Clan emblem submission preview is misleading, idea for how to fix it

[Buff00n]

There are a number of differences between the submission preview shown when uploading an emblem and how it actually appears in the game.  Your emblem will appear much brighter, and any partial transparency will bleed through more.  And if your original image was bright enough then the in-game appearance may include some bloom that turns it into an indistinguishable blur.

Everyone either already knows this or finds out the hard way.

The only example I have to offer is my own emblem, which isn't a very good one because I already knew about the brightness issue and compensated for it.  But it still clearly demonstrates the discrepancy.  Here's how it appears on the submission preview:

Spoiler

Note that it's shown on a warframe's shoulder, as if that's how it will look in-game.  It appears gray; the maximum intensity in the original image is 188/255.

Compare that to how it actually appears in-game:

Spoiler

This is clearly brighter.  The visible glow around it is thicker and the maximum intensity is at least 254/255.

The official documentation does mention transparency and the brightness discrepancy.  But that page is very hard to find.  I only found it through a Google search; there's no link that I can find from the emblem submission page.  And it lacks numerical details on the brightness discrepancy and what to do about it.

If you don't know about that page, then you have to rely on the submission preview, which is straight-up lying about what it will actually look like on your warframe's shoulder.  And even if you do know that the submission preview is a lie, you may still have to iterate a few times to get the brightness right.  Either way, mistakes cost time and plat or involvement from support.

 

The submission preview really needs to be updated to reflect the appearance of an emblem as it actually appear in game.  This seems like a relatively easy solution, as it requires no changes to the actual upload/review process or to the game itself.

I understand that the submission process isn't going to spin up a game instance and take a screenshot.  I also understand different in-game environments can apply different amounts of brightening and bloom.  But you can get a reasonable simulation of the most common effect with a few simple image manipulation operations.  For example, here is a convert one-liner that does a passable job:

Spoiler

convert input.png \
( -clone 0 -channel a -evaluate pow 0.35 -channel rgb -evaluate multiply 1.33 ) \
( -clone 0 -background black -flatten -evaluate subtract 75% -evaluate multiply 4 -blur 0x4 -evaluate multiply 5 ) \
-delete 0 -compose plus -composite \
output.png

The 'convert' command is well-known and available on pretty much every platform under the ImageMagick package.  

This line takes an input file, input.png, simulates what the in-game engine does to it, and then writes it out as output.png.  The first ( -clone ...) skews the alpha channel towards opacity to simulate partial alphas bleeding through more, and then scales the color channel intensity up 33%.  The second ( -clone ...) extracts out the top 25% of the intensity scale and applies a blur to simulate bloom.  Those two results are then added together.  I'm not entirely happy with it as the bloom can't extend past the original image's alpha, but I'm not enough of an ImageMagick expert to fix it.

If you run this under Linux then you will need to escape '(' and ')' as '\(' and '\)'.

Here are some before/after examples I produced using this command.

Spoiler

On the left is the original, and on the right is the result of running the original through the above convert script.  Background added for clarity.

Full Brightness:

Dimmed to 190/255:

Full Brightness:

Dimmed to 190/255:

Full Brightness:

Dimmed to 190/255:

This last example is from @holyicon's excellent thread.  

His original version:

And his final version:

It's not perfect.  But just this one-line script is able to replicate the in-game results well enough to make a judgement call about whether your emblem is too bright or whether transparency is a problem.

The current process of just using CSS to overlay the original .PNG over a picture of Excalibur is straight-up misleading.  It lets you make sure you uploaded the right file, but it absolutely does not show you how it will look in the game.  I don't see why the submission process can't include an automated script like this to give you some idea of what the engine is going to do to your specific emblem.  It would save a lot of confusion, wasted plat, and support tickets.

[(XBOX)DeluxeKnight831]

i seriously doubt anyone reads this section of the forums. good job btw

[NightmareT12]

6 hours ago, (Xbox One)DeluxeKnight831 said:

i seriously doubt anyone reads this section of the forums. good job btw

Oh, you'd be surprised.

Anyways, we do have that beautiful forum guide someone made 2-3 years ago, and I agree it's something DE could try help improve.

So yeah, they should actually try to improve submission page and details like gausian blur advice to preview on Photoshop.

[antiqwiz]

I spent 2 hours last night to make a clan emblem with transparent background...

[DCaedus]

Soo, it's 2021, can we have the accurate clan emblem sim now?

[DCaedus]

does the convert string still work in 2021? mayb I'm just dumb but I can't get it to work please help

Edited October 13, 2021 by D_Caedus

[(XBOX)Rez090]

4 hours ago, D_Caedus said:

Soo, it's 2021, can we have the accurate clan emblem sim now?

BAD, BAD NECROMANCER! GO PRACTICE YOUR NECROMANCY ELSEWHERE! 

[Buff00n]

4 hours ago, D_Caedus said:

does the convert string still work in 2021? mayb I'm just dumb but I can't get it to work please help

Haha no, some update to ImageMagick broke it years ago and I never bothered to fix it.  However, you appear to be trying to run a Linux shell script under a straight Windows command line, which was never going to work.  You're gonna need at least cygwin or WSL to have any chance.

Edit: I should also add that emblem rendering has changed since then.  The preview still doesn't really look like it does in game, but brightness doesn't seem to be as big of a problem anymore.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Buff00n

[DCaedus]

37 minutes ago, Buff00n said:

I should also add that emblem rendering has changed since then.  The preview still doesn't really look like it does in game, but brightness doesn't seem to be as big of a problem anymore.

Oh man, the man himself, damn I was really hoping to get somewhat of an accurate preview of my emblem.

Ok, but should I still reduce brightness to 190/255?..

Edited October 13, 2021 by D_Caedus

[Buff00n]

1 hour ago, D_Caedus said:

Oh man, the man himself, damn I was really hoping to get somewhat of an accurate preview of my emblem.

Ok, but should I still reduce brightness to 190/255?..

I still dim it when I do the occasional emblem request.  But if you submit a full brightness one and it ends up a flashlight, Warframe support is very accommodating to giving you another chance at it if you open a support ticket.  All it costs is patience and time.