Ugh. Hub banners need a maximum file size. in BYOND Discussion

ID:135193
 
Dec 24 2004, 11:30 am
I would suggest 5kb. Let's face it: banners are inherently ugly and stupid. It doesn't matter how many cool effects you cram in, it's only going to get uglier and more annoying. So really, they might just as well be ugly, stupid, and quick to download, because some of them are getting just ridiculous--as if force-feeding fat files down someone's crappy modem is somehow going to encourage them to play a game anyway.
#1 Dec 24 2004, 11:51 am
Leftley wrote:
I would suggest 5kb. Let's face it: banners are inherently ugly and stupid. It doesn't matter how many cool effects you cram in, it's only going to get uglier and more annoying. So really, they might just as well be ugly, stupid, and quick to download, because some of them are getting just ridiculous--as if force-feeding fat files down someone's crappy modem is somehow going to encourage them to play a game anyway.

How about not sending banners above a certain size to Dream Seeker? That would improve things a lot.

Lummox JR
#2 Dec 24 2004, 11:58 am
In response to Lummox JR (#1)
Sounds like a plan, I hate getting bogged down with banner downloads every couple of minutes.
#3 Dec 24 2004, 2:16 pm
In response to Nadrew (#2)
Heh, at least that mario fangame banner doesn't show up anymore. Banner animations should be saved for the game's website.
#4 Dec 25 2004, 5:29 am
5KB? Why bother with pictures if you're going that low. Add text ads. (My banners tend to be 3 to 5 times that size and I don't understand why they're unreasonable.)
#5 Dec 25 2004, 9:45 am
In response to ACWraith (#4)
ACWraith wrote:
5KB? Why bother with pictures if you're going that low. Add text ads. (My banners tend to be 3 to 5 times that size and I don't understand why they're unreasonable.)

*Raises hand* :P

Granted, my internet connection sucks, and I don't expect Byond to cater to the lowest common denominator of connections, but at even 25k I'm looking at a 5 to 10 second delay to download a banner. That can be a killer in the middle of an action game. Even I would agree that 5k seems a bit low though. I think I usually try to shoot for about 10-12k. I really don't know why DS doesn't just cache about 5-10 banners each time it starts up and cycle through those for the current session. Next session, download a fresh 5-10 and repeat.

It would also be nice if we could set the categories of banners we would like to see, or not see as the case may be. Nice, though not at the expense of anything important. :)
#6 Dec 25 2004, 10:44 am
In response to Flick (#5)
I can hang my StarScurry banner in an art museum if I need to display it. (It's gorgeous. I said so.) I'm saying there's something fundamentally wrong. If the theory is that non-ugly banners can't be made, then don't bother making banners. They exist to attract players. If they can't get the job done then try something else.
#7 Dec 25 2004, 1:31 pm
In response to Lummox JR (#1)
Lummox JR wrote:
How about not sending banners above a certain size to Dream Seeker? That would improve things a lot.

Lummox JR

This seems good to me; on the other hand, it could be cool to have filtering options [what channels to view the banners from], as well as an checkbox option to disable it .
#8 Dec 26 2004, 8:22 am
In response to Flick (#5)
I agree on cycling banners; that's an excellent idea. I'd amend that such that any time you disconnect from the current game, a new banner not in rotation is downloaded just for variety. Some people keep the same session active for a long time jumping from game to game.

Also I think a local banner cache would be a great idea. Then small per-session downloads could merely augment a collection of, say, 50 banners.

I'd also like to give developers a non-animated banner option for their hub entries, since BYOND doesn't display the animations and I don't see that changing anytime soon. An animated banner could be kept for BYOND site display, non-animated for DS or the new pager.

Lummox JR
#9 Dec 26 2004, 11:05 pm
In response to ACWraith (#4)
5 kb was mostly hyperbole. 10-20 kb is quite reasonable, and even though 40-50 kb is annoying, those ones are still acceptable; it's mostly the 100+ kb banners that prompted me to post this. Not that I'm saying that text ads would be anything except for entirely superior.
#10 Dec 26 2004, 11:13 pm
In response to Flick (#5)
I'd say 12k max.
#11 Dec 26 2004, 11:46 pm
In response to Leftley (#9)
Text ads would be fine, so long as they supported basic HTML.


/-----------------------------\
OpenRPG
Hey, look at my game because
it has cool stuff.
\-----------------------------/


Doesn't stand out much does it?



Actualy, that is pretty leet... I need to make a banner like that.