Archives and their terminology explained


Party name compo
type		 2D 3D results
included		 nr of
images		 size in
bytes



Party name
Obviously this is the name of the party for this archived gallery. Clicking on a link in this column will download a zipfile containing the pictures in this archived gallery.

A zipfile from the archived gallery on the gfxzone will always have the same internal structure:
  • All the files in the archive will be packed including a directory. This means that a directory will be created for you when you are unzipping the archive. This way you don't have to worry about the pictures littering up your current directory.
    The name for this directory is exactly the same as the compo type for this archive.

  • The format the pictures are saved in will be either PNG or JPG.
    8bit pictures will always be saved as PNG.
    For 24bit pictures this is a bit more tricky. If the original picture we got was JPG it will always be included in the archive as JPG.
    If we got the picture in a non-lossy format the saving method depends on what we think the quality of the picture is. If the picture is really good we will _not_ degrade the picture by saving it in JPG and thus introduce those annoying JPG-artifacts! ;-)
    These high quality pictures will therefore be saved as 24bit PNG giving you the ability to see the picture exactly as the author saved it!!
    All other 24bit pictures will be saved as JPG.

  • The pictures themselves will have names that show the creator and the title of the picture. The name of a picture always look like this:

    (creator)-(picturename).(pictureformat)
    example: lazur-forest.png

    If one of the elements in a filename is not known it will be replaced by "unknown" in the name of the picture.

  • We will try to limit the length of filenames to 30 characters. This is to avoid problems with those filesystems that have a limit of just over 30 characters. No promises here though!!
    If you would like us to support the 8.3 naming convention some so-called filesystem has, you are out of luck. This will NOT happen! (But you can always try to bribe us.)

  • If the column "results included" has an X as value, the archive you will download by clicking the link also contains the results for this party. The default name for the results is "!results.txt" and this file will be located in the same directory in the zipfile as the pictures are.



Compo type
Archived galleries on the gfxzone are divided in a few categories. The categories describe the type of competition and/or the type of pictures in the gallery.
These are possible values you can find in this column:
  • pixel - An archive with pictures from the "pixel" compo on that particular party. The party competition for this category can be "pixel", "2D" or something else along these lines.

  • trace - The archive is an archive with pictures that are raytraced. Normally the competition on the party for these pictures is "raytrace", "trace" or "gfxc".

  • 24bit - Archives in this category contain pictures from some 24bit compo. This can for example be a "photoshop" compo on a party.

  • wild - The archive is an archive with pictures from the wild compo on that particular party. Note that the wild compo can be 2D, 3D or a combination of those.

  • mixed - This is the category for archives that contain pictures from multiple party competitions. If for example a pixel and trace compo are mixed into one archived gallery, this would be the category of that archive.

  • graphics - Used for compos which allow all kinds of pictures. This category is also used if none of the categories mentioned above match.

  • c64 - Guess what this one is for.....



2D
This column is checked if the archive for this party contains 2D graphics. Basically all pictures that are not raytraced are 2D.



3D
Raytraced pictures.



Results included
This column is checked if the archive contains results for that particular party. The results can be found in the same directory as the pictures in this archive and the file always has the same name: "!results.txt".



Number of images
The amount of pictures the archived gallery contains. You can use this to get an indication of the amount of pictures you will be downloading before the download actually starts. (maybe you are one of those people that thinks compos with few pictures are not worthy of your attention). Anyway, it is a fun statistic ;-)



Size in bytes
Telephonebills suck! You know it, I know it, everybody knows it! If you are connected to the internet with a normal modem this is probably one of the most valuable statistics on this page. This column contains the exact amount of bytes for the zipfile you are about to donwload.
For the lucky people that do not have to pay attention to the amount of time they spend online this just has informational value......



Disclaimer
The gfxzone or any of its staff can not be held responsible if any of the archives do not comply to these rules. However, if you do discover an archive that does not comply to these rules we would appreciate it if you brought this to our intention so we can change the rules! (ehhh... I mean change the archive)





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