Hacking WII COVER IMAGES better quality,resolution,source

[palasx]

http://www.teambadattitude.co.uk/art/wii/

This site has very nearly ALL Wii box covers for ALL REAGIONS! These covers are also VERY HIGH RESOLUTION, making them a good source candidate for resizing to whatever resolution you, your usb loader, or your tickled fancy needs.

BONUS! This site includes high-res scans of DISC IMAGES as well! So what? Why look at box images for 5 seconds while you pick your game when you could look at a rotating disc image instead?!

I know there has already been a vast amount of work done renaming and resizing all the images, but we really should start off with better source material. I'm not suggesting that one person do all the work! If every lurker on this board goes to that site and downloades ONE cover and disc combo, we can get them all renamed in a day or so. I suggest, after all the renaming is done, that a single indivual, most likely whoever is hosting the CURRENT box cover site all the usb loaders are (ab)using, store the original sized images and do all the resizing in a batch process.

Anyhow, nothing spectacular, just wanted to make a topic about it instead of mention this in a thread i was reading since its more likely to get some view/use as a new topic. Feel free to bump. Oh, and i volunteer to cooardinate the renaming portion, so i'll setup a cathall email addie people can send me renamed files on if there is any interest.

 

[hilo]

Thanks for the url

 

[HUELEN10]

I have nothing to do tomorrow and have hours of it.

But any special requirements on renaming? Any format to follow?

 

[Vidboy10]

Thanks mate.

 

[djtaz]

Have you counted the images on there ?

seriously - NEARLY ALL is totally wrong - theres over 1300 images now on http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ and all have the correct naming convention and are in PNG format and not JPG format ... once the images on that site are resized and converted to PNG your going to end up with the same or very similar quality as on the other zones site .

Then you have to go and rename them to the correct code for the wii anyway , and if you happen to be using the WBFS 2.2 tool you dont even need to look for images and resize and rename.

Thanks , but its a bit pointless and they are missing tonnes of boxart on that site - more than 70% missing.

*edit* though i suppose if u want it for DVD covers its handy alright , but not for USB loaders.

 

[dabotsonline]

palasx, where are these images being sourced from?

 

[Vidboy10]

palasx, where are these images being sourced from?

i bet Project Covers or somthing.

 

[hdhacker]

Have you counted the images on there ?

seriously - NEARLY ALL is totally wrong - theres over 1300 images now on http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ and all have the correct naming convention and are in PNG format and not JPG format ... once the images on that site are resized and converted to PNG your going to end up with the same or very similar quality as on the other zones site .

Then you have to go and rename them to the correct code for the wii anyway , and if you happen to be using the WBFS 2.2 tool you dont even need to look for images and resize and rename.

Thanks , but its a bit pointless and they are missing tonnes of boxart on that site - more than 70% missing.

*edit* though i suppose if u want it for DVD covers its handy alright , but not for USB loaders.

I agree. I've already tried resizing some of the art just to see if any meaningful difference could be found. At the resolution being used by the loaders (160x225), the art looks the same. I know there were some comments in the art thread about people using MS Paint to resize images, so unless there is a specific example of a bad file on the site, there's not much point.

One annoyance I found was the Mario Kart Wii images were based on the wide outside box instead of the DVD cover. Using the image from Raffle's site for the USA DVD box:

And U.K.

That's much better. Djtaz, could you please update http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ site?

 

[djtaz]

Have you counted the images on there ?

seriously - NEARLY ALL is totally wrong - theres over 1300 images now on http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ and all have the correct naming convention and are in PNG format and not JPG format ... once the images on that site are resized and converted to PNG your going to end up with the same or very similar quality as on the other zones site .

Then you have to go and rename them to the correct code for the wii anyway , and if you happen to be using the WBFS 2.2 tool you dont even need to look for images and resize and rename.

Thanks , but its a bit pointless and they are missing tonnes of boxart on that site - more than 70% missing.

*edit* though i suppose if u want it for DVD covers its handy alright , but not for USB loaders.

I agree. I've already tried resizing some of the art just to see if any meaningful difference could be found. At the resolution being used by the loaders (160x225), the art looks the same. I know there were some comments in the art thread about people using MS Paint to resize images, so unless there is a specific example of a bad file on the site, there's not much point.

One annoyance I found was the Mario Kart Wii images were based on the wide outside box instead of the DVD cover. Using the image from Raffle's site for the USA DVD box:

And U.K.

That's much better. Djtaz, could you please update http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/ site?

I have made it so that anyone can re-upload any image they find bad - just reupload it and it will go into a moderator queue for them to check and see - you just need the same code on the image and put in the reason for the replacement.
http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/upload.php

these are the ones on the site now
Pal RMCP01

NTSC RMCE01

NTSCJ RMCJ01

 

[Maurice10]

Point is, those images have a higher res and also the backsite and label, which would be nice for a 3D coverflow or whatever USB Loader.

 

[djtaz]

The back of them may be handy , but usb loaders are currently restricted by image sizes due to load speeds - the more images the slower things are and it causes lag or stutter.

Download the zelda image off that site , and put it on a loader cover imaage and tell me how long it takes - then get the same image from theotherzone.com/wii/ site and see how long that takes - and put both onto a USB loader and see if u wan spot the difference.

They are fine for printing , but they are too big and wrongly named for any loaders to use.

 

[Maurice10]

The back of them may be handy , but usb loaders are currently restricted by image sizes due to load speeds - the more images the slower things are and it causes lag or stutter.

Download the zelda image off that site , and put it on a loader cover imaage and tell me how long it takes - then get the same image from theotherzone.com/wii/ site and see how long that takes - and put both onto a USB loader and see if u wan spot the difference.

They are fine for printing , but they are too big and wrongly named for any loaders to use.

Download the zelda image off that site, scale it to let's say 400, put it in a 3D loader and be amazed - then get the same image from theotherzone.com/wii/ site and see how shitty it looks.

Just because USB loaders currently use only 200 or whatever pixel big images, doesn't mean they could use bigger, especially in a 3D version.

Arguing that 3000x2000 pictures will take long to load is like telling someone he can't drive his car to work because his car's doors are locked.

 

[Destian]

The back of them may be handy , but usb loaders are currently restricted by image sizes due to load speeds - the more images the slower things are and it causes lag or stutter.

Download the zelda image off that site , and put it on a loader cover imaage and tell me how long it takes - then get the same image from theotherzone.com/wii/ site and see how long that takes - and put both onto a USB loader and see if u wan spot the difference.

They are fine for printing , but they are too big and wrongly named for any loaders to use.

Download the zelda image off that site, scale it to let's say 400, put it in a 3D loader and be amazed - then get the same image from theotherzone.com/wii/ site and see how shitty it looks.

Just because USB loaders currently use only 200 or whatever pixel big images, doesn't mean they could use bigger, especially in a 3D version.

Arguing that 3000x2000 pictures will take long to load is like telling someone he can't drive his car to work because his car's doors are locked.

You are aware that Wii can only display 480p, right? Do you plan on showing only the top 1/6 of the box art and leaving room for nothing else on the screen?

 

[giantpune]

The point of starting with bigger, higher quality images is so that you can resize them besides show a 160x224 flat image. Those pictures that everybody is using will definitely work for what everybody is doing with them now. But it's very closed-minded to think that this is the best quality image that we will be able to implement into a usable loader.

 

[zorglub07]

The point of starting with bigger, higher quality images is so that you can resize them besides show a 160x224 flat image. Those pictures that everybody is using will definitely work for what everybody is doing with them now. But it's very closed-minded to think that this is the best quality image that we will be able to implement into a usable loader.

Exactly, we need to be forward thinking!
I understand what palasx tries to do here, starting fresh with high quality means we are sure about the quality, and instead of searching for a bad cover then submit a fix, people could search for good covers and spend less time overall. It's not wasted time, it's quite the opposite.
When I look at a random picture from the current pack I can see bad jpg compression, and there is a big difference between a good quality jpg converted to 160x225 png and a small compressed jpg converted to 160x225 png.
I made a mod for v6.7 of the Ultimate Loader to switch cover to the regional cover matching the selected language when B is pressed ( http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=147...p;#entry1908299 ) and there is a noticeable difference on screen with my personal pack of covers and the ones from BoxArt, not for all of course, but if quality had been a concern from the start there would never be a doubt that a cover could really look better.