Icons size in statusbar and the new flag icon feature

[Alink]

We have now the possibility to use custom flag icon in the statusbar (by using the key flag_icon in [side]). Since this icon can be changed, it's probably a good idea to define some sort of standard size, so it will works fine on different theme and give directions to umc.

The previous images (2 in images/flags and 1 in SotBE) used 24x17, I temporary edited those to 24x15 because all other icons have a height of 15 and the 2 "big" icons (upkeep and income) have width of 24. I planned to edit the themes to make the appropriate space for these new flags (because the previous one was 16x15) but it's best to decide the final size before:

* I suggest to change the current size of icons to the standard 16x16 instead of this odd 15x15.

* For the flag, I propose 24x16 because a rectangle is better than a square for drawing a flag. And even if we don't use a flag (eg: faction symbol), this icon is changing each turn to indicate the playing side, so it must be "readable", and a bigger size will be usefull.

* We also must decide if we use a transparent or black background for icon images. Current icons have a black one but a transparent is probably better if one day we add theme with other colors or use the icon elsewhere. (see also next point about transparent pixels)

Note that the current default theme shrink the image flag to the 16x15. It's a "feature" of the theme engine to stretch the non-transparent part of the icon to the space allowed. This probably must be changed. I will look at it if nobody tell me that it's useful (or want to code it himself;) ). I understand why scaling but do it without keeping the proportion of the image seems bad and if one add transparent pixels, there is normally a good reason. Also remember that scaling alter the pixel-art. The temporary solution that I used when creating the placeholder tSG flag icon is to add black pixels with alpha=1 at the corners of the images to trick the code.

PS : I am a theme beginner, so I have maybe miss an option or a resolution problem

(EDIT: of course flag_icon key is used in the [side] tags not in [size])

[Eleazar]

We have now the possibility to use custom flag icon in the statusbar (by using the key flag_icon in [size]). Since this icon can be changed, it's probably a good idea to define some sort of standard size, so it will works fine on different theme and give directions to umc.

* I suggest to change the current size of icons to the standard 16x16 instead of this odd 15x15.

Sounds reasonable.

* For the flag, I propose 24x16 because a rectangle is better than a square for drawing a flag. And even if we don't use a flag (eg: faction symbol), this icon is changing each turn to indicate the playing side, so it must be "readable", and a bigger size will be usefull.

Sounds good.

* We also must decide if we use a transparent or black background for icon images. Current icons have a black one but a transparent is probably better if one day we add theme with other colors or use the icon elsewhere. (see also next point about transparent pixels)

Let's go transparent with these.

Note that the current default theme shrink the image flag to the 16x15. It's a "feature" of the theme engine to stretch the non-transparent part of the icon to the space allowed. This probably must be changed. I will look at it if nobody tell me that it's useful (or want to code it himself;) ). I understand why scaling but do it without keeping the proportion of the image seems bad.

Non-proportional scaling IMO is bad. And i'd rather not have the icons scale at all, so it's more obvious when they are the wrong size and need adjustment.

[Alink]

Just a small remark and a new idea:

i'd rather not have the icons scale at all, so it's more obvious when they are the wrong size and need adjustment.

For the moment, scaling icons is needed when the theme doesn't allow enough space for one icon. The 800x600 resolution seems ok but tiny-gui (320x200) uses half space for icons (and the scaling blurs it to a small cloud of pixels).
Also add a special theme for bigger resolution seems a good idea, at least in the future, so it will probably scaling up some icons.

But I agree scaling / blurring hurts icon's beauty (and artist's feelings), so I use it as an argument to propose an easy solution which will cause more work for you (or other artists): drawing the icons with different sizes (8x8, 16x16, 32x32 or maybe 24x24, and for the rectangular ones 12x8 24x16 48x32). It's what is done for the desktop and seems reasonable.

Note also that it's a new argument to the switch from 15x15 to 16x16

And I checked, using different icons for different resolutions works fine with the theme engine.

[Eleazar]

The 800x600 resolution seems ok but tiny-gui (320x200) uses half space for icons (and the scaling blurs it to a small cloud of pixels).
Also add a special theme for bigger resolution seems a good idea, at least in the future, so it will probably scaling up some icons.

But I agree scaling / blurring hurts icon's beauty (and artist's feelings), so I use it as an argument to propose an easy solution which will cause more work for you (or other artists): drawing the icons with different sizes (8x8, 16x16, 32x32 or maybe 24x24, and for the rectangular ones 12x8 24x16 48x32). It's what is done for the desktop and seems reasonable.

It won't be hard to make half-size icons of the status-bar for tiny-GUI. The clarity of the icons (more important at that size than beauty) should be better than any automatic resizing. When the time comes around that Giant-screen-GUI is in the works we can consider weather 24x24 or 32x32 is the better choice.

[Jetrel]

When the time comes around that Giant-screen-GUI is in the works we can consider weather 24x24 or 32x32 is the better choice.

And this part, at least, can wait. Wesnoth will invariably still have a pulse then*, and this is a trivially-skilled, yet mildly tedious task.





* (if it doesn't, we'll probably have more pressing matters at hand)