Parallax mapping file size issue.

[Grayborders]

Hi i have a question.

I recently started to use parallax mapping, i find it refreshing and amazing, but my problem is that all my maps are huge, hell even a small 166x100 map turns out to be a png file that is 24mb! and I was planing to redo my world map fully hand drawn, but with these file sizes its almost impossible, I would like to know is there any way around this. Or Parallax becomes useless if you want to have many big maps.

Please don't say just use smaller maps, i know that's an option but i rather had the massive hand drawn maps, and i have way to many maps to segment them further.

 

[Missile]

Hi i have a question.

I recently started to use parallax mapping, i find it refreshing and amazing, but my problem is that all my maps are huge, hell even a small 166x100 map turns out to be a png file that is 24mb! and I was planing to redo my world map fully hand drawn, but with these file sizes its almost impossible, I would like to know is there any way around this. Or Parallax becomes useless if you want to have many big maps.

Please don't say just use smaller maps, i know that's an option but i rather had the massive hand drawn maps, and i have way to many maps to segment them further.

Going through a similar thing.

Really it's been easiest to minimize the amount of .png's needed for the map to work. Using .jpg for one base layer, then .png for transparency with top layers. A 2000x1500 px map I'm looking at now is about 4.45mb after photoshop's "smallest" .png compression.

Unfortunately going over about 3500x3500 in image size causes RMVX (and assuming Ace) to have map loading times and slows down other aspects of the game, so I've found that parallaxing's limit is about 3500x3500 (or ~100x100 tile size). Something the size of FF6's world map would be very unwieldy.

 

[Grayborders]

Going through a similar thing.

Really it's been easiest to minimize the amount of .png's needed for the map to work. Using .jpg for one base layer, then .png for transparency with top layers. A 2000x1500 px map I'm looking at now is about 4.45mb after photoshop's "smallest" .png compression.

Unfortunately going over about 3500x3500 in image size causes RMVX (and assuming Ace) to have map loading times and slows down other aspects of the game, so I've found that parallaxing's limit is about 3500x3500 (or ~100x100 tile size). Something the size of FF6's world map would be very unwieldy.

I tried just about everything, but parallaxes with 500x500 tile size are not even showing up even if the image file itself is 400kb(almost empty).

When i learned how to use parallaxes i wanted to redo all my maps with it, but this restriction is so discouraging, i`m really sad about this, i didn't think the program was this limited, i mean things like limited tileset sizes and sets? If that wasn't there i could avoid over reliance on parallax but oh well...

 

[Clareain_Christopher]

I agree with Missile. 

Make your overlay maps a lot smaller. Anything past 50x50 can hurt the overall quality of your map imo - not to mention the size of said overlay.

I made a tutorial on animation optimization which plays a similar role when lowering the size of overlays. It's kind of old, but you should get the idea.

http://rpgmaker.net/tutorials/792/

TL;DR, Riot is sexy for lowering image size in general for rpg maker games. E.G, my very large IconSet is 5+mb. I throw it into riot, turn it into a jpeg, make the background black - not transparent (which takes up a lot more room), and lower the quality a bit. Maybe 20%. The last one is optional.

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/20563/locker/icons1.png

 

[Grayborders]

I agree with Missile. 

Make your overlay maps a lot smaller. Anything past 50x50 can hurt the overall quality of your map imo - not to mention the size of said overlay.

I made a tutorial on animation optimization which plays a similar role when lowering the size of overlays. It's kind of old, but you should get the idea.

http://rpgmaker.net/tutorials/792/

TL;DR, Riot is sexy for lowering image size in general for rpg maker games. E.G, my very large IconSet is 5+mb. I throw it into riot, turn it into a jpeg, make the background black - not transparent (which takes up a lot more room), and lower the quality a bit. Maybe 20%. The last one is optional.

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/20563/locker/icons1.png

Thanks for the tips, it will save me space.

 

[Clareain_Christopher]

Another tip: Do not add any light effects on any layer other than "Light" or "Shadow" layers (Assuming you're using Hanzo's overlay script for vx/ace.) Doing so will make you cry tears of blood like I did with my old project.

Also, since light and shadow effects use jpegs, you can lower the quality by 90%, which in turn, lowers the file size. Trust me, lower quality light effects look hardly any different from high quality. I'm serious.

And another, another redundant tip: Be careful with transparent *anything* on pngs. That can bump up the size by 30 to 50%.

 

[Kes]

@Clareain_Christopher

Unfortunately the links for the pics in #5 showing the way to reanimate the presets no longer works, nor does the video, and without that reanimation it's going to be very tricky.  Any chance of resurrecting them?

 

[Clareain_Christopher]

@ksjp17

You're not missing anything special from that video.

Reanimating is actually pretty simple, but takes time. If you were to replace all rtp animations with black background jpegs, you would find that the black background will appear in test mode. To get arid of that, you'll have to copy how the animation looks as a completely new animation. 

Not knowing how to use rpg maker Animations is another can of worms, and the image wouldn't help you.

A bit off-topic for Parallax mapping. Sorry~

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

well file sizes of that is really quite huge... a 166x100 map is 5312x3200 pixels... then you probably have lots of details in there...

@gray - well, there are other methods... like using scripts to place tiles outside of the grid, but they normally lag when used a lot and when in large maps...

so well, no matter which you pick, you might need to keep your maps small...

 

[Grayborders]

well file sizes of that is really quite huge... a 166x100 map is 5312x3200 pixels... then you probably have lots of details in there...

@gray - well, there are other methods... like using scripts to place tiles outside of the grid, but they normally lag when used a lot and when in large maps...

so well, no matter which you pick, you might need to keep your maps small...

Yeah i tested and managed to get up to 300x300 no problem.

above that the editor wont even load the file no matter the size.

I`ll just have to cut my cities into 2-4 maps and parallax that way.

 

[cybrim]

I use Paint.net it compresses lower than photoshop.

The most pixels you can have before it is too much 

7936x7936 as a parallax background (and even then it loops if you are using more than 125x125 tiles)

Using files this size doesn't work too well, it uses up so many resources that your character doesn't move quite right, fails to appear for awhile and slows EVERYTHING down.

I was trying to remake/remix the original dragon warrior with a 4x4 for every 1x1 tile (so 16x size map), I had to enlarge the map enough to cover a 1:1 ratio, but when I got to 4x I noticed the file was too large and broke the map into Northwest/Northeast/Southwest/Southeast sectors and place my tiles over the matching parallax one at a time until I hit each respective repeat section, at which time I had to load the next quarter of the map.

That being said, if you want to use a hand/digitally drawn map and want a 496x496 tile map (the largest being 500x500 tiles) the 7936x7936 quarter sections work well, just make sure you have a LOT of time to commit to this as it takes FOREVER for it to load, using Paint.net is a HUGE boon too, save the files as NW.jpg, NE.jpg, SW.jpg, & SE.jpg. JPEG is the lowest resource using filetype that I have found for it's quality that is compatible with RPG Maker VX Ace. After I use the Parallax I remove it and don't use one as my map is a replica already, if you don't want to do all of the water (who does right?) make a small water parallax and use it instead.

 

[Kes]

There is the site tinypng which typically reduces .png files by 70%, sometimes more, while keeping transparency.  It is, therefore, more useful than Riot which converts png files to jpeg.  Tinypng also maintains the visual quality of the original, whereas Riot does reduce it slightly.

I think if you are going to be using parallax maps a lot, you need to use something like this, or your file size will be beyond what most people will look at.

Note, this can also be used on all your battle animation files (the ones in the database).  I have a lot, and this saved me 50Mb on those alone in my last project.  Use it for battlebacks as well, and you will go a long way to keeping your file size manageable. 

 

[Celianna]

Cybrim don't necro-post a thread, please create your own.