1920x1080 Loading Screen

[Moderator]

17:44, 27th Apr 2016
HappyTauren: While not a model in the traditional sense, this resource seems to function as a proper template for high resolution loading screens. Thus approved.

 

[TriggerHappy]

Very nice

 

[A Void]

This should not be in the models section, it is more of a tutorial type resource.

 

[Stanakin]

If it was in the tutorial section I'd never have seen this.

 

[JesusHipster]

I think that it needs a simple script to run with in order to be useable. But that's still a very decent idea, sir.

 

[HappyTauren]

What script?

 

[Softmints]

@A Void: I agree it's not a great fit for the model section, but it's an imported asset of type .mdx, and there's some precedent for it. The mods are welcome to reassign this resource if they like.

@JesusHipster: A script to automatically chop/convert images would definitely make this model more accessible, though I haven't the free time to invest in writing one. Anyone who's interested, please feel free to give this a try!

 

[FRENGERS]

Thankssssssssssssss, People must be searching for this, for the best, high quality
But I'm confused about the 8a, b, c.
Should I import the war3mapImported\LoadingScreen_8a.blp
war3mapImported\LoadingScreen_8b.blp
war3mapImported\LoadingScreen_8c.blp ...??
Like that??

 

[Softmints]

@FRENGERS: I have updated the description for clarity; hope that helps.

 

[FRENGERS]

@FRENGERS: I have updated the description for clarity; hope that helps.

alright thanks

 

[FRENGERS]

Tutorial!

So here you go, if you want to use this, you can try my tutorial.

What you must import in to your map:
1. 9 BLP files
2. 1 MDX files

Image specification:
1. 8 images with the size of 512px * 512px
2. 1 images with the size of 512px * 256px (Landscape)

HERE's the texture that WORKS PERFECTLY with HD Quality!
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=153682&stc=1&d=1460005637
Just extract and import them all to your map with the path of war3mapImported\LoadingScreen_#.blp etc. etc. to see how it works!
Other than war3mapImported won't works!

Imports!

And import the model file to your map, remove the "war3mapImported" and now, follow this image below

Click!

AND THAT'S IT!
You're done!

 

[KOYK GR]

wow very nice! well yea if it was on the tutorial section i too would never have seen it.what if you make a tutorial and link the model from here? that will satisfy both ends?

 

[Kyrbi0]

I love stuff like this, even if I would never use it.

 

[Molot]

thank you very much to the author, has applied to your project, one can see the difference between before and after, and potrptil only 10 KB.

5/5
_________
для парней из россии, вот ссылка с подробным описанием: xgm.guru/p/wc3/loadingscreenhd

 

[Dr Super Good]

and potrptil only 10 KB.

All the images will take well over 2MB at a decent quality.

Does WC3 really only support up to 512*512 textures?

Also no 4k support?

 

[A Void]

All the images will take well over 2MB at a decent quality.

Does WC3 really only support up to 512*512 textures?

Also no 4k support?

With .BLP it is limited to 512x512 in resolution. Using .TGA however will bypass this limit, I have used TGA to make high quality textures (I tried 3000x3000) without cutting anything. The only downside is that it takes more file space.

For me this "resource" is useless as I would use .TGA.

 

[HappyTauren]

I hope you do realize that an uncompressed .TGA of 1920x1080 resolution can take up to 8 megabytes?

This might be useless to people who are beyond help (aka use poorly compressed formats like targa), others, who still want high resolution images but with sensible compression, will use this and shave more way more than half the size.

 

[Dr Super Good]

This might be useless to people who are beyond help (aka use poorly compressed formats like targa), others, who still want high resolution images but with sensible compression, will use this and shave more way more than half the size.

Except BLP JPEG compression reduces image quality. Maybe not cognitively on some images but ultimately still a bit which sort of goes against the reason why someone would do this.

 

[pyf]

Low texture size for loading screens is a vestige from the 90's, when 3dfx video cards were king. Maximum texture size for Voodoo / Voodoo 2 was officially 256x256. Using well-known trick shown (and *improved*) in OP, game developers could support these extremely popular (and great back then) video cards.


General considerations (may apply for optimizing images for loading screens, but not only, therefore I will be more or less off-topic here - text below might fit somewhere in the Hive)

image file size optimization in video games - an uneducated, personal point of view

Fundamentally, game developers want to hit the sweet spot between different factors, for the visual result they want to achieve in-game, depending on the lowest-denominator computer targeted.

Factors to take into consideration are :

- image resolution
- color depth of image (= bpp)
- color depth of game rendering
- loading time of image
- memory used by image display
- hdd space used by image file
- hdd performance
- game engine possibilities
- lowest target video card (onboard RAM, max texture size, ...)
- lowest target computer (PII @350 Mhz, anyone ?)
- general visual impact while playing

TGA (without RLE compression) takes huge amounts of hdd space, but loads very fast (like BMP). They are not OS centered (unlike BMP). They were created for professionals in 2D computer image work, mainly.

Compressed formats (like PNG) take less hdd space, bu take longer to load (depending on compression factor used). Additional optimizations can be done to further reduce hdd space (using PNGout).

Lossy formats (like JPG), though 24 bit, might produce visual artifacts in game, but files are always smaller than PNG. As with PNG, additional optimizations can be done (using RIOT ; requires a bit of training).

PCX file format is antique and nearly forgotten, but might still be interesting to try out in video games (some 3rd party game engines might still support it).

For most game textures ingame (including loading screens most of the time), 256 colors (that is, 8-bit) are enough imho. If someone tells you your 256 color textures suck ingame, then it simply means your game is boring.
When using 256 color textures, do not use Floyd-Steinberg diffusion. It was nice in the 90's on CRT monitors, but visual results will be unbearable by today's visual standards on TFT / HDTV screens. See WC2's win/lose screens to see what I mean. Plus, Floyd-Steinberg diffusion will increase file size, all for nothing imho.
Hicolor / Truecolor seems more or less mandatory with color gradients. Like, for example, rendering a sunny evening sky, which might also require a high-resolution texture. Flares also come to mind.

How can I experiment with these ideas (including for loading screens)?

For experimentation, I suggest using IrfanView. With it, you can easily see how image formats / optimizations, modify file size / loading time in milliseconds / memory used / image quality. Please remember that visual image quality in IrfanView is *not* the perceived visual image quality in-game, because the game engine also has an incidence here with rendering.

With WC3, we are currently stuck with a monolithic game engine, which may have his own issues / quirks. I already read the blp format is kind of evil. I might have a look at it one day.

Thus, for easy experimentation with a game engine, I suggest using DarkPlaces (a feature-rich and versatile Quake engine). You may use Quake Revitalization Project's textures (24 bit, no alpha channel) as a base.

That way, you can save lots of hdd space / memory, and game loads faster depending on your own choices, with little to no visual loss).

Depending on your multiple choices, you can get great speed / hdd space savings (up to -50% loading times, using far less memory, for no visual quality loss in-game). And probably have highly optimized, high resolution loading screens in the process (yeah, desperately trying to stay on-topic here).

 

[HappyTauren]

Except BLP JPEG compression reduces image quality. Maybe not cognitively on some images but ultimately still a bit which sort of goes against the reason why someone would do this.

A 90% compressed BLPs that amount to 1920x1080 would still retain majority of the quality at more than half the filesize cost. Otherwise literally nobody wuold ever use lossy compression.

If you don't want to deal with JPEG compression however you can still use a paletter (which is even recommended in segmented images like these under some circumstances) and depending on how much variation the original image has, it can look really good and compress really well once in the MPQ.

Just using a 1920x1080 .TGA is, simply put, completely mindless unless you're doing a singleplayer map and go all out.

 

[Dr Super Good]

A 90% compressed BLPs that amount to 1920x1080 would still retain majority of the quality at more than half the filesize cost.

In most cases only. How efficiently JPEG compresses depends on the source image. It is completely possible to make source images which JPEG will compress very badly however those are seldom realistic cases.

BLP also does not use standard JPEG compression. The version it uses is even more lossy/less efficient than normal JPEG. Normal JPEG performs a colour space conversion to YCbCr before saving the channels allowing for channels which are more visually important (the Luma, Y) to be stored at higher quality. BLP JPEG compression simply saves the linear RGBA colour channels. This is why many people, such as Earth Furry, who attempted BLP readers ran into issue with the colours looking messed up as most JPEG libraries will assume the first 3 channels are YCbCr (or such a colour space) and so return RGB results accordingly which are wrong for BLP files.

If you don't want to deal with JPEG compression however you can still use a paletter (which is even recommended in segmented images like these under some circumstances) and depending on how much variation the original image has, it can look really good and compress really well once in the MPQ.

BLP is limited to 256 individual colours shared with all mipmap levels. For 512*512 chunks with huge colour variance this will not be enough. Dithering might work to improve colour depths however that requires the player set the WC3 gamma setting correctly to ~2.2 otherwise the interpolated colours will be wrong.

Just using a 1920x1080 .TGA is, simply put, completely mindless unless you're doing a singleplayer map and go all out.

Which is the only time you would want to use this anyway. The loading screen is one of the least important parts of a map and people have been fine with 512*512 for years now.

 

[Xthreo]

Tutorial!

So here you go, if you want to use this, you can try my tutorial.

What you must import in to your map:
1. 9 BLP files
2. 1 MDX files

Image specification:
1. 8 images with the size of 512px * 512px
2. 1 images with the size of 512px * 256px (Landscape)

HERE's the texture that WORKS PERFECTLY with HD Quality!
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=153682&stc=1&d=1460005637
Just extract and import them all to your map with the path of war3mapImported\LoadingScreen_#.blp etc. etc. to see how it works!
Other than war3mapImported won't works!

Imports!

And import the model file to your map, remove the "war3mapImported" and now, follow this image below

Click!

AND THAT'S IT!
You're done!

It's been a while but I have trouble with the mdx file, where do you get it?

 

[pyf]

It is inside the archive named '1920x1080 Loading Screen.zip', along with the BLP files. Just extract its contents somewhere.

 

[Xthreo]

It is inside the archive named '1920x1080 Loading Screen.zip', along with the BLP files. Just extract its contents somewhere.

Thank you

 

[Rogue Kessler]

I can't get this to work inside a campaign. When I run the map in-game it just shows a blank black loadscreen.

 

[Dr Super Good]

1920x1080 load screens are not optimum anymore due to 4:3 limitations until widescreen loading screen support is added. Also a bug (or for some other reason) has reverted larger than 512 BLP texture loading.

 

[Rogue Kessler]

1920x1080 load screens are not optimum anymore due to 4:3 limitations until widescreen loading screen support is added. Also a bug (or for some other reason) has reverted larger than 512 BLP texture loading.

Oh, well that's disappointing. Thanks for the info.

 

[A Void]

1920x1080 load screens are not optimum anymore due to 4:3 limitations until widescreen loading screen support is added. Also a bug (or for some other reason) has reverted larger than 512 BLP texture loading.

False. Importing an actual 16:9 model and applying 1920x1080 texture works fine. The default loading screen models are 4:3 by aspect ratio, previously the game would automatically stretch it to the native res, but since widescreen support it stays at 4:3.

I can't get this to work inside a campaign. When I run the map in-game it just shows a blank black loadscreen.

View attachment 317750

Try removing war3mapImported\ from LoadingScreen_ textures

 

[Rogue Kessler]

Try removing war3mapImported\ from LoadingScreen_ textures

Yeah, I did. Still doesn't work. (I only added that text in the first place because someone in this thread said to.)

 

[Dr Super Good]

False. Importing an actual 16:9 model and applying 1920x1080 texture works fine. The default loading screen models are 4:3 by aspect ratio, previously the game would automatically stretch it to the native res, but since widescreen support it stays at 4:3.

Loading screens have always been 4:3. Just people fooled themselves into thinking they could be 16:9. Yes in old versions such loading screen would then appear correct in 16:9 but the game play would be stretched and distorted so become ugly. Old versions of WC3 only supported 4:3 aspect ratio, with anything else being distorted (visual quality degraded). The widescreen patched fixed this.

Since the widescreen patch the loading screens are now correctly forced into 4:3 aspect ratio for compatibility with legacy 4:3 load screens so as to not distort them. All loading screens should always have been 4:3 in the past.

Reforged is hopefully going to add StarCraft II style loading screen mechanics which allow one to specify the scaling mode of the image so it is compatible with all reasonable aspect ratios.

 

[A Void]

Loading screens have always been 4:3. Just people fooled themselves into thinking they could be 16:9. Yes in old versions such loading screen would then appear correct in 16:9 but the game play would be stretched and distorted so become ugly. Old versions of WC3 only supported 4:3 aspect ratio, with anything else being distorted (visual quality degraded). The widescreen patched fixed this.

Since the widescreen patch the loading screens are now correctly forced into 4:3 aspect ratio for compatibility with legacy 4:3 load screens to avoid distortion. All loading screens should always have been 4:3.

That's exactly what I just said. The model provided in this thread is 4:3, making a 16:9 model will make the loading screen 16:9 widescreen. :/

@Jake Kessler You're missing LoadingScreen_9.blp LoadingScreen_10.blp LoadingScreen_11.blp LoadingScreen_12.blp, did you import those?

Your image must be cropped into 12 separate textures, you only have 8.

 

[Rogue Kessler]

Really? That's not what the resource description says.

 

[A Void]

@Jake Kessler You have 8 512px textures and 4 56px textures. 8 + 4 = 12. Your image has to be cropped into 12 parts.

 

[Rogue Kessler]

That's not what the resource description says, or what the tutorial halfway downthread says.

The first eight are to be imported directly as 512x512 .blp textures (named LoadingScreen_0.blp, LoadingScreen_1.blp, etc.). Textures 3 and 7 will have some unused space on the right. The remaining four tiles (8a 8b 8c 8d) must be assembled into a single 512x256 texture, which will be called LoadingScreen_8.blp.

What you must import in to your map:
1. 9 BLP files
2. 1 MDX files

Image specification:
1. 8 images with the size of 512px * 512px
2. 1 images with the size of 512px * 256px (Landscape)

I believe I've followed these instructions exactly. I assumed there was an issue with the texture paths since I'm importing into a campaign, as I said. Nothing anyone's suggested so far has helped me fix it.

 

[GrandMaitre]

With .BLP it is limited to 512x512 in resolution. Using .TGA however will bypass this limit, I have used TGA to make high quality textures (I tried 3000x3000) without cutting anything. The only downside is that it takes more file space.

For me this "resource" is useless as I would use .TGA.

How do you do it? I've got a 1920x1080 loading scrren in TGA. How do you import it without cutting? path etc?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Wide screen loading screens are currently not supported. The largest one should use is the 4:3 ratio of 1440x1080.

 

[GrandMaitre]

Wide screen loading screens are currently not supported. The largest one should use is the 4:3 ratio of 1440x1080.

But how do you import it then? what path and what mdx file?

 

[Dr Super Good]

But how do you import it then? what path and what mdx file?

You get a standard low resolution 4:3 loading screen model, change the texture path to be a tga file (any path works, just must end with ".tga"), import this modified model file, import your tga loading screen texture and modify the file path to be the file path you specified.

 

[Lord_Marrowgrath]

So its useless for this patch right? I used Tga but that filesize too big for simple loading screen. 4-7mb around.

 

[Valtarian]

I've followed the instructions exactly; however, when I go to test the map the client crashes immediately when the loading screen is supposed to display.

I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my TGA --> BLP conversions? BLP Lab is the only resource I've been able to use to actually convert all the files. Other programs seem to have difficulty with LoadingScreen_3, 7, and 8.

 

[Dr Super Good]

1920x1080 loading screens are currently not supported due to forced 4:3 . Hopefully Reforged fixes this.

 

[pyf]

@Valtarian: for the record, this tutorial has been written when v1.27a was the current version of the game.