is there any reason i cannot use a GIF as a texture?

I have an image that is smaller when saved as a GIF. (97K vs 700K)

Message edited on: 03/02/2005 08:53

GIFs should work fine. As long as you didn't delete that Mac I/O plugin.

None that I can think of. NaySayGuy sez: "If it werks, den it werks." ;=]

Oops, sorry randym77. xpost. ;=[

You need Quicktime installed to use a GIF texture. -JH.

It doesn't make much difference if your image file is smaller, it won't change the amount of memory that Poser needs to hold it. All images are expanded to bitmaps in memory. The only situation where it might save you something is in packaging up a download to make it smaller - but even that isn't a good idea, since as JeffH says, folks who don't have QuickTime won't be able to use it. You don't even get the ability to select GIFs from within Poser's file dialogues if that's the case (nor PICTs).

Unfortunatly download size is going to be the critical factor. It would be ~10.5 MB of jpg or ~1.5MB of gif. I also want to charge a relatively low price, so i need to make it as small a burden as possilble for the hosting market so that i can still put it on sale.

Aren't GIFS limited to 256 (ie. 8-bit) colours?

If this isn't an problem for you, though, there would be an advantage, because a GIF will take up less memory, even when expanded, than a 32-bit JPG, BMP or TIF.

I don't know enough about the Quicktime issue to comment.

GIP stores 256 colours, but they're chosen from the full colour-space. So I'm not sure it would use less memory in Poser. It's maybe good for things like transparency maps, where you're storing a greyscale anyway, and maybe just black and white. JPEGs are very bad for that sort of image. If it's something P5-specific, such as a texture being used for a Material, PNG might be better. BMP compresses well in the zipfile.

I always wanted to use GIFs for some transparency maps because GIF is good for images with blocks with sharp edges (such as cartoons), while low-quality JPEG, for example, produces fuzzy edges. A GIF tranparency map file is often very, very tiny compared to a PNG or high quality JPEG.

But I am sure EnglishBob is right. So the advantages of smaller download size for GIFs would be outweighed by the shortcomings of using GIF. Too bad..

I only have like 16-32 colors. so number of colors isn't an issue. I'm not really trying to make it less of a burden on Poser, but if it works better then thats a bonus. I might try converting to bmp and zipping to compair size. Do any of you think the quicktime (or mac io plugin) thing will be an issue for many? At this point it isn't really P5 specific, but will probably be P5 by neglect.

Most people will have Quicktime, it seems to find its way onto most machines sooner or later; but the question does come up from time to time, people ask "why can't I see GIFs or PICTs?" (I know, I asked it myself once). Given the huge decrease in file size, you may consider it worth a bit of effort expended on customer service to use the GIF. There are bound to be users who find it doesn't work; your readme could suggest installing Quicktime, or for those who don't want to do this, explain how to convert the GIF into some other format. I can't help wondering why the big difference. 10.5 MB -> 1.5MB is a huge leap, and I've never seen a GIF produce such a dramatic saving in file size. Just curious.

The textures are essentialy a Mil 3 second skin (or MM bodysuit) version of these: http://poserpros.daz3d.com/store/viewitem.php?selitem=4035 there is only about 5 colors in the texture, in order to get the edges sharp and clean (no artifacts near the edges) i would need a low compression jpg. with gif i can set it to only use 16 colors and the colors will be crisp, the edges sharp and there will be no artifacts along the edge. I can't post an image from here, but i will in about 2 hours or so.

In Photoshop, I made an 800x800 image of a black (0,0,0) square in a white (#ffffff) background and saved it:
JPEG (max quality) = 57 KB
PNG = 17 KB
BMP (16 bit) = 1251 KB
GIF = 3 KB

So the JPEG is almost 20x the size of the GIF. PNG 3x. In images with blocks of color and few colors GIF often makes a lot of difference.

these are 3000x3000 :)

:)

Attached Link: http://www.codecguide.com/

Somewhat unrelated but if you use Windows and want to be rid of Apple's upgrade reminders etc., try QuickTime Alternative. You can get read of the Apple QT player and components and still have the features of being able to play QT files, use gifs in Poser, etc. The only drawback is no QT within Firefox though IE, Opera and Mozilla are supposed to work. They also have Real Alternative which allows you to banish RealPlayer from your system. I use both and haven't experienced any problems with either one.

In most all real-world textures, anything other than absolutle flat colors maps with only a couple of colors, JPEGs are going to be far smaller than GIFs. For these maps BMP (which is fully supported by Poser, I think) would be about as good too. I doubt if Poser suppers the transparency part of the GIF spec, too, I'm sure it doesn't support the mutiple image overlays... ;-) (I was actually involved with developing the GIF 1989 spec, with the Compserve Graphics Forums, seems like yesterday, too)

a BMP of these textures is 25.5MB ea. There are 15 textures for a total of 382.5MB on the end users drive. Then add bump maps and mat files and pngs. I think i'll stick to GIF (no transparency is being used).

Good luck wity your textures, Tyger_purr. I hope you will let us know how it works out, cause I would like to use GIFs too. Maybe EnglishBob's prediction will be correct and not too much extra customer service will be required.

Yeah, I thought BMP would do better than it does. BMP uses RLE (run length encoded) compression, GIF uses LZW (same as used in ZIPs), my tests showed a 512 x 512 solid black image as 1KB as a GIF, 10KB as a JPEG, 129KB as a 8-bit BMP, 769KB as a 24-bit BMP. Oh, well! ;-)