Why don't we get this? (Backgrounds)

[dstarsboy]

I saw this on Amazon Japan, not available anywhere in the US... that I can tell. Even if we want to buy a set from a japanese website that carries these and simply download them, it doesn't seem possible.

Backgrounds Collections

I'm not hard up for backgrounds or anything at the moment but it would have been nice knowing that some high quality royalty free ones were available if needed. Oh well.

[EmmaShan]

Someone please upload ALL OF THOSE!

[mugenjohncel]

- CONTENT NO LONGER RELEVANT -

[IceD]

Honestly, I'd rather make a background asset myself, even if it would have to took me a year or so... And Mugen's right... What's the point of buying such things when all you get are 800x600 backgrounds in 72dpi (72? hah, they have to be joking me) for so much cash? And there aren't that many of them.

A good asset for sale should include both normal and developer versions of those files, at least at 1600x1200 if not full HD (it's nothing for such art) and larger DPI.

[papillon]

Someone please upload ALL OF THOSE!

That would be ILLEGAL.

Anyway, there are a number of sites that sell backgrounds, some of which can be bought from the US. Quality varies.

(For instance, you could go here for some weird scifiish stuff.)

[J. Datie]

Honestly, I'd rather make a background asset myself, even if it would have to took me a year or so... And Mugen's right... What's the point of buying such things when all you get are 800x600 backgrounds in 72dpi (72? hah, they have to be joking me) for so much cash? And there aren't that many of them.

A good asset for sale should include both normal and developer versions of those files, at least at 1600x1200 if not full HD (it's nothing for such art) and larger DPI.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure 1600x1200 would be higher than full HD. Also, what are you planning to do with these picture that you would need a higher DPI for, if you don't mind me asking?

[IceD]

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure 1600x1200 would be higher than full HD.

No, it isn't. You propably mistaken this with HD Ready. Full HD is 1920x1080 in 16:9 format. HD Ready has 1280x720 pixels, so it's obviously smaller and Full HD is quite bigger than 1600x1200 which is in 4:3 anyway.

Also, what are you planning to do with these picture that you would need a higher DPI for, if you don't mind me asking?

Printing and media purposes, if we're talking about proffesional developement. Also, practical reasons. For example, you want or have to make a high res version of you're game/visual novel. You won't make it if your art will be smaller. High resolution also means that you have full flexibility over anythig you want to do with such art - cropping, resizing, fitting parts to the screen etc. and you won't need to concern with it's quality in that way - you can always resize it to smaller sizes if you need that and don't need such high resolutions. Resizing smaller pictures for bigger resolutions is something different - it will look blurry and you lose quality. People don't buy high definition screens and TV's to play new games with a terribly small resolution or to resize them and watch blurred out screen/pixels/whatever. Surely, I don't mind 800x600, not at all - it's still a great resolution for most of visual novels, but if we're talking about a picture of such sizes prepared for developement, I think those people made just a plain joke.

Anyway, that's my point. I don't see a reason to buy such stuff, it would be just a waste of money. If the dev's make high res backgrounds and sell them, that's ok. Otherwise it's just cheating, especially in such times when you have a cheap DVD which allows you to store 4,5GB of data on it. Even alot of high quality full res backgorunds will fit onto it with no problems, believe me

[dstarsboy]

Wow, that is a terrible resolution! I didn't see that.

Honestly, I'd rather make a background asset myself, even if it would have to took me a year or so...

I would probably rather cheat and release my game a year earlier, lols.

[rioka]

Wow, a large DPI? Do you know how long it takes to CG something in 600 dpi? Lots and lots of time! >_<

It's kind of pointless to work on background for a year. At that rate, you won't finish your game until you're an old geezer and it's totally out of the question if you're doing a commercial project like some folks here. Plus if you buy artwork at that size with that DPI you mentioned - it'll be mighty expensive; royalty free; unless you find someone who's willing to work for much less.

800x600 is not so bad. With the advent of netbooks and small electronics like the iPad, iPhone, etc that can connect online - what's the point of having a hi-res background? If ntebooks and smaller gadgets weren't around, then I would imagine 800x600 being too small but it's still okay in my books.

[Samu-kun]

You can purchase similar background sets online at DLsite. (NSFW)

http://eng.dlsite.com/fsr/=/kw/RG03019/od/reg_d

Hope that helps.

[Jake]

800x600 is not so bad. With the advent of netbooks and small electronics like the iPad, iPhone, etc that can connect online - what's the point of having a hi-res background?

I'd agree that really high-res would be fairly pointless most of the time, but there have been a few games here which use a 1024x768 window - didn't Jisei, for example?

(Insert bad joke about 600dpi being quick and easy to CG when you're talking about 1.33x1" pictures.)

[Counter Arts]

Higher res backgrounds are easier to do promotional videos with if you want to zoom into a certain area. With Ren'py 6.11 coming out soon, you may want to do Fate/Stay Night animations.

[papillon]

You might want to warn people that your link will lead to NSFW images, Samu.

Most sellers on DLsite do 1600x1200 for background sets.

[J. Datie]

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure 1600x1200 would be higher than full HD.

No, it isn't. You propably mistaken this with HD Ready. Full HD is 1920x1080 in 16:9 format. HD Ready has 1280x720 pixels, so it's obviously smaller and Full HD is quite bigger than 1600x1200 which is in 4:3 anyway.

Oh, right, sorry. Sometimes I forget that 4:3 still exists. For some reason I saw the number 1600 and assumed it was 16:9, then I saw a number that was higher than 1080 and assumed it was higher than 1080p. I guess life doesn't really work that way, does it?

And yeah, I never really thought about using these for print stuff, but I guess they never meant it to be used for that. Actually, it's kind of strange that they bothered to list the DPI at all, since most digital stuff is 72dpi or 96dpi by default anyways.

[DaFool]

From what I've heard from artists you usually work at least 4X the resolution of the final art piece. If the same art will be used for wallpaper, etc. then it needs to be in even higher resolution.

These guys are just giving you the 'output' without giving you the source. It's like a composer giving you the processed music and not the sequencer. So it's reasonable in that sense.

The best way to crank out lots of backgrounds, aside from pulling out a digital camera and taking roadtrips, is indeed to use 3D, like Sketchup (for home furnishings), Terragen (or other fractal landscape generator) for landscapes, or Bryce (if you're an advanced 3D modeler and want to light up your models properly.) Maybe for commercial games you're severely limited in what you can use, but so far I'm really happy with Bryce and how it can even make my crappiest Blender models look okay.