Bootskins.....what 'should' be in them

Lately there's been one or two people uploading 'large' Bootskins.

'Large' as in 500k.... 1 meg....etc.

A Bootskin is [in theory] only 3 files. 

A main [wall] image... a bitmap in 640x480 16 colour [compressed in zip is about 50-70k].

A progress animation image...a bitmap also in 16 colour [compressed in zip is about 0.15k]

...and an ini file [text] [compressed in zip is about 0.15k]

Total?....probably something like 75k .... unless you add a jpg preview... OF THE 16 COLOUR RES bootskin.... maybe another 50/70k compressed.

All up you would anticipate nothing more than 150k.   So why the heck do we get 1 meg bootskins?

Because all sorts of 'junk' are in the zip....even PSD files....[heaven knows why you'd need PSDs for a simple wall dither].  Or even 2 or 3 previews [again lord knows why] and full colour uncompressed ones to boot [pun], at that.

Let's remember to check what we're uploading.  Remember...sometimes even the thumbs.db can be bigger than a Bootskin 'file'....;)

5,098 views 5 replies
Reply #1 Top
Bump....[doesn't warrant a 'sticky']...
Reply #2 Top
OOOOooooo! I hate when the thumbs.db gets into a zip file!! makes ya wanna go pirate on someone!
Reply #3 Top
BMP'S are lager file formats and need to be reduced to the 4.bit pallatte to gain a smooth boot
Reply #4 Top

And another thing....

To be fair and equitable, any Bootskin preview SHOULD be of the actual bootskin, not some high-res high-colour high-clarity false impression of what it 'might have been' had it NOT been a bootskin.

 

Just do the BEST you can with a dithering to 16 colours....and leave the 16 bit ones for wallpapers....

Reply #5 Top
edit: shouldn't have posted this reply to THIS thread... Site bug