NationStates Jolt Archive

Seeing as most users have Windows (myself included, unfortunately) would it be possible to increase the upload limit on flag sizes a bit?
6kb in Unix terms isn't the same as 6kb in Windows terms. There's a difference of about .5kb.
I realise this sounds stupid and nitpicky... but 0.5kb can make a quite an impact on the flag quality, and it's also quite annoying when I have to keep loading up the base-files and compressing them a bit more until they upload properly.
So perhaps 6.5kb would be ok, to compensate us poor Windows users? :D

I would recommend 12K, I could persoanly work wonders with 12k
and honestly the sizes wouldnt be that bad at slowing down teh server,

Hey Sal, could we get some stats on teh percentages of folks who use custom flags? and possible HDD consumption?

You are lucky to know how to do all that. I am almost illiterate when it comes to the computer side of things. I have several pictures I would like to use as a flag but can't figure out how to do it. When I scan a picture or just download one to "my pictures" it always ends up with like 60 or 70 KB ratings and I know they wont fit.

1IL, can't give you the stats right now. However, I have about a dozen different reasons to rebuild my database, so I might do that tonight and incorperate the data.

Last time I checked, a bit was either 1 or 0. A byte is eight ones, eight zeros, or a combination. A kilobyte is 1024 of these. This is a pretty basic fundament of computing, and I don't understand how your OS changes that.

I have had a similar experience of hitting a wall at 6.5 kb. I've tried just about every Photoshop technique I know to break that barrier while maintaining some semblance of image integrity, but have been thus far unsuccesful. I'd be grateful for any tips....

On a paranthetical note, I randomly selected about 20 flags, both game default and custom. They all seem to be in the 22kb range. Is the 6kb parameter a recent guideline?

1IL, can't give you the stats right now. However, I have about a dozen different reasons to rebuild my database, so I might do that tonight and incorperate the data.

thanks I would appreciate seeing those figures



You are lucky to know how to do all that. I am almost illiterate when it comes to the computer side of things. I have several pictures I would like to use as a flag but can't figure out how to do it. When I scan a picture or just download one to "my pictures" it always ends up with like 60 or 70 KB ratings and I know they wont fit.


post the pics in teh EP offsite forum, Im sure either I or Myrth can fix them.


I have had a similar experience of hitting a wall at 6.5 kb. I've tried just about every Photoshop technique I know to break that barrier while maintaining some semblance of image integrity, but have been thus far unsuccesful. I'd be grateful for any tips....

On a paranthetical note, I randomly selected about 20 flags, both game default and custom. They all seem to be in the 22kb range. Is the 6kb parameter a recent guideline?

that is most likely because when you are downloading it your OS is doing a few things, changing the file type, (windows defaults to BMP, and Mac OSX defaults to Tiff I know how to fix the Mac problem but not hte WIndows one) and it is also adding sixe to the file by generating preview images namely the image preview you see when you try to open it with a program, it also adds either the default pic viewer programs custom Icon or it makes teh icon a cute lil tiny version of the image all of these can triple or quadruple the images size.
hence the 22k file sizes you are seeing
when I save teh images I make sure to save it image only with no icon or preview.

=-=-=
Loop
My current flag
http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/1_infinite_loop.jpg

Last time I checked, a bit was either 1 or 0. A byte is eight ones, eight zeros, or a combination. A kilobyte is 1024 of these. This is a pretty basic fundament of computing, and I don't understand how your OS changes that.

the differnnt file architecture for example when you format your HDD, windows formats it in one way based on how it uses file space,
Mac OS clasic ad OSX another, and Unix and OSX a different one, that is as I understand partially why a raw 40 gig HDD is formated to 36g for windows, 38.8 for a mac and 39 for unix (not sure if those are right so dont quote me on them Im just making up arbirtrary figures to illuminate my words)

Loop

Image preview.
Well, duh.....
That solved it neatly, and I thank you!

Hatchibombitar

(Who ought to have paid more attention to the settings)

Hey Sal, could we get some stats on teh percentages of folks who use custom flags? and possible HDD consumption?

As of my last data set (November 3rd I think?) I have

22,448/79,730 (28%) nations use custom flags for an estimated storage space of 131MB

Hey Sal, could we get some stats on teh percentages of folks who use custom flags? and possible HDD consumption?

As of my last data set (November 3rd I think?) I have

22,448/79,730 (28%) nations use custom flags for an estimated storage space of 131MB
wow that is not nearly as high as I initially thought, I was thinking custom flags took up a whole half gig or more.

Last time I checked, a bit was either 1 or 0. A byte is eight ones, eight zeros, or a combination. A kilobyte is 1024 of these. This is a pretty basic fundament of computing, and I don't understand how your OS changes that.

the differnnt file architecture for example when you format your HDD, windows formats it in one way based on how it uses file space,
Mac OS clasic ad OSX another, and Unix and OSX a different one, that is as I understand partially why a raw 40 gig HDD is formated to 36g for windows, 38.8 for a mac and 39 for unix (not sure if those are right so dont quote me on them Im just making up arbirtrary figures to illuminate my words)

Loop
That is completely OS-independent. See, harddrives are split into chunks when you format them. These chunks can be as large as 32 kilobytes or 512 bytes. Right-click a file in Windows XP and note the "size on hard drive" parameter. As you can see, it all depends on how your hard drive was split into chunks. Unfortunately, you can't change the chunks on your system without using a partitioning program(usually costing quite a hefty sum of money).

Partitioning software is just like any other software. You can find shareware and freeware versions.

I have had a couple of 5.5KB flags rejected as being too large, which I thought was pretty weird. But I tend to use smaller stuff anyway.

I have had a couple of 5.5KB flags rejected as being too large, which I thought was pretty weird. But I tend to use smaller stuff anyway.

Yeah it can be annoying to keep having to adjust custom flags I've made for people to make sure they fit the Unix 6kb. 6kb is 6144 bytes, I'm not sure how big a FAT32 6kb file would be on a Unix file system.

NM.

Last time I checked, a bit was either 1 or 0. A byte is eight ones, eight zeros, or a combination. A kilobyte is 1024 of these. This is a pretty basic fundament of computing, and I don't understand how your OS changes that.

the differnnt file architecture for example when you format your HDD, windows formats it in one way based on how it uses file space,
Mac OS clasic ad OSX another, and Unix and OSX a different one, that is as I understand partially why a raw 40 gig HDD is formated to 36g for windows, 38.8 for a mac and 39 for unix (not sure if those are right so dont quote me on them Im just making up arbirtrary figures to illuminate my words)

Loop
That is completely OS-independent. See, harddrives are split into chunks when you format them. These chunks can be as large as 32 kilobytes or 512 bytes. Right-click a file in Windows XP and note the "size on hard drive" parameter. As you can see, it all depends on how your hard drive was split into chunks. Unfortunately, you can't change the chunks on your system without using a partitioning program(usually costing quite a hefty sum of money).

All Mac OS's since 7.5.3 have shipped with a partitioning utility,
but I see what you mean,
I had to partition my Hdd into three because the guy at the Mac Dealer told me when I put the 40 gig in (by my self) that the iMac G3 seris couldnt recognize HDD's bigger than 15 gig, and I wanted a 6 gig boot partition just for ØSX

Which is why Windows XP gives you a 'size on disk' option.
That is not counted in the 6kb thing, seeing as it is computer specific.

Which is why Windows XP gives you a 'size on disk' option.
That is not counted in the 6kb thing, seeing as it is computer specific.

'Size on disk' includes the information associated with the file, not in the file, id est the file allocation information (in the FAT tables), any preview images generated for the thumbs.db file which XP uses for the Thumbnails view option, and so on so forth.

<Bump>

:D

Did you all make sure to actually size to the recommended 107x71 ? When I did this (and I have a pretty complex flag image with that lil'l kitten there), my first save at a good JPG quality of Paint Shop Pro arrived at 3.51 kB, way under the limit.

(And a little hint if things really don't work out: JPEG uses 8x8 squares as its basic compression unit. If you put a hard boundary on an 8x8 segment line, you save some huge bytes and avoid artifacts too. Just in case you have one that's 1 pixel off left or right...)

It tends to be the number of colours that push the file sizes up a bit.
A lot of people want fairly complex flags with images in etc.
I'm not so much asking for the size limit to be increased... moreso for Windows users to be compensated for that 0.5kb they're missing out on :P