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Nandrew
06-02-2008, 03:03 PM
http://www.devmag.org.za/uploads/Issue20_cover.jpg

50 PAGES! 50 FRIKKIN PAGES! (http://www.devmag.org.za/)

We start the new year with a bang, proudly presenting the biggest Dev.Mag issue ever ever. Had to work pretty hard to keep this baby below the 10 megabyte barrier, but the extra effort has definitely been worth it.

Issue 20, I feel, represents a boost in both quality and quantity. The submissions this month were simply amazing, and it was only with a great deal of willpower (or possibly laziness) that I cut out about another 10 pages worth of content.

The material in this edition is both excellent and abundant, and I think that everybody involved should give themselves a hearty pat on the back for such a great 20th instalment. Dev.Mag's just taken another step forward.

Have a great read, everyone.

FuzzYspo0N
06-02-2008, 03:18 PM
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26151

This is where its being looked at as well, irrlicht community.

Watch out, i got more links coming.

This is an awesome issue as stated.ftw!

Feedback : The images look funky. like some of the samples for the images of things, like the article on IGF the graphics u cant see anything... maybe its just me but they messed up blocky...

Other then that, we have a winner

Nandrew
06-02-2008, 03:32 PM
Great, please post links to all the people you've dealt with / interviewed in this edition, that would be great.

Some of the images will look a bit strange in this edition, yeah. That's an unfortunate side effect of me wanting to keep the mag size down -- they're usually compressed to JPEG and the resolution is limited to about 150 / 125. I don't think we can really make Dev.Mag much longer than 50 pages a pop without some serious quality loss.

The Irrlicht articles were amongst those compressed, due to them being picture-heavy. The tailpiece sadly suffered as well, because for some reason it took an entire 5 megabytes after I converted it to PDF the first time.

Hopefully this won't bother people too much. :P

FuzzYspo0N
06-02-2008, 05:11 PM
LOl i dont think it shud, maybe a fun solution is to send the stuff to me or do it yourself, and make a hires edition lol, but thats defeating the object.


Great, please post links to all the people you've dealt with / interviewed in this edition, that would be great.

www.irrgheist.com - h-craft
www.irrlicht3d.org - Niko

You mean this? im not sure what u meant :P

Cyberninja
06-02-2008, 06:19 PM
An they said the mag couldn't make it pass issue 3. Hah! ;)

Well done everybody. Awesome issue. Really enjoyed the tutorials in this one. The articles in the Design Section was WIN also. SCR is looking really cool Fuzzy. What! No Coolhand or Cairnswm this issue? ;_;

Nandrew, I would suggest you crop and compress the images directly in Photoshop. That way you'll be able to reduce the file size considerably and still maintain a decent image quality. It will also keep the edges nice and smooth as opposed to cutting out the images in Indesign. Which is making the edges look very jagged. You could also try converting them to gif format and see if that helps. Then compress the final mag in Indesign, with a slighty higher setting. Play with the ratios and see what happens. Anything above 40 pages is still going to be large however. So there's only so much you can do.

*And please put your name in the credit next time or I will chase you with a stick. ;)

cairnswm
06-02-2008, 06:21 PM
Posted to Pascal Game Dev http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/viewtopic.php?p=41576#41576

CairnsWM is in semi retirement from DeVMag due to starting his own company. HE WILL RETURN :)

Cyberninja
06-02-2008, 06:25 PM
Ah, Cool. :D

Gazza_N
06-02-2008, 06:37 PM
Even though I am horribly biased and all, I think this issue was incredible. Seriously. A roaring round of applause to Nandrew and the rest of the team for a kickin' 20th issue.

Also:



me: That's why I hate updaters.
Still, they'd better fix it soon, or they'll have plenty of molotov cocktails to fend off.
In any case, 50 pages is awesome, so nice going on that. ;)
Nandrew: :D
There's an estimated 10 pages of excess in this issue, as well
The content was incredible this time around.
Basically, I have the first 10 pages of next month's mag already
me: Nice. 60 pages next month, then? :P
Nandrew: lol
I think the workload would kill me :P
me: Do it for the fans!
Actually, you just answered my question regarding mag size pretty well there.
Q: "What dictates the maximum size of the mag each month?"
A: "The sanity of the editor"
Nandrew: lol
Feel free to put THAT on the forums :P


So there you have it.

FuzzYspo0N
06-02-2008, 07:10 PM
lol winner. Nandrew(and team) deserves cakes. give him teh cakes..


SCR is looking really cool Fuzzy.

Thanks, im slowly getting there. comp 17 slowed me down :) FTW

FuzzYspo0N
06-02-2008, 08:39 PM
http://www.irrlicht3D.org just featured us at the top. FTW

http://irrlicht3d.org/pivot/entry.php?id=670, along those lines

Sorry for double pOST

Edit , lol someones comment.


After years of digging through gamedev-related websites on the web I didn’t even know that this magazine exists! Thanks for mentioning.

Nandrew
07-02-2008, 11:31 AM
Heh, to answer some queries:

Fuzzy: Sorry, when I said post links, I meant post links of our magazine to all of the people that you've dealt with. :P Which you seem to have done anyway, so all's good.

Cyberninja: Hoo boy, trials and tribulations. The biggest problem comes from the fact that some of our design is done in PagePlus, and I have no clue how to wrestle down the filesizes when I make PDFs from that program. The tailpiece was one such article and gave me a lot of grief, even when I lowered resolutions down to 75 and other ghastly figures. And then compressed to JPEG. And sacrificed a goat. Regarding jagged edges on images: I'll work on my Photoshop skizzles and see what I can do about that. But I think we need you on the design squad again. :P

Also, great to see that people like the issue, feedback has been very positive.

FuzzYspo0N
07-02-2008, 01:27 PM
I can optimize images as well, its one thing im good at it seems.
Let me know if there is more i can help out with im more than happy to

xyber
08-02-2008, 07:32 AM
Dev.Mag is really good. Keep up the great work ;)

01DT!m3r
08-02-2008, 01:54 PM
Awesome mag ! you should think of making a retail version. Seriously i would love to buy it in the shops

Cyberninja
08-02-2008, 06:45 PM
Heh, to answer some queries:

Cyberninja: Hoo boy, trials and tribulations. The biggest problem comes from the fact that some of our design is done in PagePlus, and I have no clue how to wrestle down the filesizes when I make PDFs from that program. The tailpiece was one such article and gave me a lot of grief, even when I lowered resolutions down to 75 and other ghastly figures. And then compressed to JPEG. And sacrificed a goat. Regarding jagged edges on images: I'll work on my Photoshop skizzles and see what I can do about that. But I think we need you on the design squad again. :P


Eeeii..you're still using that annoying little program.. >.< lol. I'll redraw the pages in Indesign. Just tell me what you need. I'll return when I can man. Just been really busy. Already working at full cylinders. Any more, and you may have to sacrifice another goat to bring me back to life. :( I will return when my schedule clears up.

Nandrew
11-02-2008, 11:04 AM
Eeeii..you're still using that annoying little program.. >.< lol. I'll redraw the pages in Indesign. Just tell me what you need. I'll return when I can man. Just been really busy. Already working at full cylinders. Any more, and you may have to sacrifice another goat to bring me back to life. :( I will return when my schedule clears up.

Heh, yeah, we're kinda stuck with using Pageplus at times. Chippit doesn't own InDesign, see. :P

Squid
11-02-2008, 09:43 PM
Chippit doesn't own InDesign, see. :P

Gogo sponsorship!

Nandrew
15-02-2008, 09:14 AM
Eep! Design packages are expensive, you know. :P

I myself would love to own InDesign CS3, but it costs a considerable R7000. But sure, if we can find that much sponsorship, then we win. ;)

On another note, a little birdie (well, actually, the Dev.Mag stats tracker) has told me that in 9 days we've had over 1600 downloads of Issue 20 alone. And about 5000 magazine downloads in total. A very respectable figure, nicely done guys. ;) Be sure to keep marketing!