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VGCollect Site Stuff => Site Feedback => Topic started by: tpugmire on February 04, 2011, 10:49:10 am

Title: Submitting Art
Post by: tpugmire on February 04, 2011, 10:49:10 am
I finally got my whole collection uploaded, and now I'm going to go back through and update everything I can.  I was just wondering about the art though.  There is a place for front and back cover art, as well as a cartridge scan.  Do you want all three, or if we have the front and back, is that good enough?  I'm debating scanning my ds games, but I'm thinking that they might be too small to really be of any use.  Any input?
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 04, 2011, 11:59:47 am
The most important image is front box art because this is what I use to create a thumbnail and display in collections. I'd consider the other two optional but it really depends on how much work you want to do. Any submissions you make are greeaaaaaatly appreciated!
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: scott on February 04, 2011, 05:12:20 pm
I've been trying to do front and back images at least. In worst case, I just do the front. Cart/disc scans I consider optional at the moment. But if I have them, I add them. If not, I'll go back and work on it later.

If you can get a nice high res scan of the DS cards and set them around the 200px wide mark they'll show up nicely. Anything smaller would prolly not be worth the effort. Remember, a PC monitors res is 72px / inch so it doesn't need to be print quality (250/300 px / inch). But the larger the better. Just make sure they are jpg and the form will do the resizing work for you.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: tpugmire on February 06, 2011, 05:01:55 pm
So, how long does it take for the art to show up.  I've submitted a few this past week, but only one is showing up.  Have I done something wrong?
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 06, 2011, 05:53:11 pm
Everything that was pending has been approved. It's possible that there were some errors as I'm not 100% confident that the process works properly. Which games did you edit?
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: tpugmire on February 06, 2011, 05:58:38 pm
I added pictures of the following:
Bonk's Adventure - Turbografx 16
R-Type - PC Engine

I also did some cart scans of a few Atari 2600 games
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 06, 2011, 06:00:12 pm
Okay I'll dig through the logs and see if anything odd happened. If they were jpeg files, everything should have worked as planned. I'll keep you updated.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: tpugmire on February 06, 2011, 06:02:31 pm
I found the Atari pics, but not the others.  One suggestion I have is maybe have the cart pictures be the thumbnail if no cover art is posted.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: darko on February 08, 2011, 02:18:36 pm
On a slight side note...make sure that you guys are adding at least decent images of the box art. Some of them really look terrible. I've gone through and submitted some updates to several, but it would be easier to just do it right the first time. Not trying to be a jerk, but you know.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 08, 2011, 02:22:51 pm
> darko
> On a slight side note...make sure that you guys are adding at least decent images of the box art. Some of them really look terrible. I've gone through and submitted some updates to several, but it would be easier to just do it right the first time. Not trying to be a jerk, but you know.

Agreed. A lot of the art is from an old project of mine, which was low quality and only 150px wide. Newer images are saved at a higher quality and at 200px (I may bump this up). I'll be personally scanning all my NES and SMS boxes as well to have the highest quality possible.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: darko on February 08, 2011, 02:31:07 pm
Some of the titles that I've updated previously uploaded images over are not showing up. Any ideas? It's telling me the changes were accepted.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 08, 2011, 02:37:49 pm
> darko
> Some of the titles that I've updated previously uploaded images over are not showing up. Any ideas? It's telling me the changes were accepted.

Try clearing your cache since the file names are the same. If that doesn't clear it up send me some specific examples and I'll take a look at my logs. As long as they are .jpg files everything should work.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: darko on February 08, 2011, 02:42:11 pm
I cleared the cache and it worked for everything but the front box image for The Legend of Zelda NES
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 08, 2011, 02:47:45 pm
I'm seeing this image that was created on today at 2:16pm. It's possible that it didn't refresh totally.

(http://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/69.jpg)

I'll look into a way to make sure things don't cache. The only method I know of now wastes a lot of bandwidth, but there may be others that I'm not aware of.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: darko on February 08, 2011, 02:59:11 pm
I'll try the Zelda box again.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 08, 2011, 03:01:00 pm
> darko
> I'll try the Zelda box again.

The one you just submitted it identical to the one already on the server. hmmmm...
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: darko on February 08, 2011, 10:12:24 pm
I don't know unless it's taking a long time for the server to refresh. Kind of strange though. Earlier when you posted the Zelda image it showed up as the old one on my end (which is why I said I'd re-upload the newer image). Now it's the newer image on here and on the game info screen.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: scott on February 09, 2011, 12:24:20 am
> darko
> I don't know unless it's taking a long time for the server to refresh. Kind of strange though. Earlier when you posted the Zelda image it showed up as the old one on my end (which is why I said I'd re-upload the newer image). Now it's the newer image on here and on the game info screen.


I've noticed that some times I have to hit refresh in order to see the newer images. especially if I just did the edit and it's been approved. Happened with tennis, super mario land 2 and a few others.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: pceslayer on February 20, 2011, 11:03:42 pm
This happens to me :/

A caching issue maybe?

How are the image files stored on the backend?  Is the original file replaced with the new one, but assuming the same name?
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: scott on February 21, 2011, 12:05:08 am
Ya each image gets converted to a new name based on the ID number the site gives it. So when it's overwritten it's still using the same name/number. I believe it's a cache issue.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 21, 2011, 09:55:50 am
> pceslayer
> This happens to me :/

A caching issue maybe?

How are the image files stored on the backend?  Is the original file replaced with the new one, but assuming the same name?

@pceslayer Exactly. I'll play around with adding a new random string to the end of the file name which should force the browser to grab the new version.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: matt on February 21, 2011, 09:59:47 am
I updated the item page, not the thumbnails yet. Your browser should check for a new version on each load. This eats up bandwidth so I'll still explore other options.
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: strickler80 on March 05, 2011, 09:31:50 pm
Silly question, but how do you guys get your images?
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: pceslayer on March 05, 2011, 11:06:40 pm
Scans of course :p
Title: Re: Submitting Art
Post by: scott on March 06, 2011, 12:51:03 pm
I'm sure a lot of entries have pics found on the net already. But the best is to submit a scan. I try to scan or photograph as much as possible.