Previews Ahoy!

Oh lordy.. You can't quite understand the thrill it is to see something in print (well the pdf preview any way)

I look forward to seeing this for real!

Thank You Mongoose!

Enjoy!
 
barnest2 said:
Awesome fighter middenface :P
Also, I love the swing wing scout...

Thanks Barnes. The scout is based on the Serpent from JTAS. I'd forgotten I'd done that. I think I did 20 something ships for the book and I've only slipped a few on the blog.
 
barnest2 said:
Now I just have to convince you to do my renders better :P
That is truly awesome though. Well done mate.

Cheers, well we are in the same part of the world and I can be bribed.. ;o)
 
Hot Dog! Now THAT is a spaceship book for the modern era.

The Animals book looks pretty fantastic too. I've gone from "meh" to "must check this out when it gets to the FLGS".
 
Hmmm, those pdf ship plans and illustrations are quite blury. I'll wait to see what the reviews on the printed book are like.
 
Stainless said:
Hmmm, those pdf ship plans and illustrations are quite blury. I'll wait to see what the reviews on the printed book are like.

Yes, at 100% even the numbers are blurry. If you were to print it out for 15mm mini play it would be unreadable. Why is that?
 
Yes, those books look good and I will be buying them:) Some feedback:-

Traveller – Animal Encounters - Contents page
Special Enviroments is missing an “n” - Environments

Traveller – Merchants and Cruisers
Particularly appreciated the space ship pictures – something to show players when running a game

HTH :)
 
Nice job, guys. I do wish those images could be higher res, but they are workable for me.

Mongoose, what if you make higher res versions available for download for just the plans?
 
DFW said:
BP said:
Resolution dependent images. Not PostScript.

Do you mean bit map rather than vector?
Basically - yes... I was being more technical because people will quibble... ;)

To wit (techno-babble alert! - more info than most want to know!):
  • Being a 'bitmap' does not necessarily make an image unreadable, etc. It does make the image resolution dependent (i.e. how big the 'dots' are expected to be for quality purposes).

    Except very rare devices (pen plotters, laser projectors, etc.) most images are technically composed of discrete dots of color ('bitmaps') as is, ultimately, the image our brain receives (ala cones and rods). At a high enough resolution (say 2400 dpi ;) ) it is unlikely anyone would see a quality problem. PDF size, though, would be huge, perhaps making it unviewable on most systems. Even barely passable 300 dpi*, when it comes to larger deckplans, might be too much. Further, most images are compressed using JPG - whose very first step is called decimation - it typically blatantly removes 50% of all the color 'dots' right off the bat. Then it smashes color range down using an approach that can leave lots of blocking artifacts and makes things blurry.

    PostScript can make use of vectors, but is not, strictly speaking, a vector format. Rather it is a full blown computer language optimized for printing (it also supports bitmaps and most other general computer functions).

    PostScript ultimately generates 'bitmaps', but they will be created to whatever display/print resolution available - and do so when zoomed in as well. Not only would PostScript based PDFs look infinitely better (pun) - they would take up a heck of a lot less digital space (network bandwidth, hard drives, etc...). Often they can also display faster (though that is subject to a lot of factors...).

    PDF started out as basically 'compiled' PostScript. Today it is often generated directly (and has some enhancements, notably direct support for transparency and linking as well as interactive 3D and script support...) which means the original content may have no code at all - just color information and tag data. Adobe Illustrator is arguably the best at producing direct PostScript output as that is its actual native format (.AI files basically include PostScript along with various meta-data about a design).

    Actually producing PostScript requires nothing more than a text editor (its just code) - and, of course, the knowledge and skill. ;)


    *300 dpi is generally high enough from certain viewing distances. That changes when things are viewed close up - i.e. fine details on say deckplans - especially zoomed on a computer screen (which often support less than 120 dpi - referred to as ppi for pixels or points vs dots).

    Disclaimer: I've simplified everything here a bit for brevity... :)
 
BP said:
Basically - yes... I was being more technical because people will quibble... ;)

Thanks for the explanation. So, as far as I can tell, the deckplans are unreadable if one purchases the PDF. Another fail.
 
DFW said:
BP said:
Basically - yes... I was being more technical because people will quibble... ;)

Thanks for the explanation. So, as far as I can tell, the deckplans are unreadable if one purchases the PDF. Another fail.

They really need to fix that...I don't buy print anymore!
 
apoc527 said:
DFW said:
BP said:
Basically - yes... I was being more technical because people will quibble... ;)

Thanks for the explanation. So, as far as I can tell, the deckplans are unreadable if one purchases the PDF. Another fail.

They really need to fix that...I don't buy print anymore!

Same here, just PDFs for me.
 
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