Background resolution too large?

Hello all,

I wanted to create a Background that was twice as large as it normally would be (normal size: 2880 x 1880)
When I start the game everything is fine, i can walk to each end of the scene. But my Image doesn't show up in the editor at all! So it's difficult to create some accurate waypoints and stuff...
Is a resolution of 5760x1800px too large?

Are you using png, jpg or webp format for your images?

You should be using png. Jpg can be a little hit & miss in VS & it's a shitty format anyway.

P.S: for the best game optimization I recommend using webp format (lossy @ 100% quality - it's very hard to tell the difference between that & a lossless png & as a bonus the webp file size will be about 1/4 to 1/2 size smaller than the png version).

I am using PNG.
I tried different formats, but I still don't get to see my Background in the Editor, it just won't show up.

Could you sendspace (or dropbox) it to me in a pm? See if it displays for me.

fixed it by changing the resolution of my background.
Thanks to AFRLme

Hi I was wondering if there's a limit for a background resolution. I was setting a very large one (png, 7680x1200) and Visionaire crashed.

Yes there's currently a limit. You can bypass it to a degree if you are willing to split your background into tiles. I believe you are only allowed to create backgrounds up to double your game default resolution or maybe it's up to 2x 1920x1080 resolution. I forget... Anyway...

Tiling is simple enough. Open up your background in an image editor like photoshop (or whatever you use) & split the image up into squares & export each one as a separate image. You can then use a transparent png (webp is better) file at the resolution you want the scene to be & then add the tiled images you created as scene objects. You will have to manually position them. They will show up in the editor, however your default background image (providing it isn't super massive) should display correctly when you run the game regardless of whether or not you can actually see it or not.

Hi AFRLme,
thank you for your quick feedback.
I have tried something similar to what you advise, splitting my 7680x1200 png in four tiles 1920x1200 each, and creating a transparent 7680x1200 png background (I'm using paint.net). After loading in Visionaire the transparent 7680x1200 background, it loads correctly the first tile as an object. However after loading the next (adjacent) tile, when trying to position it by the "set object position" button, I have first some weird behavior (both tiles not correctly displayed) and then an unhandled exception.
I tried again using a 7680x1080 transparent background (and 1920x1080 tiles) and got the same behaviour.
Of course my tiles are not squared as in your suggestion and also they are pretty big. I'm going to try with squared tiles next, but first I wanted to check with you what it would be an ideal size for the tiles (hopefully I won't have to place a huge number of them)

Cheers,

PS
One thing I didn't mention before is that I am using the free version of Visionaire. Is the one on sale more up to date?

The free version just lets you create up to 10 rooms and doesn't let you build your game. Features are the same.

I'm not sure if it's an ideal size. Try using a calculator to figure out how to split it up so all the tiles are the same size.

Quick question: are you using 1920x1200 as your default game resolution or are you using 1920x1080? I recommend using 1920x1080 as it's the correct 1080p resolution. By the way you don't actually have to use the preset resolution options as you can specify custom resolution values inside of the "explorer tool", however I highly recommend using resolutions such as: 640x480, 1280x720 or 1920x1080. Why? Because these are the typical HD resolutions of 480p, 720p & 1080p.

Quick note: I didn't mean the tiles had to be square as in 4cm x 4cm or whatever, I just meant split equally so that all of them are the same size. For example: 7680 / 4 = 1920 or 7680 / 6 = 1280. Just split the 1080 in half for 540, which would give you a total of 8 or 12 tiles. I think the width you are setting though is way too large. I think maybe up to 2x 1920 (3x at a push) may be acceptable - I suggest experimenting by creating cropped backgrounds to see how much it can handle as you have to consider that 2D games are quite taxing on system resources compared to your average low-polygon 3D game.

Thank you Sebastian.204 and AFRLme for your feedback.

@Sebastian.204: I was interested in knowing whether (apart the restrictions you pointed out) there was a difference in the code version between the free and the for sale version of the editor.

@AFRLme
In order to (hopefully) reduce the load and the processing I have decreased my game resolution down to 1280x720. So my 4x scene is now 5120x720 png (I gather Visionaire has been thought for 3x scenes tops, but I did fancied to have an effect similar to sam and max game while they are walking on a sidewalk).

However:
- I generated a 5120x720 transparent png
- I chopped my background image in 16 tiles (640x360 each)
I started placing the tiles and after placing 4 of them I tried to save my work. An unhandled exception was raised and then a popup "Saving ved file..." appeared; but it got stuck after a couple of seconds (the green progressing bar was very little) and after killing the process the work done was lost.

So I think I am going to change my plans now, by subdividing my 4x scene in two 2x's, as you seem to advise. I guess it is no longer advised using the tiling for 2x backgrounds, is it right? (I mean I can just load the 2x images as different scenes)?

Thanks,