Why does steam convert my avatar into crap-quality image?

[M.]

Subject. It happens all the times. Profile avatars and group picture. I upload good-quality picture and get low-quality jpeg in my profile. Why steam even does that?

[Black Blade]

to make loading speed for users with low bandwidth higher i think

just upload images on 182x182px as that is the max size if i remember right

[M.]

Автор сообщения: Black Blade (card rain)

to make loading speed for users with low bandwidth higher i think

just upload images on 182x182px as that is the max size if i remember right

I tested it. With group image.

Made png with required size and resolution. And it was converted in ugly-looking jpeg. I thought: "OK, it's just convert all non-jpeg formats into jpeg, so i must use jpeg with quality taht i need!"

"Go f* yourself" steam told me. It just took my jpeg with notmal quality almost without compression artifacts AND CONVERTED it in jpeg once more! He converted jpeg in jpeg! And of course totally kill image quality.

Btw both jpegs ware almost same size. Mine was 8kb and steam's one was 9kb (such "hahaha").

Unbelievable logic...

[Ranko]

Автор сообщения: magobuono

Автор сообщения: Black Blade (card rain)

to make loading speed for users with low bandwidth higher i think

just upload images on 182x182px as that is the max size if i remember right

I tested it. With group image.

Made png with required size and resolution. And it was converted in ugly-looking jpeg. I thought: "OK, it's just convert all non-jpeg formats into jpeg, so i must use jpeg with quality taht i need!"

"Go f* yourself" steam told me. It just took my jpeg with notmal quality almost without compression artifacts AND CONVERTED it in jpeg once more! He converted jpeg in jpeg! And of course totally kill image quality.

Btw both jpegs ware almost same size. Mine was 8kb and steam's one was 9kb (such "hahaha").

Unbelievable logic...

it's not converting, it's stretching and scaling.

[M.]

Автор сообщения: Malik Blishtar

it's not converting, it's stretching and scaling.

emmm dude, seriously... give png to it and you'll get jpeg - you can check it on webpage.

And "stretching and scaling": as i said, i've made image of excactly steam-required size - 184x184. And in jpeg. And got low-quality jpeg in my profile/group page as result

[Ranko]

Автор сообщения: magobuono

Автор сообщения: Malik Blishtar

it's not converting, it's stretching and scaling.

emmm dude, seriously... give png to it and you'll get jpeg - you can check it on webpage.

And "stretching and scaling": as i said, i've made image of excactly steam-required size - 184x184. And in jpeg. And got low-quality jpeg in my profile/group page as result

yes, but I was referring to your jpg-jpg, you see, is the image on your screen the exact same size as what you uploaded? Not, is it the same resolution, but is it stretched at all? Is your PC wider or smaller than what it expects?

[Hurt Me Plenty]

Автор сообщения: magobuono

Автор сообщения: Malik Blishtar

it's not converting, it's stretching and scaling.

emmm dude, seriously... give png to it and you'll get jpeg - you can check it on webpage.

And "stretching and scaling": as i said, i've made image of excactly steam-required size - 184x184. And in jpeg. And got low-quality jpeg in my profile/group page as result

You can upload images larger than 184x184px (The image for my avatar is 560x560px). The only exception to uploading large images is that their file size cannot exceed somewhere between 200-300kb.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Whats wrong with the quality of your current avatar?

[M.]

Автор сообщения: Muppet among Puppets

Whats wrong with the quality of your current avatar?

Too many compression glitches. Maybe it's hard to you to see on my avatar, so let's take more simple image:
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/avatars/39/39be81e421ada806cb64133b024e97127423d656_full.jpg

Here what i get at group page. And here is original 184x184 jpeg-image:

https://leto10d.storage.yandex.net/rdisk/f7c1e9f47e8e72f4d93fab91cb66c72f/mpfs/Fj4GzKrogb0OxKaPMwXXBTH9IUVbV4LDFbi35Sonl-mAhjf7luMGF6KcNEwlq7yW_MXRk-Sr-vwNapKYDyPZ5A==?uid=0&filename=logo2_184_jpeg.jpg&disposition=inline&hash=&limit=0&content_type=image%2Fjpeg&rtoken=ecb638491cc2845c241c2e0d59348d9e&rtimestamp=53f0695f&force_default=no

[M.]

Автор сообщения: Ƥƴɾơɱąɳįąɕ

You can upload images larger than 184x184px (The image for my avatar is 560x560px). The only exception to uploading large images is that their file size cannot exceed somewhere between 200-300kb.

Yes i can, but in that case it definitely would stretch image and that will totally explain quality loss. Thats why i made exactly 184x184.

[M.]

From my profile:
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/avatars/5d/5dcb648cb9e03ce65cc5d8083c9f9fb5471f6958_full.jpg

original image:
https://leto35h.storage.yandex.net/rdisk/149c1d07f193202e42100a6e14aa6ace/mpfs/HGaPLvV_P3Ktybt4vgImBEpYgLoIzZlV49YZFRYg3hHzP8iWHWk0a0mEYzCjTZxdjrgeIOmuEay3KG9oj7zeHw==?uid=0&filename=magobuono184_96.jpg&disposition=inline&hash=&limit=0&content_type=image%2Fjpeg&rtoken=4cc069a10f410e64800cc2aba2943a6a&rtimestamp=53f06d5e&force_default=no

Just zoom it to compare. You'll see the difference.

PS Sorry for so long links - steam don't allow me to post url from shorten-url services.

[Coreda]

Really needs to be improved, as the compression is just god-awful for images, especially those with details or red color. Even uploading a larger PNG with crisp original quality gets downsampled to an artifacted JPEG.

Badges, trading cards, and most other graphics on the site are higher quality, so heavy avatar compression isn't saving any bandwidth. Use better quality compression or just plain PNG.

Here's an example of the difference[abload.de].

Made some comparisons between the JPEG and PNG file sizes of my avatar. 1kb difference at 32px size (the most commonly seen size across the site), 4kb difference at 64px. My current profile background is 400kb.

[ᴘᴀʀᴀsɪɢɴᴏsɪs]

Seems like it's even worse now...

[dev1st]

Yeah, just tried uploading a PNG I compressed in PS after unsucessfully trying out a few "Save for Web" methods as well. PNG turned out to be way worse in terms of quality after the Steam conversion was made. I'll revert back to JPG and see if I can't develop a more prudent method to this file conversion overload. Will post any updates here.

***//////// --- EDIT --- ////////***
It seems to work much like many other social media websites/apps. If you try to upload a 100%-perfect image (without any sort of downsampling already applied), it will be recompressed and re-downsampled down with a default compression algorithm similar to those seen on early Facebook/Instagram UXs. So, I had a theory: Why not try to do the downsampling myself and then re-upload with an image (already in .JPG format) that has already been significantly downsized with my computer to get into that "butter zone" of <200KB? Despite all of the strong and vibrant colors in my avatar, I was able to lower the output quality of my JPG file from its original 252KB to 32KB. Just so you all know, the 252KB file was the size of my original PNG/JPGs I was getting very poor results uploading before.

I lowered the target quality once again (with Adobe Photoshop's "Export As.." feature) and got the file down to a staggeringly-low 32KB! I also made sure to do all image resizing (resizing and cropping the image to 182x182 pixels @72dpi) within PS as well, leaving virtually no image cropping, resizing nor downsampling/downconverting for Steam's form to have to do.

The resulting image comes out fairly vibrant without much loss of color, contrast nor depth. It may seem like an attempt to upload an image of already low file size and "poor quality" by most modern standards would result in an even poorer quality of image after its file was further scrutinized by the complex algorithm within Steam's servers. My test results, however, prove this to NOT be the case at all. Instead, the lower file size and less complex image (thanks to Photoshop's brilliant image dithering) actually results in an image that is 50% less in quality from its original, yet still maintains 100% of its composition as a whole. When the pre-downsized image is finally received by the "upload your own avatar" form on Steam, it is uploaded without any further conversion needed (aside from the output file necessary for image uploading to take place on a server in the first place) and is passed through with little/no change, if any.

If image file conversion were put into an analogy, you could look at it more simply by comparing it to TSA or customs when they check & inspect passenger baggage before boarding a plane.
My theory is that the server looks at that image as already being of perfect dimensions, resolution as well as file size and quite literally 'waves it through' the inspection process and outputs it as a similarly-low quality image into its [now] permanent home online, safe and sound in your user profile on Steam! :)

Conclusions:
• PNG files do NOT fair well when converted from .PNG format into .JPG format.
• Lowering the image quality down to at least 50% less of its original output file size as possible (without losing overall composition) seems to help the transition from your PC to the world wide web.
• Ensuring that your Avatar has less to it (in terms of high-contrast changes in color, little to no major changes in its depth-of-field, etc.) also seems to create a less complex, more simple image of low file size that needs little to no further downsampling once uploaded to the destination server.

[Zekiran]

..... 5 years ago this thread was new.

Wow.