New technology icons

[Sparth]

This is new approach to tech icons.
First all of them are now circle shape beacause I want that player can easy seen different between tech icon and for example building icon.
Second tech icons are now "bigger". After new tech is discovered then in left-up corner of techsreen appear new, bigger icon (sample image: http://imgur.com/0ThEO3c).
Also in Pedia, in technology screen, main tech icon is bigger. But this is only temporary because in long run I want to redesigne civilopedia.


Few side notes.
1. In some screens tech icons are little smaller then icons of buildings/units etc. This is because i cant find to proper use of icon size code in Python.
Normaly its "GenericButtonSizes.BUTTON_SIZE_CUSTOM" but its not work properly with new size of the icons. Changing it to "self.BUTTON_SIZE" didn't work.
And for that I can only use "GenericButtonSizes.BUTTON_SIZE_46". Any help with this problem from Python magicians will be great

2. If you dont like some icons please post here your suggestions but only in this way (example):

Spoiler :

Gathering
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/peoples/images/harvesting-sm.jpg

For new icons I need at least images 170x170 pixels.
Texts like "I dont like new buttons" or "Old icons was better" will be ignored

And one more info, after removing old dds files entire new system of tech icons takes only 7Mbs.

 

[Arakhor]

Wow. That looks amazing!

 

[Thunderbrd]

I was wondering if I'd like the new format until I checked it out on your screenshot. Ok... I like the new format.

Can't help you much with the python side. BUG made things very strange for us there.

EDIT: How does this interact with the Tech Tree? And are the images turned into bubble buttons before they are stored? I'll have to send you some pics to convert if that's the case because I've got a few new techs coming very soon.

 

[strategyonly]

i do like the HUGE icon on the far far left top . . .

Just looked at some of the techs and i cant tell what techs are, cant see what the NEW tech icons even are, looks very UN-Distinguishable?? another words cant see what they are or represent?? (pic 2

 

[Sparth]

Just looked at some of the techs and i cant tell what techs are, cant see what the NEW tech icons even are, looks very UN-Distinguishable?? another words cant see what they are or represent?? (pic 2

Look to civilopedia on bigger picture.
And if you want another icons for specific techs - see my first post how to do this.

Edit: too big icons in tech splash screen fixed.

 

[strategyonly]

Look to civilopedia on bigger picture..

But i dont want to look anyplace but here when checking what tech i want next? But i will do ahead and go by what TB and DH want . .

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

@Sparth The improvements also seem to be getting big circular icons, see SO's image. I suspect that the scavenger camp is using the same icon as the scavenging tech.

I have checked all the places the icons are used and it is only the Tech Tree where they are difficult to see. It may be the background which they are on or the fact that there is a lot of information there. The tech tree is the main place I look at the icons so some work needs to be done there. Other that they are not good for my main use of them they look good.

 

[Sparth]

@Sparth The improvements also seem to be getting big circular icons, see SO's image. I suspect that the scavenger camp is using the same icon as the scavenging tech.

Noted, Ill design new icons for these improvements.

I have checked all the places the icons are used and it is only the Tech Tree where they are difficult to see. It may be the background which they are on or the fact that there is a lot of information there. The tech tree is the main place I look at the icons so some work needs to be done there. Other that they are not good for my main use of them they look good.

As I say before - please post tech name and image which should be used instead.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

As I say before - please post tech name and image which should be used instead.

The new icons do not work in the Tech Tree - so all of them should go back to the old versions which were visible!

Or we need to change the Tech Tree somewhat.

We can't change the size of the boxes since we don't want people to need to scroll vertically.

The colour of the boxes is set based on whether or not you have researched the tech ; whether or not you can research the tech, and the era of the tech.​

Within these bounds is there something we can do to improve visibility?

Put a thicker line around the icons?

For the icon of the box, increase its size a bit and make the border go round it? This would not help for the tech icons to the right of the box.

Change the shape of the box completely?​

 

[Toffer90]

Spoiler :

The new icons do not work in the Tech Tree - so all of them should go back to the old versions which were visible!

Or we need to change the Tech Tree somewhat.

We can't change the size of the boxes since we don't want people to need to scroll vertically.

The colour of the boxes is set based on whether or not you have researched the tech ; whether or not you can research the tech, and the era of the tech.​

Within these bounds is there something we can do to improve visibility?

Put a thicker line around the icons?

For the icon of the box, increase its size a bit and make the border go round it? This would not help for the tech icons to the right of the box.

Change the shape of the box completely?​

Perhaps it's possible to get the small image to be enlarged upwards and leftwards to full size when the mouse is over the box.
One could customize the lower mipmap levels of the images that looks messy when shrunk; to a more simplistic image that looks better than a large detailed image would at that size.

Edit: I like TBs proposal. ↓↓

 

[Thunderbrd]

Maybe place a larger image to the left of the main tech box. It's then what to do about the prerequisite ones but usually those are too small to be able to tell even before this.

 

[Toffer90]

@Sparth: Seems like the wrong image is used for "invention", "oil painting", "shielding", "advanced shielding", "cloning", "bionics", "cold fusion", "recycling", "hypersonic flights", "military tradition" and "military science".

Edit: Shall I fix them for you? Edit2: Done.

 

[strategyonly]

Is there anyway to get the icons to look just like the icon on the far TOP left and in SIZE especially in all the area's i have in RED?

see attached pic 1)

Also there seems to be black dotted edges, doesnt seem correct for some reason??

 

[Toffer90]

@SO, black dots:

To get a smooth edge he would have to save the dds as DTX3 (as opposed to DTX1) That would double each image size; from 14- to 28 kB.

The higher resolution has already increased their sizes from 5- to 14 Kb; so I don't know if increasing their sizes further is smart.

 

[Sparth]

@SO, black dots:

To get a smooth edge he would have to save the dds as DTX3 (as opposed to DTX1) That would double each image size; from 14- to 28 kB.

The higher resolution has already increased their sizes from 5- to 14 Kb; so I don't know if increasing their sizes further is smart.

Exacly. DDS1 is 2x smaller then DDS2.

 

[Sparth]

Is there anyway to get the icons to look just like the icon on the far TOP left and in SIZE especially in all the area's i have in RED?

If only I know how to do this in Python
These 2 icons in python are defined by 2 different pyton code: upper one by self.ICON_SIZE and rest by GenericButtonSizes.BUTTON_SIZE_CUSTOM or by GenericButtonSizes.BUTTON_SIZE_46. When I tried copy/paste code from upper code then entire layout of civilopedia disappear :/

 

[Thunderbrd]

@SO, black dots:

To get a smooth edge he would have to save the dds as DTX3 (as opposed to DTX1) That would double each image size; from 14- to 28 kB.

The higher resolution has already increased their sizes from 5- to 14 Kb; so I don't know if increasing their sizes further is smart.

I don't think it would kill us to use DTX3. I know it's a lot when it comes to overall data size but I'm sure, memory-wise, in-game it wouldn't represent a problem unless it's trying to keep all of them in RAM at once. It might make the mod take a little more time to load and would certainly affect the overall download data but in the big picture it'd be worth it to have less pixelation imo.

 

[strategyonly]

It might make the mod take a little more time to load and would certainly affect the overall download data but in the big picture it'd be worth it to have less pixelation imo.

I agree, if its JUST loading time, then no biggy, but if its TURN time then absolutely NO.

 

[Sparth]

@Sparth: Seems like the wrong image is used for "invention", "oil painting", "shielding", "advanced shielding", "cloning", "bionics", "cold fusion", "recycling", "hypersonic flights", "military tradition" and "military science".

Edit: Shall I fix them for you? Edit2: Done.

Tnx mate!

 

[Thunderbrd]

I agree, if its JUST loading time, then no biggy, but if its TURN time then absolutely NO.

Turn times would be absolutely unaffected. Would affect how long it takes to open the pedia and the tech tree though.