How to Edit Icons

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Cross

Edit: When making/editing your own icons, I find it useful to load the icon into a SHP file, and view the icon in the game, because the icons in the game don't look exactly like the original BMP images. So a bit of testing and adjusting results in better game icons.


Cross

If your icons don't look the same in your drawing program as they do when converted to a SHP it's because you are not applying the correct ( Icon ) palette to them before entering them into the SHP file. That is the ONLY way you get colour shift from the original to the SHP version.

The correct palettes for use with Paint Shop Pro can be found in...

Game Data/Design/Palettes

The palette we use specifically for Icons is

JASC_WINSP_ICON_PALETTE.pal

If you don't use PSP, you'll need to make one from your drawing program.

The palette you show in post one is the FULL palette with "flashing" colours and that is NOT applicable to Icon creation

Attached is a PNG of our Icon palette ( NOT any other SP knock off.. they are different, even the original SP is different than ours )any decent drawing program can make their own palette file from this as it only contains colours used for Icons in the game


Don

[Rosollia]

I use Ultimate Paint Standard 2.88 LE and Paint.Net 3.5.10. For those I have converted the icon palette file.

The Ultimate Paint compatible palette is available here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showp...25&postcount=9

And also attached is the Paint.Net compatible palette. One limitation with Paint.net is that it only allows palette files that contain 96 colors. So I had to split the 256 color palette in 3 parts.

[Cross]

Originally Posted by DRG

If your icons don't look the same in your drawing program as they do when converted to a SHP it's because you are not applying the correct ( Icon ) palette to them before entering them into the SHP file. That is the ONLY way you get colour shift from the original to the SHP version.

Don

Actually I wasn't talking about the colours, but the shape of details in the icons.

When icons are on the game map they look a little different than they do in MOBhack or as a BMP in a Graphics editor.

In the game map, alternate lines of pixels appear slightly larger or smaller than their neighbours. Which is perhaps why icons look 'crisper' in MOBhack.

I've found it's most noticable when editing fine details like one pixel 'caliber' gun barrels, or with small icons like infantry.

And the game map of course adds shadow, which also changes the way icons look in the game.

Thanks for the PNG of your 'offical' icon palette though. I will use it.

For my first icons I didn't realise the game was limited to 256 specific colours and I chose colours from the several million available, and when I loaded my icons into the game, the game did a pretty good job of choosing the closest colours available, but my camouflage was definately no longer MoD approved

Cross