New custom flag auto-resizing

[Mousebumples]

Unfortunately not. Most of these flags were just over 12kB, and were able to be brought under either by resizing just slightly smaller, or using pngcrush.

Can you upload these flags somewhere? It's difficult to speculate on what the problem is when we don't know (A) the file size of the flags in question or (B) the dimensions of the flags in question.

[Aurora-Nova]

Unfortunately not. Most of these flags were just over 12kB, and were able to be brought under either by resizing just slightly smaller, or using pngcrush.

Can you upload these flags somewhere? It's difficult to speculate on what the problem is when we don't know (A) the file size of the flags in question or (B) the dimensions of the flags in question.

Certainly. The flags I initially attempted to upload, both just over 12kB and within the size limit, are here and here. I subsequently attempted uploading ones at slightly smaller dimensions, in case the 214x142px limit was exclusive rather than inclusive, and the same thing happened. I apologize for this trouble; I'm just trying my best to understand what might be the cause of this, when I've not encountered any similar problem before.

[Mousebumples]

Certainly. The flags I initially attempted to upload, both just over 12kB and within the size limit, are here and here. I subsequently attempted uploading ones at slightly smaller dimensions, in case the 214x142px limit was exclusive rather than inclusive, and the same thing happened. I apologize for this trouble; I'm just trying my best to understand what might be the cause of this, when I've not encountered any similar problem before.

Per the loopholes listed by [violet] .... the ONLY way to avoid resizing is by having flags that are less than 12KB and within the size requirements.

It appears that your size requirements are fine, but the flags are not under 12KB. That would be the problem, best as I can see.

[Corusant Sphere]

I hate the flag's auto-resizing, all my test (nice) flags are not under 12KB (even 50KB) and despite of the new bigger limit for flag's size, mentioned in the News Page, all flags are small - because of resizing

[Esternial]

Nice work, [voilet] *thumbs up*

Bet this'll rid the flag-makers from a lot of "resizing requests"

[Aurora-Nova]

Certainly. The flags I initially attempted to upload, both just over 12kB and within the size limit, are here and here. I subsequently attempted uploading ones at slightly smaller dimensions, in case the 214x142px limit was exclusive rather than inclusive, and the same thing happened. I apologize for this trouble; I'm just trying my best to understand what might be the cause of this, when I've not encountered any similar problem before.

Per the loopholes listed by [violet] .... the ONLY way to avoid resizing is by having flags that are less than 12KB and within the size requirements.

It appears that your size requirements are fine, but the flags are not under 12KB. That would be the problem, best as I can see.

Hmm... I guess it was just a contradiction of interpretation - I figured it would resize them, but only to within those size requirements, since it said that "the server now attempts to resize flags to fit within 214x142 pixels". Oh well, sorry for the fuss.

[[violet]]

But the servers should not attempt to resize my flag to 107px wide, should it? My flag was within the 214x142px limit and under 250kB. Why would it resize it to 107px wide if it's already within the 214x142px limit?

Fixed. A bug was resizing flags to 107x126 if they were in a particular size window, regardless of file size.

The only reason your flag should have been resized in those circumstances is if it were over 50kB, which it wasn't.

[Aurora-Nova]

But the servers should not attempt to resize my flag to 107px wide, should it? My flag was within the 214x142px limit and under 250kB. Why would it resize it to 107px wide if it's already within the 214x142px limit?

Fixed. A bug was resizing flags to 107x126 if they were in a particular size window, regardless of file size.

The only reason your flag should have been resized in those circumstances is if it were over 50kB, which it wasn't.

That's what I thought. Thanks!

[Sirain]

My flag looked perfect before, but now, this makes it smaller and blurry. Is there any way I can restore it to the perfect quality it was at before?

Before


After

[Aurora-Nova]

Is there any way I can restore it to the perfect quality it was at before?

While it's highly unlikely the administration will restore it, you should be able to get a slightly smaller version of the same sharpness by uploading this image as-is.

[Sirain]

Thanks!

[Orthaethaczil]

I dont get it ... I uploaded my flag in the new 214x142 format, and yet he insisted on converting my beautiful png into an ugly jpg ?

Its still looking OK in the full version, but the icons are ugly now.

My png is just 16kb ... not that huge really.

[Ballotonia]

I dont get it ... I uploaded my flag in the new 214x142 format, and yet he insisted on converting my beautiful png into an ugly jpg ?

Its still looking OK in the full version, but the icons are ugly now.

My png is just 16kb ... not that huge really.

See: viewtopic.php?p=4968912#p4968912
"Note that thumbnails are generated no matter what."

That's to get a page like Markanite load reasonably fast.

Ballotonia

[[violet]]

I dont get it ... I uploaded my flag in the new 214x142 format, and yet he insisted on converting my beautiful png into an ugly jpg ?

Its still looking OK in the full version, but the icons are ugly now.

My png is just 16kb ... not that huge really.

The JPEG version is 9.6KB, and while you're right that 16KB isn't much, a 40% saving adds up to a lot give we're dealing with tens of thousands of flags.

The thumbnails are compressed more aggressively than the large flag, on the assumption that it's pretty hard to make out detail at that size anyway. But maybe we're being too aggressive. Can you upload your original image somewhere? I'll compare a few different compression values.

[Aurora-Nova]

The JPEG version is 9.6KB, and while you're right that 16KB isn't much, a 40% saving adds up to a lot give we're dealing with tens of thousands of flags.

If I may make a suggestion, both to you and to people who have this issue with PNG flags just over 12kB, you might consider using pngcrush on images. While I'm no developer, if NationStates is running on a *nix server, it should be simple enough to integrate into the existing compression mechanism, and can often bring files under the limit without reducing quality. On the user-end, it can be obtained for *nix and Windows platforms (possibly others as well), so people could try using it before uploading. Just my two cents on the issue, as a rabid JPEG hater.

[[violet]]

We use pngcrush for static images, but it's extremely computationally intensive to use dynamically.

[Ethel mermania]

< brings plate of cookies to the coders.

Any chance of making animated gifs work again on the rmb's?

[[violet]]

Nope.

The RMB uses thumbnails; your flag would be unreadable there even if it were animated.

[Ethel mermania]

Nope.

The RMB uses thumbnails; your flag would be unreadable there even if it were animated.

Darn,

< brings milk for cookies


it use to work on the RMB, but thank you for the answer,

[Orasad]

can anybody tell me; what is the flag original size as if in the selection box (the real life flag in nationstate)
please sombody help me with the formula, i already changing flags 3x today, my people about to go crazy any minute now

[The Finntopian Empire]

I know this is kind of gravedigging, but I was told to go here, can I use WEBM files as well as GIF? and is there different size/resolution requirements?

[PhilTech]

I know this is kind of gravedigging, but I was told to go here, can I use WEBM files as well as GIF? and is there different size/resolution requirements?

To the best of my knowledge, you can't use WEBM files. You can use GIF flags though. As an example, mine is a GIF flag.

This is the latest flag rules we have.

Since you might get too lazy reading the Opening Post (OP), I'll read it for you

Animated GIFs are possible if the filesize is under 150kB and the image fits within 321x213 pixels. So you can have a small animated GIF so long as the filesize isn't too big. In this case, the animation will only run on your nation's home page.

[The Finntopian Empire]

I know this is kind of gravedigging, but I was told to go here, can I use WEBM files as well as GIF? and is there different size/resolution requirements?

To the best of my knowledge, you can't use WEBM files. You can use GIF flags though. As an example, mine is a GIF flag.

This is the latest flag rules we have.

Since you might get too lazy reading the Opening Post (OP), I'll read it for you :)

Animated GIFs are possible if the filesize is under 150kB and the image fits within 321x213 pixels. So you can have a small animated GIF so long as the filesize isn't too big. In this case, the animation will only run on your nation's home page.

thank you very much!