09-06-2011, 05:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2011, 05:07 PM by Yawackhary.)
As far as I know tSR does have some standards when it comes to stuff like there has been stuff that's been rejected in the past not just customs but also rips (due to that they have been resized or shrunk by the image uploader or that the backgrounds have the same colour as one of the sprites that can ruin it or even JPEGs).
I tried to at least understand the long post and think that got most of it except the US president thing since not everyone lives in the USA. Having some improvements can be a good thing if done right but what you are suggesting is a bit too strict and would work out worser in the long run. If you want to go into detail (tl,dr time)...
tSR does have some quality control as explained earlier and that there are threads explaining how to make a good sheet. Rippers also have their own quality control from sprite arrangement to optimising the sheets so the file size goes down (whether by PNGOUT or by reducing the colour if the sprites are under 256 colours) and making sure that every sprite (if possible) is on there without any glitches unless it is intentional from the developers. The latter surprising does happen quite a bit.
For the completeness thing, how would a person know that a sheet is complete or not? There are some factors that have to be known. Some old incomplete sheets in the past do get replaced (and that they have been) even by the same ripper, there are emulation and tool issues as well. E.g. 5 years ago it was very hard to rip Genesis games due to both lack of tools and some games couldn't be ripped since Genesis games often had a black background affecting the sprites as well as some games didn't work on emulators. Now with these tools and more accessable emulators, it is easier to rip than before (still not as accessable as GBA games though). There are still to this day some systems that don't have the attention and can't be ripped either by game or even the entire system itself. Stuff that are known to be incomplete like the Scott Pilgram rips will be replaced when emulation would be possible for the 360 or the files have been decompressed by someone very knowledgable of decompression/figured out the file format so they got as much as they can get at this moment in time. Another thing is that a game could have unused sprites but the game uses compression that might be difficult to crack, how would a person know if a game has unused sprites just by playing the game? A person shouldn't be punished for that.
For the organisation, it is really up to the ripper but providing that there isn't much blank space unless it can't be helped like if it is an isometric rip but yet just enough so people can at least grab the sprites without mixing or making it hard for the person using the sprites is okay. From looking at rips on the forums, most people having some sort of organisation from standing pose, walking poses, action poses, dying pose unless ripped directly from files or the data in some cases (in that case, the organisation is the order the files/data go in) all with a reasonable amount of blank space [not silly like having a few sprites and lots of blank space]. Besides bandwidth isn't too much of an issue here if the sheet is useful, some people even put sprites into zips cause they know that the sprites could be too big to put on a sheet without being resized by every image uploader and the fact that it could crash someones Internet browser (also to make it easier to use the sprites as well). Assembly really depends on the game, some it might be insanely hard to get every single possible pose especially if a game uses software scaling and rotation so it is up to the ripper, plus there is also the fact of emulator glitches.
Ripping isn't about how many sheets that you have, it is about the passion of helping people to have sprites of a game that they wanted, a game that you really like that you enjoy ripping, preserving sprites so people in the future can look at the style maybe even attempt to replicate it and even the original company or game magazine can use the sprites. It is having a hobby to do however ripping can turn from a passion into a chore (like ripping horrible games that you have to rip or thinking that you have to singlehandly rip a game/console to yourself due to lack of help). Some rippers even have jobs and lives that are very important and might not have much time to rip. With a grading system, it would put people off ripping sprites/textures and figuring that it would be too much of a hassle. It would also cause the uploaders to feel like it is a chore checking every single sheet just to make sure that it is ripped right or not (again some sheets are old, some at least dating back to 2004 and a few are from TSGK) and the uploaders don't have knowledge of every single game to know every single character/ action/ regional difference (some games have Japanese/European only sprites or the American versions are censored/uncensored) in the game.
Also some of things mentioned like the very small text only sigs would actually cause most if not the entire community to leave due to the over the top strictness, not just the people who submit to the site but also the people who use the forums to have a chat and may not have interest what so ever in what tSR does. It's like sending a nuclear bomb just to get rid of a few flies.
Sorry that it is too long for people to read...
I tried to at least understand the long post and think that got most of it except the US president thing since not everyone lives in the USA. Having some improvements can be a good thing if done right but what you are suggesting is a bit too strict and would work out worser in the long run. If you want to go into detail (tl,dr time)...
tSR does have some quality control as explained earlier and that there are threads explaining how to make a good sheet. Rippers also have their own quality control from sprite arrangement to optimising the sheets so the file size goes down (whether by PNGOUT or by reducing the colour if the sprites are under 256 colours) and making sure that every sprite (if possible) is on there without any glitches unless it is intentional from the developers. The latter surprising does happen quite a bit.
For the completeness thing, how would a person know that a sheet is complete or not? There are some factors that have to be known. Some old incomplete sheets in the past do get replaced (and that they have been) even by the same ripper, there are emulation and tool issues as well. E.g. 5 years ago it was very hard to rip Genesis games due to both lack of tools and some games couldn't be ripped since Genesis games often had a black background affecting the sprites as well as some games didn't work on emulators. Now with these tools and more accessable emulators, it is easier to rip than before (still not as accessable as GBA games though). There are still to this day some systems that don't have the attention and can't be ripped either by game or even the entire system itself. Stuff that are known to be incomplete like the Scott Pilgram rips will be replaced when emulation would be possible for the 360 or the files have been decompressed by someone very knowledgable of decompression/figured out the file format so they got as much as they can get at this moment in time. Another thing is that a game could have unused sprites but the game uses compression that might be difficult to crack, how would a person know if a game has unused sprites just by playing the game? A person shouldn't be punished for that.
For the organisation, it is really up to the ripper but providing that there isn't much blank space unless it can't be helped like if it is an isometric rip but yet just enough so people can at least grab the sprites without mixing or making it hard for the person using the sprites is okay. From looking at rips on the forums, most people having some sort of organisation from standing pose, walking poses, action poses, dying pose unless ripped directly from files or the data in some cases (in that case, the organisation is the order the files/data go in) all with a reasonable amount of blank space [not silly like having a few sprites and lots of blank space]. Besides bandwidth isn't too much of an issue here if the sheet is useful, some people even put sprites into zips cause they know that the sprites could be too big to put on a sheet without being resized by every image uploader and the fact that it could crash someones Internet browser (also to make it easier to use the sprites as well). Assembly really depends on the game, some it might be insanely hard to get every single possible pose especially if a game uses software scaling and rotation so it is up to the ripper, plus there is also the fact of emulator glitches.
Ripping isn't about how many sheets that you have, it is about the passion of helping people to have sprites of a game that they wanted, a game that you really like that you enjoy ripping, preserving sprites so people in the future can look at the style maybe even attempt to replicate it and even the original company or game magazine can use the sprites. It is having a hobby to do however ripping can turn from a passion into a chore (like ripping horrible games that you have to rip or thinking that you have to singlehandly rip a game/console to yourself due to lack of help). Some rippers even have jobs and lives that are very important and might not have much time to rip. With a grading system, it would put people off ripping sprites/textures and figuring that it would be too much of a hassle. It would also cause the uploaders to feel like it is a chore checking every single sheet just to make sure that it is ripped right or not (again some sheets are old, some at least dating back to 2004 and a few are from TSGK) and the uploaders don't have knowledge of every single game to know every single character/ action/ regional difference (some games have Japanese/European only sprites or the American versions are censored/uncensored) in the game.
Also some of things mentioned like the very small text only sigs would actually cause most if not the entire community to leave due to the over the top strictness, not just the people who submit to the site but also the people who use the forums to have a chat and may not have interest what so ever in what tSR does. It's like sending a nuclear bomb just to get rid of a few flies.
Sorry that it is too long for people to read...