The Hive Workshop - View Single Post - Complete Icon Tutorial

Flame_Phoenix · 09-04-2007, 07:03 PM

Continuation

As you can see, if you continue on, you will be able to change most of the values, like gold, lumber and food. However be careful as the Attack, Move and other icons are 64x64 pixels images. In this case you must know the game to know which icons you can change.
You can also use the BTN_attack.blp to change armors. In my map I changed the piercing attack and the large armor.
If you find a 64x64 icon (like move icon) and if you want to change it, you will have to use a 64x64 image, but the process will be the same. However if you use a 64x64 icon remember that you will need its DISBTN correspondent (yes, you will want to use BTn icons because PAS icons will be wasting your time as you won’t even be able to see the properly).

Now I will change the adept/master training icon of the priest. To do this enter the object editor and choose units

Now select the priest unit and choose the field caster upgrade art so you can change it.

It is done. Now you know a little bit more. I decided not too loose much time in this section as well. Because of what I said before, I consider importing and using very easy to do.
If you have any questions or if you want to learn more just post something in the forum and I will see what I can do. Importing and using the icons it’s the easiest part of icon making.
This section of the tutorial has a map as well as the other. You can and you should download it to better understand what is I the tutorial.
Now it is time to end my tutorial with my last section – Fixing an Icon

“Fixing an Icon”

“Introduction”

In contradiction to the other sections of this tutorial, I will not tell you exactly what to do in this section. To understand the meanings and the concepts I am going to write here you have to read my tutorial. However if you already have some knowledge about icon making you will probably understand what I mean. Next to this section there is also has a list of bugs that the programs you use can have, so I advice you to read it.

“Fixing Green Icons”

There are millions of ways to make an icon to appear green in Warcraft, however I will write here the most common.

I will start from the beginning. A common problem is the size and color depth of an icon. If an icon does not have 64x64 or 48x48 pixels and does not have 24BPP (24 bits color) it will be green. To solve this problem convert your icons into BMP and set the icons to 64x64 (or 48x48) pixels and 24 BPP
After that we have the name of an icon. To be well accepted by the game the icon name must follow a formula. The formula is: IconType + IconCustomName + .FileFormat = BTN_myicon.blp , per example.
If the icon name is correct check for its correspondent, remember that 64x64 icons MUST always have a DISBTN correspondent, with the same name. In this case the formula is: DISIconType + IconCustomName(equal to the correspondent icon name) + .FileFormat = DISBTN_myicon.blp . PASBTN and DISPASBTN are NOT an exception to this formula. Only 48x48 icons don’t need a DIS correspondent
Finally and the most common cause the Import path is usually wrong. To correct an import path use the formula: ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\IconType + IconCustomName + .FileFomat = ReplaceableTextures\CommandButtons\BTN_myicon.blp .Keep in mind that he previous rules also applies here.

These are the main reasons why your icons don’t work. If you have more questions or any trouble please post them in this forum so that I can help you solve your problems.

“Fixing Black Icons”

The main reason (and the only I know) for icons to appear black in game it is because they don’t have alpha channels. This problem is most frequent in TGA format icons. To solve this problem convert your icon into BLP format with WarcCraft 3 Viewer. This program will convert your icon and it will add the so needed alpha channels automatically.

“List of Important Bugs in the Programs”

Irfanview:

1. - Sometimes you can not undo your actions. I recommend that you save you files with regularity.
2. - Also sometimes when you zoom to a value which is not a multiple of 100, your zoomed image can get "cut" in some areas, thus i am forced to recommend you people to zoom to values that are multiples of 100 (like 200, 300 and so on).

W3IR:

1. - This program cannot create a DISBTN file for the Autocast icon. This means that you have to create it. Read my tutorial as it teaches how overrun this bug.
2. - Although this program can name icons, when you finish adding borders to them, the program doesn’t work properly. In the case the bordered new icons have a double name which needs to be deleted manually.

WarCraft III Viewer:

1. - Sometimes the program crashed due an unknown issue. My advice is for you to save your files regularly.
2. - When you finish converting a BLP file into another type of file, the program says that the issued file was converted into BLP successfully. Ignore this bug as it causes no harm to you, your file was converted correctly in the desired model.
3. - When you convert a TGA image into a BLP image, the program flips vertically your image. This means that what should be up will be down and what should be down will be up. There are two way of correcting this bug:

a. Save your files in BMP format and convert them into BLP
b. If you have already saved them into BLP format you will have to convert the BLP file into a BMP file. After that use Irfanview to flip vertically your recently BMP created image. Once it is in the correct position convert the BMP file into a BLP file again.

WarCraft III World Editor:

1. - Sometimes when using imported icons in the Game Interface menu the program just does not recognize the file. To solve this either create another map or close the current map and open it later. My advice here is to always save regularly your job and to always use a test map file where you do your experiments such as changing important game values like this one.
2. - Happens that after importing an icon the program does not recognize it immediately in the editor. To solve this save the map, close the program and reopen it a few minutes later. It also can happen that when making your own map that the amount of data information is so big that the program does not recognize the icons in order to have extra virtual memory. This bug cannot be solved but don’t worry the icons will always appear when playing regular Warcraft.

These are the bugs I experienced while I was creating my icon. I hope they help you avoid some of the troubles I had. If you had any extra bug problems please report them as I would like to complete my tutorial as much as possible.

Done! Now you are a professional with icon making !!! I hope you enjoyed. Down here it is my Bibliography section and the links of some professional image making programs you can experiment. You can also download the installation files of the programs I used together with my maps.

“Bibliography”

To create this super tutorial I used information from:

• Creating Custom Icons by Darg
• 6 years of WarCraft professional game play and 4 years as a lonely map maker (yes it took me a lot of time to know what I know now)
• W3IR program tutorial (here available for download)
• THW rules about icons (also available for download)

“Websites and Downloads”

“Websites”

Here you will found a list of other icon making websites and tutorials that will help you:

“Downloads”

Here you will find a list of programs you can use. This includes professional image programs and the programs I used:

Credits

me
myself
I
Flame_Phoenix (me, myself, I)

Special Thanks

Thx to BlackDoom for giving his opinion and making constructive critics on my work. Thx to him I improved my tutorial.
Thx to Wolverabid for telling me about BlackDoom and for his comments
Thx to PurplePoot for being the first and nearly only moderator that motivated me to finish the tutorial
Thx to low_kwaliti for defending me against some angry moderators and for commenting my work as well.
VERY VERY THANKS to all these people and to all those i forgot to mention that somehow contributed with their comments and opinions to help me make a better work. Also thx for the reputation points they all gave =D .

Now here are the maps, icons and programs that you can and you should download. Hope you have fun making icons now =)
Also the Import maps with icons are here. You should download them to better understand my tutorial if you want to.