Custom Importated Outfit Logos in the Cash Shop

[Coreldan]

This would indeed be sweet, I'm just sorta concerned about bandwidth and server performance.

APB has highly customizable characters and cars but no actual images are streamed over the internet there. Instead, the pictures are done by combining preset symbols of varying sizes and colours and effects. Everyone has these symbols on their computers, so the server only sends a small info to clients what shapes and what size and what colour were used and their location. This way bandwidth stays small and this kind of stuff is possible.

In APB even that is restricted to max like 100 players seeing at the same time. In PS2 we would have a huge amount of people who would have to download the outfit logo even if there were just few outfits present. I dont know much about networking or server stuff, but I'm just worried for the performance. APB had a very good reason for doing it that way instead of letting players import JPGs or something.

Given, if this idea is possible, my outfit will surely be importing our logo on our Vannies so you know who just blew you up And I'm sure we would pay for it, too.

The wasp in a hexagon would look nice on a some NC vehicles. That was originally created in APBs symbol designer with the pre-set symbols, in case someone is doubting the capability of symbol-based customizing.

Then again, if it had that 10-20$ price tag, it would also compensate much for the extra bandwidth the servers would have to use for the logo streaming. I know one small logo like that is something like a few dozen KB or something, but when we are talking about 400-500 people having to stream it in just one fight, not to mention there are likely to be several outfits with custom logos, it adds up.

[Traak]

Punisher vests. Marvel, not Sony.

[FastAndFree]

Also a 10-20$ pricetag would hopefully greatly reduce the manpower needed to filter out all the dicks

[Crator]

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Then again, if it had that 10-20$ price tag, it would also compensate much for the extra bandwidth the servers would have to use for the logo streaming. I know one small logo like that is something like a few dozen KB or something, but when we are talking about 400-500 people having to stream it in just one fight, not to mention there are likely to be several outfits with custom logos, it adds up.

Interesting. Why wouldn't they just create a single compressed file that contains all outfit logos and then have your game client download them when you started the game?

I thought the issue with many different logos like this wouldn't be bandwidth usage to download them, while playing the game, but rather the issue is having to render too many different elements at the same time.

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by Crator

Interesting. Why wouldn't they just create a single compressed file that contains all outfit logos and then have your game client download them when you started the game?

I thought the issue with many different logos like this wouldn't be bandwidth usage to download them, while playing the game, but rather the issue is having to render too many different elements at the same time.

Not a bad idea, but that could mean a small "patch" every time you launch the game Could also end up eating lots of HDD space through time.

I don't know much about this kinda stuff, but would it be tougher for the game to render lots of pure images or render lots of pre-set symbols on characters?

Also, APB will show a black/default model till the said car/character is fully loaded, so it's not like you are stuck in a loading screen till you have loaded every 100 players on the district. Even with just streaming the info about the preset locations, it sometimes takes a a while before you see your opponent in their actualy customizations, cos naturally also the gameplay itself requires bandwidth and it's probably made so that the customization streaming would never take enough bandwidth to effect gameplay in fe. rubberbanding.

Also, something to note. The symbols in APB are all vector images, which means they can be resized and shaped without losing quality. Importing pictures would not have this quality, so you would pretty much have to use it in it's original size unless you wanted downgraded quality for a bigger image. I'm not suggesting making the same pre-set symbol system, cos its probably too much work for what it's worth, though, just pointing out.

[Crator]

^^^ TBH, I'm not certain about the rendering differences. I would assume the downloaded picture logo would take less time to render though. Cause the APB method the CPU actually has to render the image, instead of just display a picture.

To fix the issue with the compressed file with logo images just make it so there's an non-customized in-game outfit logo that could be used as a placeholder until your client downloads the customized logo. Then they could have the logos download in the background while you play so you don't have to wait at the patch screen.

When building the compressed file with all the logos they could write some scripts that only put logos in the file that are currently being used. If the logo hasn't been used in X number of days by anyone then don't put it in the compressed file.

[Raka Maru]

Vector graphics can still be used. Just need to provide an ingame tool for the outfit leader.

[Xyntech]

You could get around the constant patching by delaying the time it takes for an outfit to gain access to their logo.

They already have to wait until the logo gets screened right? Just make them wait a tiny bit extra until the next maintenance patch is released. They will probably be released every week or two if SOE is paying attention to the game. As long as you make it clear that it will take a little time.

[SKYeXile]

No reason it could not be something you earn with a decent amount of outfit points too, that would eliminate some of the dicks....though they would still remain, even without the logos.