thashepherd wrote:
Any word on the size of module icons? They look like they're around 24x64.

The rule seems to be, unless its says wide, they have a constant ratio of either 1:1 or 2:1 though that is supposition on my part.



My guess, from looking at it in game, is small is 32 x 64 and large is 128 x 256. But its easy to test, make a file of that size, point to it. If the game loads then its fine, if not, the game will freeze (at least it did on the hero class icons).

Nycidian wrote:
if not, the game will freeze (at least it did on the hero class icons).

Isn't this fun? I hope the dev team will give us an archive containing all the existing icons, or at least one real example of each type, so we do not have to stumble around like this.

Honestly its better that it does that than seem to run fine but be an added instability that adds up and after some random amount crashes it for no readily apparent reason.

Nycidian wrote:
Honestly its better that it does that than seem to run fine but be an added instability that adds up and after some random amount crashes it for no readily apparent reason.

That is true. But, we should not have to deal with either one.

davea wrote:
For tech icons, you have made the point that we must use png for transparency. Can you give us one example file, so that we can see what is supposed to be transparent and what is the exact alignment? We obviously cannot use a screenshot if transparency is important. Even better, can you make an archive of all the icons, in their proper directory structure?

Perhaps because I'm fairly handy with graphics it seemed self evident to me that it would be a circle 64 px in diameter centered in a square 64x64. I tested this theory out with a circle that every pixel changed colors as it went inward and made sure every ring was visible, it was so yes what I said above is correct and here is a zip with a dummy black circle of the correct dimensions. Though I highly suggest learning to use Inkscape to work with vector graphics and scaling, its much easier.



TechCircle.zip

Ravine created a great doc on all the sizes and where to find the GUI tags in the XML files. I uploaded it in the OP.



I discussed the icon archive matter with Lt_Miles and we still need confirmation from AmpliMath, as there might be some legal issues with doing this. There's a difference between "making the extraction of visual assets from the game possible" and "creating a separate archive with all the assets inside". We're looking into it.

LoiCus- wrote:
There's a difference between "making the extraction of visual assets from the game possible" and "creating a separate archive with all the assets inside". We're looking into it.

Either one is fine. Don't force us to use screenshots.

Nycidian wrote:
I tested this theory out with a circle that every pixel changed colors as it went inward and made sure every ring was visible, it was so yes what I said above is correct and here is a zip with a dummy black circle of the correct dimensions.

Thanks, that is a little helpful. Now can you take 100 screenshots, each exactly 64x64, of the existing tech icons and save them in files with the proper filename and directory structure, without losing any of the original graphics quality and transparency? (I am not actually requesting you to do this, but I hope you get my point.)

Honestly not sure why you would need that (I know it was slightly sarcastic), if you want to use the pictures then just use them from where they are, and if not then its easier to make new ones from scratch IMO.



Here are some Hero ability icons I did from scratch, for example it took very little time. /shrug

Nycidian wrote:
if you want to use the pictures then just use them from where they are.

I am working on racial diversity, and the specific thing I need is to take some of the blue generic icons and recolor them as orange. This is easy, if I have the exact source files to work from.

Ok, well I can suggest using screenshots and gimp it would be fairly easy to import and mask, if you willing to spend 10-20 minutes an icon.

you could actually just use curves in ps or any other paint program to change the blue into yellow.



EDIT



for example i did this in 1 min. or less

Pleasure wrote:
for example i did this in 1 min. or less

Yes, starting from a properly formatted image file, you did that in one minute. How long would it have taken if you had to start with a screenshot and then crop it properly to get the exactly right 64x64 box?

With gimp and the file I provided above and using mask layers, about 3 minutes for me.









was actually about 7 minutes but likely once I new exactly what I was doing it would be about 3.





Actually here is the gimp file that is already set up all you would have to do is paste the icon over the one provided.



Test.zip

davea wrote:
Yes, starting from a properly formatted image file, you did that in one minute. How long would it have taken if you had to start with a screenshot and then crop it properly to get the exactly right 64x64 box?

let me see.

Nycidian wrote:
With gimp and the file I provided above and using mask layers, about 3 minutes for me.









was actually about 7 minutes but likely once I new exactly what I was doing it would be about 3.





Actually here is the gimp file that is already set up all you would have to do is paste the icon over the one provided.



Test.zip

yeah me too about 6-8 minutes. But doing again i think would be roughly 4 minutes max.

Well, I hope they will release the icons anyway, since I am not interested in 6-8 minutes x 30 icons I want to recolor.

davea wrote:
Well, I hope they will release the icons anyway, since I am not interested in 6-8 minutes x 30 icons I want to recolor.

yeah i can understand that. Why not use Nycidian's Template for GIMP, it should cut your editing time down to 1-2 min per Icon. And i thing that is reasonable.

Somehow I have not explained my goal very well. I want to take every tech icon, where one race has a custom tech for it, and put that icon in some unique color for that race. Same drawing, different color. While "some" of these icons are orange in the current game, many of the race-specific differences are just moving a tech somewhere a little different, down one tier or across somewhere. Players don't even notice these changes. Modders may notice that there are a lot of techs like TechG26Swarm, but that icon may or may not be a different color. Putting them in different colors accomplishes two goals; one goal is by having all this color, players will recognize there is a little more diversity than they thought. The other goal is, many players complain tech trading does not work, and they don't even realize they are trying to trade race specific techs. For example, "Efficient Shielding" (the destroyer tech) cannot be traded, because every race has their own variant of it. So I don't want to start out with a template and then paste screenshots into it, I want to start with the real icons.

davea wrote:
Somehow I have not explained my goal very well. I want to take every tech icon, where one race has a custom tech for it, and put that icon in some unique color for that race. Same drawing, different color. While "some" of these icons are orange in the current game, many of the race-specific differences are just moving a tech somewhere a little different, down one tier or across somewhere. Players don't even notice these changes. Modders may notice that there are a lot of techs like TechG26Swarm, but that icon may or may not be a different color. Putting them in different colors accomplishes two goals; one goal is by having all this color, players will recognize there is a little more diversity than they thought. The other goal is, many players complain tech trading does not work, and they don't even realize they are trying to trade race specific techs. For example, "Efficient Shielding" (the destroyer tech) cannot be traded, because every race has their own variant of it. So I don't want to start out with a template and then paste screenshots into it, I want to start with the real icons.

that may be.. but i doubt that the Devs will release their Source images for techs. If they do that they might as well release the whole source assets.. but understandable that they won't do it.