Kobold Caves Map Set at Red Crow Pub

[Galach]

Hello everyone.

I had just finished and uploaded some new maps on my website (some caves, again). Since I had learned some new tricks on Photoshop, the maps are way better than before, but still not professional - usable, but not perfect yet... lol

I had to greatly reduce the quality of the original files to keep the maps under 2MB - the original PS files are 300MB, saved on JPEG full quality, 15MB average, and this is my greater difficulty at moment - I just can't find a way to keep the files in a reasonable size.

I had tried to post the files here, but for some reason I could not understand, the files won't load, so I will be adding thumbnails to give a general idea of the maps, and the link for the full sized files here https://redcrowpub.com/kobold-caves/)

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[Zacchaeus]

Nice, Galach.

For use as battlemaps you can export from PS at even the lowest quality jpg and you'll still get decent results. Also try passing your files through a utility called scriptJPG which will strip out some more extraneous Mbs

[Galach]

Nice, Galach.

For use as battlemaps you can export from PS at even the lowest quality jpg and you'll still get decent results. Also try passing your files through a utility called scriptJPG which will strip out some more extraneous Mbs

Nice! I am preparing “clean” versions of the maps, removing the objects and leaving them “blank”, so people can add whatever they want on the maps to fit their own needs, and I will try to use scriptJPG on them.
Thanks for the tip

[Trenloe]

Also, for file size, how many pixels are you using per 5 foot square?

[Galach]

I had originally created those maps with 72px/in, aiming at a grid with 1 square inch, but since the file size was still too big after exporting it to JPEG, I had reduced the map resolution (and the grid size) to 50px/in.

For the next maps, I will be using na excel "calculator" I've created here, to give me more precise scales... lol

[kylania]

Nice, Galach.

For use as battlemaps you can export from PS at even the lowest quality jpg and you'll still get decent results. Also try passing your files through a utility called scriptJPG which will strip out some more extraneous Mbs

Here's the link for that utility: https://css-ig.net/scriptjpg

Seems to be kinda neat.

[Galach]

Hey, thank you very much, kylania!

[NotRussellCrowe]

Doesn't that ScriptJPG do just what Photoshop can do when saving JPGs itself, by just setting your compression level? You might have to do a Save for Web... or maybe use ImageReady, been a while since I've used Photoshop.

My concern with re-encoding a JPG is that each time you open, save, then close, you are throwing away information as it has to apply the lossy compression yet again and uses the data from when you opened as the baseline.

Also their lossless option is not truly lossless:
lossless ... is not lossless : perhaps not at the strict sense, but my tools are made for front-end web developers, so for web usage. rendered pixels are strictly identicals. that's what i called lossless for web or visually lossless.

I'm not quite sure what the author is getting at but it's obviously not using the real Lossless JPG or JPEG 2000 lossless encoding methods. Of course it is unlikely that Fantasy Grounds would support lossless JPGs when most of the modern web browsers have ignored their existance and imaging libraries that do are likely not so common, nor is knowledge about these varients.

Of course my concerns may all stem from my experience in digital photography and image processing and in practice may not be an area of concern.

[Andraax]

Scale your image to 100 pixels per 10', set your quality to 50, and use quarter chroma (4:2:0). Should make the file plenty small.

[Galach]

Doesn't that ScriptJPG do just what Photoshop can do when saving JPGs itself, by just setting your compression level? You might have to do a Save for Web... or maybe use ImageReady, been a while since I've used Photoshop.

Yes, I am using the “Save for Web” option on Photoshop (I am creating the files on CS6). Since I am a complete amateur on image software, having only a basic understanding of tools and option available (and relying heavily on tutorials), I don’t know exactly which is the best way to optimize the files.

When I am exporting the files using the “Save for Web” option, I play with the available options until I get a file size lower than 2MB, so the maps end with a size manageable by most internet connections.

That would not be a problem if I had made the maps a bit smaller (less “combat area”), but I was aiming to end with a huge area where players can move freely – I just hate to DM all the time on 6x6 square rooms with 1x4 squares corridors… lol

I had tested the maps on my FG, and used some of them while DMing, and didn’t had eny issue with them, but not everyone who could potentially use them will have a good internet connection all the time.