Homebrew [Project] SoulAnger's MENUdo

[alex]

just invent ur own image format!! something like top_bar.sa

lol

http://filext.com/file-extension/SA

Wow, how many images make up a skin?

 

[SoulAnger]

I guess someone is playing too much eroge.

As much as possible I want the filetypes to be standard as possible. I bet theme authors wouldnt want to convert their outputs frequently.
Anywho, i got good news. The top screen are in jpg format now. I'm not sure about the lower screen though, I think I'll make em bmp. So chances are themes are now 3mb max. (not including sounds, music, movies, etc)

Edit: I got a question, do you guys care on how big your theme would be?

 

[Gerinych]

I would care. I only have a 1GB MicroSD and it's not enough for me. That's why I had to get rid of R4 Sakura. I can handle maximum 10MB of images, that's it.

 

[Deathmore]

I wouldnt mind much seeing as I can just delete a few things off my card and keep the SAV files

 

[anime4ever]

there could also be 2 version of the menudo
but I think thats too much work

why would the size matter
3mb for a skin, lets say there's 10 skin (that's a lot) you can put, would this really be a matter??
no

and since you will remove all of your previous firmware to put this one it wont add.

 

[Noitora]

Sigh a theme now goes 3mb+. This sucks, anyway I believe i could find a better method on gif after the first release.

Just go with old good PNGs they compress really good and they retain all the colors.

 

[SoulAnger]

Thats not the problem noitora.

Its more about the ds's capabilities and not the size.
Also, I have already stated that jpeg would be used, and bmp for icons on the lower screen. I'll tally the theme size, when its get finished.

 

[anoNL]

Maybe PCX?

You can also use the trick of storing a jpg and its alpha layer side-by-side in the same file:

 

[SoulAnger]

Guys.

Okay, let me compare the top screen with the following formats. Remember, top screen now uses jpg.

JPG = 1-3 milisecs lag [less noticable]
BMP = 1 milisec lag [similar to jpg but bigger size]
GIF = 5 milisecs lag [too slow]

Havent tried png but chances are itll be similar to gif's results.

As for the bottom screen we are only limited to 256colors (8bit). I have my eyes on using 256bmp.

GIF = 5 milisecs * sprites = est. 1 minute
256BMP = Not yet tested

Basically, if we need to balance compression and filesize. Having a big filesize will stress the memory card speed, while compression stresses the cpu. Remember, having a bad loading time destroys the purpose of the menu, so if you cannot afford the filesize, I'm a little sorry.

 

[psycoblaster]

jpg quality sucks.
if you are going for file size and quality, it is png/bmp. But PNG is the best choice because if we compare a high quality jpeg to a png, the png still can win with quality and file size.

 

[Normmatt]

I've said it before but 16bit BMP is the best format for speed on the nds as it is already in the format the nds hardware expects, atleast in framebuffer mode

 

[SoulAnger]

jpg quality sucks.
if you are going for file size and quality, it is png/bmp. But PNG is the best choice because if we compare a high quality jpeg to a png, the png still can win with quality and file size.

I think imma gonna shut up now.

 

[kobykaan]

I think imma gonna shut up now.

Lol Do WHATEVER you have to SoulAnger ..its your application

You don't have to do anything anyone here or anywhere else says to do!

A little advise is good here and there and criticism but .....

Sometimes its best to stick with what works best and to hell with them lol!!!


Btw for the record PNG is on the BMP physical scale of huge file size! .. quality isn't always the best way to go and sacrifices have to be made to gain advantages elsewhere

people forget that the DS has a LIMITED amount of memory to work with and you have to cut the occasional corner to make it all fit

 

[SoulAnger]

Haha! Finally someone that understands.

I'll post more informations about the theme's filetypes later.

 

[kobykaan]

Haha! Finally someone that understands.

I'll post more informations about the theme's filetypes later.

lol ....

What the average user here forgets or fails to comprehend is that 99.9% of the time is even having storage as big as an 8gb sdhc.. and that the DS has about 4mb to play about with the rest has to be shuffled too and from the mem card which can be time consuming to the extent it becomes laggy or jumpy so becomes useless or looks bad!

 

[anoNL]

Guys.

Okay, let me compare the top screen with the following formats. Remember, top screen now uses jpg.

JPG = 1-3 milisecs lag [less noticable]
BMP = 1 milisec lag [similar to jpg but bigger size]
GIF = 5 milisecs lag [too slow]

Havent tried png but chances are itll be similar to gif's results.

As for the bottom screen we are only limited to 256colors (8bit). I have my eyes on using 256bmp.

GIF = 5 milisecs * sprites = est. 1 minute
256BMP = Not yet tested

Basically, if we need to balance compression and filesize. Having a big filesize will stress the memory card speed, while compression stresses the cpu. Remember, having a bad loading time destroys the purpose of the menu, so if you cannot afford the filesize, I'm a little sorry.

How can GIF add up to a minute -- when filling the full video memory on the DS only takes about 5 seconds with PNG?

Remember to combine smaller images into VRAM sized blocks to reduce load times. Instead of 16 64x64 images, you'd combine them into a single 256x256 image which speeds up decompression, file-io and copy speed to VRAM. Using as low a number of files as possible is very important if you want to speed up performance.

 

[Sarvesh50]

This is great news and bad because
the good is this is a great project the bad is that popular flashcarts will not be buyed because other people will make flashcarts with your firmaware like u2ds did with yasu menu

But hell i cant wait to try this it looks awesome good work and keep it up

 

[AeroHex]

i could i agree more Sarvesh50, but

if anyone dose ill spam there inbox till they stop production

if they call the cops they be in deeper shit

 

[Blackiris]

@Sarvesh50

Oh good GOD I hope not...this is excellent original work coming from a person who just might be a few houses away from me. It's very hard to keep this gem authentic (Philippines here, the country with a shop called Nintendo - but the actual Nintendo can't sue them because they're too small of an organization)...Isn't there any way to be able to sue companies that attempt to do this in the first place? T_T

Anyway, after the project's release, if I myself do notice anything close to what Sarvesh50 said, I'll be one of many to notify you.

b

 

[Noitora]

Thats not the problem noitora.

Its more about the ds's capabilities and not the size.
Also, I have already stated that jpeg would be used, and bmp for icons on the lower screen. I'll tally the theme size, when its get finished.

Ah, I see, excuse my stupidness then