User talk:Sir Robin

I created this so that I can talk to you more directly. The page doesn't do webp pictures, thus why you got an error. But we already got box shots of the Underworld compilations [here].--Tribun (talk) 10:48, 10 January 2025 (MST)

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Got it, thanks. --Sir Robin (talk) 11:55, 10 January 2025 (MST)

Technical stuff in the PSX Port

Since the technical stuff for the PSX port of Ultima Underworld is getting a bit too big for the article, I'm moving it into its own article and put the fitting link into the port article. I tell you so that you don't wonder.--Tribun (talk) 05:04, 11 January 2025 (MST)

Screenshots

You are doing great work, though I did notice you seem not to be in the know about the rules we have about screenshots and other pictures which are being uploaded. I'll give you the important guidelines which are inofficial, but everyone uses.

• Each screenshot, icon, picture, etc. needs to be put into a category. I fixed that for you, so everything is correctly categorized. In case you are unsure, orient yourself at previous or content-wise similar pictures.
• Screenshots from low-res-games (like the common 320x200) are put through scalerx2 without anti-aliasing (so 320x200 becomes 640x400). This is for the screenshots being big enough while not altering what one would see in-game. Also, true pixel aspect ratio, meaning no aspect ratio correction.
• Generally, unless it's a game with more than 256 colors, PNG is always used for screenshots and what comes from them and pictures that are simple or have few colors. JPG is used from complicated pictures with many colors (like box shots, photos, etc). GIF is only used for things that are animated.
• We try to keep the file names on the shorter side, since otherwise it's a pain to work with them.

I hope those guidelines help you.--Tribun (talk) 05:27, 11 January 2025 (MST)

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Excellent, thank you for your patience with me.

1. So I started with the keys. I first put them in at their native resolution (less than 16x16) but they showed up so small on the web page. I noticed that the other graphics had been scaled up, so I doubled their size using nearest neighbor (I think that's similar to scalerx2 you mention, it doesn't do antialiasing or an other compensations). I later discovered that I can put the files in their native size but can specify what size to draw them when linked. For example if i have a 16x16 graphics I can put ((myFile.png|32px)) to show it at double size. I figured that is a better way because it keeps the filesizes down while still making the graphics big enough to be visible. Any thoughts on that?
2. On your third point there, I think you meant to say 256 colors or less, but yes I understand.
3. So my take-away from this is that I need to redo the UW1 PC screen shots in 640x200, and GIF is fine since it's a 256 color game. The UW1 PS1 ones should be re-done in PNG for the higher color values.
4. Would it be worthwhile to throw together an article/posting/imaging guidelines page, for myself and anyone else who comes along wanting to help out?

--Sir Robin (talk) 20:46, 11 January 2025 (MST)

The automatic resizing used by the page is pointless for enlargening pictures, since if it makes a picture bigger than it's native size, it looks ugly and blurry (your unused NPC models exhibit this), thus why all lo-res pictures are put through Scaler x2 (which indeed is just doubling the pixels with no further modification).

Yes, I mean 256 or less colors.

I think you mean 640x400, since that would be x2 of 320x200. GIF only for pictures that have animation (the only format that enables it). Static pictures without animation are PNG. Though in order to not have lots of unused old pictures, in this special case pictures that were GIF can stay to be updated, only in the future only use GIF for actually animated pictures. The PSX screenshots should come out as 640x480 after x2 (since the PSX resolution is 320x240).

I think I'll do one once I have the time.--Tribun (talk) 03:45, 12 January 2025 (MST)

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ok,so..

1. Don't use the web to do upscaling, got it
2. I'll re-do those unseen critters when I get a chance. The animations were already done in 2x, so it's just the static ones I need to change. And I noticed you already got the scepter
3. yes, 640x400, GIF only for animations, got it
4. weird thing - Duckstation says it's rendering at 320x240 but when I put it at 2x it's coming out at 640x490. It's all in-game, it's not duckstation UI or anything, and I got no idea where those extra 10 rows are coming from
5. If 640x480 is indeed the optimal resolution to view screenshots, then I think for ones where the PC UI is not relevant, I'll trim it to the view port (172x112 in UW1) and scale it 4x to get 688x448, that's pretty close to 640x480. I think it'll be easier to visually compare them side by side at that size. Thoughts?

--Sir Robin (talk) 10:09, 13 January 2025 (MST)

I compared your UW PSX screenshots to ones that are the correct aspect ration and discovered for some reason your emulator stretches the picture from 480 to 490. Also, it seems to apply some kind of bileniar filtering. Are you making screenshots of the emulator being at work or is there an internal screenshot option (that one should catch the raw picture data without any filtering applied)?--Tribun (talk) 04:28, 14 January 2025 (MST)

EDIT: This here] shows how do do screenshots properly with DuckStation.--Tribun (talk) 04:30, 14 January 2025 (MST)

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Yeah I was just hitting windows ALT-PrintScreen and then trimming it. Thanks for the link, I'll have a llok at that and redo them when I get a chance --Sir Robin (talk) 11:48, 18 January 2025 (MST)

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So I just put up some more screenshots, using the tips on the page you linked. That page may be a bit old, it doesn't quite match the options I see in my version of Duckstation, but I followed it as I could. Duckstation says it's rendering at 320x240 on the info bar, but the screenshots are actually 320x224. I scaled them 2x to 640x448. I also did what I said about trimming the PC screenshots and then scaling them 4x to 688x448. Tell me if you like how that looks and I'll do all my screenshots that way. --Sir Robin (talk) 01:17, 28 January 2025 (MST)

If you mean x4 for the viewing window of the PC version, that's OK, since it's an enlargement of part of the game area. The new PSX screenshots now look nice and sharp. If you compare them to the earlier screenshots, which were blurry, it's a huge difference.--Tribun (talk) 05:11, 28 January 2025 (MST)

Underworld Icons

When seeing you add icons for short sword and cudgel, please stop before you do a lot of work for little gain. All those icons are already present. Since both Underworld games use the same icons for those (and many other things), only one set of icons was uploaded for both games, as can be see in Weapon_values#Ultima_Underworld_II and Armour_values#Ultima_Underworld_II.--Tribun (talk) 16:40, 17 January 2025 (MST)

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ok, I didn't do a lot, just added some that were missing from that category because I'm making a table of weapons and armors and other things. It may be beneficial to retain both sets of icons, the two games do have a different palette so they look slightly different, and the files are less than 1KB each, so it's no a big strain on server space.

--Sir Robin (talk) 12:19, 18 January 2025 (MST)

Ultima Underworld PSX Portraits

I created a special category for the PSX portraits. You can put them in there now. I put the one you already uploaded in there.--Tribun (talk) 07:47, 29 January 2025 (MST)

Great, thanks. Is there a way to put both portraits in the infobox on the NPC pages? Also, I'm creating a new page for UW NPCs, like the NPCs of Ultima Underworld category page but better --Sir Robin (talk) 08:03, 29 January 2025 (MST)

Why that new category? Are there any NPCs that are new? Also, while it wouldn't work with the inforbox (since it's only a port instead of a new game), putting the PSX-portraits into a gallery for each character should do the trick (already done with multiple other characters]].--Tribun (talk) 08:09, 29 January 2025 (MST)

It's here, an excuse to put the PC and PSX portraits side-by-side, but also a summary of the NPCs so you don't have to go digging through all their individual pages to find one quickly. --Sir Robin (talk) 09:51, 29 January 2025 (MST)

OH, OK, that explains it.--Tribun (talk) 10:13, 29 January 2025 (MST)

To solve this (UU1 NPCs needing two portraits) I've created a template for dual portraits, Template:UU1portraits and as I find time I'm switching the NPC info boxes over to that system. Also, the only location maps we have are in the walkthrough, so I'm working on creating a separte set of location maps, rooted here: The Abyssal Colony Those are there to describe only the locations and inhabitants, not the plot or quests or puzzles, so non-walkthrough articles can link to those instead. See Template:GSACL to create easy links.--Sir Robin (talk) 15:43, 17 March 2025 (MDT)

To be clear, calling template:UU1portraits directly is not necessary. It is called automatically by template:Infobox/NPC/Ultima Underworld if both the portrait and portrait2 parameters are set. --Sir Robin (talk) 19:33, 17 March 2025 (MDT)

Cheat Addition

I think apart from the cheat itself, the rest of the complex explanation should not be in the cheat article, so perhaps move it to a more fitting place?--Tribun (talk) 15:53, 7 February 2025 (MST)

Question about UW2 spell icons

I have a question. Why are you uploading spell icons for Underworld II that already are uploaded? I have to be honest, I'm puzzled why you are even doing that.--Tribun (talk) 14:00, 17 March 2025 (MDT)

I know you prefer the icons to have borders and backgrounds, but I prefer the raw images and if needed create borders and backgrounds in code. I'm using the existing (name)iconUW2.png system for the formatted icons and my uw2.spellicon.(name).png system for the unformatted ones. If it's confusing to have them all together, maybe I can put them in a separate category, like category:unformatted spell icons or something like that --Sir Robin (talk) 15:50, 17 March 2025 (MDT)

Lorequote changes

You are doing really interesting stuff with the templates, but I inform you that I will revert the change to the lorequote template. The huge clutter of categories in articles with lore quotes - categories which have little actual use - is making navigation by categories (and yes, I did create a heirarchy of categories which makes that entirely possible) a pain in the ass, especially since it buries the actually important categories.

I'll do that in a few hours. I wanted to inform you first, to not create the impression I'm doing that behind your back.--Tribun (talk) 04:45, 23 March 2025 (MDT)

Yeah, it's my first time editing a wiki like this, so I'm really doing a lot of experimenting and learning. I hope I end up doing more good than not.

Anyway, I totally understand about the LoreQuote, that was just an experiment, I undid it, I see how it could be creating an unnecessary clutter. Thanks for the polite heads-up. --Sir Robin (talk) 08:37, 23 March 2025 (MDT)