snarkhunter wrote:This is obvious in No 4 & 5: top & right lines lacking.
This obviously results from the "frame" line bordering the picture. It would take at least 258x194 to get a complete picture, as I already suspected. Yet, for a strange reason I stated yesterday, but am still unable to explain, 258x193 (offset 35, 53) seems to generate a correct result (cf my previous attachments).
The way IrfanView's cropping is working does not allow accurate 256x192 Dragon screenshots. Which is unfortunate - to say the least. I can't think of any other way of stating it.
I'm afraid I'll have to keep using 258x193/194 (offset 35, 53) because this seems to be the only way of getting acceptable screenshots. I only regret we cannot use standard 256x192, which would have been consistent with the Dragon's actual display.
There is nothing lacking in those pictures and IrfanView does allow accurate 256x192 Dragon screen shots. To prove this, open the number 4 I created in IrfanView then from the "Image" menu choose "Add border/frame" and from the "Frame style list" click on "Plain white" then on "OK". The result tallies pretty much with what you see in XRoar (though with the default IrfanView settings the white border will not be as large as that in XRoar). I agree that the cropped 256x192 screen shot does look a little odd when compared with what we see in XRoar or on a real Dragon, which is why I suggested using 258x194 because this larger size will retain a one pixel border in the background colour around the image.
I suspect that the choice of using the 258x194 or 256x192 setting to create a screen shot depends on each program. With graphics mode screens where the graphics go right to the edge being best served with the larger setting, and all text mode screens cropped at 256x192.
There is. From the moment the software imposes an extra border (couldn't find any option to remove it) that override's the picture's content, then the result cannot be accurate. If one has to set an "oversized picture" (such as 258x194) in order to get the actual content (256x192) "unharmed", then there obviously is.
I'm amazed at the way people write software that seems unable just to do things without turning them into a mess, without hijacking them. Is it demanding so much to have a 256x192 picture recreated as a 256x192 PC file, while still being 100% faithful to the original?!
That amazes me.
But ok, then: I'll just keep cursing over the developers with their bloody 258x194 messy screenshots! But not tonight. I guess this may wait an extra few days...
Lionel, I am confused, when cropping IrfanView does not impose an extra border that overrides the image. The crop mark image I included in my attachment shows the crop lines before cropping, after cropping the resultant image includes what is underneath those crop lines, not the crop lines, not a blank border, nothing but what is in the original image.
The problem with Shock Trooper, if you can call it a problem, is that the graphic lines go right to the edge of the 256x192 screen. On a Dragon, whether real or emulated, the display extends beyond 256x192 with (in graphics mode) a border in the background colour. This means that in Shock Trooper there is white space around those black pixels that are on the edge of the 256x192 screen, but as soon as you crop to 256x192 that white space disappears and you have the illusion that part of the image has been removed (to be pedantic, part of the image has been removed, but only the background colour border that lies beyond what the Dragon can draw on). If you tried my suggestion of adding a plain white border around one of my screen shots and compared the result with what you see in XRoar, you will find that IrfanView did not remove any part of the 256x192 image during the cropping process.
Alastair wrote:To prove this, open the number 4 I created in IrfanView then from the "Image" menu choose "Add border/frame" and from the "Frame style list" click on "Plain white" then on "OK". The result tallies pretty much with what you see in XRoar (though with the default IrfanView settings the white border will not be as large as that in XRoar). I agree that the cropped 256x192 screen shot does look a little odd when compared with what we see in XRoar or on a real Dragon, which is why I suggested using 258x194 because this larger size will retain a one pixel border in the background colour around the image.
You're right: the only way to preseve the full picture details is to use a 258x194 "cropped" output. This way, the "mandatory border" does remain outside of the actual screen data.
But the resulting picture file size is 286x222, i.e. a 1.29 size increase factor!
In my opinion, this does ultimately demonstrate the fact that 256x192 cannot be used because of improper mutilation of the source. But my purpose was not to enter any such argument here!
Adding a border with IrfanView was just to demonstrate that the full 256x192 screen was properly cropped and nothing drawn was lost (and as the default "add a border" setting is 15 pixels on each side the resultant image will be 286x222). For the images uploaded to the Wiki I would not suggest cropping the image to 256x192 and then adding a border! Instead it is probably best to crop graphic screens to 258x194 so that part of the original border is retained, on the other hand text screens may be best served with a 256x192 crop.
