Marketplace images are turning blurry upon upload! WHAT ARE THIS?!

[Intoxicate]

So I noticed as I was uploading images for my marketplace ads, that my images weren't nearly as clear as they were when I first saved them.

 

here are two examples of the issue:

On the left is the original image, as it appears on my computer. On the right is how it looks after it's been uploaded to the marketplace: As you can see, they're noticably LESS clear once they're uploaded.

 

I don't remember having this issue the last time I uploaded images to the marketplace.

What is causing this and does LL plan to do anything about it?

[Intoxicate]

So I noticed as I was uploading images for my marketplace ads, that my images weren't nearly as clear as they were when I first saved them.

 

here are two examples of the issue:

On the left is the original image, as it appears on my computer. On the right is how it looks after it's been uploaded to the marketplace: As you can see, they're noticably LESS clear once they're uploaded.

 

I don't remember having this issue the last time I uploaded images to the marketplace.

What is causing this and does LL plan to do anything about it?

[mtwtfss71]

This has always been the case. It's possible that it is worse now than before, of course. The Marketplace converts our images to jpgs (which have a loss of resolution) and resizes them if the uploaded image is not the exact size it requests.

[OzwellWayfarer]

I had the same problem and noticed a significant improvement by saving the image as a jpg instead of png

[Intoxicate]

..... really!? wow ok thank you! I'll try that >.>

[Nalates Urriah]

Several factors are involved.

The image type and size you upload is a factor. I find starting with a JPG image gives worse results than starting with PNG or TGA. JPG is a lossy compression format. So, you have lost quality even before uploading. Plus you can not include transparency when using JPG.

There is an image shape factor involved, which may be your problem. SL is going to save square images in power of 2 sizes. It will convert them into JPEG2000 format. I think that makes them into 4 or 5 qualities of image. Like mesh LoD depending on the distance from camera to object different qualities are used.

A 64x64px images and smaller can be uploaded without loss of quality. That seems to be a concession for sculpty maps which come apart of any data is omitted.

Images that seem to produce the best quality results are square. I've tried 128x256px images. They seem to be poorer quality than either 2-128x128 or a single 256x256. But, it has been a couple of years since I played with that.

There is also a the problem of the ratio of image size when displayed. The viewer does not interpolate pixels as well as it might. So, a 128x256 image gives the best quality result when displayed at a 1:2 ratio. Square images are best at 1:1 ratio.

There is also a problem of oversized images. Using a 1024x1024 image that will be displayed in a mall and likely never use more than 512x512 of the user's screen space is going to be resized by the viewer. So, it is down sizing, which it does better than up-sizing. But, the more you can avoid viewer interpolating the image the better the quality will appear.

You can test the different ways to handle images on the Preview Grid and not have to pay for the uploads. You can learn what works best for you.