Icons

[Zini]

And about the application icon: Well, there were still some discussions going on. I don't think an agreement has been reached yet how it should look. I really don't want to get involved too much into the visual design. I suck at that stuff. Hopefully we have enough competent people around to sort this out on their own.
As for the implementation, this is another one of those tasks that could easily done by an additional contributor. I definitely don't plan to write the editor all on my own. In fact a main reason for taking over the editor development was to rearrange it in a way, that makes it easier for other developers to contribute.

[Greendogo]

Could you come up with a size for the 3a and 3b type icons (pixel size). And could you maybe find an example? Just one example of what you want would be really helpful!

[Zini]

Could you come up with a size for the 3a and 3b type icons (pixel size)

As I wrote before, I can't offer any advice in this area (except that they should have a square size, i.e. height = width). From the GUI's perspective pixel size does not matter. The icons will be scaled to what is required anyway. If there are any guidelines on icon sizes in the context of Qt, then I am not aware of them.

And could you maybe find an example? Just one example of what you want would be really helpful!

I doubt there is any pre-existing art in this area. And I couldn't draw a stick figure, even if my life depended on it. For referencable records (3b) its kinda obvious though. The icon should somehow represent the object type for the record. Maybe a sword for a weapon record or a chest for a container record? 3a will be tougher, obviously, and will require some real visual creativity.

[pvdk]

Qt doesn't force you to use a certain icon size for these things, but I would suggest using either 16x16 or 22x22 for the record type icons, or both sizes depending on use.

[Greendogo]

Here is some inspiration and suggestions for the 3a and 3b category icons:

3a
- Version information (TES3) - a pound sign, or two pound signs in a row, or a "v" or "v.", or "v#"
- GMSTs - a 4x4 or 5x5 grid of random 1s and 0s
- Global Variables - ":="
- Classes - two full body silhouettes cut down the middle with the empty space between them in the middle. Kind of like the button is selecting a class type and transitioning to the next one.
- Factions - a flag waving on a pole
- Races - a double helix (DNA)
- Sounds - an ear or a speaker
- Skills - a flexing arm, or a strong person flexing, or a person's body radiating energy.
- Magic Effects - twinkling stars
- Scripts - a blank scroll
- Regions - a compass
- Birthsigns - twinkling stars
- Land Textures - a paintbrush or a graph with a different generic terrain texture in each quadrant
- Body part - a silhouetted of a antediluvian man separated at each joint, or torso, or a puppet with strings
- Enchantment - a wizards hat or a sword, emanating power or flame
- Cell - a map pin
- Land (terrain heightmap) - a squiggly line (a vertical cross-section of hilly terrain), or a wavy grid, or just a grid
- Pathgrid - a foot, or a pair of legs walking forward
- SoundGen - an ear or a speaker
- Dialogue Topic, regular topic - a dialogue bubble
- Dialogue Topic, voice - a dialogue bubble with a speaker in it
- Dialogue Topic, greeting - a dialogue bubble with two hands shaking
- Dialogue Topic, persuasion - a dialogue bubble with a +/- in it
- Dialogue Topic, journal - a dialogue with a book in it
- Info (dialogue response) - a dialogue bubble with an exclamation point in it and the tail of the bubble pointing the other way from the other dialogue topic icons.
- Spell - an open hand with a flame surrounding it

3b
- Static - a generic house with a chimney, a tree, an isometric skyblue cube
- Door - a Door!
- Misc - A key or a fork or spoon
- Weapon - A sword, or crossed swords, or a mace, or a dagger
- Container - a backpack or a bulging sack tied up at the top
- Creature - a mouse, or a bat, or a bunny, or a cat, no dogs... cats > dogs
- Light source - a lightbulb
- NPC - a waving person's silhouette
- Armour - a shield or a helmet with an open visor viewed from the side, or some other piece of armor
- Clothing - a sock, or pants
- Repair Tool - a armorer's hammer
- Activator - the static icon with a smaller exclamation point in the upper right hand corner, or a bed, or a exclamation point, or a signpost
- Apparatus (alchemy tool) - a mortar and pestle
- Lockpick - a lockpick
- Probe - a probe! (woah, so creative!)
- Ingredient - an apple, or a flower, or a small pile of grey dust with colorful sparkles coming off of it
- Book - ... A BOOK
- Potion - a bottle (something like in Apel's icon would be neat too!)
- Leveled Item - a question mark, or the container icon with a smaller question mark in the upper right hand corner
- Leveled Creature - whatever is used for the creature icon, plus an aura or a smaller exclamation point or question mark in the upper right hand corner

[Zini]

Not bad! I like it.

[pvdk]

Nice work Greendogo! I agree with most of your suggestions, here is my input on some of them:

3a
- Scripts - a blank scroll might be confusing, maybe add a gear or a shell window.
- Birthsigns - twinkling stars, combined by a line to make a constellation.
- Land Textures - a paintbrush which painted roughly half of a grid
- Enchantment - a sword with a lightning bolt, re-use the sword for the weapons icon
- Pathgrid - footsteps!
- Dialogue Topic, greeting - a bubble with an exclamation mark
- Info (dialogue response) - a bubble with a dotted i in it.

3b
- Door - a door, but make sure it is closed as a half-open door suggests exit/quit.
- Container - a treasure chest!
- Creature - a footprint of a wolf or a bear or something
- Clothing - a coat hanger
- Activator - a lever!
- Lockpick - a lockpick, but make sure to include a keyhole

- Leveled Item - the treasure chest with a question mark on it, maybe only the silhouette of the treasure chest, with question mark.
- Leveled Creature - the footprint with a question mark in the biggest section or the silhouette of the creature if we go for that, with question mark.

[wintry]

As far as i know such icons are rarely scaled, for better readability authors usually supply versions for every needed size which requires a lot of manual adjustments even if the sources are in vector format. While you may decide to scale anyway because it is so much more work to draw all those icons, it may be better to choose sizes they should be optimized for.

[Zini]

Seems we have most of the list sorted out, but do we actually still have somebody working on the actual icons? Or do we need to try recruiting someone?

[wtheaker]

I don't know how useful these will be, but here's a bunch of CC-BY fantasy icons in SVG: http://game-icons.net/