Suggestions

[Flare]

Not sure how often this has come across to any user per say but noticed something brought up as an error regarding sprites / textures. But was wondering if something that could connect titles that have multiple aspects such as sprites models and textures together, such as a 'This game also has textures at the Textures Resource'. Bit of work to say the least and not sure if anyone has this problem, but thought I'd suggest it anyway.

[Petie]

This has been suggested a couple of times and while we're certainly not against the idea, it's way too much work to do manually at the moment and I haven't arrived at a solution I like for doing it automatically just yet. So, it's kind of a planned feature for someday but I don't have an ETA.

[Silversea]

Are there any planned changes to how Zip files work? I think it is great how you can download zip files but I really really would love to see a preview of the sheet(s) before I download it.

Perhaps in similar fashion to the preview icon there can be a sheet preview on the page with random sprites from the zip posted on it. Just something anyway.

[Petie]

This has been suggested but would be far too resource-intensive to implement. I understand the desire but it's not really feasible.

[puggsoy]

Related, are zip icons planned to be implemented any time soon? I recall someone saying that zip downloads would get a special icon border sort of like the ones RTB used to do with the old icon system.

[Petie]

Hmm... I know we planned to automate that at some point but it kind of fell off our radar. Should be easy enough though so we'll try to get it done this weekend.

[Jermungandr]

Very small suggestion:

When opening a page with a cleared cache, the icon background image behind the preview image tends to not load until every other image on the page loads, which for pages with lot of icons (such as the main page) can take a while, leaving the preview images on white backdrops, which in turn I feel makes the page look broken until everything loads.

Like I said it's not a HUGE deal (hell, it's barely even a small deal), but if it were me I would code the page to preload the background image (and the border image too just for precaution's sake), I just think it looks more professional.

[Petie]

100% agree and I've tried multiple methods to make that happen but the standard ways (like pre-loading the images via JavaScript) doesn't seem to want to work. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong and I'm open to input from anyone who has an idea here but as of yet, I've not been able to get it to work.

[Satoh]

There's something I've wanted to see on the various resource sites for a while. I've just done a quick search and I'm surprised I didn't find any suggestions for it yet...

User defined tags on resources.
For example, I very often look for sprites or models with a specific theme, but since there's no telling what the actual name of the submission will be, there's no way to search for it.

For example, allowing registered users to tag sprites as [Isometric] when they find a sprite or tile sheet that is designed in that manner.
These tags could be used as search parameter matches.

It would also help organize some of the less well defined areas like the 'Other systems' category, which can have any number of different styles of resource.

It would ideally be something like the way image booru sites use tags, in that users can vote up or down the validity of a tag, and tags themselves are just plaintext IDs typed into a textbox.

This would mean no one would have to compile an official list of tags and get complaints when one is forgotten. Nor would anyone have to revisit all the existing pages and manually edit them, since registered users could add them as needed.

I personally think it would help people find things, as I've actually tried to search for specific sheets before, using a word in the title of the sheet, and the search didn't find it because it was not a full match, only partial. And searching for 'isometric' only gets two sheets from the same game, on the whole of TSR.

It would also be helpful on the other sites, for differentiating sound effects from voice clips, high fidelity sounds from compressed, searching only archives, or only raw files, finding all female characters, all animal models, all maps, etc.

I just find that I often need to find something without knowing the exact game and system I need to look for... and sometimes I just need something that fits a description.

So what do you think?

[Petie]

Tags have long been on the roadmap of features to add but it's a massive project given the nature of how we want to implement it and with the current massive project (the icon renovation) still going on, it's just kind of sitting on the back burner.

That said, should it happen, it won't be exactly as you envision it. There won't be voting, for one. And users won't be able to just arbitrarily tag anything they want. It will be text based though so there won't be a pre-defined list and user additions of tags to existing items will be handled through the revision system. All of this would be in place to stop the inevitable spamming that would occur if the tagging system was open to all.

[Satoh]

I did consider the tag spamming aspect, but that's also why I suggested the tag verification voting... even if that can be abused as well. (Also why I suggested only registered users)

In any case, I'm glad to see its on the list. I'll look forward to seeing it... whenever the case may be.

[Jermungandr]

100% agree and I've tried multiple methods to make that happen but the standard ways (like pre-loading the images via JavaScript) doesn't seem to want to work. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong and I'm open to input from anyone who has an idea here but as of yet, I've not been able to get it to work.

Here is a method that I found works.

In your CSS code, add a line:
#preload {background: url('xxxxxxxx');}

Then just under your <body> tag just add a simple line:
<div id=preload></div>

Assuming you don't have any CSS code effecting base div tags, the div line should be invisible - due to it being empty - but still load your image for you.

You can even set it to preload multiple images, as such:
#preload {background: url('xxxxxxxx'), url('yyyyyyyy'), url('zzzzzzzz');}

It worked for me when I tried it, anyways. I doubt professionals would consider this a particularly eloquent solution, but it's certainly the least code-heavy that I've found works.

[Petie]

It worked for me when I tried it, anyways. I doubt professionals would consider this a particularly eloquent solution, but it's certainly the least code-heavy that I've found works.

This, unfortunately, is the primary reason I can't use it. The layout is complicated enough without adding in empty divs. I do appreciate the suggestion all the same though!

[Jermungandr]

Mmm, seems like the only way to go is to figure out why the javascript method isn't working then; not really many solutions that don't require you to include a hidden element or expand your code considerably that I know of. What does your code look like? It shouldn't be overly complicated, a simple ...

<script language="JavaScript">
Image1= new Image()
Image1.src = "./Directory/Image.gif"
</script>

... inside the the Header tags should be enough. It worked on my end.

I'm far from an expert when it comes to javascript, though, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

[Petie]

I've tried various solutions in JavaScript from the simple script you posted to more complicated ones. I will give it another shot via jQuery at some point soon to see if it works now. In hindsight, it's also possible that my browser cached the page and never triggered the JavaScript pre-load but I'm fairly certain I cleared my cache before trying it.