7 replies to this topic

[Abigail]

I've been using custom portraits for my PC recently. It looks well in its bigger version, but I can't seem to make it right with a small one. I resize it in paint and change it to 256 colors palette, but the effect is far from satisfactinary. I know it's supposed to be 8-bit, but Photoshop doesn't even allow it. Or maybe (propably) I'm just doing something wrong. So I'd appreciate some suggestions

[SConrad]

I'd use Photoshop instead of paint to resize portraits.

As far as I recall (but I'm not in a position to check right now), portraits can (and probably should) be 16-bits. It's 32 that starts coughing up problems.

[Abigail]

I'd use Photoshop instead of paint to resize portraits.

As far as I recall (but I'm not in a position to check right now), portraits can (and probably should) be 16-bits.

Anything higher than 8-bit just doesn't work in case of a small portrait, everything that shows is just this default 'empty' portrait. However, when I put a big 24-bit portrait in the small one's planes, it works, but of course only a fragment is visible.
I'll write what I'm doing step-by-step, so maybe someone will be able to point out where I'm making a mistake.

1. I resize a .psd file to 110x170 and save it as 24-bit bmp
2. I resize the .bmp file to 38x60, still in photoshop
3. I open the small portrait in paint and change it to 256 colors

[SConrad]

When I said 16, I meant 24. I think.

First of all; don't use paint if you have Photoshop (or any other software) available. Just don't.

The game does not discriminate small-sized portraits other than the actual pixel-by-pixel size. There's absolutely no need to change the data unit (bit) or change to 256 colors. If your large portrait works as 24-bit, your small one definitely should do the same.

In your step-by-step, you can ditch the third one right off. I think your problem is that you're doing something funky when you're resizing the .bmp. Try repeating the first step again, but change it to 38x60 instead, and then save it like you do with the larger portrait.

Failing that, please upload the .psd here (and .bmp too if you want, though strictly not needed), and I'll take a look at it when I get home.

[Abigail]

It worked Thank you!
I had read somewhere that 24-bit is absolutely out of question for a small portrait and went with it, but I should've checked it anyway. Oh well, silly me.

[Daulmakan]

24 works just fine.

[SConrad]

You're welcome.

[Miloch]

From the BG2 readme.txt:

Custom Portraits:

The measurements for player portraits are 38X60 pixels for the smaller portraits (8-bit color runs faster but it can be up to 24 bit color)

There is no reason why you'd use more than 8 bits (256 colours) in any reasonable small portrait. I can usually reduce full colour small portraits to 8-bit without any loss of quality by using Image > Decrease Color Depth > 256 Color palette, then choosing "optimized octree reduction," "error diffusion" and "reduce color bleeding" in PSP. Photoshop does something roughly similar if you go to Image > Mode > Indexed Color and use a Local (Adaptive) palette of 256 colours and no dithering.

[BTW SConrad, this page just took about 5 minutes to load fully, with stats of 64.2336 sec, 6.90, 11 queries]