for example- Cosmic's Pirate pack used JPG for skybox's).

It is not hard to convert the textures. There is an excellent piece of software we use to batch convert called XnView for our textures when needed.


There's no problem that can't be solved without applying a little scripting.
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ncmako
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Posted: 28th Jan 2013 23:09
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Hey...Thanks BlackFox
Looks great. Been meaning to look for a new converter. I think I'll
give this one a try. And it's FREE What could be better than that?
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seppgirty
FPSC Developer
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Location: pittsburgh, pa.
Posted: 29th Jan 2013 00:37
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i thought you were really supposed to use dds textures. Is that still a good format?

gamer, lover, filmmaker
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BlackFox
FPSC Master
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Posted: 29th Jan 2013 00:45 Edited at: 29th Jan 2013 01:02
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Quote: "i thought you were really supposed to use dds textures. Is that still a good format?"


In v1.17 and lower, you could use DDS, JPG, TGA, and PNG for textures. In v1.18, JPG was dropped. As far as format to use, it is user preference. A lot of people use DDS because the engine will render the texture to DDS when needed (ex: in Preferences, set the texture quality to High- which is the "dividetexture=x" in the setup.ini). If a TGA is called in a script and only a DDS file exists, it will show the DDS (example- dooruse.fpi script). If the script calls a DDS and only a TGA exists, it will show the TGA. This only happens with DDS<-->TGA only.

We use PNG more and less of DDS only because we have seen some DDS sizes large and the PNG is considerably smaller. In a completed game package, we like to keep the total size of the build low. But as I said, it is user preference, not mandatory to use DDS.


There's no problem that can't be solved without applying a little scripting.
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Bejasc3D
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Posted: 29th Jan 2013 05:06
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In my experience, PNG isn't a 'great' format to use, because of its compression, which can sometimes bring some oddities to the image itself. Basically, they are generally lower quality than .dds or .tga.

While .dds and .tga are generally much higher file size, they are also (generally speaking) better quality and with some engines, preffered.

I myself work with .jpg when I want to quickly view something (as it shows on thumbnails and is usually quicker to save as), but for final textures, I use .tga.

Like Scene Commander said, it is more of a preference thing, an image is an image.

On the note of using converters -
Generally, it's better to save directly to your format (where possible) rather than use a converter.

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BlackFox
FPSC Master
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Posted: 29th Jan 2013 06:23
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Quote: "On the note of using converters -
Generally, it's better to save directly to your format (where possible) rather than use a converter."


Really? We've done both- used a converter (such as XnView) and saved directly in the format. No difference between the both. And we use the batch conversion to convert images for other engines all the time with no differences.

Quote: "PNG isn't a 'great' format to use, because of its compression, which can sometimes bring some oddities to the image itself. Basically, they are generally lower quality than .dds or .tga."


I do not totally agree. There are some instances where the DDS was a bit more "clearer" than the PNG, but you really had to look at it on some of the items compared. Mind you, that is just in the developments we were working on that we hardly saw a difference. My wife does all her textures in PNG on media she makes- that is her choice of format; I use PNG for huds.


There's no problem that can't be solved without applying a little scripting.
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Scene Commander
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Posted: 29th Jan 2013 13:14
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Quote: "There is an excellent piece of software we use to batch convert called XnView for our textures when needed."


Thanks for the link, I'm sure this will be a great help.

SC
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Bejasc3D
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Posted: 30th Jan 2013 02:21
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Quote: "I do not totally agree. There are some instances where the DDS was a bit more "clearer" than the PNG, but you really had to look at it on some of the items compared. Mind you, that is just in the developments we were working on that we hardly saw a difference. My wife does all her textures in PNG on media she makes- that is her choice of format; I use PNG for huds."


Nothing against PNGs, I just prefer to use other formats over them for some things. But in the instance of a HUD, I would also use a PNG for the transparency. The differences you might notice are incredibly small, but they (and the possibility for them) are still there.

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