Disegni per lo Screensaver MM

Treni ridotti al 50% / Half Size Trains

With standard MM pictures, it's quite difficult to see a complete train composition within the screen, if the train is not too short. If you like long trains, you can try to resize them at 50%. Of course the picture quality decreases a lot, but now an express train as long as 7 coaches will fit the standard 1024*768 screen size!

Con i disegni MM standard, è difficile che un intero treno stia tutto dentro lo schermo, se non è molto corto. Se vi piacciono i treni lunghi, potete provare a ridurre le loro dimensioni al 50%. Naturalmente, così facendo, la qualità dell'immagine peggiora sensibilmente, ma ora un espresso di 7 carrozze starà tutto dentro la risoluzione standard 1024*768!

Half Size Parade of Trains/Parata di treni a metà grandezza

How to reduce the picture size

  1. Open the original bitmap. Increase the color depth to 16 million colors
  2. Resample the bitmap to 50%
  3. Apply a sharpening filter to enphasise edges. Finally decrease back the color depth to 256 colours (optimised palette or standard MM palette)
You need to increase the color depth because only 16 million (24 bit) bitmaps can be "resampled" (which gives a much better result than the simple resize - see the Paint Shop Pro on-line help for details).
The sharpening filter is optional, but, in my opinion, it improves the impression of details of such small drawings.
Finally, in the User_Bmp.INI file, you have to lower the catenary to 29 pixels (OLH=29) and remove the _SAR reference (SAR=J), because the SAR bitmap would not be managed in the right way.
And, of course, you cannot add standard trains (from the MM libraries) to your small new locos!
I've prepared some of my trains in the 50% scale. To do it fast, trains were resized automatically with a macro, with no manual adjustments, but I think the result is not so bad.

Download Download the zip file with the half size trains and add them to the screensaver as usual.