ONGOING DEFAULT THEME CONTEST!!!

[ZincAlloy]

yeah...

In the meantime I managed to dither the graphics to 8 bit with PS. 16 seems impossible with PS. Same with Gimpshop. I'll look trough more software later today.

[crzyboyster]

Hmm... there must be a batch image converter for changing from 24 to 16 bit. Try Irfanview maybe? Anyways, ZincAlloy, do you want to rename the rest of the ports?

[Llorean]

I really don't know if there's any significant benefit to converting them to 16 bit. As I said, they should be converted on load anyway, and leaving them 24-bit makes them more re-usable if a 24-bit target does come along one day.

[crzyboyster]

That's what I was thinking... and Llorean, just a question, will you be considering the size of this theme when it will be added to SVN? I mean, like will it be "better" to have less images involved in this theme? I know certain targets like the archos' are better off with less images in the buffer, but will it matter to the final decision as most players don't have such an issue?

Anyways, I poked around with the settings in Irfanview. There is indeed a "Batch Conversion/Rename" feature and there is also a picture depth option (although I'm not sure whether or not it's what we're looking for). A screenshot is attached.

EDIT: And another thing Llorean, do you have any idea when viewports will actually be added to SVN? Some ports could make use of that feature for better text alignment.

[Llorean]

It's not "less images in the buffer". Rockbox reserves the memories for WPSes either way, so the amount of size used is constant, whether you fill it up or not.

It's "less images to load." It takes longer to load a WPS the more files it has, and this problem affects all targets, though maybe not nearly as noticeable on flash ones, I haven't experimented. If the WPS ends up making Rockbox take a significant amount of time longer to boot, some people will be upset with it.

As it is, it's a lot of people who'll be holding the final discussion, and it's very possible (even maybe likely) that a WPS I don't like will go in. I'm a grumpy chap, but there's plenty of people who'll ignore my complaints anyway.

[crzyboyster]

Llorean, just wondering, do you like the ports for Cabbie 2.0? I would hope so...

And do you have any idea when viewports will be added to SVN?

[Llorean]

I haven't tried any of them on-player honestly. I don't dislike them, but as I've said, there are things about them that would mean I personally wouldn't use them.

As for viewports, it'll be in SVN when the patch works on all targets and is thoroughly tested, I imagine. Just like anything else.

[crzyboyster]

Llorean, what parts of it do you dislike?

[Llorean]

Well, first and foremost, I hate graphical volume displays. But most of my complaints can be seen earlier in this thread anyway.

[ZincAlloy]

I really don't know if there's any significant benefit to converting them to 16 bit. As I said, they should be converted on load anyway, and leaving them 24-bit makes them more re-usable if a 24-bit target does come along one day.

not an issue, the original graphics are 24bit files. ports for new targets could always be made in 24bit.

crzy, it's the right menu, but there's no option for 16bit. I think 16bit is a highly unusual format in graphics. In RGB you usually have 8 bits for each channel (8x3=24). 8 bit (256 colors) is the other common standard. Each color needs to be defined afaik.
16bit seemingly uses 5 bits for red and blue and 6 bits to define green, since they human eye is more sensitive for green value than it is for red and blue...

[saratoga]

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/8385

Viewports are near.

Perhaps the default them should take advantage of them.
At least let's focus the WPS-creating community towards testing them for linuxstb.

Rasher has sims up:
http://rasher.dk/rockbox/viewports/

I'd rather go with what we have.  Once viewports are committed and stable, we can certainly look into updating the default theme to take advantage of them.

[Llorean]

I think this theme doesn't really have a use for viewports, anyway. They'd allow a few different font colors perhaps, but there's really not a significant place for them without a redesign, I think.

[ZincAlloy]

found a ps plugin that should do the trick: http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/  (5/6/5)

[soap]

Imagemagick is free (in both senses of the word), and if it can't do it (and do it in batch) I'm a monkey's uncle.
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

[ZincAlloy]

not sure which dithering I like better: left: 5/6/5, right: rockbox


edit: too bad - looks much worse when saved as 16 bit bmp