My GDD is getting near completion so it's time to make it even more detailed and start on creating some GUI art but I need to know what dimensions the 2d images for buttons, background etc should be if it's going to be fullscreen.. since people have different sized screens and resolutions.
And what is best format? PNG or JPG or GIF or BMP?
Creating graphics for a full screen game? What dimensions?
You will have to find a way to make your ui resolution independent. Usually that means providing fonts with different sizes and a way to scale buttons and other graphical elements without pixelating blurring. There is a method where you cut your sprite into 9 chunks that can be independently scaled but I don't know if it has an actual name. It is widely used however and you should find it easily.
As for formats:
JPG - no, it introduces compression artifacts and has no transparency.
GIF - no, restricted to 256 colors and has only on/off transparency
BMP - no, no transparency and is uncompressed
PNG - ok, has alpha transparency and lossless compression
As for formats:
JPG - no, it introduces compression artifacts and has no transparency.
GIF - no, restricted to 256 colors and has only on/off transparency
BMP - no, no transparency and is uncompressed
PNG - ok, has alpha transparency and lossless compression
How about using DDS format (especially if you are working with D3D) ? It is a container format which may contain different surface formats (including alpha channel), compressed and uncompressed. It supports also mipmaps.
Otherwise, a GUI which is more and less resolution independent is the way to go.
Cheers!
Otherwise, a GUI which is more and less resolution independent is the way to go.
Cheers!
I prefer TGA format images. Even with just basic RLE "compression" (Apple PackBits-ish), the images can be quite a lot smaller than their uncompressed counterparts, yet still load pretty quickly. It supports an alpha channel (32-bit images). It is an extremely simple format. It just works, and a loader/saver class can be written up in a day or two, tops. Lots of explanation and sample source to go by: http://local.wasp.uw...ataformats/tga/ http://local.wasp.uw...s/tga/tgatest.c
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I've heard that shrinking the dimensions of a picture doesn't reduce quality... only enlarging it.. That should be something to keep in mind maybe?
I will look into that 9 chunks method, thanks..
What is a good starting dimension to go from?
Should be a large one but at the same time not too large then nessassary.
What do you think is good dimension to make art for? Should you make the art so it fits perfectly the biggest resolution available on pc and then let the fullscreen shrink it or enlarge it from there on others computers?
What is the best resolution to make the art for?
What dimension should the screens size be that I fit the game for?
I will look into that 9 chunks method, thanks..
What is a good starting dimension to go from?
Should be a large one but at the same time not too large then nessassary.
What do you think is good dimension to make art for? Should you make the art so it fits perfectly the biggest resolution available on pc and then let the fullscreen shrink it or enlarge it from there on others computers?
What is the best resolution to make the art for?
What dimension should the screens size be that I fit the game for?
Seconding the DDS format.
DDS has been adopted as the de facto standard for about a decade now. It has lossless compression available. Most tools and graphics programs can handle it just fine. Most importantly it is supported in hardware by current cards so no decompression or processing is necessary, and works under Direct3D and under OpenGL.
When it comes to art assets really there should be the psd from artists working in photoshop, and the dds they export for use in game.
DDS has been adopted as the de facto standard for about a decade now. It has lossless compression available. Most tools and graphics programs can handle it just fine. Most importantly it is supported in hardware by current cards so no decompression or processing is necessary, and works under Direct3D and under OpenGL.
When it comes to art assets really there should be the psd from artists working in photoshop, and the dds they export for use in game.
Author
What about making the art with vectors?
Can you do that in photoshop? I only know how to do it in flash
with vector you dont lose any resolation no matter what you rezise it too
Can you do that in photoshop? I only know how to do it in flash
with vector you dont lose any resolation no matter what you rezise it too
Vector graphics is great and all, but it's limited. You can only use lines with variable thickness (??? I'm not even sure about this), and solid (or simple gradient) color filling. If that's the style you want, it's fine.
Anyway, Vector graphics is a whole different thing than pixel graphics. You have to handle all the rendering of the lines/curves and filled areas, which is pretty complex. There's nothing like just drawing a polygon and throwing a texture on it.
I may be wrong, maybe there's a library for that, but I'm not sure you understand what vector graphics really is.
I think Photoshop can work with vector graphics and saves it too (but not in a regular image format of course), but there are more feasible applications for that, for example Corell Draw.
Anyway, Vector graphics is a whole different thing than pixel graphics. You have to handle all the rendering of the lines/curves and filled areas, which is pretty complex. There's nothing like just drawing a polygon and throwing a texture on it.
I may be wrong, maybe there's a library for that, but I'm not sure you understand what vector graphics really is.
I think Photoshop can work with vector graphics and saves it too (but not in a regular image format of course), but there are more feasible applications for that, for example Corell Draw.
Actually, it might be perfectly possible to create vector graphics in a 3d modeling program. just create flat polygonal objects instead of 3d. I'm not sure about the workflow however, could be pretty cumbersome. You would still have edges becoming visible when scaling though.
My GDD is getting near completion so it's time to make it even more detailed...
I would venture to suggest that your next step should be to actually start making your game, instead of trying to do all this design and "GDD" bullshit up front. You're putting the cart before the horse, and if you spend too much time going too far in-depth with your design and pre-producing your art assets and all that you run the risk of having to throw away a ton of that time when it becomes apparent during iteration that something isn't going to work.
You've already made mistakes in your design and content production, so start iterating on something practical so you can expose those mistakes and correct them sooner rather than later.
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