Choose the AGS Website of the future!

[Ryukage]

However, if I maximize the window at 1280x960 or do the same at 1600x1200, the middle table does stretch too much, to the point where the site no longer has that "neat" look about it. So, here are a couple of options -- either use a fixed width such as at http://www.2advanced.com (fixed for 1024x768 maximized) or live with the fact that it looks good maximized up to 1024x768 and hope that most people browse in windows at resolutions higher than that.

As I'm still unsure about this, for now I think I'll leave it as is, and hope that people don't full-screen it at 1600x1200. Personally, I run at 800x600 so I'm not really going to design the site for a fixed res any larger than that

CSS level 2 provides a max-width property for dealing with this sort of thing.  I would expect standards-compliant browsers like Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera to support it, although I don't know for sure.  However, I can pretty much guarantee that Internet Explorer won't support it, IE doesn't support CSS2 at all.  Still, it's better than nothing.

Oh, and as for resolution detection, it is possible but not very reliable.

Yeah, I thought as much. It's a shame that this wasn't though of when HTTP was designed

Actually it was thought of, and rejected.  HTML is for marking the grammatical function of each chunk of text; it's not supposed to carry any size, layout, or formatting information at all.  Stylesheets hold the formatting and layout information separately from the data structures, allowing display devices with different capabilities to apply different layouts to the same data.  HTML isn't just for graphical browsers running on Windows and MacOS; it's for cell phones, PDAs, text-only terminal shells, printers, braille displays, and audio screen readers, too.  Depending on the display device, "screen resolution" may not even be a defined concept, so it has no place in HTML.

[Crichton]

Now, about the below bar... well, it might look better without the second bar if the top bar 'was' the same way the bar with the "Current version" thing is...
(I mean, the same height and same "blue color")

That's not a big deal, and it looks cool either way; but I think that if we added that 'symetry' (sp?) it would look nicer... :

Felipe, that is exactly what I was thinking too when the extra bar was bugging me. Notice how the top bar also has a slight highlight and a shadow on top and bottom edges, unlike the "Current version" bar. Well, it does too but in a less noticable way. Perhaps it's worth trying to adapt the "Current version" bar to the same style as the top tiny bar (color wise) or vice versa (size and color wise).

Then again, it's not a huge deal. :-)

Anyway, I tend to be a perfectionist, so I pay attention to details, especially that once it's finalized, I'll have to stare at it every time I visit AGS. :-P

[Pumaman]

Well, I thought I'd give it a go at applying the template to all the pages on the site.

Unfortunately, neither Frontpage's Shared Borders system nor Dreamweaver's Template system seem to be able to cope with the links pane being a shared element, because it's part of the page's main table.

Is it possible to seperate out the links pane into a seperate table, whilst maintaining the look and resizability of the design?

[TheDude]

How are the menus being handled? Is it through some sort of include?

[Darth Mandarb]

In the template, I used a parent table with three columns.  The navigation  system is a nested table in the parent table.  So you could cut out just the nested navigation table and use some kind of include.

In ColdFusion you use:
<cfinclude template="navigation.cfm"> (whatever the file is called)

I'm sure there's some way to do that using php?

If you use an shtml file extension, you can do an SSI (server side include).  I haven't worked with that in years, but I remember something about it.

~ d

[TheDude]

In php it's:

<?
include("navigation.php")
?>

I'm not sure if you can include .txt files or .html files.

[Pumaman]

Yeah, it can be done with PHP or SSI, but then I'd have to change the file extension of some of the webpages, which I'd really rather avoid because it breaks anyone linking to the site.

Anyway, as you've probably noticed I've updated the forum into the new style - it can probably do with a few extra tweaks, but it seems to fit quite well so far.

Also, one other thing - the new banner image is 40 kb, whereas the old one was 20 kb. The banner used up 1.2 GB of bandwidth on its own last month, and I can't really afford for that to double this month, so Ben I'd appreciate it if you can find a way of halving (or at least reducing) the file size without losing too much quality from the image.

[MrColossal]

silly CJ just save it as a JPG



10 something KB

[Nacho]

silly CJ just save it as a JPG

[auhsor]

Sorry to whoever designed that banner, but in my opinion its not quite as good as the old one. I'd probably try and design one if i had time.

[BruisedWeasel]

I agree with aushor. I dislike the banner. That ugly dog is the thing I focus on, as it isn't a humanoid figure like the sublects in the other scenes. It's also bright white, and leads me to the female figure, which is also a bright image, which makes no sense visually as the image starts to fade right after her. *BRIGHT!**fade**BRIGHT!**fade**fade* No rythm to it, no gradual decline into blue. It looks like someone just took some screenshots and put them together without forethought.

I like the new background. Makes me focus my attention on the forum content, thanks to those horizontal stripes.

The dog isn't that ugly. I was just being rude out of jealousy, because it's so well drawn and so adorable.

[Felipe]

Yep, the background is really good for the forums

About the banner, well, the thing that caught my attention now that I saw it here on the forums is that it doesn't "changes smoothly" to blue... I hadn't noticed this before; maybe it's because of the jpg extension


-Felipe-

[Privateer Puddin']

Hmm, i dont know if its been changed, or i only just noticed it - the title on the forums is AGS - Adventure Game Studio, is it possible for it to take the name of the subject?

eg, on other forums it'd be View Topic - Bla bla

[Pet Terry]

I really like this new style, I think it's very refreshing.

[AGA]

Also, one other thing - the new banner image is 40 kb, whereas the old one was 20 kb. The banner used up 1.2 GB of bandwidth on its own last month, and I can't really afford for that to double this month, so Ben I'd appreciate it if you can find a way of halving (or at least reducing) the file size without losing too much quality from the image.

You could write a simple PHP randomising script, then have a few different mirrors of the image (hosted with the same people that host the AGS versions...?).

[Darth Mandarb]

Yeah, it can be done with PHP or SSI, but then I'd have to change the file extension of some of the webpages, which I'd really rather avoid because it breaks anyone linking to the site.

I would suggest making all pages use one format (php or shtml or whatever).  So that you can make a template.  It'll be much easier for you in the long run.

If there are people linking to the news page (acupdates.htm) you could make that page say something like:

I have updated the website, the page you are linking to is now located here:
http://www.agsforums.com/news.php

Please update your links/bookmarks accordingly!

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Or just use a redirect.  

This could work for any pages that currently use a different format.

~ d

[Pumaman]

silly CJ just save it as a JPG

Ahem, it's been a long day ... cheers eric  

Sorry to whoever designed that banner, but in my opinion its not quite as good as the old one. I'd probably try and design one if i had time.

If you can't offer suggestions for improvement, then please don't criticise.

About the banner, well, the thing that caught my attention now that I saw it here on the forums is that it doesn't "changes smoothly" to blue

That's a fair point, and it does look slightly odd. Ben, would it be possible to adjust the banner to better blend into the forum blue at that end?

Hmm, i dont know if its been changed, or i only just noticed it - the title on the forums is AGS - Adventure Game Studio, is it possible for it to take the name of the subject?

oops, sorry about that - fixed now

You could write a simple PHP randomising script, then have a few different mirrors of the image (hosted with the same people that host the AGS versions...?).  

good plan - luckily with eric's advice the problem is solved now, so no worries.

I would suggest making all pages use one format (php or shtml or whatever). So that you can make a template. It'll be much easier for you in the long run.

If there are people linking to the news page (acupdates.htm) you could make that page say something like:

Aye, you're probably right. I'll try and find the time to sort it out at the weekend.

[Vel]

I might have a go at a new banner, what pixel size does it have to be?

[DGMacphee]

The current one is 400 x 65.

[Ben]

I know my banner isn't perfect  It's just something I threw together with the games I had on my computer. If anyone thinks they can make a better one (with older games as well as new ones), feel  free to do so..

EDIT: here's another one I just did.. I don't know if it looks better- it's just something different.