File talk:Sunlust MAP07.png

Tiny illegible images of big maps?
A map of this size (or almost any size, really) isn't served with a mere 470x291px image, and it's not the first such image I've seen. Why the tiny scale, shouldn't there be a guideline regarding useful scaling? --Xymph (talk) 10:45, 26 May 2016 (CDT)


 * Scaling might be a concern given the size it needs to appear at on the article (ie., about the size of the current image). Images generated by tools like SLADE tend to scale down poorly past a certain point because they generate the lines with a set thickness and, if scaled down enough, the lines just vanish. --Quasar (talk) 16:48, 13 April 2016 (CDT)


 * Understood, but with the tiny size this image was limited to, the opposite effect occurs: even in the original image many lines are so close they just blur together, let alone when scaled down next to a walkthrough. And that applies to all images that were uploaded in the Sunlust series so far, and also e.g. this one. Even though that image is twice as large, the most interesting western area is illegible.
 * My aim here is to discuss usability: what is the purpose of a map image? I feel it should be to assist the player in understanding the descriptions in a walkthrough – and for that it needs to be significantly more legible – rather than merely illustrate the overall lay of the land at a high level. For that purpose, this uploaded but inactive image is notably more useful (transparency issues aside) than the current one.
 * And as a means to understand a walkthrough, the full-size standalone image is the one that matters, not the embedded scaled-down one. When I follow a walkthrough I often open the map image in another tab, and even 'View image' so it can be seen at 100% scaling in the tab. Then a map image is actually useful.
 * Lastly, if and when map spots are added, the standalone image needs to be legible enough to allow them. Though that may never happen for large maps like this Sunlust series.
 * --Xymph (talk) 03:35, 14 April 2016 (CDT)


 * Issue resolved by (re-)uploading map views for the entire Sunlust series at a consistent and legible scale. --Xymph (talk) 10:45, 26 May 2016 (CDT)


 * Much appreciated; it's some pretty mind-dulling work to just go around replacing images (which I know from having had to do it a few times in the past). --Quasar (talk) 11:09, 26 May 2016 (CDT)


 * My pleasure. No, really. :) Because I used it as a way to generate more "publicity" for the drawmaps.py improvements I made. And it was fun to create my first batch of stub map pages with all the 'new' maps after creating an initial version of my planned DMMPST tool (which is still a long way off from release).
 * Actually, the mind-numbing part was cropping all that extra stuff out of the maps using SLADE3, which is normally a pretty fluid process in small/medium-sized maps. But in the big/huge ones, SLADE3 slowed down a lot (I'm guessing due to the extra memory required for the undo/redo system) and those took a lot of time to cut down to just the playable areas. Oh well, I learned something anyway. :) --Xymph (talk) 12:17, 26 May 2016 (CDT)