Is Habbo removing the zoom-out feature?

[Sandoo]

Funny; Maybe, given the timing and when the guide finally trickled down to you all, but its purpose was geared more at making sure fansite submissions work with-in the file constraints for our web assets in addition to limiting what the production team would need to fix. While at the same time keeping some elements secured for us to use and not confused with user made imagery. The game itself and its assets live outside that guide.

The bigger picture here is where the time gained from not needing to redraw assets can better be utilized. The sheer amount of work that goes into items like clothing or pets, coupled with the small team, really makes those small assets a hinderance (unfortunately); Despite the history and the communal love for them.

I can fully respect your initial displeasure with the look of the code base down-scaling because it will never be exactly on par with the manually redrawn assets you're so accustomed to seeing, but, give it a chance. It's something we introduced with the iOS version of Habbo and it can only get more refined with constructive feedback. If this were a Disney forum this would be a good spot to throw in a "to infinity and beyond" reference. But it's not... so now I feel silly.

Thankfully the new zoom out doesn't look bad at all on high density displays so I'm not really bothered with it on my retina Macbook. I'm glad to hear the rationale being put behind more new content. The only real piece of criticism I have is that the chat-heads look absolutely terrible now. I would suggest that leaving the chat-heads as the traditional smaller sprites would make Habbo a lot less low-budget looking. It really should not be that much of a hindrance to have to redraw new head accessories/hair, etc. when it is released either.

Seems like a way to appease both sides of the debate.

[Kyle]

how would that cut costs?

Time = money.

I like the zoom in feature but I'm not fond of the one zoom out option. Logistically it may make sense to pre-emptively remove all pre drawn small furni and clothing sprites fom existence but in doing so it shows the clear flaws that will continue when new ranges are introduced. The lack of outlines is a HUGE problem, it makes drawings look unfinished and like they have been zoomed and skewed on ms paint. Not only is it ugly, it's also very hard on the eyes of those with already existing eye problems. Black outlines allow for clear enough distinctions between colour to get by but without them, when zoomed out a lot of furni (using the greens in macklebee bubble lounge as a perfect example) are merging together in messy blobs.

Now I realise that this is a company decision to redistribute 30% of currently used time into newer projects but my question is - is it really needed? Attached's post on the forum recently about habbo milking features (his example being LTDs) until they become stagnant is one that rings true in this instance too. I would much rather smaller and more well-drawn furni ranges and less clothing (perhaps I'm biased as I haven't changed my habbo look in a number of years) than quickly knocked up and ultimately shoddy work that can only be fully appreciated at one level of zoom. The university furni is an example of a furni range that is largely hit-and-miss in terms of quality ad desirability. I remember long ago when habbo was a platform that encouraged creativity in design. It was a unique and unrivalled isometric game where people would use what they were given to create some quite astounding things. We'd make lakes from blue oval rugs, tomb stones from area hatches, Eiffel towers from nothing but a handful of z shelves and a French flag on the wall. Now we're given so much premade furni that the scope for creativity has shifted ever so slightly from the consumers to the producers. There is nothing wrong with releasing cool new furni ranges, just slow it down a little? We don't NEED a new range every month, it just stops us appreciating what we already have. Mayan furniture is well designed but because of it's poorly timed, badly backed (the campaign surrounding it was boring) and short-lived, it has faded into obscurity. Rather than drawing entire new ranges I would much prefer utilising old ones, as has been the custom in the past, with new campaigns. Yes, you can draw 3/4 items to add to new campaigns, but why draw entirely new ones every single time?

The iOS app and desktop client are not homogenous products and should not be marketed as such. If I wanted habbo to look like bobba bar and to have difficulty seeing and navigating it then I would play the iOS app rather than my laptop. Don't draw them in any closer to the same thing please.


~~from phone

[Rakker]

Funny; Maybe, given the timing and when the guide finally trickled down to you all, but its purpose was geared more at making sure fansite submissions work with-in the file constraints for our web assets in addition to limiting what the production team would need to fix. While at the same time keeping some elements secured for us to use and not confused with user made imagery. The game itself and its assets live outside that guide.

The bigger picture here is where the time gained from not needing to redraw assets can better be utilized. The sheer amount of work that goes into items like clothing or pets, coupled with the small team, really makes those small assets a hinderance (unfortunately); Despite the history and the communal love for them.

I can fully respect your initial displeasure with the look of the code base down-scaling because it will never be exactly on par with the manually redrawn assets you're so accustomed to seeing, but, give it a chance. It's something we introduced with the iOS version of Habbo and it can only get more refined with constructive feedback. If this were a Disney forum this would be a good spot to throw in a "to infinity and beyond" reference. But it's not... so now I feel silly.

The new update means the end for me on Youtube. I have spent years making videos and tutorials. However, with the new zoom system is the end insight. zooming is very weird. We get our rooms never nice in focus. We shoot mostly with zoomout to get our entire room on screen. This is no longer possible. When we are zoom out all the elements are blurry and not tight. it will mean that we now only record neatly with the zoom in. But this does not bring rooms fully in my 22inch screen. Then I have not even talked about the macbook users. This is very regrettable and the end for many elements from my youtube channel and other well known channels.


I understand that it will cost Sulake a lot of extra work (30%)... but it also costs a lot of promotion on youtube and social media. People share their rooms tidy out on twitter.. Free promotion for habbo in this hard times.


Share my opinion and see if there is something to settle. almost all new furniture have the zoom out images. Why throw away all that work? It takes a lot more work to update the BC blocks, for example.. It has no more lines.. hole elements and nice graphic from habbo are gone. large building is now no longer an option.. we need the zoom out function.. We stuck to screen sizes.

[DJ_Shadow]

What an improvement. Thanks Habbo! :/

[Michael]

I think they should just remove zoom out completely and keep the zoom-in.

[DJ_Shadow]

I think they should just remove zoom out completely and keep the zoom-in.

To be honest, they might as well if it's just going to look like this. What a pity. I'd rather they spent more time focusing on quality rather than quantity.

[Rakker]

cya..

Edited by Derrener (Forum Moderator) - Please do not post pointlessly

[dbgtz]

I don't think the lack of a decent zoom out is going to cost them a lot and I imagine they must have some reason for adding the zoom in feature in the future otherwise why bother adding it in the first place. I suspect it's to do with the increase of resolutions essentially making zooming out obsolete and zoom in necessary.

[Michael]

[dbgtz]

Would ctrl+mouse wheel would really be the best way to do it?