Asset Creation 2

Some amendments to the previous "Asset Creation" Post:

File Format and Transparency:

You know how I said I "might" implement a png reader? Well I just did implement a png reader, and consequently we not only have transparency working properly, but also we have gradient transparency. Gone are the days in which we were limited to pixel dissipation techniques. So forget everything I said about bmps, forget picking a default transparency colour, those things take up too much memory and we can do better than that now.

(New category!) Optimisation:

Now since we're on the subject of memory efficiency, I'll take this opportunity to mention that when saving files in Photoshop, instead of using "Save As" press Alt + Shift + Ctrl + S (windows) or Opt+ Shift + Cmd + S (mac) to bring up the "Save for Web & Devices" window.

If you're not familiar with this already, it's basically an image optimisation tool that enables us to cut out all the crap from the image files (like meta data, unnecessary transparency etc.)

So basically, once that window's opened up click on the "optimized" tab (top right corner), then look at the bottom of the right hand column on the right, (second line down), to check out the file size. As a general rule, our goal is to try to get the file size as small as possible without sacrificing image quality. We can use png-8 for non-gradient transparency. Have a play around with the settings in the left column, see how few colours we can get away with. Some files may need to use png-24 which is perfectly fine.

By the way "Percent" lets you zoom in and "Preview" mimics different systems, so if you're using a mac you can see what it might look like on a windows machine, (apparently).

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Everything I said before that wasn't contradicted by this post still applies.