New OpenMW-CS Icons

Involved development of the OpenMW construction set.
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Atahualpa
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Atahualpa »

The question is: Are there cases where an icon's meaning gets watered-down at small resolution? If not, I'd always prefer the vector-based approach.
Nomadic1
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Nomadic1 »

AnyOldName3 wrote:Can't we support some kind of vector-based icon format so the UI can be scaled according to what the OS suggests? A cursory googling suggests that Qt has some functionality by which allows icons to be loaded as SVG, and then rendered to a raster image at runtime (as using the SVG directly could be slow). The way I see it, there's not a huge advantage to not using this strategy if it's simple - all the icons I've seen look like they were vector graphics at some point, and it makes everything more future-proof.
Vector icons are usually a bad idea. Depending on what the icon is, sub-pixels can cause blurriness and a lack of clarity. In the worst case you won't even be able to recognise what an icon is supposed to be. Small icons like at size 16x16 and 32x32 often have elements removed from those that larger icons contain to improve visual clarity. Icon scaling is usually achieved by having a sequence of power of 2 icons pre-rendered, often with intermediate sizes like 24x24 and 48x48. If need be one then scales down the next largest icon size if strange sizes like 37x37 are wanted.
Lamoot
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

Thank you for the replies and links, it's clearer now about the size requirements. For very small sizes, I'd avoid vector icons, at that resolution every pixel matters. 16x16 icons I'm currently making can thus easily be rendered to 32x32 or 64x64. 22x22 would require extra work to tweak each icon, though not impossible. Larger icons, like those for the editor are even less affected by pixel perfection and can also be rendered at bigger sizes.

Seeing the current approach won't cause problems down the road, I'll keep making icons in 16x16 and see about larger icons later.
Lamoot
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

Image
Image

Two more categories done. Referenceables and commands for editing them.

Two of the icons (eye and undo/revert) are based on Breeze icon theme, though made from scratch in Blender. Does anyone know whether the license reference I added in the .zip file is sufficient?
Nomadic1
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Nomadic1 »

Looking nice :) What's the difference between the 2 and 3 eyed frogs?
Lamoot
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

Thanks! :)

2-eyed frog is creature type, while 3-eyed frog is leveled creature list. Though seeing it now, it might be better to do it as with the container and add a ? symbol to the frog rather than a third eye.
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Atahualpa
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Atahualpa »

Lamoot wrote: 2-eyed frog is creature type, while 3-eyed frog is leveled creature list. Though seeing it now, it might be better to do it as with the container and add a ? symbol to the frog rather than a third eye.
I second this -- But do you think the question mark is really sufficient? Maybe you could use a "dice" symbol to illustrate the randomness?

Great work by the way! :)
Nomadic1
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Nomadic1 »

If you use a dice it is either going to be too small to see clearly, or too big you won't realise it is for a creature. An alternative is a ninja monkey since that is what the CS uses when you place leveled creature.
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Atahualpa
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Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Atahualpa »

Yes, you are right. But I was thinking of a big dice with creatures ( like the abovementioned frog) instead of numbers. Maybe too complex for a small icon anyway...
Your suggestion might be a bit confusing to newcomers as they wouldn't know about the ninja monkey.
Last edited by Atahualpa on 15 Feb 2017, 10:25, edited 1 time in total.
Lamoot
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Joined: 22 Apr 2016, 12:03

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

Yup, the dice is too complex for 16x16 pixels and the question mark carries the same basic meaning - you don't know what you'll get. (box of chocolates)

Thank you for the feedback and I'll return once I have more icons to show. There's only one category left :) (but has the most icons)
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