Option to provide server thumbnail via base64 JPG embedded in the server advertisement instead of via URL.

[DanielWillett]

The image would probably be read from somewhere in the server directory similar to how Minecraft does it, then the server would verify the image is 32x32 (or maybe just small enough number of bytes) and sent to the client as a tag in the server advertisement.

For now it could just be an alternative to the URL but eventually the thumbnail URLs could be deprecated as sending the data directly is more secure than web requests and would be much more responsive in the server list. The bigger server icon should probably still stay as a URL.

[SDGNelson]

This would be useful! I'm afraid it's not enough space to encode an image, however. Base64 adds 1/3 overhead to the number of bytes, so, for example, even this simple 32x32 smile image exported with max compression would take up ~800 characters:

[DanielWillett]

Oh, shame. Didn't realize it would be that much. I guess raw ASCII would be less but still would be a lot... Is there a limit on steam's advertisements?

[SDGNelson]

That field's limit is 128 characters, though if I were re-doing it now I'd pack the vanilla details more densely.