- Jun 13, 2021
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HOW TO COMPRESS YOUR IMAGES (FOR DUMMIES) v1.1
This guide applies mostly to Ren'Py-based games, but feel free to apply it anywhere in your life.
The Problem(s):
A lot of developers/artists/perverts simply export renders made in DAZ3D, HoneySelect or CharaStudio in the base PNG (aka Portable Network Graphics) format. Which is cool, except that it is not.
PNG was designed as an improvement to the GIF format (and yes, it's pronounced like "gift" but the T is silent; fuck you) - that's noble, but improving on something garbage isn't an achievement in my book.
Anyway, PNG preserves and stores a lot of information. PNG was also made in 1996. That's pretty much ancient history.
A standard exported 1920x1080 PNG flat image is around 4-5 MB per pic (that's megabytes, and also a fuck ton for a single static image).
"But, random internet person, you can crush the PNG to half that size!"
That just shows that you already made an extra step. A wrong one, might I add.
All games (except for Red Lucy) push hundreds if not thousands of images with every major update.
Let's take the best game Eternum and its (then) latest 0.6 update as an example: 1375 images x 4 MB = 5500 MB = 5.5 GB - this is close to the TOTAL size of the game after 0.6 (~ 6 GB).
There are two additional and important factors to consider: disk size and download speeds.
If Eternum was to never compress its images (a whopping 8311 of them), the game would be 33 GB (or about 10% of a typical Warzone update), which is A LOT of space. Taking a Steam-provided average download speed for the USA of ~ 100 Mbps (or 12.5 MB/s), you'd need close to 44 MINUTES to download the entire game of Eternum 0.6*.
*(at the minimum and assuming you have an uninterrupted and stable connection for the duration).
The (First) Solution - WEBP:
Reject the PNG, embrace the WEBP.
WEBP is the best thing that Google released since (technically it was BEFORE, but also technically years 2020-2023 were just a blur) the Nexus 5. It's really, REALLY good. It's basically JPG but not shit.
WEBP allows for crazy levels of compression before the "blocking" starts being noticeable, but even that can be mitigated with built-in filters.
What's the savings? Typically, compressing from a "source" PNG saves you 90-95%. Translated to Dummy that's between 1/10th and 1/20th of the original image (aka you can have 10 or 20 compressed images taking up the same space as one "raw"). A lot depends on the source image data, colours, and other boring shit.
The (Second) Solution - AVIF:
Ren'Py added support for AVIF images with the 8.1 release.
In short, AVIF (based on the based AV1 encoding) is like WebP but younger, sexier, and is probably in your girlfriend's DMs already. Using witchcraft and technology beyond my comprehension it allows for even smaller images than WebP (by ~15-20%) at the same perceived quality, or better quality images at the same size.
The downside? It handles colour conversion and compression differently than WebP, so you might experience a slight change in the overall presentation, but in my testing I wasn't able to clearly determine what feels off. YMMV.
How Do I Ascend?
Use any decent image converter, duh.
I can personally recommend XnConvert. Free, fast, and powerful.
1. Download it from
2. Install or extract.
3. Add the files or folders you wish to compress (via the buttons or drag n' drop).
3a. If your source is in 4K and you want the 1080p, use the Actions tab and then Image > Resize. Use 'Lanczos' or 'Lanczos2' - yields the best results.
4. In the Output tab select where you want to keep the original setup ("Source Folder") or not, the output filename, and the format.
5. Select the numbers of cores you want to use (I prefer sticking to physical only, so half the max value).
6-1. Select the WEBP from the "Format" menu.
6-2. Select the AVIF from the "Format" menu. (yes, we got dark theme in this bitch now)
6-1a. Recommended settings (WEBP):
Comparison:
Misc. notes:
-Don't do 100 quality or, Satan forbid, lossless. It's a waste of time and what the algorithm is capable of.
WEBP 100 is actually not bad and sometimes even necessary.
- A well-compressed WEBP 1080p image should not be larger than 600-650 KB. If you're close to 1 MB, tweak your settings.
- A well-compressed AVIF 1080p image should not be larger than 500 KB (in my testing at least).
- ALWAYS try to compress from the source material - this yields the best results since the algo has the most data to work with.
This guide applies mostly to Ren'Py-based games, but feel free to apply it anywhere in your life.
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The Problem(s):
A lot of developers/artists/perverts simply export renders made in DAZ3D, HoneySelect or CharaStudio in the base PNG (aka Portable Network Graphics) format. Which is cool, except that it is not.
PNG was designed as an improvement to the GIF format (and yes, it's pronounced like "gift" but the T is silent; fuck you) - that's noble, but improving on something garbage isn't an achievement in my book.
Anyway, PNG preserves and stores a lot of information. PNG was also made in 1996. That's pretty much ancient history.
A standard exported 1920x1080 PNG flat image is around 4-5 MB per pic (that's megabytes, and also a fuck ton for a single static image).
"But, random internet person, you can crush the PNG to half that size!"
That just shows that you already made an extra step. A wrong one, might I add.
All games (except for Red Lucy) push hundreds if not thousands of images with every major update.
Let's take the best game Eternum and its (then) latest 0.6 update as an example: 1375 images x 4 MB = 5500 MB = 5.5 GB - this is close to the TOTAL size of the game after 0.6 (~ 6 GB).
There are two additional and important factors to consider: disk size and download speeds.
If Eternum was to never compress its images (a whopping 8311 of them), the game would be 33 GB (or about 10% of a typical Warzone update), which is A LOT of space. Taking a Steam-provided average download speed for the USA of ~ 100 Mbps (or 12.5 MB/s), you'd need close to 44 MINUTES to download the entire game of Eternum 0.6*.
*(at the minimum and assuming you have an uninterrupted and stable connection for the duration).
The (First) Solution - WEBP:
Reject the PNG, embrace the WEBP.
WEBP is the best thing that Google released since (technically it was BEFORE, but also technically years 2020-2023 were just a blur) the Nexus 5. It's really, REALLY good. It's basically JPG but not shit.
WEBP allows for crazy levels of compression before the "blocking" starts being noticeable, but even that can be mitigated with built-in filters.
What's the savings? Typically, compressing from a "source" PNG saves you 90-95%. Translated to Dummy that's between 1/10th and 1/20th of the original image (aka you can have 10 or 20 compressed images taking up the same space as one "raw"). A lot depends on the source image data, colours, and other boring shit.
The (Second) Solution - AVIF:
Ren'Py added support for AVIF images with the 8.1 release.
In short, AVIF (based on the based AV1 encoding) is like WebP but younger, sexier, and is probably in your girlfriend's DMs already. Using witchcraft and technology beyond my comprehension it allows for even smaller images than WebP (by ~15-20%) at the same perceived quality, or better quality images at the same size.
The downside? It handles colour conversion and compression differently than WebP, so you might experience a slight change in the overall presentation, but in my testing I wasn't able to clearly determine what feels off. YMMV.
How Do I Ascend?
Use any decent image converter, duh.
I can personally recommend XnConvert. Free, fast, and powerful.
1. Download it from
You must be registered to see the links
.2. Install or extract.
3. Add the files or folders you wish to compress (via the buttons or drag n' drop).
3a. If your source is in 4K and you want the 1080p, use the Actions tab and then Image > Resize. Use 'Lanczos' or 'Lanczos2' - yields the best results.
4. In the Output tab select where you want to keep the original setup ("Source Folder") or not, the output filename, and the format.
5. Select the numbers of cores you want to use (I prefer sticking to physical only, so half the max value).
6-1. Select the WEBP from the "Format" menu.
6-2. Select the AVIF from the "Format" menu. (yes, we got dark theme in this bitch now)
6-1a. Recommended settings (WEBP):
- Quality:
- For DAZ3D games (with lots of small details) I typically use 92-96, but keep in mind that darker scenes require higher value to retain the detail.
- For HoneySelect games I typically use 90, but go as low as 87 - assets in HS-based games are usually simpler, hence the lower value.
- For CharaStudio game I typically use 85, but you can go to 80 even - the shading style is very simple and forgiving.
- Compression Method:
- This one is pretty simple. 0 for the fastest conversion but biggest output file and 6 for the slowest conversion and smallest output file.
Personally, it's worth setting it to 6 and letting it rip.
- This one is pretty simple. 0 for the fastest conversion but biggest output file and 6 for the slowest conversion and smallest output file.
- Filter Strength:
- Sets the aggressiveness of the "deblocking filter". The higher the value the "smoother" the image will be, but you have experiment with this one. It comes into effect at lower quality value (anything below 85).
- Filter Sharpness:
- Pretty self-explanatory. The higher the value, the weaker the effect.
- Sharp RGB > YUV Conversion is a MUST. This option preserves a ton of details, especially in the reds.
- Quality:
- In my experience, to match the WEBP in size, you can go 3-5 point in quality lower, e.g. WEBP 100 ~= AVIF 97-95. Then again, every instance is different, so play around with this setting on a variety of renders (bright/dark/simple/complex, etc.).
- Subsampling:
- There is no reason to pick anything other than 4:4:4. It retains the best colour accuracy with only a slight increase to the final size.
- Speed:
- Works similarly to 'Compression Method' found in WEBP; the lower the value, the slower the compression (and technically a smaller or better looking image, but I couldn't find much difference in my testing.
'Speed 6' matches WEBP's 'Compression Method 6' in performance and produces great results, though I recommend experimenting.
- Works similarly to 'Compression Method' found in WEBP; the lower the value, the slower the compression (and technically a smaller or better looking image, but I couldn't find much difference in my testing.
Comparison:
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(2.5 MB vs 212 KB)Misc. notes:
-
WEBP 100 is actually not bad and sometimes even necessary.
- A well-compressed WEBP 1080p image should not be larger than 600-650 KB. If you're close to 1 MB, tweak your settings.
- A well-compressed AVIF 1080p image should not be larger than 500 KB (in my testing at least).
- ALWAYS try to compress from the source material - this yields the best results since the algo has the most data to work with.
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