Avatar Images always being downsized and pixelated?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So, this is something that's been occurring for me over the last month. Ever since I switched my avatar to Genji, the profile picture/avatar system has been really buggy. Normally, when you import an image through a URL, the image will come in with the full sized version of the image, although downsized a little for the forum, and then when you crop your avatar from the image, it would then scale it down a bit so it fits within the normal forum sizes, leaving a nice looking image.

However, the system changed and it's much worse. Every image that I import or upload to try use for an avatar ends up getting scaled down to insane degrees, no matter what size the image was originally, meaning that when I do crop the avatar image, the end result is a very bad looking and pixelated image because it's taking an image that the board keeps scaling down massively, and then tries to increase and widen it out to match the avatar size, leaving an unclear and very distorted image.

Is this a glitch or is this just how avatars work now? Because to be honest, it's a really terrible system.

[Failinhearts]

I agree with you there. It's a really terrible system.

It made changing avatars such a tedious experience. I had to take a photo, download it, take it to another site, crop it and then upload it where it now looks kinda decent.

Hope this changes soon.

[Darinian]

Almost the same thing has been happening to me, but on the cropping step. No matter what image, size, width, it always doesn't crop the picture instead it just forces the whole thing in making things with people in the picture look widened and a bit chubbier (I will avenge you sylveon). What's up with that?

[Tara]

2 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

 

Is this a glitch or is this just how avatars work now? Because to be honest, it's a really terrible system.

Well, we've been kind of hush-hush about it lately, but this is actually all part of the staff finally taking a proactive stance against high quality avatars.  Avatars are meant to be ugly and pixelated, just like they were in 2005.  With this step, we hope to bring SSMB back to the golden age of message boards before this newfangled MySpace nonsense came into the mix.  #VivaLaIPB2

[Agie]

I didn't like the avatar system back when it was changed, and I agree, it's gotten even worse since then. Hopefully a fix is coming along.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

2 hours ago, Tara said:

Well, we've been kind of hush-hush about it lately, but this is actually all part of the staff finally taking a proactive stance against high quality avatars.  Avatars are meant to be ugly and pixelated, just like they were in 2005.  With this step, we hope to bring SSMB back to the golden age of message boards before this newfangled MySpace nonsense came into the mix.  #VivaLaIPB2

Only if we get awkward anime AMVs added to this board, and cut up into seven parts. Those were the true days of the Internet.

[Strickerx5]

I'm no web-developer (I code but not to that level :V) but I think it's largely in part due to the actual upload size limit. Honestly, I'm not going to begin to say that I know anything about forums or keeping stored data low but (rounding up).2MB for an image size limit? I know they're often viewed as small but I have to ask here; is there really no way to improve upon this?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

15 hours ago, Strickerx5 said:

I'm no web-developer (I code but not to that level :V) but I think it's largely in part due to the actual upload size limit. Honestly, I'm not going to begin to say that I know anything about forums or keeping stored data low but (rounding up).2MB for an image size limit? I know they're often viewed as small but I have to ask here; is there really no way to improve upon this?

Well, I mean considering prior to September, the avatar system was working perfectly fine, I'd say it is fixable.

[Toa Axis]

I've been struggling with this as well. The compression on avatars is awful. I understand that it's necessary, as everyone running around with super high quality uncompressed avatars would be bad for a number of reasons, but 2MB is pitiful. My avatar has a lot of finer details, especially in the facial expression, for example, but there's no definition to any of it. It's marred by a cacophony of compression.

Again, I understand that limits have to be placed on avatar sizes, it's the nature of forums. But is there no alternative to what we have? Is this the best that can be done?

[Chris]

I'd like to explore this issue in more detail in the coming days. Can you guys explain to me exactly what you're doing? Does the same issue happen when you upload or when you import from URL (from a website like Imgur)? Please provide as much detail as possible - even the images you're using if you can - so that I can knock this issue out.

In addition, I'd like to refrain from changing the 2MB avatar upload limit (unless it's directly the cause but that's doubtful). If you're having trouble using still images (non-GIF) due to filesize, please download software such as GIMP and reduce the resolution before uploading so you can add control to the compression.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

45 minutes ago, Chris said:

I'd like to explore this issue in more detail in the coming days. Can you guys explain to me exactly what you're doing? Does the same issue happen when you upload or when you import from URL (from a website like Imgur)? Please provide as much detail as possible - even the images you're using if you can - so that I can knock this issue out.

In addition, I'd like to refrain from changing the 2MB avatar upload limit (unless it's directly the cause but that's doubtful). If you're having trouble using still images (non-GIF) due to filesize, please download software such as GIMP and reduce the resolution before uploading so you can add control to the compression.

I've used both uploading, and Import from URL, and it's the same thing. First I get a glitch where it claims I uploaded the image twice, and need to wait 20 seconds before cropping and reposition. Then when it does come in, the image is tiny (I'm not sure of the exact dimensions), leading to the image coming up very pixelated. 

To give some examples of images I tried to use:

[Strickerx5]

On 10/1/2016 at 3:42 PM, Chris said:

I'd like to explore this issue in more detail in the coming days. Can you guys explain to me exactly what you're doing? Does the same issue happen when you upload or when you import from URL (from a website like Imgur)? Please provide as much detail as possible - even the images you're using if you can - so that I can knock this issue out.

In addition, I'd like to refrain from changing the 2MB avatar upload limit (unless it's directly the cause but that's doubtful). If you're having trouble using still images (non-GIF) due to filesize, please download software such as GIMP and reduce the resolution before uploading so you can add control to the compression.

Thanks for jumping on this Chris! Though, is the system actually running on 2MB? Because this is the message I'm getting when I try to go from a URL:

The system is actually limiting me from using anything that's over 200KB. It's the same way when I upload something as well:

If the system was actually allowing me to go to 2MB I really wouldn't have a problem at all. I could just throw my gif in gimp and call it a day as the quality would still probably be great! Though, it's at 200KB to work with when things get a bit messy. Here's the gif I've been trying to use scaled down to 401KB:

Honestly, this is as far down as I can go because anything under that point is so poor in quality that it's not even worth it. A full 2MB would be absolutely fantastic to what it's at now. Also, it's not just gifs that are giving me this problem as it also gives me the same messages with still images that go over 200KB. Though, maybe it's just on my end where the 200KB limit is present?

Again, any help you can lend to this matter would be top notch!

[Chris]

I've just changed the avatar filesize limit to 1MB (or 1024KB) for members specifically (and not staff groups yet). Let me know if that makes it more flexible for you.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

2 minutes ago, Chris said:

I've just changed the avatar filesize limit to 1MB (or 1024KB) for members specifically (and not staff groups yet). Let me know if that makes it more flexible for you.

I'm still having the same issue, but the limit seems to have moved the cropping area up a little.

[Strickerx5]

21 minutes ago, Chris said:

I've just changed the avatar filesize limit to 1MB (or 1024KB) for members specifically (and not staff groups yet). Let me know if that makes it more flexible for you.

It most certainly does! Thanks for the help!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Well, I'm still having the problems. Tried adding a new avatar in and it's still being shrunk down incredibly, and coming out blurry: 

EDIT: To get an idea of the downsizing problem, if you click onto my profile, and then click the profile picture, it'll bring up a version of the full image. Compare it to the full sized image above and you'll understand the issue.