Libgdx Graphics/Particles

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

So I have a functional prototype in libgdx now and I need to get some decent graphics and polish until I am pleased
to end this project. I know someone who is a really good graphic artist but has never done any work for games and
I would like to ask for some graphics.

How should I go about this?

  • If my game should be working on desktop and android, which resolution should the different parts have in order
    to look good on both, desktop and android?

  • At the beginning I had some problems because I didn’t use png files which didn’t have a size of a multiple of two
    but later when I used drawables from a skin, this didn’t really matter anymore. Why is that? And do the textures
    need to be a multiple of two?

  • For particles, is it necessary to use the particle editor in libgdx or can you import other particles(after effects)
    or something? Could you also use hand drawn animations instead of some particle effects?

I know some of these questions are quite easy to answer but I don’t really have experience with graphics, so I would be really grateful for some good explained answers and even more information about graphics I should know to ask for in my game!

#2

Hi there. :slight_smile:

[quote]If my game should be working on desktop and android, which resolution should the different parts have in order
to look good on both, desktop and android?
[/quote]
Mobile devices seem to go crazy in the last few years with their resolution, so I don’t think you need separate assets for desktop and android. Maybe include a 50% downscale of all your textures for lower-resolution (and presumably low RAM) devices.

[quote]At the beginning I had some problems because I didn’t use png files which didn’t have a size of a multiple of two
but later when I used drawables from a skin, this didn’t really matter anymore. Why is that? And do the textures
need to be a multiple of two?
[/quote]
NPOT textures are supported since OpenGL 2.0, however I still recommend using power-of-two textures because NPOT can mess up mipmapping and some other built-in functions. Quote from the linked OpenGL wiki: “While modern hardware no longer has the power-of-two limitation on texture dimensions, it is generally a good idea to keep using power-of-two textures unless you specifically need NPOTs. Mip-mapping with such textures can have slightly unintended consequences, compared to the power-of-two case.”

[quote]For particles, is it necessary to use the particle editor in libgdx or can you import other particles(after effects)
or something? Could you also use hand drawn animations instead of some particle effects?
[/quote]
I don’t know much about LibGDX but since you can access OpenGL you can make any kind of particles you want without using a particle editor. I’ve just made a particle system using pure LWJGL and it turned out nice. However, I still recommend using the visual editor, because trying to tweak particle effects with a hit-and-miss technique is way harder than getting instant visual feedback. :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks for the response, I will contact my artist and I hope this will work out :slight_smile: