New Vehicle Icons

[B4rr3l]

We're not dealing with greyscale here though, literally full black and full white. You can try it for yourself - take some black and white noise, compress it with DXT and look for any differences.

The icons here also only use 1 bit alpha, so using DXT3 or DXT5 would just double the size for no benefit.




Here's a comparison between 16x16 and 32x32 at 2560x1440. I just doubled the resolution of the atlas and saved it as DXT1 to test.

Ahh ok haven't noticed they were 2 bit only, you are right! but maybe you could give them a little bezel and improve that shades... DXT1 still ok than, its very low detailed, but 32x32 it's definitely an improve over the blurred ones

[chupachup]

Sooo to get this clear:
1. Make an icon in 32*32
2. Export as DDS, BGRA8, no mipmaps
3. Scale image to 16*16?

[B4rr3l]

Sooo to get this clear:
1. Make an icon in 32*32
2. Export as DDS, BGRA8, no mipmaps
3. Scale image to 16*16?

Never! LEave it at 32x32 DXT1

[CAS_ual_TY]

Rhino;2172039'][...]

Visually just from the minimap icons, it looks like a vastly different jet is coming to your aid than the one coming, and for someone not familiar with the vehicles on the map, could even be expecting something like a Su-27 coming to their aid instead of a Sea Harrier or Mirage based solely on their minimap icon, etc

Also, there are no distinguishable differences between the Daggers and Skyhawks, where their speed and movability is actually more important than their weapons, which the only way you leave to tell that from the minimap icons, is the speed they are moving at, which can be very deceiving if they are in an attack dive or climbing for an attack, or performing tight turns etc.

The reason why I'm picking out just jets is they are really the most important, and hardest things to show via minimap icons in my experience since they are often not in visual range to get visual confirmation on what they really are, and they vary so drastically between different shapes and roles, but mostly on the Falklands.
The advantages of the way I had the icons setup is you could tell the basic aircraft type at a quick glance (really the key thing when dealing with aircraft), and then if you knew the finer details, what role that aircraft was performing with its finer details which you can still tell pretty quickly if you know what you're looking for, although yes, no real indicators and hard to be consistent between lots of different jets.

[...]

hm. I do get the point now. I see what I can do. I agree on the point that the jet icons are the hardest ones

My suggestion would be partially following your advice. Basically give different roles different icons, but also consider the aircraft itself, but NOT consider the exact loadout.




EDIT: what about these

[CAS_ual_TY]

(some more examples)
I thought Id suck making 32x32. But they dont look so bad afterall

[chupachup]

Im wondering wether the 32x32 are supposed to have double thick lines then, since they'll be made smaller ingame right?

[Mineral]

ye should be created as 16x16, that way you get cleanest pixel lines. Really no reason to spend memory on icons that are going to be super tiny anyway.

[CAS_ual_TY]

If sticking with the vBF2 standard and the standard of every other icon, then yes. But it is possible to go higher rez than that.

Ye never had any compression issues with the minimap icons as TBob said, but yes doing them in 2x the size does make them a lot "smoother" but would require a total overhaul of the current icons but if CAS or someone is keen on that part, might be an idea, but wouldn't go above 32x32px unless someone can really notice the difference, maybe they might be able to on 4k?

ye should be created as 16x16, that way you get cleanest pixel lines. Really no reason to spend memory on icons that are going to be super tiny anyway.

I guess I misunderstood :X

anyways, both 32x32 and 16x16 icon sets are ready. Let me know when/if you need them

[Rhino]

Best to see what 32x32px icons look like ingame in 1920x1080.

From an extra memory standpoint, while yes 32px icons are 4x the size/memory of 16px icons, 32px are still very small and the actual increase of memory usage is nothing, providing another texture atlas isn't required to house them all, which even with lots more icon types I don't see that happening from these icons alone with the final atlas currently only around 1/2 of it being used.


I think however these icons will just look at lot sharper and cleaner and I very much doubt you will be able to see/notice the 1px lines you have for missiles sticking out over the wings etc, was hard enough to see them in my experience with 16px icons against the minimap background, so I think the differences will need to be a lot bigger than that if players are going to easily be able to tell them apart, but best to see what they are like ingame.

[Deadmanfoot]

I really like the idea of new icons to differentiate between vehicles. It can help with CAS especially with different icons you can check the map to see which friendly is engaged or not. Rather it just being a clusterfuck, also it would be nice to see the t72S and the S1 differentiated on the map Great work.

[CAS_ual_TY]

Changed it a bit rhino. But overall Id suggest testing it

[Rhino]

Those little missiles might work ye, but ye, needs testing, can't you do that?

Also think the MV22 icon needs more detail with black rotors (or at least black borders for its rotors now in higher detail) and also a Chinook icon would be good too

Would also suggest the Medium tank could use a less rounded turret and possibly could do the ATGM pods for both the MBT and IFVs a little differently, right now they are pretty large and for the IFVs would emphasise the size of the turret more than the size of the ATGM pod. Might also be worth basing the medium IFV off of the BMP2 or something too?

[rPoXoTauJIo]

Kinda hard to tell diffirence for insurgents support&logistic cars. Perhaps instead of very small L that's probably will be aliased could do same as with support&logistics trucks, bit wider lines inside\outside?

[CAS_ual_TY]

Those little missiles might work ye, but ye, needs testing, can't you do that?

Also think the MV22 icon needs more detail with black rotors (or at least black borders for its rotors now in higher detail) and also a Chinook icon would be good too

Would also suggest the Medium tank could use a less rounded turret and possibly could do the ATGM pods for both the MBT and IFVs a little differently, right now they are pretty large and for the IFVs would emphasise the size of the turret more than the size of the ATGM pod. Might also be worth basing the medium IFV off of the BMP2 or something too?

Im reworking the IFVs entirely. Not rly happy with them. Ill see what I can do. Havent rly worked on MV22 and Chinook, the thing you see here is just my "1st conversion" of 16 -> 32. Havent worked on the corners and details yet.

If you tell me where I can find the texture atlas and where I can find the vehicles minU/V and maxU/V values in the files, I can do it
Right now I am using the PRISM data.zip to get my icons, as that already provides me with .png versions

Kinda hard to tell diffirence for insurgents support&logistic cars. Perhaps instead of very small L that's probably will be aliased could do same as with support&logistics trucks, bit wider lines inside\outside?

Ammo Techie
Open Jeep without any weapon (UAZ support)
Open jeep with weapon (UAZ)
1 crate logistics van (used by MIL and some times INS I think)

[Rhino]

It is possible to test new menu items without packing them into the atlas. Going from memory, you flip the image vertically, save as .tga and then rename to .dds (with also the file name being totally new and not conflicting anything already packed in the atlas), then packing that file into the menu_client.zip under the correct dir and having the .tweak file of the vehicle ref that new icon, it should load fine ingame. But ye, that's just going from memory so might be a little incorrect

Also for your "open jeep" icons, tbh they look more like closed up jeeps, might be better to represent open ones with seats and other interior details in them and would make the gun far bigger and more apparent?
With 32px icons you have a lot more fine detail to play with so you might as well use that for the unimportant stuff with just 1px black lines, and important stuff, having 2px black lines or even bordered off the really important stuff like those missiles you did for the jets

[CAS_ual_TY]

Being a bit more specific would be good since I have no experience at all (google doesnt help either).

Anyways, I changed the following (tweak file of mec_tnk_t72s.tweak of objects_vehicles_server.zip):

Code: Select all

rem old: ObjectTemplate.vehicleHud.miniMapIcon Ingame\Vehicles\Icons\Minimap\mini_tank_heavy.tga

rem new:

ObjectTemplate.vehicleHud.miniMapIcon Ingame\Vehicles\Icons\Minimap\mini_tank_heavy.dds

And I put the mini_tank_heavy.dds icon into menu_client.zip/hud/texture/ingame/vehicles/icons/minimap/mini_tank_heavy.dds

But it still loads the old icon. Tested on Local, Kashan AAS STD

[Rhino]

Because it is still looking for "mini_tank_heavy", doesn't matter that its .dds or .tga on the end, BF2 code classes them the same and just loads the texture out of the atlas if its in the atlas, which "mini_tank_heavy" is.

You need a new name like "mini_tank_heavy_new.tga"

[CAS_ual_TY]

Because it is still looking for "mini_tank_heavy", doesn't matter that its .dds or .tga on the end, BF2 code classes them the same and just loads the texture out of the atlas if its in the atlas, which "mini_tank_heavy" is.

You need a new name like "mini_tank_heavy_new.tga"

Ahhh I am getting a grasp of this whole structure now, ok I will try

[CAS_ual_TY]

fucked up the tank inverting but the icons in general look clear and fine to me.

Taken in Full HD, No anti aliasing (if it even matters on icons)

[Rhino]

Ehhh, did you change the "ObjectTemplate.vehicleHud.miniMapIconSize" setting too? Looks like the icons are displaying in 32x32px rather than 16x16px which if so, I'm worried will clutter up the minimap to the point where you will only be able to pinpoint vehicle locations if you zoom the map in fully on a small area and the vehicle icons will cover all the infantry locations etc.

If you haven't changed it, set the "ObjectTemplate.vehicleHud.miniMapIconSize" to 16, just under the line you define the icon texture.

EDIT: actually looks like they are still displaying at size 16 after I downsized your screenshot to 800x600 so that's good

Just was so much detail that I thought they couldn't possibly be at size 16 still which is really awesome that you can see all that detail at 1920x1080

So ye, would say keep on with these 32px icons, think they will make an awesome change!