Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Tiles graphics format (xpm)

[Nick Lamb <njl98r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 3 Mar 1999, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> PNG (portable network graphics, right?) is supposed to become a GIF
> replacement.  It's a lossless image format (unlike jpeg, which is a
> great format, but lossy), and not subject to the patent problems of GIF.
> Unfortunately, it hasn't caught on.

1. Who cares if it has "caught on" ? Freeciv is not a popularity contest,
so we're free to choose any format that is appropriate for the task.

2. PNG (with sensible parameters) will do something sane to 24-bit high
quality tiles. Eventually, regardless of how many people have 8-bit X
displays from the dark ages, we'll want to have 24-bit tiles too.

3. XPM doesn't handle true colour very gracefully AFAIK. So there will be
a continuing pressure not to do 24-bit tiles so long as we use XPM

> I'd vote to stay with XPM.

I'm happy to see low-colour graphics continue in XPM, but I'd like to see
later Freeciv clients move towards imlib or whatever to load graphics in
PNG, XPM or whatever new formats we have to look forward to.

Nick.