i'd like to draw our attention to a possibility of saving maps in psd format
here is the plugin. mandatory if we switch to psd
http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/here is imagemagick. highly reccommended
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.phpso what does switching to psd let us do:
currently there are 15 layers on the map. this causes long loading times, slow editing, and may not run on old computers.
with psd format, we could load as many or as few images at a time, a much better alternative.
for those who choose not to use imagemagick, there will be no difference as long as they have the plugin
for those who use imagemagick, they can split the psd file into 16 pngs by typing this in the command line:
convert 183.psd %d.png
(yes, there are 16, an extra layer is generated but we can ignore that)
then, you may a single png at a time and when finished:
convert -alpha set *.png 184.psd
(will merge all png files into a psd).
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but what if i want to edit tectonics and coastline at the same time but not anything else? that can be done too:
convert 183.psd %d.png
convert -alpha set 0.png 1.png 14.png -adjoin tectonic-coastline.psd
edit the tectonic-coastline.psd now
convert tectonic-coastline.psd[2] 14.png
convert tectonic-coastline.psd[1] 1.png
convert -alpha set *.png -adjoin 184.psd
with psd files, you can use imagemagick to edit exactly the layers you want and nothing else. for those who want to keep doing what they are doing, paint.net will still work fine with the psd plugin and nothing else.
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i'll be setting up a poll shortly for psd format
