Iconography

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RoyalBengalTiger
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Iconography

Post by RoyalBengalTiger » 2024-02-03 17:41, Saturday

Howdy all y'all,

I'm working on making Polish historically accurate icons (or at least more accurate than what exists right now), and I've run into a little problem...

I make an approximation of whatever I'm building in Sprocket, then I take screenshots, and then I shrink the vehicle to fit the size of existing icons of something of a similar size.

Image
This is a 25TP model, I still have some touching up to do anyways, it is just a test run, don't panic.

Image
As shown above, the shrunken render is made in a 3D perspective, rather than a 2D projection (note the sides of the original tank do not appear to get narrower towards the rear).

The big question is - I looked through a bunch of icons and every single one is without a perspective view. Should I manually touch up the pixels, or are we fine with some being a bit different than others?
Maybe there is a way to export from Sprocket and then render without perspective, so I can have a good template to look at right away?

I'd like to know the conventions before putting a lot of time into this.
I'll be making the 4TP, PzInż 130, PzInż 160 (armed with a 37mm, 47mm and 65mm), 14TP (as a tank with a 37mm and 47mm, as an AA tank with a twin 20 mm and single 40mm, as a tank destroyer with a 75mm and as a SPG with a 120mm howitzer/mortar), 25TP (tank with 75mm gun as shown on the test images, tank destroyer with a 90mm gun and SPG with a 155 mm gun).

Then I'll probably add a couple armored cars and half tracks.
Total planned = about 20 icons.

Historical accuracy note - bold = built or in the process of building, italic = designed or being worked on, underline = the chassis and gun existed or was being built, but were not combined or designed to be combined.

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randowe
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Re: Iconography

Post by randowe » 2024-02-04 17:39, Sunday

I think it is better to keep the style of the existing icons and not having 20 new icons look very much different. Personaly i would favor to use wrong icons (that i have to do anyway becasue many icons do not exist) than icons that look too different.
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RoyalBengalTiger
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Re: Iconography

Post by RoyalBengalTiger » 2024-02-05 02:36, Monday

Yeah that's what I was thinking too - just keep with the conventions.
It's just something that I never noticed for all these years since Panzer General 2 and now it stood out so much.

I'm sure I could stretch out the proportions accordingly. Still have a few models to figure out, so this may take a few days before I publish anything.

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Re: Iconography

Post by RoyalBengalTiger » 2024-05-23 04:23, Thursday

Greetings all,

How does one export an icon from an EFile into a png file?
I ran into some in Gustlik's file that are not in the icons search, so I can't save the original from the site.

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randowe
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Re: Iconography

Post by randowe » 2024-05-23 07:55, Thursday

RoyalBengalTiger wrote:
2024-05-23 04:23, Thursday
Greetings all,

How does one export an icon from an EFile into a png file?
I ran into some in Gustlik's file that are not in the icons search, so I can't save the original from the site.
Download the icons tool from Luis site. You need it anyway, to add your own icons to an equipicons file. With the tool you can add/remove/extract icons.
Image Slava Ukraini!

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Re: Iconography

Post by RoyalBengalTiger » 2024-05-26 17:46, Sunday

Can anyone give a link?
The O-G website only has downloads related to the game itself, and not for the modding tools...

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randowe
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Re: Iconography

Post by randowe » 2024-05-26 18:02, Sunday

RoyalBengalTiger wrote:
2024-05-26 17:46, Sunday
Can anyone give a link?
The O-G website only has downloads related to the game itself, and not for the modding tools...
:howdy Here you go: http://www.luis-guzman.com/IconsTool.html
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RoyalBengalTiger
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Re: Iconography

Post by RoyalBengalTiger » 2024-05-27 04:03, Monday

It works!

Next question - there are description fields, where do I fill those in?

Image

I take it that there must be something with loading the description file, but what does this file look like?

Image

Or should I just put it in the report new icons thread and not worry about it?

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randowe
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Re: Iconography

Post by randowe » 2024-05-27 08:33, Monday

There are csv table sheets that contain the information for each icon. There is the general OpenIcons.csv file and then some efiles use EquipIcons.csv files with additional icons. Just take a look into these files and you'll see how it's done. Basically every icon has a corresponding entry.

What are your plans exactly? Do you want to create your own efile for your new equipment and planned campaigns?
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Re: Iconography

Post by RoyalBengalTiger » 2024-05-27 23:03, Monday

OK, thanks.

It's going to be a mod of Gustlik's efile.
There are a few things I don't like in the gameplay, such as tank destroyers giving fire support, HMG's having 2 fields of range and some others.
Some units might be just an icon swap though, as I see a lot of things are well researched.

Others will be simply removed. I'll have a cutoff of if the chassis didn't exist, the gun wasn't used by Poland (or didn't exist), or both, then this vehicle will not be included in the campaign.
The only exceptions will be:
-If a given gun is used in small numbers, then I assumed that whatever the current production in France or maybe Sweden was would be ordered. Poland imported a lot of weapons made by Bofors and Schneider for instance.
-If a chassis was not designed in a given version, but similar vehicles were made on the next smaller/lighter chassis. The 25TP self propelled artillery guns are hypothetical versions of something that was planned for the 14TP for instance. This is to follow existing design philosophy of the time.
Without the exceptions I'd just run out of vehicles in like 1941, maybe '42...

And then I'll build the what if? campaign. While I'm spoiling all the vehicles in the Polish Subforum, I won't spoil the story of course.
So yeah, I'll be busy for another few months with this, and then I might make another campaign, or might just go back to enjoying playing the game...

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