Animated maps

DiM · Post by **DiM** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:49 pm

i know this is an old discussion but since we already have an animated map (conquerman) i thought i'd bring this back.

with nothing to work on i decided to perfect my animations and create an animated wallpaper for my desktop. one thing led to another and i started making an animated map. problem is obviously the size. depending on animations it can be as low as 100k or as big as (insert huge number here)
what i did was take the classic map and create an animated setting. on top of this other smaller animations can be made. for example the one way attack arrows can be animated, various pieces of artwork can be animated like a missile or some airplanes/ships/tanks and basically anything. but the more animations you add and the better they are the bigger the file gets. at the moment i have created a 130 frame classic map. it's not a perfect animation because the file was already too large to add more frames. i would probably need ~180 frames for a seamless animation but the gif file is already at 16mb.

anyway, i was wondering how many of you would want animated maps as an OPTION. again, just as an option. something like [small] [large] [animated small] [animated large].

obviously because of the file size it would probably be an unpopular option for most people but since nobody is forcing people to use the animated map i can't see what's the harm. i for one would use it cause my internet is ok. and i'm sure a few others would too.

and btw where can i upload a 16mb gif?

Kaplowitz · Post by **Kaplowitz** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:55 pm

gifs are ugly anyway. The only reason the Conquerman came out alright was b/c it used hardly any colors.

lanyards · Post by **lanyards** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:12 pm

Kaplowitz wrote:gifs are ugly anyway. The only reason the Conquerman came out alright was b/c it used hardly any colors.

Ya, that would be a problem because gifs have a limited color selection.

--lanyards

pepperonibread · Post by **pepperonibread** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:16 pm

Isn't there a way to make animated gifs with a stationary background, and a sort of layer of pixels above it that moves? Or do you already do that? That might decrease the file size. Though I don't really know anything about it, I just remember reading it somewhere.

Tieryn · Post by **Tieryn** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 11:25 pm

Don't gif's allow a transparency colour background?

So you could have your base jpg or png or whatever with the animations layered over the top, a-la army numbers?

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:29 am

See, a 16mb classic map is all fine and dandy as an option for those with nice connections and processor... but it would be hell on the server. You really have to consider these things. Conquerman gif works fine with the server because it's under 40kb. 16mb would be just hell on the server.

DiM · Post by **DiM** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:06 am

indeed 16mb would be hell on the server but considering that very few people would use it i doubt it would be such a big problem.

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:34 pm

DiM wrote:indeed 16mb would be hell on the server but considering that very few people would use it i doubt it would be such a big problem.

Still, it wouldn't really add much to the map and I don't think we need to go out of our way to abuse the server...

gimil · Post by **gimil** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:46 pm

hecter wrote:
DiM wrote:indeed 16mb would be hell on the server but considering that very few people would use it i doubt it would be such a big problem.
Still, it wouldn't really add much to the map and I don't think we need to go out of our way to abuse the server...

I agree with hector on this one, lack goes out his way to keep maps below a certain size.

DiM · Post by **DiM** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:17 pm

actually it would add a lot to the maps.
imagine a map with a story. like AoR. what if the legend is animated and the story scrolls by itself. you could fit a whole book and take just a tiny space of the map. or imagine a map with tons of rules. what if the legend is animated and the rules just slide on the screen. first the bonuses then various impassables and stuff or special attack routes, etc.

imagine the AoM map that has 800*800 px. that can be reduced to 800*500px by making the legend and story animated.
the possibilities are endless.

tenio · Post by **tenio** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:24 pm

16 mb is very big for a picture... would take a while to load

hecter · Post by **hecter** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:46 pm

DiM wrote:actually it would add a lot to the maps.
imagine a map with a story. like AoR. what if the legend is animated and the story scrolls by itself. you could fit a whole book and take just a tiny space of the map. or imagine a map with tons of rules. what if the legend is animated and the rules just slide on the screen. first the bonuses then various impassables and stuff or special attack routes, etc.

imagine the AoM map that has 800*800 px. that can be reduced to 800*500px by making the legend and story animated.
the possibilities are endless.

See, again, I don't think that would add all that much to the map (and to be honest, I think it would look ugly) and we, again, don't need to go out of our way to put heavy loads on the server.