Icon Issues

[nudden]

I created some unit icons with photoshop but they always look not as nice as the vanilla ones. at the edge of the icon circle they always look a little bit crumbly (hope the internet translated it right). Is there a way to make "better" or more "beautiful" icons?

thanks in advance for an answer.

 

[SamBC]

The circle seems to be jagged. The only explanation I can think of is that you're resizing at some point, or the template has somehow been FUBARed.

 

[Lord Shadow]

The alpha channel alone should be 'cutting' the circle. Don't try to fit the image exactly in the white circle: you should probably make said image slightly exceed the boundaries, so that there's no gap between the icon and the alpha cut-off.

 

[nudden]

The alpha channel alone should be 'cutting' the circle. Don't try to fit the image exactly in the white circle: you should probably make said image slightly exceed the boundaries, so that there's no gap between the icon and the alpha cut-off.

no. i made a 180x180 picture. so in my picture the alpha channel already 'cut' the circle. the problem is also in other mods i looked into (for example Spain Mod). I think the change from 'good' to 'bad' happened after the compression to .dds DXT1, 3, or 5.
hope you unterstand what i mean.....

 

[nudden]

The circle seems to be jagged. The only explanation I can think of is that you're resizing at some point

no. iam using the icon templates from firaxis. only resizing my pictures FOR the templates.

or the template has somehow been FUBARed.

what does this mean?

 

[pap1723]

It seems to be an issue with Photoshop using the files provided by Firaxis.

Use GIMP. SamBC released the IconAtlas Templates in the native GIMP format and they work perfectly! I was having the same issue when I was using the Photoshop versions, but with Sam's files, they are perfect!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=15498

Attached is a combined Screenshot from the Civilopedia in-game of the icons I have made...

In case anyone is wondering, here is how I made the icons...
1) Resize needed image to 200x200, or something very close to that size
2) Use a circle selection tool. Feather=3 Size of the Circle is 172x172
3) Cut out and paste onto a Transparent background on a canvas size of 256x256, directly in the middle
4) Create a new file with a transparent background, size is 2048x2048
5) Paint a pixel into the far 4 corners of the 256x256 files so they can be arranged accurately
6) Paste all into the 2048x2048 file
7) Erase the painted pixels in the 4 corners
8) Select All, Copy, Paste into the SamBC's provided file
8) Anchor the selection
9) Save as native GIMP file for easy editing
10) Save as DDS file

I am assuming there are easier ways to do it, this is just the technique I used. I also found that instead of re-sizing the newly saved DDS files to save the various icon sizes, it was much better quality to resize the GIMP image and then export/save that file to DDS.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Pap

 

[Lord Shadow]

Ah, yes. It's all about the DDS type. DXT1's alpha channel is poorly defined, and that results in jagged edges. Use DXT3 or DXT5 only.

I'd go with DXT5, since it's the latest variant and I've confirmed Civ5 supports it (unit textures themselves use DXT5).

 

[Licinia Eudoxia]

I can handle everything else about modding for this game, but the image editing for Civ Symbols and icons and such just give me the hardest time.

I guess I'm just not used to working with these programs, but I have a hard time picking icons that look good at their large size and small size, or getting an icon centered, or just editing them in general.

 

[Ryan F. Mercer]

Thanks for the tip Lord Shadow. It made all the difference for me.

 

[Spatzimaus]

I guess I'm just not used to working with these programs, but I have a hard time picking icons that look good at their large size and small size, or getting an icon centered, or just editing them in general.

The trick for getting an icon centered, in GIMP, is to turn the grid on, set the grid spacing to half the icon size (so 128 if you're making 256x256 icons), and turn on "Snap to grid". This puts grid lines going through the center of each circle on each axis. It'll then make it easy to put the center of your icon dead-center in the middle of the circle. That isn't always what you want, but it works well for a lot of what I was doing in my own mod.

And as others have said, I HIGHLY recommend using the .xcf files instead of the Firaxis-provided .psd files.

 

[xxhe]

Ah, yes. It's all about the DDS type. DXT1's alpha channel is poorly defined, and that results in jagged edges. Use DXT3 or DXT5 only.

I'd go with DXT5, since it's the latest variant and I've confirmed Civ5 supports it (unit textures themselves use DXT5).

Hi:
I tried to save my file in DXT3 form, but the Civ5 wont recognize it.

Ooops... I forget to import them into VFS...

 

[Ryan F. Mercer]

Hey, I ordered a cheese burger and they gave me a bacon burger. VFS?

And they totally forgot the fries! VFS?!

If DXT5 doesn't work, try UTF8.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Can someone recall me how to unpack the fpk files ? I tried it before but a lot of them were still messed up and don't know what else to do.

 

[MouseyPounds]

1. Launch Nexus from the SDK
2. Go to Nexus tab
3. Open Script Browser
4. Run the "Extract PAK (*.fpk) files" script

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Done that ! Now, where can I see them in Nexus ?

 

[MouseyPounds]

They get unpacked in-place and I think most -- possibly all -- of the fpks are in the folders under the "resource" directory. So, for example, resource\Common should have 15-20 fpk files before running that script and 15-20 fpk files plus a whole bunch of other stuff afterwards.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

I know that but not all files are visible in this folder like 64x64cityworker.dds which is a mess while loaded in paintdotnet. There is also a number of files that even refuses to load. I'm interested in a way to see these files be it through Nexus or sthg else. Thank you, MP, for your help ! Sorry to be such a nuisance.

 

[MouseyPounds]

Ah, okay. You need to run Sterkhov's converter then.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Thank you very much ! I didn't know why I missed that.