02-26-2017, 01:52 AM
I 100% agree that using sprite sheets is a pain for gamedev/animation. But for literally every other purpose, sprites sheets are perfectly fine (and often preferred). And seeing as most of them are copyrighted, any kind of use would be for fangames or the like which means it's not really a big deal. As others have said, TSR (and the other sites) is and always has been more of a gallery and rips are generally for archival purposes, rather than as a collection of resources (despite the name) for fangame developers.
From a ripper's perspective, it can also be an issue to extract the sprites into individual frames, aligned within the same bounding box dimensions. In some games this is reliable and easy (such as Game Maker games), but for others, especially those that need to be hard ripped, it's nigh impossible. The ripper would need to go through every individual frame and align them to make sure they animate right. It's much easier to just put them on a sheet, line them up as nicely as possible, and let it be.
It's better because you actually want them in that format. The majority of users just want to check out the sprites for reference, interest, or just to admire them. Relatively speaking, someone needing a sheet to be in that kind of format is very rare.
If every single submission was required to be easy to use for gamedev/animation, submissions would be more tedious and less fun, resulting in fewer rippers, a lower frequency of submissions, and fewer submissions altogether. And all that just in case somebody wanted to use them in a game or video.
Now, one suggestion I have that could be a potential solution is having both. Something like an option on a sheet's page to submit a ZIP with the frames in an easily usable format. Sheets should be prioritized, but if there are people willing to align and organise them into a ZIP (or if the sprites are just extracted like that), then it cuts out some work for anybody who ends up wanting to use them. For example, my Nuclear Throne submissions are sheets, but when extracted the frames are all individual images, in order, organised in folders by animation. It'd super easy for me to just upload a ZIP of that for anybody who wants to use them, but still have the sheet for those who just want to view.
This would also allow content creators who did have to extract sheets into a usable format to save the work for any future people in their position.
Anybody think this is a good/bad idea? Dazz and Petie, is this possible/wanted?
From a ripper's perspective, it can also be an issue to extract the sprites into individual frames, aligned within the same bounding box dimensions. In some games this is reliable and easy (such as Game Maker games), but for others, especially those that need to be hard ripped, it's nigh impossible. The ripper would need to go through every individual frame and align them to make sure they animate right. It's much easier to just put them on a sheet, line them up as nicely as possible, and let it be.
Quote:But hey, then I have to do it myself!!! How is that any better??
It's better because you actually want them in that format. The majority of users just want to check out the sprites for reference, interest, or just to admire them. Relatively speaking, someone needing a sheet to be in that kind of format is very rare.
If every single submission was required to be easy to use for gamedev/animation, submissions would be more tedious and less fun, resulting in fewer rippers, a lower frequency of submissions, and fewer submissions altogether. And all that just in case somebody wanted to use them in a game or video.
Now, one suggestion I have that could be a potential solution is having both. Something like an option on a sheet's page to submit a ZIP with the frames in an easily usable format. Sheets should be prioritized, but if there are people willing to align and organise them into a ZIP (or if the sprites are just extracted like that), then it cuts out some work for anybody who ends up wanting to use them. For example, my Nuclear Throne submissions are sheets, but when extracted the frames are all individual images, in order, organised in folders by animation. It'd super easy for me to just upload a ZIP of that for anybody who wants to use them, but still have the sheet for those who just want to view.
This would also allow content creators who did have to extract sheets into a usable format to save the work for any future people in their position.
Anybody think this is a good/bad idea? Dazz and Petie, is this possible/wanted?