Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

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Blaziken257
Posts: 983
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:52 am

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by Blaziken257 »

So, before we all start editing away, one issue that we should start early on is the images. Mainly, the file format (.gif, .png, etc.) as well as their filename conventions (like T1-I-001.gif). We had a lot of debate over this before, so now is a good time to decide on images and such.

First -- the file format. Some people, in the past, wanted to use GIFs for transparent images (like Denjuu and items) because IE6 had a serious bug where it had this ugly light gray background instead. However, PNGs are more efficient, can have more than 256 colors (which might be suitable depending on the situation), and have translucency, although they lack animation. Does anybody even use IE6 anymore, though? I sure hope not. We're in the year 2011, and IE6 was released in 2001 -- about 10 years ago. It's horribly outdated, has lots of rendering bugs, and security issues. Hell, it was outdated even in 2006. We have different choices of browsers now -- like Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or Safari, or if you still insist on using Internet Explorer, there's nothing stopping you from upgrading to IE8, and IE9 is supposed to come out soon if you don't have XP.

Besides that, I've also heard of APNG for animated PNGs -- but only a few browsers support it, and it has some problems, so I personally don't recommend it, but it's possible that some people will disagree with me.

Personally I think we should use PNGs for pretty much everything, unless we need to make animated images for whatever reason (like moves or scenes where Denjuu evolve, etc.), in case we should use GIF. What do you all think?

Second -- the filename conventions. Are you ready for this?

The Denjuu

Currently, we have:

T1-###.gif - Telefang 1 main Denjuu sprite
T1-###-I.gif - Animated Telefang 1 walking sprite
T1-###-IS.gif - Non-animated Telefang 1 walking sprite
T2-###-F.gif - Telefang 2 front sprite (normal)
T2-###-FA.gif - Telefang 2 front sprite (attacking)
T2-###-B.gif - Telefang 2 back sprite (normal)
T2-###-BA.gif - Telefang 2 back sprite (attacking)
T2-###-I.gif - Animated Telefang 2 walking sprite
(Is there a non-animated version at all?)

Personally, I'm fine with these; they're pretty straightforward, although if it's not too cumbersome, maybe make the non-animated sprites as PNGs instead.

The items
Oh boy. This one bothers me. Currently we have:

T1-I-##.gif - Telefang 1 large item icon (## corresponds to index number in decimal)
T1-I-##-I.gif - Telefang 1 small item icon
T2-I-###.gif - Telefang 2 large item icon
(Did anybody ever rip the item icons from Telefang 2?)

I dislike this format because it uses index numbers, and most people will get confused by them unless they have hacked the games before. It's different from Denjuu, where the picture book numbers are displayed prominently, where in that case the numbers were easy to deal with. But here... the English names should be used instead. This is partly my fault, as I uploaded them all here with the naming convention here, without realizing that this would be a bad idea. Then Krypto or whatever you want to call her with her dozens of usernames (you know, the person who was pretending to be hacked) jumped the gun and uploaded them all to Wikifang and it stuck. And for consistency, it ended up being used for the Telefang 2 item file format too... so I say that we use items. It also eliminates the need for a switch template.

Only problem with using English names... we have to agree on those seeing that there are no official ones. But if we have to rename one or two files, it isn't a huge deal... right? And I don't think it's a good idea to use the bootlegs' names for items, as most of them don't make sense (Flying? Gulap? Really?).

Oh, and they should be PNGs in my opinion, as they don't animate.

The maps and move screenshots
Perhaps this shouldn't follow a specific convention and just have a field in the map/move template for the filename, like what Pokémon wikis like Bulbapedia do.

Is there anything else that I forgot to mention here?
RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by RacieB »

Okay, my notes-

GIF vs PNG
PNG is nice, I've got a Firefox plugin somewhere that makes APNG but I've never actually utilized it, anyway these show up as a static image on browsers that don't support the animations. However I don't know if anybody actually wants to reconvert all of the GIFs we already have, and there are a lot =< None of the sprites have more than 256 colors anyway, so it's probably a non-issue.

Items
IIRC, the items had pretty straightforward names for the most part? Plus I thought we already had a list floating around of accepted translations for them, I think I remember Kimbles doing that.

Maps/Moves
Is it just me, or are the animated moves already on Wikifang set to play once with no loop? That's rather annoying =/ Anyway, the filenames for those could go by index number, right? As for map naming, perhaps just going with the romanization of each area would be best...? I dunno if all of the translated names have been decided for locations yet.

Etc.
What about the other series? I suppose they would go along with similar naming formats, just with BS/DD1/DD2 prefixes.. anyway, these definitely need to be researched more, there is very little information written up for them as compared to T1 and T2.
Kimbles(imported)
Posts: 470
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:17 am

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by Kimbles(imported) »

Hmm, good points...

Regarding gifs vs. pngs, I still like gifs. They're comfy and easy to use, and nothing that we're using them for really requires anything better than a gif IMO... I'm not really familiar with how pngs are better, but in my experience they're all around more annoying to work with, so I'd prefer to avoid them unless totally necessary. >_<

T1 item names should be in the translation topic, but I've noticed that Wikifang doesn't actually use those... ._. The only ones I would change at this point are Titanium to Tytanium because it's not supposed to be real, and maybe Propeller Engine to Prop Engine...
T2 items are here.
Some of the names are kind of long but if you're fine with using them, I agree it would be more handy than numbers.

One thing that bothered me about the old Wikifang was the somewhat tacky over-use of images, so I would really like if we could cut down on that... I'm mainly referring to icons everywhere, icons next to text in the article (which always looks bad), and animated stuff that really doesn't need to be animated.
I don't think we need attack animations. A normal well-timed still screenshot would do the job just fine. Animations are just kind of weird and distracting. D:

For maps, I agree that unique names would probably be fine... I had all of the T1 areas figured out but I don't think I have a list handy, sorry.

For Bugsite and DD, I think the prefix Bug-whatever would be better for images... XD I could write some stuff for both of them, but it would be nice to have a place to discuss how we're going to organize it beforehand, like maybe make a topic here for each game or something. *shrug*
RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by RacieB »

Aw I loved the over-use of images, it seemed more.. thematic? I dunno, I thought they were cute XP

Also I thought I named it Titanyum? Or were there two and I named the other one the correct spelling.. man I can't remember now D:
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Sanqui
Posts: 736
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:25 am

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by Sanqui »

I did kind of like [icon] Name, too :c

I'd say keep GIF, as there's no real reason to switch to PNG. Color limits are not going to be a problem. (PNGs *should* be used for artwork, though, which i should totally redo).
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andwhyisit
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by andwhyisit »

Transparent pngs are not well supported in earlier browsers, it's the main reason why we converted everything from png to gif in the first place.
Milnivri(imported)
Posts: 351
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:14 pm

Re: Images -- file format, filename convention, etc.

Post by Milnivri(imported) »

I support keeping them as GIFs, after all, the sprites are less than 256 colours and its smaller in size as well. And if we do have anyone at all who still uses IE6, it wouldn't have the grey background.

Also, animations could still be used, if you don't want to stick it on the article itself we could always link it in the gallery section or something. After all, we are trying to provide as much information on the games as we can right? So no harm having more stuff.

I don't see whats wrong with having item images with their names as their index number - if we are going to do the automatic wiki thingy, all the data pages (denjuu, items, locations etc) would pull all their info from a database rather than switch templates, and thus rather than having to change page/image names when translations change, and changing other places where the name appears, just changing it in the database would work (just like how a switch template works, except much more efficient)
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