More Awesome Than You!

I looked around a bit to find a relevant thread and found this one here, (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,3657.0.html) but since it's more than two years old it was suggested I start a new one. So I am.

I am wanting to create my own default easel paintings set, but after following the directions found in this thread to the letter, (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?c=1&p=1118543#post1118543) I still seem to get less-than-stellar-quality results. This can be illustrated here:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v387/denimjo/Graphics.jpg)

Pescado informed me that it was a sizing issue, so I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how to make my paintings appear more clear and focused.

If I were you I'd download a set of default painting replacements and see how they are sized. fcraig (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=410.0) has some here. It sounds like he had to mess with them a bit using trial and error to get them sized right for the canvas.

Just looks like poor JPG quality to me.  It doesn't look size distorted.

Edit: I looked at the tutorial...  In step 12, don't "import" the picture, use "build DXT" in stead and choose DXT3 or DXT5.
If that option does not appear, you haven't installed NVIDIA DDS Utilities correctly.

The whatey whaten?

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html
Install DDS tools.  Make sure simpe finds the path (Extra>Preferences>System Folders).
This will let you import graphics with seriously less quality loss.

BTW.  You do not have to have a nVidia graphics card to use this.  It works for everyone.

Thanks Gwill. :) Do I need to redo these paintings to have the graphics improve?

Definitely pick DXT-5 when you are importing the new textures. Also, the stretch is approximately 2.5 times on the width, nada on height. I can't recall the actual dimensions of the in-game picture since it's been so long that I fiddled with them, but you should be able to just extract a texture from one of the canvases and divide the width by 2.5 to get the right size.

Okay, I'm a little confused here. Which width would I have to divide by 2.5? The original easels? What I did was download the default replacement pictures from that link above, but the dimensions I am given when I look at it is 256x256. How would I go about finding the dimensions of the original easel paintings?

256x256 is the texture image size. However, the image is squinched when displayed by the game, so 256x256 becomes 102.4x256 (100x256 should be close enough). So do your painting in a 100x256 image. Then stretch canvas to 256x256 and stretch the image horizontally to the edges. It should then paint at the right proportions in the game.

If you use raw32 instead, you won't have any quality loss.

Do you mean pictures already painted in game?  They should be fixed when your replacement is fixed if I'm not mistaken.

Don't worry about it, you've already done that in step 8 and 9 of the tutorial.

Now you tell us. :P I had a set of skintones that I wanted to edit but no matter what I did I still got compression artifacts, so in the end I just gave up.

Thanks for the help Emma and Gwill; after installing the NVidia DDS tools, the paintings came out a little better. Not perfect but a lot more acceptable than before.  :)

You gonna share then? ;D

Only if anyone actually wants them. They're basically each image from this fanart right here (http://aruoqmci.deviantart.com/art/The-ONE-PIECE-ZODIAC-72859925) with a colored background for each. If you want them, just let me know and I'll upload.

Oh, they're quite cute! I'd like them please ;D

You got it. :)

Cheers Ags! ;D

This is great. It always bugged me that "Build DXT" in DXTx format degraded the image quality, if not quite severely as Import.

In TXTR, I selected Raw32Bit format, imported (not the usual "Build DXT") the PNG for the new recolor, updated all sizes, commit and saved.
Have I done it right? There seems to be no quality loss with this method.

I extracted PNG from the new recolor and compared the file size with the original. The extracted one got a little bigger than the original.

ETA: It may be better to "Build DXT" as usual, and change the format to Raw32Bit before saving. No need to "update all sizes".

This makes me very, very happy. Off to play with this raw32 method, as I have a sign to make anyways. It always ticks me off when my signs turn out fuzzy in the game.

EDIT: Baaa! I've now a sign for Vrooom! that doesn't look like pixellated crap and just redid all my house numbery stuff as well. Everything looks fantastic. You can tell on the numbers here. I forgot to switch the 9 from DXT5 to Raw32.
(http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/4686/snapshot750d45eed572ebfed4.th.jpg) (http://img384.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshot750d45eed572ebfed4.jpg)   (http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/1105/snapshot750d45eef572eadcl9.th.jpg) (http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshot750d45eef572eadcl9.jpg)