Animated PNGs in Feature Requests

ID:116667
 
Aug 2 2011, 10:57 am
Applies to:
Status: Open
Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
Simply add support for animated PNGs.
Both for the "Import..." option in the icon editor of Dream Maker and for use as animated graphics in a game.
This would work identically to how animated GIFs are currently handled.
(Currently, BYOND supports the backwards compatibility of APNGs and shows only the first frame.)
#1 Aug 13 2011, 4:54 pm
Animated GIF's are already supported, so why bother adding in a new file type? Why not just use the GIF type?
#2 Aug 14 2011, 11:50 pm
Gifs don't support opacity. They always have some kind of colored background. with an APNG you can basically have a .dmi file that can be used anywhere.

It would be nice to be able to convert byond animations into APNG with the export command, or to be able to create an animation from an APNG file.

Though, I think the main issue here is that issue we've been having with windows, which doesn't allow byond to use transparent images outside of a map interface.
#3 Aug 15 2011, 6:10 am
Momo Hinamori wrote:
Animated GIF's are already supported, so why bother adding in a new file type? Why not just use the GIF type?

I'm guessing you didn't bother reading the linked Wikipedia article.

In any case, I will summarize: Essentially APNG is a PNG, but with multiple frames. GIFs support 256 colors in a single image, and transparency is either all or nothing.
PNGs support several color formats (from 1-bit to 32-bit colors and more) with compression settings that could even result in more highly compressed versions of visually-identical GIF files.

All I'm asking for is support for APNGs the exact same as the support for GIFs.

Though, Bravo1 is quite right that it would be cool to export animations as APNGs. (Which is possible for APNGs, but not GIFs, because of GIF's limited color support.)
#4 Aug 20 2011, 2:45 am
Would be pretty cool, but as it stands right now APNG is still pretty experimental and isn't supported by all browser (or operating systems). Probably best to wait until the format is more official.
#5 Aug 20 2011, 4:09 am
The only big name browsers that don't support it are Internet Explorer and Safari. Besides, the format allows you to put a default image in case whatever software you're using doesn't support it.
#6 Aug 20 2011, 4:22 am
In other words you'd only be able to use it on BYOND's map control, none of the other controls (including the browser) would support it.

As it stands, I can see the value in adding it; but I don't see the value in expending resources to add it right now. It's time better spent on other things, instead of on an unofficial and experimental format. When there's a solid standard for the format and it gains official acceptance then it would probably be a bit more ideal to add it.
#7 Aug 20 2011, 4:29 am
As it stands, they're using Javascript to support .png's in the browser control anyways.
(pngfix.js or something like that.)
#8 Aug 20 2011, 4:35 am
That only fixes PNG transparency support for IE6. It has nothing to do with supporting PNG itself. There's a method of displaying an APNG in IE9, but unfortunately there's no way to tell the difference between a PNG and an APNG on the programming level, so they'd have to use that hack to display ALL PNG images, which would bloat the displayed page badly.

And that's only assuming the person has IE9 installed and that the embedded browser is actually using it.
#9 Aug 20 2011, 10:58 pm
Use .dmi's.