Poor Image Compression when testing on iPad

allornothing

Hi folks

I've tried searching for an answer/help on this but is it just me or is the search function on the forums completely broken? I get a fairly random collection of posts displayed with very little if any reference to the search string? I even tried searching for two completely unrelated topics and got the exact same search results...

Anyway!

PNG in photoshop looks good. PNG in GameSalad Preview looks the same. PNG on iPad when testing is compressed and terrible looking. Very noticeable banding on gradients - loads of spatial colour compression Is there a way around this?

Cheers!

AoN

mynameisace

Add the grain filter in Photoshop to just before it's visible.

Ace

allornothing

yeah i've been adding texture to stop it being compressed as badly as it was, but its still being colour compressed without a doubt - what is GameSalad doing when it compressed for an iDevice that it isn't in its own Preview? This kind of fairly drastic action should be visible to devs and not just 'under the hood' yknow?

mynameisace

It's not GS, it's the Cocos engine. Not compression, use the grain filter and it'll get rid of it.

Ace

allornothing

Thanks, I appreciate that can alleviate the problems (which is caused by compression! Sorry, but its converting/compressing the colour range significantly and thats compression!) - I don't like not knowing what an engine is doing to the art content. If this image compression is standard on iOS compiling then we should at least be made aware of it. Also, TIL GameSalad uses Cocos! Does that mean we could augment the build from GameSalad further with additional features that Cocos supports that GameSalad does not?

allornothing

Although I cant find any references at all to how GameSalad utilises Cocos - you sure??

mynameisace

Yeah, I didn't mean that it wasn't compression causing it, because it is. I meant don't compress it further, just add grain. I'm typing on my phone and typing on my phone annoys me so try and do it in as little words as possible
It's standard to any iOS game that uses Box2d, I'm sure a google search of box2d image compression will come up with why is happening. Also, make sure your images are multiples of 2 (4 if using resolution independence) because odd numbered images add blur (not related to the gradient problem).
Nope, we can't add more Box2d features, just what GS allows.
Ace

mynameisace

Sorry... Box2D physics engine (long day haha).

Ace

allornothing

thanks for the info - that makes more sense It's a shame we cant add additional functionality, but so be it My images are all correctly formatted/sized etc - its just that when compression pops up somewhere in the pipeline, it gets me worried - makes me wonder what else happens to assets (such as audio) when compiled!

Cheers for the info - Chefs: can you shed any light on the compression that is taking place? Is it something we will be given control over at some point in the future, rather than compensating in the artwork (the actual overall colour range is changed slightly too - my blues are a little bit more green in the compressed version.

mynameisace

As long as GameSalad runs on the Box2D physics engine (which I don't ever see changing), we will not have access to the image compression and the banding is a well known fault with Box2D unfortunately

Ace