DF-21 Forums

[lucius]

*******************Update*********************
This poll is now over, the official semi-finalist winners are

1) Darktrooper 33%
2) Stormtrooper with circular cutout 29%

A new poll will be held to determine the final icon / logo set to be used in DarkXL. This is being done due to the vote split between the variety of Stormtrooper icons. Don't forget to vote in the new poll!***********************************************


Please vote on your favorite icon/logo set. I decided to do the top 5 instead of top 4. Please vote, this will be used as the logo and icons for DarkXL:

1) Stormtrooper in square border - like Mac DF, by Magic_Al


2) Stormtrooper with circular cutout, by Magic_Al


3) Stormtrooper with full cutout, by Tsophika (using Magic_Al's as a base I believe):


4) Darktrooper, by Tsophika


5) Bryar Pistol, by Tsophika


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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[Fenwar]

If you can't decide - minimise your browser and have a look at which one would sit nicest on your wallpaper and the other icons on your desktop.

(No, really. That's how I actually decided.)

[lucius]

Thanks for all the votes, keep it up! I appreciate the participation.

And a big thanks to Magic_Al and Tsophika for their entries - any one of them here would make a good DarkXL icon and logo. Also, I'd like to thank Gez and Weregoose for their entries - they didn't make it into the final poll but I'm glad you tried. And also thanks to The_Mega_ZZTer for his advice that helped some of the others make the icons you see above.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[The MAZZTer]

Yay I'm the token idea man, instead of a "doer"... I think I should be ashamed but I'm not??? Probably because I know those are way better than anything I could try to scribble.

Also GJ everyone for working so hard on these.

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[ACE]

why does it get smaller and smaller?

[klasodeth]

Because the smallest version would show up at the corner of the title bar and on the button on the task bar. 32x32 and larger are all big enough to use as desktop icons depending on a person's desktop settings.

[lucius]

[Gez]

Since the good ol' regular Dark Force engine used the stormtrooper icon; the darktrooper seems the best choice for DarkXL. It's a better model in all respects, rebuilt from scratch using improved technologies, and while still experimental it is already proving its vastly superior potential over the old model.

Seems an apt metaphor, doesn't it?

[Fenwar]

But does it go "YAAAARGH!" and scare the crap out of you?



We need to know how far this goes. Before it's too late!

[lucius]

I just want to let everyone know that the poll ends Friday after which a winner will be declared. Get in your votes now while you still can!

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[Jon`C]

Simple plurality is not democratic.

[Magic_Al]

[The MAZZTer]

After a lot of blood, sweat, and tears I have come up with a way to package an ICO file which lucius should be able to easily compile into DarkXL. Or which I can easily hack into DarkXL should my favorite icon not be picked.

Also no-one has mentioned this, but the 48x48 32x32 and 16x16 icons need to have 1-bit transparency instead of the current 8. Only the Vista 256x256 size can have 8-bit transparency.

Here's an easy way to change it from 8-bit to 1-bit and still look nice... in the GIMP at least (I don't use your silly expensive tools).

Open the image and go to Colors > Curves.

Click once at 127, 0 (near middle, bottom) and once at 128, 255 (near middle, top). Click OK.

Also 64x64 also seems to be a common icon resolution used in icons that I forgot to mention.

I took my favorite icon for testing purposes and converted it into all the common icon formats, ready for my program to use:

256x256 32-bit
64x64 32-bit
48x48 32-bit
32x32 32-bit
16x16 32-bit
64x64 8-bit
48x48 8-bit
32x32 8-bit
16x16 8-bit
64x64 4-bit
48x48 4-bit
32x32 4-bit
16x16 4-bit

I could have done slightly better palette optimization (4-bit only uses 14 out of 16 colors it could be using) but this was a quick job and it still looks nice.

Icons with embedded PNGs don't render right in Firefox, so here's a screenshot of an icon tool instead.

Click for icon download.

The ugly icons on the left are not to be trusted. The actual icons themselves look great.

I might do a better job using GIMP later.

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[lucius]

[lucius]

[lucius]

Please read the update in the initial post, this poll is now over. Please post in the new poll between the two finalists. I'm locking this topic to avoid confusion.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com