MarioWiki:Proposals

List of talk page proposals

 * Split into Adult Shine Block and Small Shine Block. (Discuss) Deadline: December 1, 2016, 23:59 GMT

Writing guidelines
None at the moment.

New features
None at the moment.

Removals
None at the moment.

Allow .APNGs and create a notice template related to them
This proposal will overturn this one and will likely reinstate this proposal that attempted to create a notice for APNG images. It will set the .apng format as the preferred animated format, overturning our current .gif preference and rewording slightly in Image use policy.

We briefly had some .apngs running around in this wiki, though we have disallowed them mainly because of lack of universal browser support (notably, in Chrome).

The current animated format we use and prefer, .gif, however, is highly flawed. Not to mention, it's very outdated. This is because it supports only 256 different colors, making the images indexed, which isn't really much of an issue because most sprites are below this format. It also does not allow semi-transparent values, thus making it "all-or-nothing". It also usually isn't a problem, but recently, we have several images that use semi-transparent values, but are forced into a .gif format, thus greatly reducing the quality of these images. It also forces the transparency to look horrible and resemble a poorly-cropped image that goes against our own policy on transparent images. Arguably, this forced change also goes against our aim to give game-accurate impressions.

APNGs are intended to be a replacement for the outdated .gif images, but again, its biggest issue is that it lacks universal browser support. I've been informed recently, however, that Chrome, the biggest offender, is likely going to have APNG support in the future. Otherwise, for any other browser that doesn't support APNG I don't think we should have to bend backwards to stick to a superseded format just because some browsers don't bother keeping up with the times.

If this proposal passes, we'll have to create a notice template as in this proposal (see comments section). I also don't think we should get out of our way to convert every single .gif to .apng either, but we have to, at the minimum, allow .apngs. We might have gotten away with .gifs due to the simplicity of most sprites, but we have some recent games that use sprites that don't transition well into .gif at all, which includes Wario Land: Shake It! and Paper Mario: Color Splash and we have some miscellaneous animated images as shown here that would benefit from staying as an .apng rather than a .gif.

In brief:


 * This proposal allows .apngs because of transparency and indexing issues with .gif. .gif is an outdated format, and it shows.
 * A template on apngs will be created to warn users that use browsers without .apng support.
 * This proposal does not intend that .gifs must be replaced with .apngs.

Proposer: Deadline: November 25, 2016, 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) Per proposal
 * 2) – If Porple is willing, this has my support.
 * 3) The palette of the GIF format was a bit worrying, as I had noticed that some colors were indeed being replaced by different ones. Since I like to have images as faithful to the original ones as possible within the upload limits, definitely supporting this proposal!
 * 4) I support. Per all
 * 5) Per all, especially Shokora.
 * 6) I don't even know what APNG is, or whether my browser can run it, but why not? It sounds useful. Get with the times, Mario Wiki!
 * 7) I support allowing APNG, but gifs should remain the preferred format because of it's universal support across all devices and browsers and image editing programs.
 * 1) I support allowing APNG, but gifs should remain the preferred format because of it's universal support across all devices and browsers and image editing programs.

Comments
Actually, if APNG images saved as .png files are used instead, the browsers that don't support APNG images can still show the first frame. Should we recommend APNG images in .png files instead?--Mister Wu (talk) 20:53, 18 November 2016 (EST)
 * I don't think that would be necessary. We should be using .apng only when it is absolutely needed, like those Color Splash sprite animations. 22:36, 18 November 2016 (EST)

By the way, would it be affordable to use javascripts that display APNGs on browsers with HTML5 canvas support? Just an afterthought, though... -- 23:24, 18 November 2016 (EST)
 * That'll be something to ask Steve, and that's assuming he's on board with this (I hope he is). 23:35, 18 November 2016 (EST)

Miscellaneous
None at the moment.