WebP Image Quality Issues

[Guest deleted156886133]

@NevverSWL, I see the differences but only after I zoomed in and now when I know what to look for. It's most noticeable to me on the elbow and hand. The lines in the skin are more distinct in the original. With all due respect to your work, most folks either won't notice or will and simply won't care. If you can keep providing the originals via Imgur, do it and give folks a choice. Someone may prefer the 32kb version over the 377kb original.

By the way, you created that image in Photoshop? When I first seen it, I thought it was an AI image. That's good work. Being a user of GIMP, I can understand your frustration.

[NevverSWL]

@UsernameWithA9 Yeah, I know I can be a bit obsessive with this kind of stuff and you're probably right that nobody else will notice anyway, but I'll still keep providing the higher quality image in the description for now.

Thank you!  I should clarify about Photoshop. There are two things I always do and they're about all I do the vast majority of the time and they are that I apply a very light sharpening filter and I boost the levels juuuuust a little in the blacks and whites, it's subtle but it's enough of a difference to get the image to "pop" a little more. But the real trick, if you can call it that, is to use lighting to your advantage. If you play Cyberpunk 2077 on a PC, there is a mod called Appearance Menu Mod you can use that is fantastic for setting up screenshots and 99% of the time I am using a light source from that mod; it makes all the difference in the world.

Here's a shot I just took by a street light at night and have labeled it with which is what so you can see the difference and progression or decide that I'm out of my mind. The biggest change is between the original and adding the light - and it's not that bright, just enough - but if you look closely at the one that went through my Photoshop stuff, you'll notice there's just a little bit more definition overall that, in this shot, is most noticeable in the detail of the lips, eyelashes, and the white stitching on the clothes from the sharpening and the face has a bit more contrast to it a little more depth.  All this adds up to get an image that, I hope, you can't tell has had all this stuff done to it but it looks as good as I can get it.

[Guest deleted156886133]

25 minutes ago, NevverSWL said:

Thank you!  I should clarify about Photoshop. There are two things I always do and they're about all I do the vast majority of the time and they are that I apply a very light sharpening filter and I boost the levels juuuuust a little in the blacks and whites, it's subtle but it's enough of a difference to get the image to "pop" a little more.

You're welcome. Okay, that's makes more sense. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt though because I don't use Photoshop and figured maybe it had some AI plugin or a filter to manipulate photos of real people. But regardless of that, you still have a good eye for detail. Sometimes lighting can make or break a shot and you nailed it.

[Iluviel]

Thanks for the feedback.

We'll discuss the image quality concerns internally and I will post a response by the end of our working week.

[Pickysaurus]

I've moved this thread to the "Site Support" forum so that our team can find it easier. 

[wSkeever]

This is before compression

This is after compression

Before

After

The compression artifacts obfuscates a lot of the detail. Which is pretty bad for previewing visual mods.

I think there has been a change in image quality recently and applied retroactively to old images as well.

[lilebonymace]

Yes, apparently recently you changed the compression level and recompressed all old images. Before there weren't any noticeable problems with the compression, now all mod images became very blurry and pixelated, even the previews in the profile are very blurry on my 1920x1080 monitor. Feels like everything is in 480p now.

It's not about black levels anymore, all details are simply destroyed now

[Pickysaurus]

Out of interest, do you guys have high-resolution monitors? I can barely see the difference on my 2560x1600 displays. (I'm not saying there isn't a difference, but I do have to look for it!)

[lilebonymace]

are you joking? i see it clearly and easily on my 24" 1920x1080 monitor. wSkeever's Before/After, especially the second one, look like 720p vs 360p on youtube

[Pickysaurus]

21 minutes ago, lilebonymace said:

are you joking? i see it clearly and easily on my 24" 1920x1080 monitor. wSkeever's Before/After, especially the second one, look like 720p vs 360p on youtube

As I said, I can see a difference, but in Skeever's examples, it's exaggerated because it's super zoomed on a specific section of the image. Viewing the image at its normal size on the website is when I struggle to see the difference.