Time to throw away the old crutches (to PS devs)

[Xanacru]

When looking at 16x16 icon in the actual address bar and in Firefox tabs (or similar browsers), the golden-yellow-purple version seems too dark with too heavy outline and the text appears blurrier. I like the white-silver style better for 16-pixels, personally.

When posting against a brown background on the forum, it's not quite the same effect. Click these links and look at the icons as they appear on the tabs and in the address bar:

http://phosted.com/0706/icon16.png (golden)

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/7183/psfavicon2ic4.png (silver)

Perhaps we just have different tastes. Don't get me wrong, I like the "golden" font by itself. My main problem was with a combination, which, in my opinion, clashes somewhat with the blue gem.

However, PS has traditionally used golden-yellowish font, even since the early days, so it's not surprising that you want to keep it. I wanted to break that "tradition" a little with something new.

Both versions look decent enough, though I'm not really satisfied with either one. Perhaps I'm a bit too picky. I would prefer to actually use a gem icon by itself for 16x16, as I recommended before. The 16x16 icons are tricky. Many popular sites design unique ones that take maximum area within 16x16 (usually square looking icons) with sharp and simple images.

Either way, you guys have both versions now, so if you like golden-yellow-purple, that's fine. At least we tried out different ideas, which was fun in itself.

[Nikodemus]

Why's the crystal blue?

Coz i suppose it is made of blue material ;P Why are the golden like "PS" purple, besides they look gold? Because gold has golden color, but not really purple, unless it would be hardened with nitrogen steel, but it is gold ;s So i still don't know. Why the purple light?

[Xanacru]

Just in case you guys don't have any means or methods that save icons into correct spec for Win and Mac or if some people already want to use these icons with PS, here is a new download .ZIP with Karyuu's golden-yellow-purple icons, including the "favicon":

http://www.filefactory.com/file/382198/

I also applied sharpen filter for lower res, so 16x16 looks a little better now. All you have to do is implement them into the next release and update the website as well.

[Karyuu]

Why the purple light?

1. Because yellow and purple are complementary colors, and they create an awesome contrast. Every shadow, whether in art or real life, can display a color that is complimentary to the object casting it.
2. A secondary light source always makes an image far more interesting than if it only has one. Three is even better - nearly every shot you see in professional television and films makes skillful use of the 3-light setup - but for an icon it is too complex.
3. The letters don't have to be made out of the gold we know in real life, so it doesn't need to display correctly every known property of gold materials. Analyzing it that far may be taking it too far. It's a logo, it looks good, and you don't have to break it down to its chemical structure ;)

[Xanacru]

Well, it's partially true about the multiple light sources. It depends on a specific situation and context in an art. Sometimes keeping it simple is best, which is why I preferred the platinum/silver look to "PS" when combined with the blue gem. And sometimes, indeed, multiple light sources can help.

I think the purple tint on gold is ok in this case, when viewed in a high res especially. It's not so much about what gold is made of, as it is about a light being cast on it. What is purple cast from? Who knows but it is there.

Here's an interesting link for complimentary colors:

http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

And here's me playing around a bit, making a strange looking PS icon (no, this isn't really meant as a suggestion for PS icons):



Don't you go on using it!

[Nikodemus]

1. Because yellow and purple are complementary colors, and they create an awesome contrast.

It's exactly this what is bugging me! That they are complementary. They indeed create strong contrast, but i always thought its for adverts, where they care exactly about contrast and clear message, not really artistic effect.
While the secondary light was dark blue (contrasting with crystal) the effect was worse? I would even go for green-blue light.
But maybe purple is the way to go


What did i do?! A red light. It starts looking like

[Xanacru]

The golden font effect isn't exactly new. Many RPG and MMORPG games have been using it for years. It does look nice by itself with or without different tints. However, I'm not quite fond of it when used in a combination with the PS gem for some reason.

However, Nikodemus, the example you posted looks closer to World of Warcraft than to Warhammer:





This would be more Warhammer-like:




Except the "chrome" effect is more wavy in WH.

I do like the WoW and Warhammer logos quite a bit, by the way.

[Nikodemus]

You forgot to add all these pointy banners, spears and sticks visible at the hilly horizon ;P hehe, that's what i like the logo for at most theeeere \o/ , >.> , but we are talking about PS i gues ;>

[Xanacru]

Oh, I didn't forget, they are still there. You just have to really like Warhammer to be able to see them.

Actually, it was just a quick approximation in Photoshop to illustrate that the overall effect is quite different to your example.

EDIT:

Muahahahaha!!



Ok, enough of that. Shuddup!

[Karyuu]

What I'm interested in now are better icons for the updater and setup

[Xanacru]

Hah, Karyuu's already handing out new assingments.

Here's what I came up with:

Setup -->

Updater -->

Setup was made from a graphic embedded into the PlaneShift "setup" background. There didn't seem to be anything good for the updater, so I created a fairly generic but ever popular crystal ball icon, and used Verdana's "U" to indicate "Update". Keep in mind, however, that these icons will most likely never be used in their full resolution but rather at 16x16 from within PlaneShift program group. These look good at 16x16.

Here is what it looks like in Windows XP "Start>All Programs..." so far:



To tell you the truth, Karyuu, I would rather PlaneShift took a tried-and-true approach with simply making a launch console. The console has the main PlaneShift icon, you click it, it launches a window with a nice background, latest news, setup and update buttons. And, of course, a "Start" button to start the game. This way you only need two icons - PlaneShift and Uninstall. In a way, it would be a more elaborate version of the current "Updater" program.

Also, if you still want to use "Player Guides", I recommend to use a user's default browser icon for web links, if such a guide is in .html format, like it is now. People should know right away that it's an .html page and that it will open with their default browser. Some companies make a mistake of using Internet Explorer icon and forcing their guides to open in it, when Firefox is already set as default. That is an awful mistake. It should always use your default browser.

Doing this you save yourself a lot of work in customizing additional icons, and everything looks nicer too.

EDIT:

Here's the .ZIP file with "Setup" and "Updater" versions for Win, Mac and Linux.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/dec9fe/

As usual, use at your own risk, I take absolutely no responsibility for any issues or problems it might cause you (and that's regarding any graphics or anything I posted on PS forums and in this thread so far), yadda yadda...

That's all.

[Karyuu]

Eeeexcellent.

I'm in total agreement with you about a launch console, but it's not a trivial thing to code I believe. So we'll have to make do with this for now :]

[Xordan]

I'm in total agreement with you about a launch console, but it's not a trivial thing to code I believe. So we'll have to make do with this for now :]

I don't believe it's that difficult really. It just requires some good planning.

[Xanacru]

Ok, here's a mod for the PS updater that makes it look a little more like a launch console:



http://www.filefactory.com/file/8b02f1/

Read the "README!!.txt" file, the instructions are inside.

A lot of little things needed to be painstakingly aligned, especially in the .XML file but the result is great. Perhaps, this can give you (PS devs) a good start and inspiration to improve the "Updater" and eventually turn it into a full launch console.

As usual, I take absolutely no responsibility for this modification or any problems it might cause you or others. Use only at your own risk. And, of course, feel free to include it into the next PS release.

EDIT: Changed the launching button to "Play" label, as I like it better. Download link is updated, of course.

Cya!

[Nikodemus]

wooooow, why didn't i think about something like that too? it's so simple.
I gues i just don't really use updater.

Amaizing idea, good work.