[Iain Baker]

Hi all. I’m updating Reunion and one of the tasks I have set myself is creating new loadout screen icons for the new primaries the game introduces – such as the Antimatter Lance, Subach Alpha, Prometheus X etc. At the moment, they are using the same 2D icons as some of the vanilla weapons, which makes it difficult to tell them apart.

Is there a guide to creating loadout icons anywhere? I assume the art for the icons can be created in any art program, is this correct? If so, what program would be best to create them with? I'm probably just going to create abbreviated words for the icons; 'AML', 'Sub-Alph', 'Prom-X' etc. since my art skills max out at badly drawn stick men.

Will the icons need to be a certain size to fit the icon box, do they need to be saved in a specific format, will I have to do anything FS-specific for the game to recognise them, where would they need to live in the file structure, etc? (and if so, what software might I need, if any?)

Cheers :-)

[Strygon]

I'm not entirely sure if loadout icon ANIs can be substituted with APNGs yet so I personally would err on the safe side and grab the Descent Management Tools and grab ANIBuilder to package your icon. Might also grab ANIViewer to see how other icons are set up.

There's no definitive best program for making icons, it really comes down to the artist's preference. Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, GIMP, anything really works as long as you can export it into GIMP to convert into PCX files and get the indexed color palette right.

Yes they'll need to be in a specific size, once again you should look at existing weapon icons for a good reference point, and the final ANI file should be in data/interface.

[wookieejedi]

 I’ve used both animated pngs and Eff sequences for loadout icons. I would really not recommend dealing with ani or PXC at all at this point in time 

[Strygon]

I see. Well, the point regarding everything else still stands, I suppose. I've personally had less than stellar experiences using anything other than ANIs for interface stuff so far.

[Nightmare]

Probably use .Eff but the better option is probably to use techroom models for selection

[Strygon]

Yeah personally I always found it easier to just model a new weapon and have FSO generate the icon automatically, since that also replaces the animation for the weapon selection itself.