Mac Gaming Mods

Whenever I edit the Halo Logo in the ui, it comes out glitchy. Even if I don't edit anything (exporting then importing without editing) the logo will become pixels. Does this happen to anyone else?

What tools are you using, and did you internalize the bitmap image?

Pixilation on image import is due to not having the best algorithm for finding endpoints during compression. I've been looking into some documents by nVidia and Simon Brown (squishDDS) on improving it but just by the looks of it, implementing them will make the import process take longer.

Are you suggesting that we not use jpg format for images?

id be willing to wait longer for better quality

It's not the jpeg (although that is also a potential loss in quality). It's the compression algorithm to DXT that Eschaton does. Some high level math is going on and even nVidia's best method is to brute force through multiple solutions. They can make it work better by separating each solution into a parallel thread. Not so sure I'd be able to mimic that and would instead have to run each method sequentially. Still looking over their published info.

I have found that TIFF looks pretty nice, just have to choose no compression on each export. Eschaton's importing is already WAY better IMO than HMT's crash-and-reload method if you're just importing the lossier formats (not injection). I guess HMT is the best for dds/DXT injection then? Also I noticed that when I imported the galaxy in the UI background (whether I changed it or not) with Eschaton, the mask would fail and a pixelated blue box formed around it. I can't remember which DXT format it was but when I injected the galaxy with HMT and selected the eight bit alpha mask option it looked fine.

i actually like .Png
those files seem to look a lot better than jpg

Bitmaps have become my enemy here recently.

Protip, don't import a blue picture.

If it's bigger than 500x500 fucking everything in your world will explode

I never raged like a raged that day. Nothing i did would work, I imported the blue, I got a tiny blue stripe.

God why does shit gotta be frustrating >>

Try minimzing your picture, and use .BMP

Hope that helps ya

Won't work D:

EDIT: Got it to work using PC HMT >_>

Rofldonutburger wrote:Won't work D:

EDIT: Got it to work using PC HMT >_>

*gasp*

ALT!

MAN THE HARPOONS!

WE MUST SOLVE THIS!

That's what the inject/extract options are supposed to be for. Deal with it in DDS format where you can get some other program to edit it and compress it with a bit better quality. Unfortunately there's not as much DDS capable programs on the mac side and I can't remember if they have the fine tuned level of control necessary for injecting back into Halo (some very specific settings need to be enabled, mipmaps and other things). As I've said before, I'm looking into a better (slower though) algorithm for importing that should be a bit more accurate. That's the problem with a lossy format like DXT. I posted how it all works here so if someone has some blinding moment of realization on how to do it better please let me know. P.S. yes the algo I'm looking into is the one simon brown suggests which nVidia published a paper on citing him as their research.

I extracted the .dds file using Eschaton, and when I open it in Graphic Converter, it says the file is corrupted or something. It happens every single time for this particular bitmap.

Which bitmap?

The halo logo (in the UI)