New game assets coming

[Carlos Camacho]

Hi all, just wanted to say after a long vacation, I will soon finish up on some game assets. They are 256x256 patterns. For use in OpenGL games, 3d modelers as textures, or simply as 2d backgrounds.

I'm also hard at work in converting 600MB worth of sounds into something useful. (Takes lots of time to categorize them, clean them up, and loop 'em.)

Speaking of which, I am wondering if I should convert all sound assets over to MP4? The file savings is great I hear and the quality very good. I need QT Pro or iTunes 4 for this right? If I go this route, for people without the above, what do they need to bring the sounds back to AIFF? BTW, our AIFF sounds are not compressed in any way. When saving sounds, there are various options for compression. If you know an article that explains the various codecs, please send me the link.

Cheers

[macboy]

I don't have a link, but if they have a QT version that supports MP4 (even if just for reading it) and Sound Studio, they can easily convert to AIFF or WAVE or some other popular format.

[Mars_999]

Carlos if you would please post a name of all the new assets you post. This would help eliminate having to sort through the downloads directory. Thanks and I can't wait to see the new art work!

[Carlos Camacho]

When they are posted, they go in the list of new files on the front page.

[Mars_999]

Ok, gotcha. Thanks

[Carlos Camacho]

I'm up to 242 textures so far. I might hit 300. Here are some examples..
grass, trees, bushes, skins, some zombie/gory flesh, brickwalls, tiles, fur, and much much more. Also a bunch called CandyWorld, which are very lickable. I'd like to see them as backgrounds for some platform or 2d game.

Back to work....

[Jake]

Use MP3s instead of MP4, because not everyone has QT6, and its not a good idea to release a game that 50% of users have to download a 20 meg update. MP3 is almost as good, and 99.9% of computers can play it.

[macboy]

Originally posted by Jake
Use MP3s instead of MP4, because not everyone has QT6, and its not a good idea to release a game that 50% of users have to download a 20 meg update. MP3 is almost as good, and 99.9% of computers can play it. 99.9% of QT users will eventually download QT6 anyways :bored: And websites are all about space and bandwidth, you, being a website owner, should know that.

[Mars_999]

How about .ogg files?

[OneSadCookie]

Many people will never download a QuickTime update. The internet-connected software-update-savvy willing-to-wait-around-on-56k crowd is few...

What I think would be best is "lowest common denominator" (ie MP3) downloads easily available, and high-quality (WAV or AIFF) available on when quality becomse an issue.

[Joseph Duchesne]

Great! Um how do I submit assets? I'v had 50 heigh quality rendered trees and rocks sitting on my HD for sooooo loooonnnng.

[Carlos Camacho]

Joseph, send them to me...

As for MP3 vs MP4, seems that I am hearing conflicting info from Mac sites. Maybe I need to go to my go-to guy on this.

OSC, your advice makes sense. But if I can save some file space, and thus download times, I think it worth it. I would stick to AIFF and use come compression codec if I got some good advice. Or did my own experiments, but I lack the time for that. Still, if I go MP3 with the highest setting, it still gives me a very good savings in file space over MP3.

BTW, I got to almost 300 textures!!! How is that for devotion!!?!?

Cheers

[Greg Gant]

Well here's my word on AAC... AAC is great for low bit but falls off at higher bit rates vs MP3. Just know that that AAC loses its edge drastically after 128 kbps. Its sorta like comparing MP3 to MP2. MP2 is great a higher bit rates but MP3s extra layer of compression favors lower bit rates.

If you want me to elaborate, I can go on for days on this.

[Carlos Camacho]

Greg, just give me your summary on what I should do. We have 3 types of sounds here...

1. Sounds which are not for looping. 16bit, mono, 48kHz Most are short, some are a bit long, but nothing over 300kB overall
2. Short 2 bar or so loop sounds. Same specs as the above
3. Although we don't have many full-length music tracks, at some point I will pop them out too.

I figure when a dev downloads a sound, they may keep it in the format we saved it in, or convert it to something else to match their needs. So, we of course want to offer the highest quality sound, yet keep the file size down as much as possible.

Cheers

[igame3d]

Perhaps quickly rip out the whole batch as MP3 for previewing, and they will be ready for use for those that prefere Mp3. Then if we need the AIFF we can contact you and make a request for a list of higher quality files.

.ogg files rule, but I personally prefer to edit any assets I get before actually putting them to use, so keep the AIFF's handy. Like using clip art, it just has to go through Photoshop to feel like its mine.

[Carlos Camacho]

Then if we need the AIFF we can contact you and make a request for a list of higher quality files.
You ARE joking right? You know that I would spend my whole day looking for files and sending them to people, right? Come on think!
:wacko:

People did ask for low-quality previews of sounds all in one MP3. I thought about it, but...
a.) I'm too lazy to make mp3 of a set of sounds
b.) I'm too lazy to make mp3 of a set of sounds
c.) people need to move to places with cheap broadband
d.) why waste more space on previews?

I have started thought to make previews for graphic downloads. So I have met you all half way on this. :)

Anyhow, I'll do some sound tests and decide on this later. Right now, I want to ginish these textures.

Cheers

[Greg Gant]

Carlos here's the rule of thumb for MP3 vs AAC

AAC for < 192 kbps, and Mp3 for > 192 kbps

AAC to sound better at lower bit rates cuts off sound drastically above 16 Khz since shorter wave lengths are harder to replicate (more detail) at lower bit rates. Once MP3 gets the sufficient amount of bandwidth to properly construct the detail, it gains the edge.

[Jake]

AAC is better than MP3 for quality and file size, but not everyone has and will get QT 6. I know most people here will, but consider the average mac user.

AIFF is overkill, most people can't tell the difference between 192kbps MP3 and AIFF, especially when its a 1 second sound effect.

[Carlos Camacho]

OK, so I will shoot for MP3 at 192 as you guys recommend. Hopefully that will reduce those AIFF files down. I'm thinking that at some point, if I offer a CD with tons of game assets, to include high-quality AIFF versions. But for downloads here, MP3 makes sense.

OT... I just bought a Japanese magazine titled "Make RPG games!" It covers the various tools for making RPGs. I think all of them are PC only though :( I was surprised that there were so many! The magazine also covers making sprites and has lots of tile-sets. I'm checking into whether they are public domain. :)

[Damian]

Carlos, how are those sounds coming along?

Do you have any archives of music? That would be really, really handy for me now.

[Greg Gant]

Y'know, it'd be neat to see a cheap CD filed with tons of game resources for amatuer game developers geared towards the Mac.

[Damian]

Or even just to see them all on the site. I tend to download them all anyway, and have a huge "resources" folder I raid as I develop.

For me, assets are the most important things iDevGames provides. That's the really hard thing for a lone-wolf developer, as we can't be expert composers, artists and coders all at once.

[igame3d]

Eventually you will see these things.
Torque engine already has a CD full of Torque savvy assets available. I believe Coldstone's website has a bunch of assets available. iGame3D small download has 137 textures. And there is that arifeldman.com banner at the top of the page right now.

[Carlos Camacho]

>How are those sound coming?
Yeah, I have four folders on my desktop, each one around 700MB. I call them Sound1, Sound2, Sound3, and Sound4. What I find is that I get a sound, play with it for 10 minutes, and soon I have 7 new sounds from that source sound. Sounds good but it is like the people who never finish making their games!

And I still owe the site those textures which I mentioned in the first post. I got a lot of 'em, now I need to convert over to PNG, stuff-it and upload them. Too much to do :(

[Carlos Camacho]

Ok, I have uploaded the first set in my new texture line.

http://www.idevgames.com/content/download.php?id=447

"Wall & Floor"

Before I uload the other dozen or so, I'll like to get feedback on the "actual download." (ie not the textures themselves.)

When you uncompressed the file and opened the folder, did you see 5 icons?
----
License.pdf
Carlos Camacho
camacho@idevgames.com
Textures
www.idevgames.com
----

How did the PDF license look for people who are using Mac OS 9?

I set up the folder under Mac OS X, so I am not sure if the folder and contests "looks good" under Mac OS 9. (ie position of icons, etc)

I have an address card called "Carlos Camacho." For those that use Apple's address program, were you able to add my card to your address book?

Other two icons for "www.idevgames.com" (URL link) and "camacho@idevgames.com" (email link) look very much like M$ style icons. If I recall, another icon exists on Mac OS X for such things. It is a round gray circle with an "@" mark which is connected to a spring. No what I mean? Can't seem to find that icon. Anyone able to send them to me?

Ok, last point IS about the textures. I used an iMac LCD and so the gamma may not be great. Let me know if they are too dark.

As soon as I get the "presentation" of the icons, etc down I will start to upload the rest of the texture sets.
Cheers

[Carlos Camacho]

Well, I managed to get the right VCard and URL link (thanks to the new address book and Safari)

Though now that I am home and on Jaguar, I see the icons have changed to the correct "looking" ones. A las, the positions of my icons did not get saved.

Tips? I recall a utility someone made here to drag and drop a folder, and the icon positions would be set for 9 and X.

I was also able to check the gamma setting at home on my CRT and they all look fine. whew!

After I get back from my business trip, I can start to upload the other textures. My favorite set will be "Horror Textures."

Cheers

[igame3d]

You are looking for iConan to solve your icon dilema,
Tobi made it.
Do you have it in the resources?

I thought you did. I can't find it.
If I do I'll let you know.

Textures look good, tried them all out this morning.

[Carlos Camacho]

Yeah, iConan is it!

I thought we had it here, but I did a search and nothing.

I thought he was still beta testing it? Can you help out?

[igame3d]

What do you know the only back up I have of it was sitting on a cd on my desk...well in a pile of other cd's but it was there.

now its at the filesharing link in my signature.

You should host it here.
Although by next year OS 9 should be a non issue.

[Carlos Camacho]

Thanks!

[Carlos Camacho]

Ok, I have finished uploading all my textures. I hope people will enjoy them and use 'em in their games. I'm a bit proud of the Horror textures and the various plant/grass/trees. Candy World would be good for backgrounds in a platform IMHO.

Have fun.