Batching .PNGs into .SWFs

[Avar]

Are you guys just keeping a backup of your 1080p ready themes? I'm currently resizing existing themes and converting to swf with your scripts and it dawned on me that I've failed to keep some of my original widescreen redraws.

 

Also, as I started going through some of the MAME themes I noticed some of the "4:3" themes were clandestinely 16:9, which made me smile lol unless these swf conversions are doing something magically I'm not recognizing.

[NewYears1978]

These JSFL scripts will automatically convert PNGs into SWFs using flash professional.

Why using SWFs instead of PNGs into an hyperspin theme? Flash supports a "smooth" feature, when "smooth" flag is used a SWF will look much better than a PNG when hyperspin runs at a resolution higher than 1024*768. If you plan to use 1024*768 on hyperspin, instead, it is better to NOT use "smooth" as the artwork will be blurred a bit.

This is mostly a workaround for those who wants to design future-proof themes at 1080p. Create your artworks layer in photoshop (or gimp or whatever) at 1080p, save background and artworks as .png in a folder. Double click the script and point to that folder in flash (a dialog will appear). The script will convert EVERY PNG in the chosen folder to SWF. Basically you create png assets for a 1080p theme and the script will convert them to swf usable in the current version of hyperspin.

SCRIPTs EXPLANATION

1080p to 1024*768 scripts

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_1080p_scale_Artwork: Use this script to convert artworks. The swf canvas will have 1 more pixel on Y and 1 more pixels on X and no-pixels will be lost when the scale will result in something like 333,45px

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_1080p_scale_BK: Use this script to convert 1920*1080 background, embed pngs will be 1024*768, canvas will be 1024*768

PNG_to_SWF_Zero_Dreams_1920x1080_to_1024x768: Use this script to convert 1920*1080 background, embed pngs will be 1024*768, canvas will be 1024*768 (maybe more precise as it's not a % based scaling but a resolution scaling)

4:3 to 16:9 Script

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_4-3_to 16-9_Conversion: Use this script to convert 4:3 assets to 16:9 assets. Useful when converting pre-made artworks for 16:9 themes

PNG to SWF scripts

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_NO_SCALE_SMOOTH: Use this script to convert PNGs to SWFs. If you prefer to correct aspect ratio in photoshop use this script.

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_NO_SCALE_NO_SMOOTH: It's basically unuseful. Using this script you can see the difference in a SWF when smooth flag is not used.

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All those scripts are based on the script you can find here https://www.yofla.com/flash/png2swf/

If you want to check or modify the script just open it with text editor. Jsfl is basically a simple .txt with a jsfl extension.

 

Hey Dark13, sorry to spam all over the place questions for you. I am getting the hang of things, learning. Currently not doing any of my own stuff however learning how things work so that I will understand for future.

 

I had read about the sizes, resizing etc for 1080 then I saw you had these awesome scripts. So I just want to make sure I understand them correct.

 

So if I understand the scripts:

 

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_1080p_scale_Artwork: Main one that would be used, converts 1080p artwork (box art, cart art, or any other artwork) to 1080p corrected scale

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_1080p_scale_BK: Same as above but for the background

PNG_to_SWF_Zero_Dreams_1920x1080_to_1024x768: This is the one that I didn't understand, my guess was is does both things above in one step..but wasn't entirely sure??

 

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_4-3_to 16-9_Conversion: If I understand this basically does the same as the first script, however is for preexisting 4:3 artwork (most of the art we already use from HS forums or EmuMovies for instance)

 

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_NO_SCALE_SMOOTH: Not understanding what this one does, converts PNG to SWF but I thought all the above scripts did the same thing already so when would this need to be used?

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_NO_SCALE_NO_SMOOTH: Just used to compare smoothing vs no smoothing

 

So I get most of it but the bolded ones through me a bit. Maybe you can clarify for me a bit, and thanks in advance! I love the skin man!

[Avar]

Hey Dark13, sorry to spam all over the place questions for you. I am getting the hang of things, learning. Currently not doing any of my own stuff however learning how things work so that I will understand for future.

 

I had read about the sizes, resizing etc for 1080 then I saw you had these awesome scripts. So I just want to make sure I understand them correct.

 

So if I understand the scripts:

 

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_1080p_scale_Artwork: Main one that would be used, converts 1080p artwork (box art, cart art, or any other artwork) to 1080p corrected scale

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_1080p_scale_BK: Same as above but for the background

PNG_to_SWF_Zero_Dreams_1920x1080_to_1024x768: This is the one that I didn't understand, my guess was is does both things above in one step..but wasn't entirely sure??

 

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_4-3_to 16-9_Conversion: If I understand this basically does the same as the first script, however is for preexisting 4:3 artwork (most of the art we already use from HS forums or EmuMovies for instance)

 

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_NO_SCALE_SMOOTH: Not understanding what this one does, converts PNG to SWF but I thought all the above scripts did the same thing already so when would this need to be used?

PNG_to_SWF_dark13_NO_SCALE_NO_SMOOTH: Just used to compare smoothing vs no smoothing

 

So I get most of it but the bolded ones through me a bit. Maybe you can clarify for me a bit, and thanks in advance! I love the skin man!

 

I personally don't even keep Zero_Dreams_1920x1080_to_1024x768 or NO_SCALE_NO_SMOOTH around.

 

NO_SCALE_SMOOTH is applied to artwork you've manually resized (ie. any background or artwork element wherein it was necessary to reposition multiple elements so they'd look right in 16:9) or to backgrounds/artwork that don't require resizing but will benefit from smoothing, such as background with geometric patterns or imagery that isn't degraded at all by weing stretched. Ultimately, if converting previously existing themes, the scripts I use the most are 4-3_to_16-9_Conversion, NO_SCALE_SMOOTH, and 1080p_scale_BK (if replacing an existing background with a newer, cleaner one).

 

I've just begun making tutorials explaining the application of these, in theory and in practice. So far:

 

Part 1 - Basic Widescreen Conversion Principles

Part 2 - Widescreen Conversion of Simple Themes (This provides an example of a scenario wherein we can exclusively use 4-3_to_16-9_Conversion)

Part 3 - Widescreen Conversion of Simple Screenwide Artwork (This provides an example of a scenario in which we can use NO_SCALE_SMOOTH to improve the quality of artwork we've manually resized)

[NewYears1978]

Hey, thanks for that perfect explanation, bookmarked

[Aorin]

Dark, thanks for your script it's working fine here, except my resolution is 1920x1200, and it results in a black bar in the right.

Can I easily edit this script here? If not can you edit it to work for 16:10 resolutions?

Thanks!

[Avar]

Dark, thanks for your script it's working fine here, except my resolution is 1920x1200, and it results in a black bar in the right. Can I easily edit this script here? If not can you edit it to work for 16:10 resolutions? Thanks!

 

If you right click the JSFLs you can edit them in Notepad++ and modify the bmp_tl.scaleX and bmp_tl.scaleY values to work for a 16:10 display. For example, in PNG_to_SWF_dark13_4-3_to 16-9_Conversion it should work if you change "bmp_tl.scaleX = 0.75 ;" to "bmp_tl.scaleX = 0.83333 ;" or however many 3s it'll accept. Same concept for the other scripts, just slightly different math, depending on how you intend to use them.

[Aorin]

If you right click the JSFLs you can edit them in Notepad++ and modify the bmp_tl.scaleX and bmp_tl.scaleY values to work for a 16:10 display. For example, in PNG_to_SWF_dark13_4-3_to 16-9_Conversion it should work if you change "bmp_tl.scaleX = 0.75 ;" to "bmp_tl.scaleX = 0.83333 ;" or however many 3s it'll accept. Same concept for the other scripts, just slightly different math, depending on how you intend to use them.

Perfect Avar, tomorrow morning I'll try that, didn't know the script could be edited that easily!

Thanks for that!

[dark13]

Thank you avar, right now I'm just too drunk to check math in photoshop

It's written in the first post
 

 

If you want to check or modify the script just open it with text editor. Jsfl is basically a simple .txt with a jsfl extension.

 

If it's a background and you are using a 16:10 screen just use zero dream's script as it is resolution based, in flash you can end up with something like 1023,45*768,30 when changing ratio

[Aorin]

Results are now smooth thanks for your script and zero's.

 

Check my last post here

 

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/11681-new-themes-all-aspect-ratios/page-8

 

I didn't forget to give you guys the credits for this improvement.

 

Thanks again!

[tcmt]

i've seen your script in use on james baker's excelent hyperspin cinematic videos and it looks great. thank you for your work!

 

is there a way to use script with another program or convert it to be used with another program other than adobe flash/animator? i don't own a copy of any adobe product as i quite frankly just can't afford them. so is there a free program your scripts can work with?

 

thanks for reading and your time!

 

cheers

tim

[darkskull]

Muito bom...

[dry1]

Hi

[Dilated18]

This topic should prob be pinned. and thanks for sharing your work. these work great and make more of a difference then i thought they would.

[Bungles]

Anyone having issues applying animations to swf files? I figured I would try this out and ran some png's through to swf with the smooth script.

All working well however the animations I was using earlier for PNG's dont seem to apply to the SWF versions?

Also does anyone know of a script that will batch multiple png's into a single SWF for animations?

 

[Bungles]

I was wondering if we can apply this to wheel art? 

Can hyperspin recognize a swf that has just been renamed to png in this case?

Or can we change the output of the script to leave a png?

// export    
        var swfURI = pngURI.substr(0,pngURI.lastIndexOf("[Wide].")+1)+"png";
        doc.exportPNG(swfURI, true );

 

Leaving of course the variables alone for simplicity.
 

[dark13]

Current HS build cannot load .swf renamed to .png as wheel art. The trick works with "frontend" stuff and other components.

With older HS build the trick works but BBB said using the trick there would be memory leaking
 

 

[Bungles]

Is it possible then to set an output folder variable and do png to png but still smooth and convert to 16:9?

Or even set the output as .pngw and I can bulk rename from there?

I managed to get it sort of working with errors at first and finally it only worked with the popup enabled for each file....

 

 

 

[dark13]

To use smooth flag it MUST be a .swf.
If you want to quickly convert 4:3 png to 16:9 png just use photoshop's action. Open a file, start recording an action, apply 75% on X, save the file and stop the action. Then use the action on all files.

[Bungles]

It seems I should start learning how to use Photoshop. Had no idea you could record actions/macros.

[Roadrunner]

I'm using Corel and I can export to SWF straight away. Do I need to use these scripts? Can I just export to SWF? If so, what settings should I use when doing this? 

[Bungles]

It depends I guess on what sort of swf  files are created via Corel.

I think Hyperspin uses Actionscript 2.0?

You could always Try it I guess.

 

 

[Roadrunner]

On 4/12/2018 at 1:51 AM, Bungles said:

It depends I guess on what sort of swf  files are created via Corel.

I think Hyperspin uses Actionscript 2.0?

You could always Try it I guess.

 

 

I tried it... and unfortunately, don't know what I'm doing. Needless to say it didn't work when I tried to put it into hypertheme. 

Anyways, I've got a bunch of artwork for Pinball FX2 that is ready to go. If I were to upload it to the FTP would you be able to convert these to SWF? If so I could then put them into Hypertheme and build all of them at 16x9. Let me know if you're willing to do this because I have no idea how I'd do it any other way. I don't have flash, don't undestand scripts... I'm basically self taught on Corel and learned how to use it by building themes on this site. 

[Kondorito]

37 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

I tried it... and unfortunately, don't know what I'm doing. Needless to say it didn't work when I tried to put it into hypertheme. 

Anyways, I've got a bunch of artwork for Pinball FX2 that is ready to go. If I were to upload it to the FTP would you be able to convert these to SWF? If so I could then put them into Hypertheme and build all of them at 16x9. Let me know if you're willing to do this because I have no idea how I'd do it any other way. I don't have flash, don't undestand scripts... I'm basically self taught on Corel and learned how to use it by building themes on this site. 

Hey buddy, send me the pngs (zipped over pm or hosted, not FTP) and I will run the swf script for you on those

[Roadrunner]

40 minutes ago, Kondorito said:

Hey buddy, send me the pngs (zipped over pm or hosted, not FTP) and I will run the swf script for you on those

Awesome. I have the themes and will export them into PNG files. I will put them together this week. I'll start with the Marvel group and send that then follow it up with the Star Wars and then Zen. That work for you or would you rather have everything at once? 

[Bungles]

The script literally just asks what folder you want to convert.

I guess it depends on bandwidth and file size hosting limitations. Also ease of access if they don't have a naming convention.

I could help out also if you want. But keep in mind my internet is slow..  for transferring. So smaller packages would suite me ok.