Hello you fine Mac Civ fans!
Just a quickie - I'm rather sick of the icon in my dock for Civ3, I've never been fond of it, looks rather out of place. Knowing how we Mac users like prettifying things, I was wondering what other people use for a replacement?

Cheers!
Gavin

You might be able to find graphics in the Creation & Customization graphics subforum.

I'm still using the standard one, but I know what you mean. It's just a big square with very little detail compared withe the other dock items. I'll maybe try to create something different now you've mentioned it.

I'd be very interested to see what you'd come up with! :)

I am intrigued... What, exactly, do you folk think would make a good dock icon? Something like the trademark tower, like in Civ3Edit? Maybe a spearman? What would you folks want to see?

I was just trying to increase the transparency of the sky behind the existing tower as a starter, but got distracted .. sorry!

I was just trying to increase the transparency of the sky behind the existing tower as a starter, but got distracted .. sorry!
Being distracted is one of the great joys of life, Alan!
***
If it's just the transparency thing, I could cook that up by tonight – maybe throw a little drop shadow under it, too. I'm pretty sure I still have the raw materials from the Civ3Edit icon (which was basically the game icon with some words thrown over it).

I am intrigued... What, exactly, do you folk think would make a good dock icon? Something like the trademark tower, like in Civ3Edit? Maybe a spearman? What would you folks want to see?

I'm still a fan of the old Civ 2: Gold icon which was a pyramid with the world behind it. (That icon resides in my dock next to the Civ 3 icon.) Maybe paying homage to that icon with a pic of a real pyramid with a real pic of the earth behind it. That would be cool...

JoAT

I'm still a fan of the old Civ 2: Gold icon which was a pyramid with the world behind it. (That icon resides in my dock next to the Civ 3 icon.) Maybe paying homage to that icon with a pic of a real pyramid with a real pic of the earth behind it. That would be cool...
JoAT
I have the vaguest memory of this but I can not, for the life of me, find my old Civ2 stuff. If you could post the icon somewhere (or point me to one), I'd love to see it (and maybe tinker with it).

Took me a while to find it, but I did finally score it.

(The white outside of the "world" is transparent in the icon.)

JoAT

How about :spear: ? can it be reduced to icon-size?

Took me a while to find it, but I did finally score it.
(The white outside of the "world" is transparent in the icon.)

JoAT
Shouldn't be a problem. I'll tinker with it and see what happens...

How about ... can it be reduced to icon-size?
Reduced? Heck, OSX icons are 128 pixels square and that classic smiley-of-frustration is only a 100 pixels wide. I'll center it and add a drop shadow...

The Mac version has a tower as the icon? :confused: Can someone post it please?

Okay, I tinkered a bit. They look fairly decent on a desktop, especially with what OS X can do with gradient opacity in icons -- but converting it to a gif to display here doesn't do it any favors. For a more accurate preview, pretend the shadows don't suck... :mischief:

For the first, JoAT's suggestion, I decided to keep it close to home for the pyramid - that's the Civ3 art used for the city display screen. The world pic behind it is a famous NASA shot. Altogether, it looks like this:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/World_v1a_Icon_example.gif (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/World_icon.sitx.zip)

For Alan's suggestion, I tried it three different ways. The first was a 1-to-1 translation. The smiley is only about 100 pixels wide, so I centered it, gave it a drop shadow and called it even. Looked a little small, though, so for giggles, I enlarged it a bit before giving it a drop shadow. Better, but it can still get a little lost, so I waved the magic mouse and put the smiley over some in-game terrain. IMO, the splash of color makes the icon stand out a bit better. YMMV. Remember, the shadows in the example don't it justice (and the grass has nice gradient, too).
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Spear_vs_Tank_Icon_Examples.gif (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Spear_vs_Tank_Icons.sitx.zip)
Enjoy...

The Mac version has a tower as the icon? :confused: Can someone post it please?
Doesn't the PC version have the tower as the icon? If not, what is it? Ours is the same tower that you see on the cover of the box (the same tower in the intro movie). If you don't have it, I'm sure we could post it.
:goodjob:

Doesn't the PC version have the tower as the icon? If not, what is it? Ours is the same tower that you see on the cover of the box (the same tower in the intro movie). If you don't have it, I'm sure we could post it.
:goodjob:
No - the PC version is decidedly boring. Sort of a bluish-green distorted world with Civ III written over the top.

We actually had it as the download icon for the Civ3 version of the GOTM, until "someone" decided that it would be confusing :mischief: Now I think I know why! I'll post it later (if I remember)

Edit: There is a desktop picture in this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2606184&postcount=724) which has the Civ3 icons on it. The (Vanilla) Civ3 one is third-down in the second column. Incidentally, the conquests one is 5th down in the third column.

No - the PC version is decidedly boring. Sort of a bluish-green distorted world with Civ III written over the top.
Hm... I see what you mean. I'm sure we could help out. :cool:
Now - correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the largest icon 48x48? Then 32, 24 (somewhat optional) and 16, right? Forgive me, I use XP Something-or-other at work but I've never had the opportunity to explore the nature of .ico files. I remember hearing somewhere that Windows was now displaying even larger icons (maybe towards the 128x128 size or so). Is that true?
If you can give the technical scoop, that would help encourage the local artists... ;)

Edit:
Okay, I tried poking at it to see if it moved. There was some twitching...
Since I'm building this on a Mac, and I've never done windows icons, I can't make any guarantees. Heck, the 128-size might've made it in there but I can't be sure (that's the 128x128 tower below). :p It should work, but there's a possibility that only the 48, 32 and 16 got in. I know the 24 went scurrying off before I could nab it and there was this explosion and a sucking sound, so the 128 might've escaped too. Either way, check it out:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Civ3_Mac_Icon_Default.jpg (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Civ3_Tower.ico.zip)
:crazyeye: ...If it doesn't, tell me and I'll see if I can figure out what I screwed up.

Thanks - that looks quite good! I think PC icons are limited to 48 x 48 - and they need to be in .ico format, but I have iconforge at work, so I'll import it tomorrow. :)

Very nicely done ejday! can't wait to see how it looks once I get to my Mac at home.

BTW, in OS X, do you still just paste the icon into the 'Get info' screen to change it?

JoAT

Very nicely done ejday! can't wait to see how it looks once I get to my Mac at home.
Thanks! Glad you like it!

BTW, in OS X, do you still just paste the icon into the 'Get info' screen to change it?
JoAT
Normally, yes. For most objects - all folder and many applications - that will work. Civ3, however, is put together a bit different and I'm not sure how to do the "right" way. The closest thing I can come up with is to create an alias of the game, then do the "get info" copy and paste thing to the alias (which *will* accept it). Once your alias looks good, drag the alias to the dock instead of the original (and then tuck the alias somewhere out of the way in your Civ folder).

Good luck!

Yes, I do it using an alias. Pasting it into Get Info, or putting it into the resource fork of CivIII itself, doesn't seem to work for some reason.

The alias technique serves a double purpose for me, as I can rename the alias to tell me it's for the GOTM modded or standard copy, or for a DyP mod version, without changing the name of each CivIII application.

I'm not sure I understand the discussion going on here. :confused:

The icon in ejday's post (128x128) is on my computer shown as being part Civ III. And I can't recall replacing the original. What is going on? Please enlight my feeble mind. ;)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/tao_dock.jpg

I'm not sure I understand the discussion going on here. :confused:

The icon in ejday's post (128x128) is on my computer shown as being part Civ III. And I can't recall replacing the original. What is going on? Please enlight my feeble mind. ;)
No need to worry, Tao. That is the original OSX icon. I put it up in .ico format for our PC brothers (who are otherwise laboring with a butt-ugly blue icon).

I see. Enlightening those poor souls.

I still want to see a Windows dock as nice as the one in my spoiler above. Fat chance. :D

Okay, between actual bursts of work, I followed one suggestion to lighten the globe and saturate the pyramid a bit (I nudged it toward a more homage-like yellow) on the world icon. And, since I was going to post it for general Mac consumption, I figured I'd follow through on a couple of ideas I had. One is cutting out the tower to de-squareify it a tad (and a follow-up with a drop shadow). Another was capturing that dramatic moment when the jet does a fly-over of the tower in the intro movie.

Here's what they look like on a generic background. If you look at the fly-over icon, you can see the sky transparency. Click on the pic to download the set...
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Latest_Experiments.jpg (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Batch_o_Civ_Icons.sitx.zip)
Thoughts? Suggestions?

EJ

Thanks - that looks quite good! I think PC icons are limited to 48 x 48 - and they need to be in .ico format, but I have iconforge at work, so I'll import it tomorrow. :):hmm: I didn't realise you'd actually put it in .ico format and attached it to the post!

I tried it, and it works, but unfortunately it reduces it to 32x32, and you lose a lot of detail. I think you also lose some colour depth (not sure exactly sure what colour depth are supported - 256 colours??)

ANyway - I set my desktop to "large icons", which are 48x48. Better, but still not as nice as the mac one. :(

Sorry to hear XP is so graphically challenged. What a waste of all that lovely new graphics hardware :mischief:

I like the new pyramid/globe one best, and that will adorn my dock for the foreseeable future. Well done EJ. :goodjob:

I was actually trying that on Win 2000 ;)

Here's one I made earlier, which I use for my Civ3 DYP mod (using an alias, with copied/pasted new icon on...)

...plus shot of my dock/desktop with it 'in action'...

Here's one I made earlier...
Hey, that is snazzy!
*Great globe... I can't quite identify where it's at (a lotta water). Is it earth?
*Nice pyramid, too. I thought about borrowing a shot off an Egyptian site but went with the in-game pyramid for symmetry. Still, I like the vibrancy and texture.
...Would you mind if I made it a cutout and reposted it?

EJ

Hey, that is snazzy!
....Would you mind if I made it a cutout and reposted it?
EJ

Sure, something like this ? This is an earlier version, but I could never get it to work in the dock properly (always lost transparency, plus bottom edges of pyramid are all wrong/squared-off).

Here's one I made earlier, which I use for my Civ3 DYP mod (using an alias, with copied/pasted new icon on...)

Lovely, Fruno :thumbsup: That would get my vote! We definitely need that one uploaded as a .icns.

Sure, something like this ?
Somehow, I just got an image of Gene Wilder describing what he needs while Marty Feldman sketches... Then Igor flips the paper around and says: "...Something like this?"
This is an earlier version, but I could never get it to work in the dock properly (always lost transparency, plus bottom edges of pyramid are all wrong/squared-off).
It! Could! Work!
...Just change the poles from plus to minus and minus to plus...
:D
The transparency issue is OS X being priggish about GIFs. I think it's offended by the heritage (CompuServe making a format to display on windows machines), so it'll only display the top cell of a multi-cell GIF (no animated GIFs for us), and it doesn't like recognizing transparency in formats it hasn't anointed.

If you have the original elements, I could size them and tip-toe around the transparency issue by turning them into resources & icns (post or email them to me). If not, no problem, I can work with what we've got (if that's okay with you).

EJ

ohhh.... that kind of dock (I still don't know what kind of dock you're talking about...). When I first saw this thread, I thought it was a dock as in the Civ3 harbor graphic. :lol:

ohhh.... that kind of dock (I still don't know what kind of dock you're talking about...). When I first saw this thread, I thought it was a dock as in the Civ3 harbor graphic. :lol:
Understandable... Check out Post #31 in the thread. That string of icons is a screengrab of a "dock" in OS X. A dock (in this case) is kinda like the task bar in Windows but it has the option to be a bit more reactive (flashier).
...Then there are us guys who make icons to go on the dock. We're known as "dock workers" and we're all tough guys that drive forklifts and wear knit watchcaps...

Okay, not entirely true, but I can use a fork. Usually.

Ow. Dang fork.

ohhh.... that kind of dock (I still don't know what kind of dock you're talking about...). When I first saw this thread, I thought it was a dock as in the Civ3 harbor graphic. :lol:

Well, as Otis Redding once sang...

"I'm clickin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the apps roll away
I'm just clickin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time"

Somehow, I just got an image of Gene Wilder describing what he needs while Marty Feldman sketches... Then Igor flips the paper around and says: "...Something like this?"
It! Could! Work!
...Just change the poles from plus to minus and minus to plus...

:) lol!

Talking of hilarious Gene Wilder moments, I was just thinking of The Producers, when Zero Mostel (Max Bialystock) and Gene Wilder (Leo Blum) are discussing their new buxom blonde Swedish secretary Ulla... "What will people say", Leo asks Max, "Have you gone mad? A receptionist who can't speak English? What will people say?" Max's reply is classic Brooks: "They'll say, "A wuma wa wa wa wa!"

If you have the original elements, I could size themJ

Sure, they're in Photoshop - I'll upload them to my site and pop a link on here as soon as I can.

*watches the Mac users laugh at the IBM user*
*runs away*

Nice dockbar though.

Nah! It's not laughter ... it's sympathy :cry:

Sure, something like this ? This is an earlier version, but I could never get it to work in the dock properly (always lost transparency, plus bottom edges of pyramid are all wrong/squared-off).

That's exactly the sort of thing I was talking about! :) I'd love to see that in a .icns - anyone?

Good work guys! :) :)

I happened to notice that tao is using the updated Civilization 2 icon (sixth from the right) available from here:

http://www.maxthemes.com/

It is very nice when enlarged...

ejday: I thought I had my icons all set, and now you go and give me more options. Now I don't know which ones to use! Maybe I should find a copy of Civ1 on E-bay so that I can utilise more of 'em. ;)

JoAT

Here's another variation - bit of lens flare from the sun, pyramid repositioned and trimmed/blurred, earth as was...

ejday:
How do you convert to .icns format - is this possible within Photoshop 7.0 or poss. Graphic Convertor, and where does that file live in OSX anyway!?
I thought about uploading it (as per previous post) but realised it's a huge Photoshop doc and would take far too long to upload via my modem! Sorry!

Version 2 in use - note that dock icon is not an alias this time, for some reason it worked by clicking and pasting jpeg into the smaller image in the Get Info dialogue for my Civ3 DYP mod.,which didn't seem to work before...

It must be fairly trivial to write a dock-bar program that can support decent-size icons. the only downside I see to them is the screen real-estate - I tend to use the quick-launch bar, where everything is on a 12-12 (or simething similar) icon size.

On the Mac you can set the dock to auto-hide like the task bar. And you select its size, and you can also choose to have it magnify the region under your mouse pointer, so it takes very little screen space. Mine appears at the bottom of the screen and overlays the bottoms of my document/browser windows , and I see an effect like:

...and I see an effect like:
Good Lord. I think Alan is using the new Apple 847-inch screen.

17" - TFT - 1280 x 1024

Here's another variation - bit of lens flare from the sun, pyramid repositioned and trimmed/blurred, earth as was...

ejday:
How do you convert to .icns format - is this possible within Photoshop 7.0 or poss. Graphic Convertor, and where does that file live in OSX anyway!?

You can make .icns a few ways but none of them are 1-step simple. I do it with a Photoshop 7 plug-in called "IconBuilder Pro (http://www.iconfactory.com/iconbuilder.asp)" from the Iconfactory (http://www.iconfactory.com/). Great tool (but not cheap). The process involves making alpha channels over a transparent background at each of the resolutions that will be used: the 128, then the 48, 32 and 16. The filter then compiles them (at different bit levels) into a single .icns document, and it uses the alpha versus the transparent background to create the mask layer.

Another program called "Iconographer (http://www.mscape.com/products/iconographer.html)" does a fair job of it, too. It doesn't have the elegance of working in Photoshop, but it's comparatively inexpensive shareware from Mscape software (http://www.mscape.com/index.html), so you can give it a run first. One note: Mscape had plans to update Iconographer but never did. I don't know what the story is behind that, but be aware that support might be a bit sketchy.

I see there are some others out there that I'm only marginally familiar with (you can do an icon search [OS X] (http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=icon&plt%5B%5D=macosx&x=15&y=9) on VersionTracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/)), so if you discover anything cool, please share the news.

I thought about uploading it (as per previous post) but realised it's a huge Photoshop doc and would take far too long to upload via my modem! Sorry!
Bummer, but I certainly understand. Photoshop files are gigantic, especially when you've got them in layers. Say... you might be able to save each layer as it's own document and upload those. They'd be a lot smaller. If not, I can icns-ize this but it'll get a little fuzzy (it's kind of like dubbing tape to tape, each generation gets a bit blurrier).

17" - TFT - 1280 x 1024
Just kiddin' with ya, Alan.
...I just not often that I see the dock icons shrunk to minimum size (my own poor eye sight, I suppose).

EJ

You can make .icns a few ways...

Wow, thanks ejday for all the info. - I'll see if I can get hold of the Photoshop one...

Just kiddin' with ya, Alan.
...I just not often that I see the dock icons shrunk to minimum size
Nope! It'll go about 40% smaller than that. I set it to a size where I can see all the items in it across the 1280 pixel width. With about 50-60 icons that gives me 20 pixels per icon. Expansion factor makes the ones under the cursor about 50 pixels.

Okay, now I'm getting distracted... here's another icon which I'm using for my GOTM install of Civ3...

... in action

here's another icon which I'm using for my GOTM install of Civ3...
... in action
Cool. :cool:
Here's your version one icon as an icns. Looks like this:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Fruno_Civ3_icon.jpg (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Frunos_icon_v1.sitx.zip)
Click the pic to download. The icon is inside the folder.
Fruno, if you're serious about it, here's how I did it:
Opened the .gif in Photoshop, then cleaned up the masking (those white artifacts, including the planet's "halo").
Once it was ready, used the Iconfactory IconBuilder Pro 5.0 filter to make a normal icon (a resource).
Once it was saved, I resaved as an .icns file in case anybody wants to crack their app and make this the default icon (.icns files are what applications use as a display reference, and since they're usually buried in the app, the .icns icon is usually [and ironically] a blank white document.
Pasted the resource on the .icns file for the best of both worlds.
Good luck, amigo.
EJ

Nope! It'll go about 40% smaller than that. I set it to a size where I can see all the items in it across the 1280 pixel width. With about 50-60 icons that gives me 20 pixels per icon. Expansion factor makes the ones under the cursor about 50 pixels.
Okay, almost minimum. Still, two days of that and I'd need glasses.
Hm... :sad:
I might need glasses anyway.

EJ
PS: this "age" thing sucks (but I suppose it's still better than the alternative).

Cool. :cool:
Here's your version one icon as an icns. Looks like this...
Good luck, amigo.
EJ

Hey, that's great! I launched IconBuilder last night and had a go, but was drawn off into making the new one I just posted... thanks for the info on how to use it.

Cool. :cool:
Here's your version one icon as an icns. Looks like this:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Fruno_Civ3_icon.jpg (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Frunos_icon_v1.sitx.zip)

Now in my dock! Looks much better than the original icon - thanks guys! :)

Five months, five months, then I will have free broadband and can download all those seriously cool icons - thanks guys! Looking forward to using them, the Civ3 icon for Win was just a fuzzy red III to me, only just realised I hated it!

Welcome to the high definition world of the Macintosh, Sophie. Free broadband? :eek: Are we talking Birmingham Alabama, or Brimingham West Midlands here? Anyway, that icon is only 100Kbytes. You can download that in under 30 seconds over a decent modem link.

Welcome to the high definition world of the Macintosh, Sophie. Free broadband? :eek: Are we talking Birmingham Alabama, or Brimingham West Midlands here? Anyway, that icon is only 100Kbytes. You can download that in under 30 seconds over a decent modem link.

Next year I move back into University accommodation (Uni of Bham, yes, West Midlands) where broadband is included in the rent - so OK, not really free; but ATM I have to pay for the phone calls of dial-up to get internet, unless I'm lazing around on campus so I can use their broadband, so I don't like downloading stuff. Student = cheapskate in most practical definitions! ;) But since you've said that, I think I may just download it anyway...

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this, but there's an excellent freeware program called 'Finder Icon X' (available from MacUpdate, etc) that, amongst other immensely useful features, allows you to copy and paste icons using a context menu instead of the 'Get Info' panel. The reason I bring this up is that it was able to paste one of these excellent icons overtop of the original Civilization application icon - I didn't have to use an alias.

Thanks! Glad you like it!


Normally, yes. For most objects - all folder and many applications - that will work. Civ3, however, is put together a bit different and I'm not sure how to do the "right" way. The closest thing I can come up with is to create an alias of the game, then do the "get info" copy and paste thing to the alias (which *will* accept it). Once your alias looks good, drag the alias to the dock instead of the original (and then tuck the alias somewhere out of the way in your Civ folder).

Good luck!

Um. :blush: Sorry, how exactly do I do this? I ctrl-clicked on the Civ3 alias, told it Get Info, and then clicked Copy on the Fruno_icon_v1.icns that I downloaded. (Thanks, Fruno.) But now what? :confused: Paste is greyed out in the Edit menu. Drag-and-drop doesn't seem to do anything either. I have OSX 10.3.9, in case this helps somehow ... thanks to anyone who knows how to do things without laughing at me!

But now what? :confused: Paste is greyed out in the Edit menu. Drag-and-drop doesn't seem to do anything either.

There's always another way ;) After you've Copied the icon, click the icon at top left of the alias's Get Info box and hit Command-V (the keyboard equivalent for Paste). It should work.

Wheehee, :woohoo: it worked! I was trying to paste it onto the Preview rather than General. Thanks! :thanx: :hatsoff: (PS I'm a smilie addict :D )