Image Optimization for renpy

[Raw Magic]

Hello Guys. I am working on my first game and i wanted to make it as optimized as possible without losing quality ( render quality is my main focus here ). I am rendering in 1440p and than turning back into 1080p again using photoshop ( i saw that tip to reduce grain without using the denoiser but i don't see great difference).

But the images are getting too big and i am afraid that the game is getting heavy. So, some doubts got in my head like, what type of image should i use ? jpeg png or other ? should i compress the image ? there's other program that i can use to shrink the images in bulk that isn't photoshop ? any other tip that you guys can give me i will be glad!

 

[DoubleLust]

Jpeg.

compressed your image to 1/4.
only time you will need a non compressed image is for extreme close ups or an animated scene that zooms in on a character
otherwise no ones going to tell the difference.

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[Winterfire]

WEBP (Images) and WEBM (Videos).

I assume you are using the flawed design of rendering an image every sentence, if that is the case, you'll just have to accept that your game will reach a pretty big size... Unless you want to compress it down to oblivion (along with its image quality).

 

[SecretSal]

I've been using

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as my default image viewer for almost 2 decades now. It can batch convert to most image formats, including WEBP, which is probably your best bet for image optimisation if they are large fullscreen-size images.

 

[DoubleLust]

test out each option, IrfanView is very easy to batch export, it can be done in photoshop but that's a few more steps
WEBP and JPEG both have drawbacks depending how much you compress them.

I've been using

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havent used Irfanview since modding days in Half-Life, but for some reason it adjusts the color range of the imported image

 

[Winterfire]

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WEBP is the way to go.
It also supports transparency, so you can use it for sprites as well.

It goes without saying that as the developer, you need to deliver the best quality possible, so you should still distribute lossless and let someone else break it down in order to save up a few hundred MBs.

 

[DoubleLust]

It also supports transparency

Would be the biggest reason to use WEBP.

Wonder if using the photoshop plugin for WEBP will produce better results.
At least exporting through IrfanView, the Jpeg had a sharper image and better detail

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decided to look more into it, that article explains some issues along with the comment section on WEBP vs JPEG

 

[SecretSal]

havent used Irfanview since modding days in Half-Life, but for some reason it adjusts the color range of the imported image

Interesting to see the side-by-side! I should probably check the settings and see what side-by-side differences there when using settings like Resample, auto-adjust colours, etc while converting.

 

[79flavors]

[...] any other tip that you guys can give me i will be glad!

Conventional wisdom is to use .jpg files for background images and .png for foreground sprites/buttons/etc.
Render everything to as big as a .png as you have the time and patience for, then convert as appropriate. Maybe even downscale to 1080p or 720p if you'd like.

Keep your render images and the images used by the game separate (any post production editing is much easier on the higher quality renders).

If your game is good enough, hardly anyone will care if it's 7GB. In fact, some people will even mistake that for quality.
I'm not suggesting making a game that big, just saying that maybe don't worry about it.

[...] there's other program that i can use to shrink the images in bulk that isn't photoshop ?

If you really want to save space, there are batch tools like Cruncher here on F95. Cruncher converts all the images in the /images/ folder and subfolders to .webp and .webm formats. It's only a batch file and you can edit the command lines to alter the quality settings used if you'd rather aim for "a bit smaller" rather than "tiny" (not for the for faint of heart, but not hard either). It's a destructive process though, with the resulting files overwriting the original files (RenPy doesn't care that it finds a .webp file called myimage1.jpg, for example).

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

Gonna be png anyway

 

[mickydoo]

If you are using photoshop just save them as .jpg with a quality of between 8 and 10. There is no need to install another program and then do another step as well.

 

[InCompleteController]

One way of optimizing that I haven't yet seen mentioned is separating the elements into individual images.
The classic example is a scene with a single background, a few of different characters (depending on your path) with several different facial expressions.

Whilst you could just render each combination, it takes a lot less space if you simply have an image that covers the default face with a different expression rather than changing the entire scene.

 

[Raw Magic]

Yeah, i am exporting the characters and the BG and them i am using actions on photoshop to glue everything together in a batch. This pipeline is being very good and fast to work with. Thank you guys !

 

[TDoddery]

One way of optimizing that I haven't yet seen mentioned is separating the elements into individual images.
The classic example is a scene with a single background, a few of different characters (depending on your path) with several different facial expressions.

Whilst you could just render each combination, it takes a lot less space if you simply have an image that covers the default face with a different expression rather than changing the entire scene.

Old fashioned but it works for me as it also means less rendering. Just spot render the differences.