10-22-2021, 05:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-22-2021, 10:12 PM by Martin Smith.)
That explains what happened perfectly Russell, thanks.
Using my method, the DDS file size can be massive or tiny, depending on the level of detail in the skin. Whereas the normal way of creating a DDS means it will always be 10.6 MB for a 4k resolution, regardless of how detailed the skin is (or isn’t).
To me that means there’s an opportunity to exploit that attribute of PNG files to create 4k skins that are within the size limit of SRS. I used my most recent livery to test the limit of what could be done and came up with this skin, a fairly detailed one I think, with a somewhat random pattern and five different photo-quality images on it.
![[Image: Preview.jpg]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/452493976465965057/900682909487337483/Preview.jpg)
The resulting DDS file ended up being 6.4 MB. In the process of making it I learned a few tricks to help shrink the size of these types of DDS files while retaining the 4k resolution, for those of you who might be interested in trying to make a 4k skin from a PNG format for yourselves.
The gist is to make the image as simple as possible, but where detail and complexity is required there are a few tricks that can be used to keep that complexity to a minimum.
- First off, it’s best to try and use images that are as crisp as possible. That means something directly off vector graphics like EPS or SVG images. I don’t think most photo editing software will read those file types though, so they’d need to be converted to a lossless format like PNG so they can be loaded into the software to make the skin.
- Avoid any JPG source files as they are typically very noisy, requiring the algorithm that processes them into your final PNG skin file to work overtime and balloon in size.
- If you have to use a source image that's only available in JPG or other lossy format, try to clean up the noise as much as possible then upload it to <link> https://vectorizer.com </link> where the site will process the image into a vector format which can then be converted into a PNG for a much cleaner image. For photographic quality images this could make them look kinda bad though, so it’s not a cure-all. But it does work great for clipart style images. Oh, and it’s free! I used it to make my ‘blood stain’ overlay, which originally was a very noisy JPG.
- Another tip is to leave as much as possible of the empty space on a skin template all one solid colour. So clip your graphics as tightly as possible around the wireframe so only the detail needed on the skin is actually contained in the file.
- Maybe the biggest single contributor to file size is the AO layer, which essentially adds complexity to every visible part of the skin by adding shading everywhere. I chose to leave the AO layer off for my skin, but if I left it on it would have been around a 9MB file size. Up to you whether you want it or not. But it can make skins look kind of artificial when it’s missing, especially on light coloured bodywork like my car. Darker colours aren’t affected by AO as much.
- Another option to reduce file size is to add transparency to the image, which is basically space that PNGs ignore. It’s almost like making the image size smaller. Big caveat though: transparencies in PNG don’t always convert into DDS as they should when the filename extension is changed. I’m not sure of all the reasons for that but I struggled with transparency on this skin, even though it seemed to work great on the Indycar skin I tried it on first. Maybe I just got lucky that time.
- Remember also, text and shapes created from scratch in photo editing software are essentially as good as a vector image, so if you have the option to make a text or shape instead of using an image, do that. Of course finding the exact matching font can be impossible, but still...
I think that’s all the tips I have for those of you who want to explore making 4k skins for SRS. Have fun and let us know here if you learn anything more about the technique.
Using my method, the DDS file size can be massive or tiny, depending on the level of detail in the skin. Whereas the normal way of creating a DDS means it will always be 10.6 MB for a 4k resolution, regardless of how detailed the skin is (or isn’t).
To me that means there’s an opportunity to exploit that attribute of PNG files to create 4k skins that are within the size limit of SRS. I used my most recent livery to test the limit of what could be done and came up with this skin, a fairly detailed one I think, with a somewhat random pattern and five different photo-quality images on it.
The resulting DDS file ended up being 6.4 MB. In the process of making it I learned a few tricks to help shrink the size of these types of DDS files while retaining the 4k resolution, for those of you who might be interested in trying to make a 4k skin from a PNG format for yourselves.
The gist is to make the image as simple as possible, but where detail and complexity is required there are a few tricks that can be used to keep that complexity to a minimum.
- First off, it’s best to try and use images that are as crisp as possible. That means something directly off vector graphics like EPS or SVG images. I don’t think most photo editing software will read those file types though, so they’d need to be converted to a lossless format like PNG so they can be loaded into the software to make the skin.
- Avoid any JPG source files as they are typically very noisy, requiring the algorithm that processes them into your final PNG skin file to work overtime and balloon in size.
- If you have to use a source image that's only available in JPG or other lossy format, try to clean up the noise as much as possible then upload it to <link> https://vectorizer.com </link> where the site will process the image into a vector format which can then be converted into a PNG for a much cleaner image. For photographic quality images this could make them look kinda bad though, so it’s not a cure-all. But it does work great for clipart style images. Oh, and it’s free! I used it to make my ‘blood stain’ overlay, which originally was a very noisy JPG.
- Another tip is to leave as much as possible of the empty space on a skin template all one solid colour. So clip your graphics as tightly as possible around the wireframe so only the detail needed on the skin is actually contained in the file.
- Maybe the biggest single contributor to file size is the AO layer, which essentially adds complexity to every visible part of the skin by adding shading everywhere. I chose to leave the AO layer off for my skin, but if I left it on it would have been around a 9MB file size. Up to you whether you want it or not. But it can make skins look kind of artificial when it’s missing, especially on light coloured bodywork like my car. Darker colours aren’t affected by AO as much.
- Another option to reduce file size is to add transparency to the image, which is basically space that PNGs ignore. It’s almost like making the image size smaller. Big caveat though: transparencies in PNG don’t always convert into DDS as they should when the filename extension is changed. I’m not sure of all the reasons for that but I struggled with transparency on this skin, even though it seemed to work great on the Indycar skin I tried it on first. Maybe I just got lucky that time.
- Remember also, text and shapes created from scratch in photo editing software are essentially as good as a vector image, so if you have the option to make a text or shape instead of using an image, do that. Of course finding the exact matching font can be impossible, but still...
I think that’s all the tips I have for those of you who want to explore making 4k skins for SRS. Have fun and let us know here if you learn anything more about the technique.