Two Suggestions for AGS

[Atlas]

Hello again,

We're considering using AGS to make an 800 x 600 resolution adventure game.  I thought of 2 new features that would help a lot:

Suggestion 1:

At 800 x 600, the default fonts look pretty blocky next to the high-res graphics, so one of the first things I did was to import a true type font instead.  The problem is, if I import a true type font, then I have no outline font to stick behind it so that conversation text shows up over the background.  I think it would be wonderful if a future version of AGS got an option to automatically shade around any true type font imported in this situation, to save the trouble of having to create a shadow font from scratch.

Suggestion 2:

I would love to see AGS support JPEG image imports for room backgrounds.  Even a little big of JPEG compression can significantly reduce the hard disk (and download) requirements of a game that is full of 800 x 600 16-bit images!

Thanks for listening to my suggestions!  If this wasn't the best place to post this, please let me know.

Atlas

[TeeKay]

The images, no matter the format they are imported in, are converted to same internal format in AGS. this has been discussed several times. No JPEG suppert coming as far as I know......

[DoorKnobHandle]

But your first suggestion is interesting, Atlas!

Would be nice... *dream*

[Gilbert]

Well someone had posted some answers here, but I'll make it in more detail.

1. I think that had been suggested some time earlier, but probably due to technical difficulties, it may not be implemented in the near future.

2. This was a frequently asked question, but the answer is always:
AGS DID accept importing of JPEG images, but NOT ANYMORE, because it is pointless. The reason are:
a. For speed issue, the sprite datas are not compressed in an AGS game, so importing a JPEG compressed image as sprite is not a good idea, as the resulting graphics are not compressed anyway, and it will suffer from artifacts created by the lossy compression scheme in JPEG
b. No matter what format the graphic files were, after importing as room backgrounds, they are compressed with THE SAME internal lossless compression scheme used in room files, so there is no point to import a JPEG image as background which suffers already from detail loss

[Atlas]

About my JPEG suggestions:  I am a graphics programmer, so I already took these issues into account in my original post.  Please note that I did not suggest that sprites should be JPEGed.  My only suggestion was the we have the option to JPEG *background* images.  Also note that I did not say that this would improve RAM efficiency.  Of course the same uncompressed format is used internally to matter where the image came from.  However, what I did point out is that for large high-res true color background images, this would be a great help for reducing finished game file size, and therefore download times.  Since I'm sure the Allegro library has a JPEG decoder already written, I see it as an easy thing to give users the option to keep their large backgrounds saved as JPEGs if that's what they want to make them as.

As far as my automatically shading around the true type fonts suggestions: We needed a similar thing in a graphics app we were working on several months ago.  I came up with a solution that was extremely easy and quick to implement.  You just take the same font, make it black, and print the text 2 pixels above the final location, 2 pixels below the final location, 2 pixels to the right of the final location, and 2 pixels to the left of the final location.  Then you set the font color back again and print the text at the final location.  That's it!  If you want a thinner border, then use a radius of 1 pixel instead of 2.

Atlas

[Pumaman]

As for automatic outlining - this has been suggested recently, using the method you described. It's on my to-do list.

With regard to JPEG images, assuming you're suggesting that the backgrounds be stored as jpegs internally within AGS, then yes, it's an interesting idea, but the room backgrounds do currently compress quite well with the internal method AGS uses.
More importantly, perhaps, when used at high quality levels (which you would do for game backgrounds), jpeg does not compress significantly better than simply zipping up the image with winzip; therefore, I can't really justify the time to implement it.

[Atlas]

Chris,

Thank you very much for considering my suggestions.

I admit that I have not yet tested how well the AGS compression algorithm works, so I will definitely take your word in the meantime when you say it does a good job.

I did want to suggest though, that in my experience the opposite is true for high quality images: lossless compressions such as winzip don't do much good, while JPEG does a great job.  Lossless works well on retro-style graphics with many block areas of color.  But we're creating fully-textured scenes in 3D.  Since fully-textured models are by their nature full of random noise from end to end, lossless often doesn't do any good, while JPEG thrives in this arena.

To give you an idea of the kinds of noise-filled visuals we're creating, I've attached to the bottom of this message a work-in-progress model I was working on today.

Thanks again for considering my suggestions!  I have been very impressed with AGS overall.

Atlas

[Pumaman]

I see your point - and with that kind of image, jpeg probably would save disk space. The reason I abandoned jpeg support a while back was because I couldn't find a stable, non-crashing jpeg loader for allegro (AGS's graphics libary). Maybe there is one now though, it's worth me looking into again.

However, bear in mind that going with 800x600 is likely to lead to a large download size, no matter what