Collectible Card Game Headquarters

True, but Planeswalkers kinda have the same issue, as well as some special cards like Eldrazis. How are those treated?

For artwork that gets cropped like these, it would be ideal to just take the artwork (as found online, posted to Wizards' or to the artist's portfolio, etc) and position / size it on a "full" sized canvas, without the frame and text. This is what is currently done for the HQCG. The problem is that some of the original artwork is available while some is not. This is also how MTGO implements non-standard artwork.

OK, I'm making progress on the mirror, I've been through a lot of the archives I could get my hand on and sorted them according to what has been discussed in this thread. I will soon post a list of files I ended up with and maybe send to some of you a pm with a direct link to the host.

I've also written a simple comparison algorithm to make sure the crop pictures match the full card ones. I'm also in the progress of checking name conventions and number of cards. Once the structure is definitive and all the pictures are sorted inside, I'd like to write a script that will zip required files in a way the user's application need so that people can easily get what they need for Magic Album, MWS and others without having to rename, resort, or do anything. This feature might be limited in a way that it will require the user to provide a working email address to receive a unique link to the zip download, that might help blunt leeching.

I have a few questions I need your help with:

• Where can I find an accurate database/information about how many different artworks, tokens, tips, ads, counters, oversized cards and other things each set have? I'm using Magic Album for the moment, which is quite good, but there is a lot of manual process I'd like to streamline.
  
• I think the INS and TIP classification is unnecessary: they're both non-playing cards and there is not much that differs from both except that for some sets tips where numbered (it is not the case anymore as M13 and RTR are back to unnumbered, except for one M13 card where it has been forgotten). I suggest we put all those cards in the same directory. Question is, what naming convention do we go for? I suggest we create new extensions: .tip.jpg and .ad.jpg and use the card "name" ie "The Stack.tip.jpg" or "Join The Magic.ad.jpg".
  
• I've put poison counters in the TOK folder, as for me it is basically another playable card (like an emblem card that would also go in the tokens section). Do we agree on that?
  
• For special characters like "Æ", what is the convention we should use? "AE" or "Ae"? Is there any other special characters that need special attention? Probably the "/" in the flip, split and dual face cards? What do we go for for this? Underscore?
  
• For flip cards, do we agree that since it is only one artwork, it should only appear once under the name of the card when its copyright note is at the bottom?
  
• For multiple artworks of the same card, do we agree to go for "Name of the Card1.full.jpg". "Name of the Card2.full.jpg" or do we go another route? What about the Zendikar full lands? I've seen things like "Name of the Card1.full.jpg", "Name of the Card1a.full.jpg", "Name of the Card2.full.jpg", "Name of the Card2a.full.jpg"... Is that something we keep as is? Remember, I plan to write scripts that will convert filenames to whatever they need to be for applications, it is just for the general mirror naming convention I ask.
  
• XLHQ pictures are great, but lack punch because of their "raw" treatment. It's great when you want to further process the image, not so much when you want to use them as-is. Should we make 2 versions available? One "raw" version and a processed one?
  
• Some crops I've seen while checking files are sometimes streched vertically and don't look as good as a brand new crop from the full picture. Should I replace the old crops? More generally, should we use the XLHQ full pictures to generate everything from XLHQ crops to HQ fulls and crops?

I think that is all the questions I can remember for now. Please give me your input, suggestions, critics here or by pm. The really active members can also already ask for a direct access by pm.

Thanks!

Are you providing access to these individually or as zip files only - per application? Here are some of my fragmented thoughts:

deurk wrote:[*]Where can I find an accurate database/information about how many different artworks, tokens, tips, ads, counters, oversized cards and other things each set have? I'm using Magic Album for the moment, which is quite good, but there is a lot of manual process I'd like to streamline.

There is no such database to my knowledge. At least not something in text format. There are websites with HTML tables and lists, such as MagicLibrarities whic is now out-of-date, but beyond that I don't think anybody has combiled such a resources. Please share if you find / compile one.

[*]I think the INS and TIP classification is unnecessary: they're both non-playing cards and there is not much that differs from both except that for some sets tips where numbered (it is not the case anymore as M13 and RTR are back to unnumbered, except for one M13 card where it has been forgotten). I suggest we put all those cards in the same directory. Question is, what naming convention do we go for? I suggest we create new extensions: .tip.jpg and .ad.jpg and use the card "name" ie "The Stack.tip.jpg" or "Join The Magic.ad.jpg".

I agree. Plus .back.jpg? This can be applied to the regular, archenemy, vanguard, world championship (not available yet) backs too? Where should such "shared" backs be placed in the grouping?

[*]I've put poison counters in the TOK folder, as for me it is basically another playable card (like an emblem card that would also go in the tokens section). Do we agree on that?

I concur.

[*]For special characters like "Æ", what is the convention we should use? "AE" or "Ae"?

Technically there is an uppercase Æ and a lowercase æ. So it would probably be more correct to use AE for card names. Some applications may require Ae though.

[*]For flip cards, do we agree that since it is only one artwork, it should only appear once under the name of the card when its copyright note is at the bottom?

I'm not sure what you're asking here.

XLHQ pictures are great, but lack punch because of their "raw" treatment. It's great when you want to further process the image, not so much when you want to use them as-is. Should we make 2 versions available? One "raw" version and a processed one?

huh ? they are anything but raw. Hqs are just smaller versions with perfectly black borders. There is no color or contrast difference whatsoever between them.

While people talk about "raw" they mean that the raster is visible, while it's not clearly visible on the smaller cards.

Whoa, I need to have another look, I was pretty sure colors where different. Thanks for pointing that out. Should I generate HQ from the XL then?

(And Snacko is right, I was not referring to camera/scanner raw.)

Here is a list of example directories and filenames based on the naming scheme we're trying to adjust. I propose to replace a few more things:

- FUL by TRC for "traditionnal cards" (the full scans, including a .regular in place of the .full in the file suffix)
- CRP by ART for "artwork" (the crops, either with or without a .art suffix)

As usual, SET stands for the 3 letters set code and LNG for the 3 letters language code.

• SET_LNG_TRC:
  
  • Card Name.regular.jpg
  • As Spelled on Card.regular.jpg
  • Special case for AEther.regular.jpg
  • OrderChaos.split.jpg
  • Budoka Pupil.split.jpg
• SET_LNG_ART:
  
  • Card Name.art.jpg
  • As Spelled on Card.art.jpg
  • Special case for AEther.art.jpg
  • OrderChaos.art.jpg
  • Budoka Pupil.art.jpg
• SET_LNG_INS:
  
  • Planeswalkers.tip.jpg
  • The Stack.tip.jpg
  • Friday Night Magic.back.jpg
  • Normal regular card.back.jpg
  • Oversized card.back.jpg
  • Vanguard card.back.jpg
  • Archenemy card.back.jpg
  • Commander.back.jpg
  • WPN.back.jpg
• SET_LNG_TOK:
  
  • Poison.counter.jpg
  • Angel.token.jpg
  • Saproling.token.jpg
  • Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.emblem.jpg
• SET_LNG_NTR:
  
  • Jund.plane.jpg
  • Mutual Epiphany.phenomenon.jpg
  • Urza.avatar.jpg
  • All in Good Time.scheme.jpg
  • Kaalia of the Vast.oversized.jpg

Let me know what you think about this organisation. If that fits, I will start renaming pictures and will compile a list of sets including detail about every type of cards detailed in this post.

Thinking that since we use full card name, we might use full set name, language and subcategory as well...

Not the biggest fan of "regular". I believe "full" serves the same purpose with minimal renaming.

As for "art", "back", "tip", "counter", "token" and "emblem"; those are descriptive and work well. I'm not sure whether "scheme", "plane" and "avatar" are needed when "oversized" covers them all well enough.

How's this coming along Deurk?

Been busy recently but I've done most of the scans I had I think. I need to review the info in this thread to make sure I have done what I've been mentionning and followed the naming scheme we talked about, then I'll be able to send a link or show what is ready in a way. Thanks for the reminder!

Goblin Hero wrote:

deurk wrote:I was wondering if people handling this project needed some online mirror to distribute files from, rather than rely on a hundred of different mediafire places

How much traffic can you provide? At least 1-2 TB monthly is needed (based on my own MWSPA statistics).

I don't know if I ever threw in the "I can help" comment but I could (assuming you need mirrors). I can handle this amount, I would say I am limited on speed of transfer not quantity. I only have a 5Mb uplink. Whenever all is said and done and if you would like me to be a mirror I could support just about any protocol (http, ftp, rsync etc).

I too could help mirroring the files. I have ~5 TB traffic at 100 MBit/s uplink, after that it's only 10 MBit/s.

It would be great to have rsynced mirrors and a way of sharing the load automatically.
That wouldn't be too hard actually.