Dreaming with Elsa (En, Sp, Fr, It, Ge)

[Mortze]

So is this going on playforceone soon? I've been anticipating it finally being the one to score higher than Christine

Don't have a clue about that. Don't know how that works with Playforce One.

Also, can I ask if you've begun planning your second collab together yet? At Mortze's speed, you could probably do something bigger in a similar stretch of time, or are you thinking more at a scale similar to Elsa?

I ordered a new computer today. It is slightly..(cof) better than the laptop I've been working on That should speed some things up. But I will also try a few things on my own so I can't tell what the pace will be.

[redle]

Thanks again for your words. Those mean a lot!

However, and it's a big one, but it's not really your fault* -- you overdid compression. It's simply set way too high and it destroyed a lot of fine detail (especially hair) and made outlines fuzzy. It's especially visible in high-color images, where chroma subsampling really takes its toll.
I don't know if there's any chance of it, but I'd love it if you offered a separate download with compression dialed back.

That, I believe, was a necessity, to make possible for everybody to download the game. Without the compression the game would have been to big. I guess Tlaero can explain it better than I and also pronounce on the separate dowload without compression.

@Mortze
yahoo wasn't speaking of the compression used to make the zip file for downloading. He's talking about the jpeg image files themselves. The .jpg file format is one that allows the same dimensionally sized image, in this case 1250x625, to be saved using different compression ratios. Basically, you could open any .jpg into an image editing program and re-save the exact same file and make it take up less disk space without shrinking the image. To do this, some of the image information must be discarded. Most images can be saved at 80-95% (which means that some of the information is changed) without any real noticeable difference to the average human eye (think of it like taking 2 slightly different shades of blue and saying, you know what, let's call these identical and just use 1 shade of blue).

That wasn't really a technical explanation of how it works, but hopefully it gives you kind of an idea of what is happening. If you want a slightly more in depth explanation (once again this is just a generic representation. Actual algorithms are more complicated then this)... you have a file with the following information:
"abababxyxyxy" original file = 12 characters in the file
"3ab3xy" zip file = 6 characters in the file (the zip file knows that numbers mean how many times to repeat what follows)
"aaaaaaxxxxxx" jpg with compression = it decided that a and b are close enough to equal and x and y are too, so got rid of the duplicates.
"6a6x" new zip file = 4 characters total

The zip files are completely reversible. You can uncompress "3ab3xy" and you will get exactly "abababxyxyxy".
The jpg compression is not reversible. Once you've gone to "aaaaaaxxxxxx", you have lost information. There is no way to go back to the original.


@yahoo
I don't know anything about how Mortze is actually doing his rendering, but my impression wasn't one of an overly compressed set of images. To me it appeared as a stylistic choice. His images generally appeared softer and glossy, maybe a bit more anime-ish. Either way, I'd be rather surprised if he was creating larger images and shrinking them down to distribute. (Don't get me wrong, the style may be being generated during rendering by high compression... but it still felt like an intentional style choice.)

[Mortze]

@redle, that's what I was talking about. Tlaero did some compressing to the pics so the game wouldn't be to big to download. Tlaero can explain it way better than me.
What I only did was rendering the pics, at 1250x625 pxls and then Tlaero compressed it (don't know the ratio). We tried in the beggining to find the best compressing in terms of quality lost/file size and agreed at a number (can't recall which). Save for some very specific detailing, there were no real change to the naked eye. Of course, zooming and editing software would show the difference but that wasn't as much important as to have good files size so everybody could download fast and play.

I hope I have this right

[tlaero]

Yeah, the Jpeg compression is me, not Mortze. I picked a compression level where when I put the uncompressed and compressed side by side, I couldn't see the difference. Maybe my eyes aren't what they used to be, though. That said, some of the soft edges are a result of the lighting, not the compression, and are intentional.

Super, my wrists are the limiting factor on game size, not Mortze. We haven't started the next one yet. I still need to recover from the last one. I suspect the next won't be quite as long as DwE.

Re playforceone, Leo is on vacation but said he'd take a look at it when he gets back. If I remember correctly, that's next week.

Ogre, I didn't keep him a secret. He kept him a secret. (-:

Tlaero

[tlaero]

All I can say is that image sex94.jpg is the hottest thing I have seen in a long time

I agree. In most of the game, I wrote it first and Mortze rendered what I wrote. In the sex scenes, though, it was the other way around. Mortze decided how they should go and rendered them, and I added words and hit zones afterward. He seriously outdid himself on those scenes, especially the final one. Sex94.jpg is a particularly hot image. What are other people's favorites?

Tlaero

[P-Slayer]

Awesome, a new game written by Tlaero! Didn't know this happened! Can't wait to downl- Oh... right... Just like everything Tlaero does, for whatever reason, i can't download it. *sigh*

Any chance this game becomes playable online or something?

[Skelaturi]

Awesome, a new game written by Tlaero! Didn't know this happened! Can't wait to downl- Oh... right... Just like everything Tlaero does, for whatever reason, i can't download it. *sigh*

Any chance this game becomes playable online or something?

dunno, question already asked when it was going to become available on playforceone and get "Getting to know Christine" of the throne

[yahoo]

Awesome, a new game written by Tlaero! Didn't know this happened! Can't wait to downl- Oh... right... Just like everything Tlaero does, for whatever reason, i can't download it. *sigh*

Any chance this game becomes playable online or something?

It's exactly the other way around for me -- online games don't work for me since they sometimes hang on loading a new page. If you're sharing a network and have a common IP address with other users from your ISP, it could be that they are already using up mediafire's free download allowance, or that some of those users have abused their Internet access and now your IP address is blacklisted.
Have you tried using a proxy or VPN? Did you try downloading from another location, like at a friend's place, or something?

--

Tlaero, I'm sure you did choose the right compression, but you didn't compress every image by hand, did you? Compression is definitely overdone in fine detail in dark areas. Due to how JPEG works, darker areas are more prone to losing detail (due to smaller dynamic range -- in terms of bit depth -- in the shadows, compression discards more visible detail than in highlights or contrasty areas), and it shows up especially in parkxx.jpg pictures (hair in shade).
File hair2.jpg, among others, illustrates this -- compare the difference in hair detail in the hat shade and out in the sun. Then, in hair21.jpg, the loss of resolution is also clearly visible.
Where compression especially took its toll is skin tones and skin texture. JPEG compression unfortunately smooths out fine detail, and since skin has very fine detail both in luminance and in chrominance channels, it takes a very heavy-handed approach in the drive to reduce file size. In effect, skin becomes a doll-like mask of single continuous tone.

Is there a possibility of a re-release with higher quality images?

[Mortze]

I agree. In most of the game, I wrote it first and Mortze rendered what I wrote. In the sex scenes, though, it was the other way around. Mortze decided how they should go and rendered them, and I added words and hit zones afterward. He seriously outdid himself on those scenes, especially the final one. Sex94.jpg is a particularly hot image. What are other people's favorites?

I thank you Madame de Tlaero.

[Batsman]

Hey guys anyone knows how to download and play this game on Iphone

[Rabbit Hood]

I just wanted to congralute the authors for this game which is one of the best ones I have played with (among a quite numerous list, I have to admit)
Thanks again for the good moment I had !

[el drakki]

All I can say is that image sex94.jpg is the hottest thing I have seen in a long time

I agree. In most of the game, I wrote it first and Mortze rendered what I wrote. In the sex scenes, though, it was the other way around. Mortze decided how they should go and rendered them, and I added words and hit zones afterward. He seriously outdid himself on those scenes, especially the final one. Sex94.jpg is a particularly hot image. What are other people's favorites?

Tlaero

Sex92.jpg is the best for me, and tripb35.jpg.....

[tlaero]

I wrote a tool that batch compresses the images. Mortze would send a bunch to me, I'd convert them, and throw away the originals. I don't think we still have the big files anywhere, sorry. The compression ratio was about 10:1, though. That's a lot of extra bandwidth for something that most people can't even see.

Tlaero

[Dolphin-BR]

Sex94.jpg is a particularly hot image. What are other people's favorites?

Tlaero

For me, definitely "sex114.jpg".

[Skelaturi]

Sex94.jpg is a particularly hot image. What are other people's favorites?

Tlaero

i actually got quite a few wich did something to me. Spiling it so people who haven't played yet are warned of any

apb1.jpg i was like damn woman
apbw.jpg bit out of contest but i caught myself starting at it and saying "yes i do"
date6,jpg it made me go downstairds and get one myself
and well Chloe2a was a suprise, that outfit made was amazing (only thing i wonder is this is there a pic available with just her on in the outfit not with the extra on the left?), and i am just a sucker for Chloe as she is a shortish redhead