Some deviantART users disable the download feature for their posts, so the best versions available are the smaller .jpeg previews hosted on the wixmp.com domain. However, post #1125713 (whose source is a download-disabled deviantART post) has a link to a .png of the same dimensions as the .jpeg preview, which is hosted on the img02.deviantart.net domain.
post #1125713
This link is not available anywhere on the deviantART page of the picture or even in the page source. Obviously, .png files are better, so it is important to know how the uploader got this link. The FurAffinity mirror isn't any help because its full size image is even smaller than the deviantART version's preview due to their 2048x2048 image dimensions limit.

TL;DR is there a reliable method for getting the img02.deviantart.net domain for download-disabled dA posts so that we can have .png's instead of .jpeg's? Or at least, how did the uploader get the img02.deviantart.net link for this particular image?

The best thing we really have for getting the best possible deviantart image are scripts and/or extensions that force a download button upon the page. I personally use the [TS] deviantART download link script.

However, even with this in mind, the best I've been able to get from this image is a hi res jpg version of the piece

My best guess is the uploader talked to the artist to get the base file directly/got access to it from something like a public discord or something.

edit: Ah yes, what Hitomi said. We USED to have public access to largest base images before the site changed its domain. For now, we upload the best possible available or provided via artist.

That one was uploaded here well before the change to the WiX domain, hence why it has that direct image link.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable method of getting the old deviantart.net domains again. Oddly though, earlier this year, I've somehow managed to retrieve a direct image uploaded this year (well after the domain change) from the old deviantart.net domains, but only for one submission. (forum #273887)

Wix buyout for deviantart has been the worst thing that could've happened to that website.

Also they seem to have problems with keeping the original quality hidden as well even with download button disabled, but they still offer artists option to omit the button and select resolution of the sample.

wanker said:
Aw man... that's depressing. Why is it that all art sites are moving towards being as artist- and fan-unfriendly as possible? Starting 2018, pixiv doesn't even let you upload .gif's without chopping it up into separate images and using its own script to play it back like a .gif (meaning that it is impossible to save .gif's from Pixiv without a special tool).

Ugoiras have been a thing with pixiv for as long as they have had the possibility to upload animated content, waaaaayyy before 2018. Pixivs source code for ugoira player was released in 2014 and we have ugoira conversions from around that time.

I do still see ugoiras as overall win situation. This is because they allow uploading image sequences and animations are stored as JPG image sequence rather than GIF. This bypasses all GIFs limitations like 256 color limitation, 20ms minimum 10ms incremental frame delays and massive filesizes with content that cannot be optimized. On top of this everything supporting HTML5 canvas should play it where APNG and WebM can still have compatibility problems especially on apple devices. Then as final strawberry on the cake, nobody is able to just save the content, meaning that you will have to link to the pixiv page, giving pixiv and artists account traffic.

Only major problems really are archival and artists still uploading as GIF rather than image sequence. There's not huge amount of formats which would allow converting JPG image sequence into while being efficient and/or lossless. Also as most artists upload as GIF, the color quality loss has already happened and made worse now.

Also generally speaking, space and bandwidth are costly and nobody cares if the image is ever so slightly compressed if it means loading faster. And these websites still need to keep the lights on.

@Mairo Thanks.

I assume the quality reduction is to prevent art theft or something, when artists disable the download button.

PheagleAdler said:
I assume the quality reduction is to prevent art theft or something, when artists disable the download button.

No, it's to reduce bandwidth costs on the server side. Artists do set viewing restrictions on DA if they don't want art thieves making off with their work, but it was WiX who lowered the quality of all images as displayed on deviation (submission) pages to save on bandwidth costs. Websites have to pay their hosting services for every MB that's downloaded from their site by the users who visit them, which can add up quickly depending on how popular and resource-intensive it is. Considering that this is the most famous art sharing site in the world we're talking about here, with many images and a decent amount of videos and other files to boot, WiX has to pay a pretty penny to keep DA running. This is also the same reason why Tumblr disabled direct access to their "raw" images.

Mairo said:
Ugoiras have been a thing with pixiv for as long as they have had the possibility to upload animated content, waaaaayyy before 2018. Pixivs source code for ugoira player was released in 2014 and we have ugoira conversions from around that time.

I do still see ugoiras as overall win situation. This is because they allow uploading image sequences and animations are stored as JPG image sequence rather than GIF. This bypasses all GIFs limitations like 256 color limitation, 20ms minimum 10ms incremental frame delays and massive filesizes with content that cannot be optimized. On top of this everything supporting HTML5 canvas should play it where APNG and WebM can still have compatibility problems especially on apple devices. Then as final strawberry on the cake, nobody is able to just save the content, meaning that you will have to link to the pixiv page, giving pixiv and artists account traffic.

Only major problems really are archival and artists still uploading as GIF rather than image sequence. There's not huge amount of formats which would allow converting JPG image sequence into while being efficient and/or lossless. Also as most artists upload as GIF, the color quality loss has already happened and made worse now.

But I've seen .gif's with much faster intervals than 10ms and with transparency, full color, etc. Is this a trick? Also, Ugoira sometimes glitches out for me. It produces .webm's with corrupt frames.