Proposal: Forum for NES Graphics

Found an issue with the phpBB system here at NESdev? Use this forum to report problems.

Moderator: Moderators

tepples
Posts: 22705
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Proposal: Forum for NES Graphics

Post by tepples »

In past discussions, difficulty in attracting artists for collaborations has been cited as a factor in why simple little puzzle games dominate the NES homebrew scene. So I hereby propose a new forum in Category:NES / Famicom called "NES Graphics", in hope of attracting pixel artists to the NES scene and letting people already in the NES scene help each other overcome programmer-art syndrome. Topics would include graphic techniques and tools. (Compare "Graphics" in "Multimedia and Design" section on GBAdev.)

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this idea and gain a consensus before putting on my admin hat and making it.
User avatar
Memblers
Site Admin
Posts: 4044
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:04 am
Location: Indianapolis
Contact:

Post by Memblers »

Sounds like a good idea to me.
User avatar
tokumaru
Posts: 12427
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:43 pm
Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Post by tokumaru »

Great, that makes a lot of sense, considering that we have a music forum and all.
User avatar
blargg
Posts: 3715
Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:33 am
Location: Central Texas, USA
Contact:

Post by blargg »

I take it it would not cover game physics, collision, etc.? If you include those, you've basically got a NES Game Programming sub-forum, minus sound. Either way, sounds like a good split. That leaves the plenty of other non-graphic topics for the NESdev sub-forum.
User avatar
tokumaru
Posts: 12427
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:43 pm
Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Post by tokumaru »

blargg wrote:I take it it would not cover game physics, collision, etc.?
I imagine that any programming discussion in the new sub-forum would be related to animations, effects (raster or otherwise), things like that. The things you mentioned are part of the game logic, and should be discussed in the NESDEV sub-forum.

I'm not sure what to expect of the new sub-forum though. Whether it will be more visual or more technical remains to be seen.
Celius
Posts: 2158
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:04 pm
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Contact:

Post by Celius »

Awesome! This is a great addition, and I will probably spend a great deal of my time reading what people post in this sub-section :). Will we be able to post techniques here for creating graphical effects in this forum? That might be a dumb question, because I assume we'd be able to.
User avatar
Memblers
Site Admin
Posts: 4044
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:04 am
Location: Indianapolis
Contact:

Post by Memblers »

I think we should definitely keep the code stuff in the NESdev main forum (and/or newbie forum), for the most part. Dealing with the 2C02 is the main thing with NES programming, the CPU is pretty straight-forward (and other than the NES specific parts, very widely known and documented).

You'd probably want to ask yourself, is what your posting about scientific, code, or implementation (NESdev)? Or is it artistic, data, or design (NES Graphics)?
User avatar
blargg
Posts: 3715
Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:33 am
Location: Central Texas, USA
Contact:

Post by blargg »

OK, that's a good clear line: would it apply to another platform with a totally different CPU and graphics chip, as long as it had the same visual limitations (colors, palettes, number of sprites, etc.)? So if you're talking about register addresses, cycle timing, synchronization, etc., it goes in the main NESdev sub-forum. If it's about how to design graphics or make tradeoffs of colors etc., it goes in this new forum, which is the point: that is accessible to anyone with a basic understanding of NES graphics limitations, but not how to program such things.
User avatar
tokumaru
Posts: 12427
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:43 pm
Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Post by tokumaru »

How do we make that clear in the short space that's available for forum descriptions?
User avatar
Memblers
Site Admin
Posts: 4044
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:04 am
Location: Indianapolis
Contact:

Post by Memblers »

Yeah, pixel art for any kind of platform in general should be OK.. remember there are always tricks like stacking sprites on eachother (or on the background) to give the appearance of more color-depth. In that sense, graphics for pretty much any kind of tile-based system are still relevant to the NES.

tokumaru: Once there are a decent amount of posts, then anyone will have a pretty good idea of what kind of stuff gets talked about in there. Which is also why it's important to try to not scare away the non-programmers, heheh.
tepples
Posts: 22705
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Post by tepples »

blargg wrote:OK, that's a good clear line: would it apply to another platform with a totally different CPU and graphics chip, as long as it had the same visual limitations (colors, palettes, number of sprites, etc.)?
For example, I'd want to share NES Graphics between the NES and Game Boy sections, given how similar the capabilities of NES and GBC are.

"A place for your artistic side. Discuss techniques and tools for pixel art on the NES, GBC, and similar platforms."

EDIT: The first topic I'll move into the new section is probably the one that dissected CV3 and Faxanadu.
User avatar
thefox
Posts: 3134
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:36 am
Location: 🇫🇮
Contact:

Post by thefox »

Yeah I like the idea. I think lack of graphics resources is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in homebrew scene. Besides, if a forum like this doesn't gain popularity it shouldn't be too hard to break it down and move the existing threads to General Stuff or whatever.

Another idea also came to me some days ago. How about a forum for game development blogs (free form)? People could share their current progress, ideas and ask questions. It would be cool to have most game dev blogs (maybe tool dev etc also) in the same place.
Download STREEMERZ for NES from fauxgame.com! — Some other stuff I've done: fo.aspekt.fi
3gengames
Formerly 65024U
Posts: 2284
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:57 pm

Post by 3gengames »

I like the idea. When you think about it, Art isn't really programming and takes a special person to do, so I like the sub-form.
UncleSporky
Posts: 388
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:44 pm

Post by UncleSporky »

Yeah, I think this is a good idea. You don't necessarily want to bloat up the forums when there aren't that many users anyway, but it is a logical addition given the other special forums like music.
tepples wrote:EDIT: The first topic I'll move into the new section is probably the one that dissected CV3 and Faxanadu.
I was just going to ask this. :) I should do another one sometime.
tepples
Posts: 22705
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Post by tepples »

So the consensus is to create it. Once it goes live tomorrow, PM me with other move requests.

For the first couple weeks, I might appear even more move- and split-happy than I normally am while I try to define the scope of NES Graphics by example. When I move topics in and out of this forum, I'll try to leave a shadow (the "Moved:" link).
Post Reply