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Ayalin

11 Jan, 2023 @ 3:06am

Humble demand to dev- base photoshop file for the hero equipment item icons

Hey guys, hoping for a dev to see this message,

I am working on my next mod and I would like to add a lot of new items to the game. I have been trying to find an efficient way to add hero item icons (otherwise I will have to use existing icons for my new items but it means there will be one icon for several distinct item, which is definitely not great).
I have been digging the game files of course and spot the clb which contains hero item icons, but contrary to unit texture or more classical icons this one is pretty large (1024x2048), so if I want to snapshot it before modifying it in photoshop I need to enlarge it which greatly reduces its resolution, resulting in a very poor result once re-pasted in a 1024x2048 photoshop file. This is not the only issue, the Alpha mask for so much icons is also a real pain to do, and even snapshooting the existing alpha mask with such a low resolution does not help much.

In the end I am kindly asking you the photoshop template for the hero equipment icons, with the alpha mask already setup and the texture of course, or maybe just the PNG for the texture and Alpha mask in proper resolution as I cannot snapshoot it properly in the game engine (the photoshop native file would be ideal obviously).

My goal is to simply apply various color filter on this template so that I will demultiply with very little effort the number of existing equipment icons available for my own content.

Thank you very much in advance, I will also understand if it's not possible as this is some kind of asset owned by you guys, and this will not stop me from doing my mod ultimately, but providing me this file would save me so much time :)

Wishing you a good week anyway!

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Showing 1-13 of 13 comments

Gladen

11 Jan, 2023 @ 11:18am

I made a steam unit icon guide and the concept of making items is exactly the same as units.

I made 25 new items in the Wasteland Expansion ranging everything from mounts to hats. Even with the little saddle icon on a storm wyvern.

But well I would certainly appreciate a template despite my efforts.

Ayalin

11 Jan, 2023 @ 11:56am

Hey Gladen; yes I saw your great guide and used it for units; but I have to say I feel slightly depressed looking at this big texture composed of very small items, as honestly I just want distinction between items so a simple recolor on the game template would do the trick...

Gladen

11 Jan, 2023 @ 12:13pm

You could always look into dlc 2 or dlc 3 clb. They use less heavy images.

Another way is to search on Pinterest for cool armours and stuff... And just downsize it and approach it with little pixel style. Them alpha your way out of the situation. Why limit yourself with a few reskins of premade items when there is billions of things on the internet?

Ayalin

11 Jan, 2023 @ 12:29pm

The issue is with the alpha precisely. The method I use does not handle very well transitions between the borders and the alpha zone, resulting quite often into white borders or grey borders; it's not too bad on units, but I feel that with very small items like this it's gonna be ugly

Gladen

11 Jan, 2023 @ 8:00pm

What kind of method?

You have 1 picture without grey and white in it for example. You add a alpha layer inside the picture and yet you end up with white or grey in it when you save a picture with alpha layer.

Create a 128x128 dds from any image that has nothing grey and white in it. Mask with an alpha layer and then save with Nvidia texture.

Use no template. No additional layers, just a picture and restrict yourself to only have one layer in Photoshop with a alpha locked in the same layer. If you still get white borders I believe it's due to the template and not the image itself.

You cannot get white or grey without actually using wierd background because transparency is not actually a colour.

How to describe an alpha layer and masking method is probably to describe as you add an "shadow" to hide parts of an image. You apply mask to hide things you don't want to show.

When alpha is saved no white or black should excist. Only what you want to show in the actual image.

To understand the transition when you see an icon in the age of wonders 3 content editor when you look at alpha selected:

Black = Invisible
White = Your image you did not hide

Hope that straight things up

Last edited by Gladen; 11 Jan, 2023 @ 8:17pm

Ayalin

12 Jan, 2023 @ 2:10am

Can you save a dynamic image to be an alpha layer?

Ayalin

12 Jan, 2023 @ 2:11am

Because this is were I struggle, I "cut" or "draw" around the border of the image to create a selection which I then translate as an alpha layer.

Ayalin

12 Jan, 2023 @ 2:14am

Generally for my units, the image is a screenshot taken in the 3D editor. So, around the unit there is mostly white/grey pixels, so if my "drawing" with the selection tool is not pixel perfect, I end with thin lines of grey around the unit. It's not too bad but I feel I am missing something when I check the in-game texture files.

Gladen

12 Jan, 2023 @ 2:30am

Dynamic? As a real picture taken from like a tree and then just out shadow it from terrain? Well yeah if that's the case. Dunno if you mean moving GIFs

Take any pic. On the layer button. Look for the camera. Press it and it opens A linked "alpha channel" appears and you can select and mask.

Imagine you have a soft cat. Just outline the edges with smooth movement.

There is no cut or draw with selection. Just smooth movement. Imagine that you make 75% shadow on a edge

Having a black images as background layer helps as you can find the grey stuff/white stuff.

Ayalin

12 Jan, 2023 @ 3:10am

ok I think this is more or less what I am missing in general- smooth alpha edges. I will do some tries; would still love having the base game photoshop file for items :P

#10

Gladen

12 Jan, 2023 @ 5:44am

I could probably borrow you a more through example how it looks on of mine psd files with Photoshop. I got a few old ones that might help to give you better example than some triumph things

#11

Ayalin

12 Jan, 2023 @ 6:30am

I would definitely take it^^ let me know :)

#12

Gladen

22 Feb, 2023 @ 6:05am

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Last edited by Gladen; 23 Feb, 2023 @ 2:00am

#13

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Date Posted: 11 Jan, 2023 @ 3:06am

Posts: 13

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