How adetailed can sprites be?

[sfzapgun]

I've read the manual and faq, but I'm still confused on a couple of issues I'd like to get clarified before I start a project.  Most of the sprite examples in the demos and tutorials are rather pixil-ish.  I guess what I am asking is if I can use vector art in AGS games?  Specifically, I want to use Flash to create my backgrounds and sprites, and maybe a little enhancing in Photoshop.

And I assume I'd need to use the high color setting for this to work?

Finally, what would the dimensions of the backgrounds need to be?  Or what would be best?

[Ghost]

The majority of AGS games is extremely low-res, at 320x240 pixels. Higher resolution is possible and can be set in the game's General Settings; currently 1027x768 is the limit.
The higher your resolution, the "better" (less pixelated, at least ) your graphics will look.

If you opt for vector art or any high resolution sprites with transparency, HiColour is a must to take advantage of transparency settings baked into the image file. You should also experiment with the graphics drivers (DX or D3D9)- generally it is advised to use 3D3. As the manual will tell you, higher resolution and colour depth will impact your game's overall performance, but these days it's hardly an issue. Your game files will be larger, too, so a download may become a bit more of a challenge for people with slow/unstable connections.

About size of backgrounds, that's really up to you; a background image should be at least the size of your game resolution to fill the whole screen. If you make it larger, AGS will scroll it automatically as the player walks around and approaching the edges of the current viewport.

And welcome to the forums! I just saw this is your first post!

[Khris]

What Ghost said, I just want to add that there's no native support for vector images. AGS only supports rasterized sprites.
If your sprites are going to use smooth edges / alpha transparency, make sure the very next thing you do is set the game's color depth to 32bit, 16bit is not enough.

To get an idea of character sprite dimensions, create a 1024x768 document and draw a simple room with doors. Use the door's height as a guide to how big to draw your characters.

[sfzapgun]

Thanks so much, guys, for your speedy help.  You answered my questions.