8-bit PNG's with transparency layer slowing down game's running speed

brandon.shepherd99

I recently converted my game's images from 24-bit png's to 8-bit png's (saving the alpha channel as well) with an online program called TinyPNG. It definitely decreased the image's size, but for some reason when i imported them into my game (replacing the previously imported images) my game ran much slower. I was just wondering if there was a reason for this. Thanks.

CodeWizard

Don't know why that should cause this problem. I've noted it for being looked at.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

There are serious issues with image import in Creator. Many times I will import and image or group of images and the never show up in the palette. Then we I try to import them again I get the message that this image already exists would you like to replace or rename. This happens often.

brandon.shepherd99

There are serious issues with image import in Creator. Many times I will import and image or group of images and the never show up in the palette. Then we I try to import them again I get the message that this image already exists would you like to replace or rename. This happens often.

The same things happens to me. Also, sometimes, i can try to select an image to delete but it will delete another image (one not selected).

brandon.shepherd99

I think the problem might have been that I had completed a good portion of my game first, before reimporting the 8-bit replacement images. So at the time I reimported them, i was replacing (or adding in), i believe, around 200+ images. This may have caused some issues, but i'm not sure.

ORBZ

I hate it when I delete an image and it deletes the one to the left or right of the ones I selected. I've taken to just not deleting images.

Socks

I hate it when I delete an image and it deletes the one to the left or right of the ones I selected. I've taken to just not deleting images.

@ORBZ

Agreed, it's a nightmare, it's been like that for 2 or 3 years now, deleting an image sequence is basically asking for trouble, the results are fairly unpredictable.

This issue is made all the worse by GameSalad's idiosyncratic file system that deletes the actual images from your file prior to saving !

ericzingeler

@brandon.shepherd99

When you say "replace", do you mean re-importing the images via gamesalad or replacing the images via the folder within the gamesalad project file?

brandon.shepherd99

Re-importing them via Game Salad, not through the project folder.

JSproject

I hate it when I delete an image and it deletes the one to the left or right of the ones I selected. I've taken to just not deleting images.

@ORBZ

Agreed, it's a nightmare, it's been like that for 2 or 3 years now, deleting an image sequence is basically asking for trouble, the results are fairly unpredictable.

This issue is made all the worse by GameSalad's idiosyncratic file system that deletes the actual images from your file prior to saving !

What you guys are saying here unfortunately is very true. This is a very nasty bug in GS and something that @CodeWizard hopefully will look into and pin down in his/the teams work to improve the creator (as many would agree on a more stable and workflow-wise improved creator should take priority over adding new features at this point). An even nastier situation is when this thing happens when you delete actors - when the wrong (not selected) actors gets deleted (this is one of the reasons why I have about 500 saved copies of my big project.. and I'm also using time machine of course)

If I need to delete a set of images or actors from GS what I do now is to do a "save" first then a "save as" so I have a copy of the project, I then delete the images and/or actors - if unexpected behavior occurs (wrong objects get deleted) then I just open the project I saved before "save as" (delete the save as project) and then repeat the process.

JSproject

I think the problem might have been that I had completed a good portion of my game first, before reimporting the 8-bit replacement images. So at the time I reimported them, i was replacing (or adding in), i believe, around 200+ images. This may have caused some issues, but i'm not sure.

If you are replacing images that you have previously added into GS then do not replace such a large number of images using GS. What you want to do instead is to save your project, close down GS, browse to where you saved the project on disk, right click your project and select "show package contents", you will now see the "images" directory - open that one and paste your images here. Then open GS and your project, your images are replaced.

Please note that you can not add new images this way - by new I mean images that you have not added into your project via GS at some point. This is because GS adds a reference to your file when you first import it to GS (so if you would add new images via the method described above they would not be seen from within your project in GS).

brandon.shepherd99

Just out of curiosity, is it better to re-import images using the project files over using gamesalad directly, if its a small number of images.

JSproject

If your plan is to replace more than say 20 images in one go, I would replace the files in the project directory rather than doing it via GS.

brandon.shepherd99

Okay, cool. I'm actually redoing my project anyways. I'm trying to optimize code and some things I've done in the game. But, will it be okay to use the 8-bit png (with alpha channel) from the beginning, instead of trying to replace everything at the end? My main concern was that gamesalad just didn't handle them well in that format. I know it was fine to use 8-bit png's with no alpha channel, but i wasn't sure on the ones with alpha channel.

ericzingeler

Also, importing images via Creator processes the images into something other than your original file... png 24-bit i think. I usually replace any non-transparent images with jpg's in the images folder.

BlackCloakGS

Can some one in one post (sorry it is hard to follow this tread) describe (may with some steps to reproduce) the issue with importing or reimporting image(s) and I will added it to my list to look at

brandon.shepherd99

The main issue i originally posted about was:
1) After converting 24-bit png images (around 200 of them) to 8-bit png's (with an alpha channel), i imported these images into gamesalad (using the program not the gs project file system) and for some reason my game slowed down in performance.

The secondary issues discussed were:
1) When deleting images from the image pallet in gs, sometimes, the wrong image gets deleted.
2) When importing a new image, sometimes the image doesn't appear in the image pallet.
3) And, another problem reported was similar except with wrong actors being deleted when you try to delete a specific actor from the actor's list in gs

BlackCloakGS

@brandon.shepherd99 thanks.
The first issue I will let @CodeWizard add it to his list
I will add the second one to my list to look into

Thanks again

Socks

...

The_Gamesalad_Guru

I can confirm the image not showing up in import. This happens on a constant basis. No rhyme or reason when it happens but when you go to try and add it again it says it there and I just overwrite it.

BBEnk

@BlackCloakGS @CodeWizard

Can some one in one post (sorry it is hard to follow this tread) describe (may with some steps to reproduce) the issue with importing or reimporting image(s) and I will added it to my list to look at

On this I've noticed and just tested it, that if your image in GS lets say uses a capital letter and you import same image but use a small letter it will say replacing image but in fact will show two images with same name in the image viewer and all will look fine until you run game and get white blocks, and if you delete image it will then show the no image thing but you will still see image in the image viewer but it will be unusable to add to actor and if you delete it will remove a different image.

Sparkyidr

1) When deleting images from the image pallet in gs, sometimes, the wrong image gets deleted.

Here's a specific case when this has happened to me :

1. Import a bunch of images
2. Import a changed version of one of the images that's about half way in the list and chose to replace it
3. Try to delete the last image in the list...
>>>It actually deletes the image you imported in step 2

BBEnk

To reproduce what I said above.

1.open gamesalad start new project
2.import image with a capital letter for name "Test.png"
3.move image to make it a actor then move to scene
4. run all will be fine
5. now rename image but with small letter. "test.png"
6. import image and now you will have two
7. run game get white box
8. delete one image still get white box
9. reimport image run game all good.

KnightStar

BUMP!

@codewizard Any updates to this? I've had several issues importing Art assets and having the Mac Creator have serious issues when assets share the same name (in an attempt to overwrite / update assets).

That said, I've also used TinyPNG and I'd like to know if there are issues with those modified assets as well..

Thanks a bunch!

BlackCloakGS

Currently I am finishing up work to get the nightly builds to pros. After that I plan on taking a look at the deleting and importing issues.