T-mun's Tech Icons

T-mun · May 23, 2016

Here are some tech icons I had made some time ago and some more recent ones. The oldest ones were posted as previews in my WIP thread and I thought I had uploaded them to the DB, but I had forgotten to.

Download them all at once from the database.

Greek and Hellenistic Icon Pack:

Some of them can obviously be used for any mod taking place in Persia, Babylonia, etc.

T-mun · May 23, 2016

Rest of the pack:

T-mun · May 23, 2016

Last but not least:

T-mun · May 23, 2016

Two tech icons I have created as replacements for the Firaxis ones in my Epic Mod:

Alphabet (using Greek alphabet so you can read Alpha Beta Gamma...)

Flight - using a very nice "splash pic" from Topgun with authorization. Thanks to him for this very nice pic! The original unit (Hawker Hurricane) can be downloaded here.

Download them here.

Balthasar · May 24, 2016

Nice set, T-mun! Your choices of iconic images are perfect for Tech Icons. I'd bet that you do great wonder splashes too.

T-mun · May 25, 2016

I've never tried, but maybe I should

Blue Monkey · May 25, 2016

Balthasar said:
Nice set, T-mun! Your choices of iconic images are perfect for Tech Icons. I'd bet that you do great wonder splashes too.

T-mun said:
I've never tried, but maybe I should

Pretty much the only difference is the size of image. Palette work is the same. Then there are Era splashes ...

Balthasar · May 25, 2016

Blue Monkey said:
Then there are Era splashes ...

Ha, ha! My favs for sure. What Blue says is true. You probably know this already. But for the uninitiated: practically all of the graphics in Civ use the same indexing protocol, so once you've got that down you can do just about anything you want graphically to the game. That's why I mod this Civ edition in particular. Borders use a weird palette (that needs deciphering - when I did unique borders for Lord Malbeth's Jurassic Park Scenario, I swore that I would make some sort of guide to the colors some day). Units and FLC's use different palettes; I think armies have their own palette.

T-mun · May 25, 2016

Balthasar said:
Ha, ha! My favs for sure. What Blue says is true. You probably know this already. But for the uninitiated: practically all of the graphics in Civ use the same indexing protocol, so once you've got that down you can do just about anything you want graphically to the game. That's why I mod this Civ edition in particular. Borders use a weird palette (that needs deciphering - when I did unique borders for Lord Malbeth's Jurassic Park Scenario, I swore that I would make some sort of guide to the colors some day). Units and FLC's use different palettes; I think armies have their own palette.

When I made my border files (territory.pcx), I had to look at Pounder's tutorial. It's hard to find but I had bookmarked it, maybe I can find it and give a link.

About tech icons, I have to check it but IIRC they don't use special colors such as magenta and green, they only need to be 256 colors, indexed pcx.

For era splashes and wonder splashes, I would need good quality pictures because of the size they appear in game, and these are rarely for free.

Vuldacon · May 25, 2016

T-mun... Great Job on these images :goodjob:

Note: The Tech Images also use the Transparency Slots such as Magenta and Green.

T-mun · May 26, 2016

Vuldacon said:
Note: The Tech Images also use the Transparency Slots such as Magenta and Green.

I don't think they need to, because I'm currently using a few tech icons that don't have these two slots and look ok in game. Did I make a big discovery here ?

EDIT: one can check this very easily with the Flight icon, that doesn't have the magenta and green slots. Just put it in your Tech chooser folder ( rename the old one first) and start a new game.

Vuldacon · May 27, 2016

I don't think they need to, because I'm currently using a few tech icons that don't have these two slots and look ok in game. Did I make a big discovery here ?

EDIT: one can check this very easily with the Flight icon, that doesn't have the magenta and green slots. Just put it in your Tech chooser folder ( rename the old one first) and start a new game.

T-mun... The Flight Techs use the Magenta and Green Colors for the Transparency Palette Slots.

T-mun... The Tech Images use the same Transparency Slots on there Palettes as most of the Graphics Palettes use in the Game. The Magenta and Green Colors are NOT the issue. You can use any Colors you want but those two Slots are transparent.

The Main Reason Magenta and Green are used more often is because they are not usually used for most images. You could use the same colors that are also used in the image IF you know how to set them in the Palette again, indexed as the Transparent Colors.

See Image... I changed the Background and part of the Dog colors to use the End Transparency Slots on the Palette. The Image is a Screen Shot from Game and I added the Palette and Normal Dog Image to show the Colors.

T-mun · May 28, 2016

Vuldacon: I was talking of my own Flight icon, posted in post #4, I'm not sure you were talking of that one.

While I was checking it, I noticed the small icon was missing some pixels, maybe because they were considered as transparent because they are in the transparency slot, but why didn't it happen to the large icon too? Again, it appears perfectly OK in game and doesn't have any magenta or green, but maybe it's because I'm not using a color that is on the transparency slots? Strange because I made the palette with all the colors from the original image... :crazyeye:

Vuldacon · May 28, 2016

T_miun...
]ust Humor Me and take what I am telling you as the Truth!

I assure you, I am telling you the way it is!

Vuldacon · May 28, 2016

T-mun... Correct your images for the pcx of the month contest... if you do not have the Translucent Palette slots Corrected.

What I have stated is absolutely correct.

T-mun · May 29, 2016

Vuldacon how do you explain that?

In-game screenshot, no pink or green pixel...

Laurana Kanan · May 29, 2016

T-mun said:
Vuldacon how do you explain that?

Spoiler :

In-game screenshot, no pink or green pixel...

That is because the last three index slots (253, 254, & 255) are black (000000). When the image was indexed to 256 colors there actually was only 254 colors present (This can be verified by converting back to RGB and then re-indexing). Since the graphics program is being forced to create a color table with 256 colors, by default it makes the final two colors black even though they're not in the image itself.

Civ reads the black color in slot 253 correctly as part of the image, but the other two black colors it reads as not part of the image so even though they are in the transparent slots there won't be any transparent places in the game. However, change one of the transparent slots to something like red and then add some red pixels to the pcx and you will get the following:

Spoiler :

Notice the pink square? That is because the red in the image is now transparent and showing the underlying pink of the tech screen. As Vuldacon said, you can use a color in the image as the two transparent colors, but only if the color table is set-up correctly. But, why bother when using magenta (ff00ff) and/or green (00ff00) is much easier and neither color is likely to be in an image you want to use.

T-mun · May 29, 2016

Laurana Kanan said:
That is because the last three index slots (253, 254, & 255) are black (000000). When the image was indexed to 256 colors there actually was only 254 colors present (This can be verified by converting back to RGB and then re-indexing). Since the graphics program is being forced to create a color table with 256 colors, by default it makes the final two colors black even though they're not in the image itself.

Civ reads the black color in slot 253 correctly as part of the image, but the other two black colors it reads as not part of the image so even though they are in the transparent slots there won't be any transparent places in the game. However, change one of the transparent slots to something like red and then add some red pixels to the pcx and you will get the following:

Spoiler :

Notice the pink square? That is because the red in the image is now transparent and showing the underlying pink of the tech screen. As Vuldacon said, you can use a color in the image as the two transparent colors, but only if the color table is set-up correctly. But, why bother when using magenta (ff00ff) and/or green (00ff00) is much easier and neither color is likely to be in an image you want to use.

OK, it's clearer now

I was suspecting something like that but wasn't sure what it was. Thank you Laurana.
I'm going back to work then :hammer:

T-mun · May 29, 2016

Now why do I see pink and green in the first two slots? I cannot seem to re-order the palette (all I have is OK, Cancel, Load and Save).

T-mun · May 29, 2016

I have updated the files in the Database with corrected palettes, I hope they are OK now. I would check them this afternoon if I have the time.

EDIT: I have just checked half of them in game and they look OK. Please let me know if there is anything wrong.

T-mun's Tech Icons

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