Sealwarrior

Oh wow..... I am such a slow poster... Thank you for your input Hana, it is much appreciated. The quality I am trying to achieve is optimal sharpness with minimal artifact corruption, just as you said. If there is anything else I should know about screenshot quality, I am all ears.

Alright, my test bitmap uploads are done.... One converted with MS Paint, the other with Paint.NET: I think I can see that the quality of the Paint.NET version is a little sharper in some areas of the capture, but I still would like the opinions of better trained and more experienced eyes.... For all I know I could still be doing something wrong. I have a very bad tendency for perfectionism, and sometimes I figuratively pull my hair out trying to make everything just right. Hopefully, that will be toned down as I gain experience in such things. I will also keep DaMage's post in mind as well about exporting in Jpeg as a finished image. While I was hoping to make the quality of the shots I uploaded on this site better, it may be a lot more work to get them the way I would like them now that they are already converted. I had used MS Paint at the time, and I was not satisfied with the results that were made. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the original bitmaps for those images, as well as the collection that they were with, for the time being. I am sure I will find them soon, but for now I will focus on converting the ones I have on file. Regardless. from now on I will try and make the Jpeg exports the best quality I can make them before I upload, so thank you for the tip. I also wanted to thank you all for recommending GIMP, Paint.NET, Ifranview, and Faststone Image Viewer at this time, as having such tools will be a great boon to me in the future. The fact that they are free and have active communities is also a nice bit of information to know. My knowledge of such things is limited, and I am very grateful for the recommendations. Sealwarrior

Thank you all for the replies! I would have responded sooner, but real life responsibilities have been taking over my life for the past few days. Using the information that you all have given me, I have been able to make some progress. I have downloaded both GIMP and Paint.NET at this time. and I will be trying to convert some of the images I have. I have posted one image that I just converted to JPEG using MS Paint, and I will post the same image using Paint.Net's feature to see if there is any actual difference. Hopefully, I will be posting back soon.

Hello everyone, I have once again come out of my dark hole to ask the question that the thread topic poses: Is there a better way to convert bitmap images to JPEG without a significant loss of quality? Also is there a way to enhance the JPEGs I have already converted? I ask this now because I have a large library of bitmap images that have been languishing in cold storage on my hard drive for months. Converting them to JPEGs will certainly help to free up some space, as these are large files to begin with. However, I was more interested in doing something that is out of my usual comfort zone: Posting them here on this site. In order to be content with doing this, I wish to make them the best quality I can before I venture sharing. I have posted only a few of my screens here on a private album, but the quality of the JPEG conversions I made was so diminished that I was embarrassed to continue forward with it. If anyone has any suggestions whatsoever, I am all ears. Thank you. Sealwarrior

I know that you found a solution to your problem syscrusher, but I wanted to post this in case others had the same issue. This has actually happened to me as well, 5 days after I installed Skyrim (give or take a few days.) After an update to the Steam client, starting Skyrim would cause the launch menu to pop up as usual. When I selected the option to play the game, however, I would be greeted by the same launch menu no matter how many times I futilely clicked that option. I was able to fix it thanks to a quick search on Google, which prompted the discovery of this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111121145847AAOfSi9 If you would just disregard the "Best Answer- Chosen by Voters" box and look at the post directly below that by Noah, it descibes a way to force an update to the Steam client. In this way, you do not have reinstall Steam. Using this method, I was able to once again play the game without being stuck on the launch menu prompt, and so far I have yet to run into it again. I think it is a nice alternative to reinstalling the client, but seeing after you did that without incident I am sure it is not too much of a hassle.

I believe that his name was Cyrus, the Redguard.

Just looking at these screenshots shows me the time and effort you have put into making this.... This is some truly awe-inspiring work Darkrider! I have a lore question regarding the first Imperial Battlemage, Zurin Arctus, or the Underking. After trapping the spirits of the ancient Blades, he apparently just vanishes, leaving Sancre Tor and the cursed warriors to their fates (according to Oblivions lore.) The world lore, however, mentions the Underking numerous times and in numerous incarnations (like in Daggerfall), but it still makes me wonder about the Battlemage's fate regarding what happened at Sancre Tor. Does your mod offer a revelation and/or insight into the Underking and his history after this point? Does he come back? Or is he just left out for the sake of lore accuracy?

Hmm.... I think I know how to answer this one. I believe that The Lost Spires has its own music tracks for its dungeons. You said the quieter song was very distinct, and softer than the other one that was playing. I want to say that song was from the plugin. Each new dungeon or area that you enter associated with The Lost Spires should have its own unique track once you enter it, and after it finishes the game reverts back to Oblivion tracks or any tracks you added to the "Dungeon" folder in Oblivion's music directory. If both tracks are playing, then something other than vanilla Oblivion's music system is in control of your playlist. Do you have the Enhanced Music Control OBSE plugin installed, by chance? This can be one of the things that can cause such a conflict. Honestly though, I would not worry about it. I do not believe this is anything major, just a glitch that may/may not hinder your audio enjoyment concerning The Lost Spires. It should not be game breaking, and you should still play just fine. Hopefully, this explanation helps. Sealwarrior

I want to second all of Hana's suggestions, and wish to add that the Oblivion ini should be regenerated after you install a new piece of hardware to your rig so the game can compensate for the change... Also, just out of curiosity, have you installled the Oblivion Graphics Extender OBSE plugin as well?