ReactOS icon set

counting_pine · Post by **counting_pine** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:37 pm

MadRat wrote:I kind of like Stardock's idea using PNG files for icons

Apart from compression, PNGs don't really have any useful features that icons lack. PNGs can be converted to ICO format if you have the right software.

mjs · Post by **mjs** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:00 pm

counting_pine wrote:Apart from compression, PNGs don't really have any useful features that icons lack. PNGs can be converted to ICO format if you have the right software.

Of course they have ... they have a separate alpha channel that is useful for good-looking partly-transparent anti-aliasing.

Regards,
Mark

counting_pine · Post by **counting_pine** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:10 pm

mjs wrote:
counting_pine wrote:Apart from compression, PNGs don't really have any useful features that icons lack. PNGs can be converted to ICO format if you have the right software.
Of course they have ... they have a separate alpha channel that is useful for good-looking partly-transparent anti-aliasing.

Regards,
Mark

Icons support that too. Most of the Windows XP icons are anti-aliased.

mjs · Post by **mjs** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:06 pm

You're right. Sorry.

uniQ · Post by **uniQ** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:50 pm

MadRat wrote:I kind of like Stardock's idea using PNG files for icons:

Just watch that "Internet" one...

-uniQ

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:13 am

mf wrote:Once ReactOS is mature enough it'll support ObjectDock out of the box with a little luck. That said, PNG and MNG are NOT icon formats. They are just as much an image format as JPEG and GIF, and do not lend themselves to icon usage. Support for it is useless. If you want eyecandy in ReactOS, come back in a few years. Till then, stick with your WinXP with WindowBlinds, ObjectDock, DesktopX, CursorXP, and LogonStudio skins whacked all over it. There are however also people that use their computers for useful things instead.

NT6 is said to support vector graphics for icons, so support for it is going to be required in the near future. Even though MNGs are not icon formates, I can not see an icon format doing animations!

mf · Post by mf » Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:49 pm

Phalanx wrote:NT6 is said to support vector graphics for icons, so support for it is going to be required in the near future. Even though MNGs are not icon formates, I can not see an icon format doing animations!

"Required" is a very flexible term in this context. Supporting Longhorn features is way down at the priority list anyway, and Longhorn eyecandy features are even further down. But as always, feel free to hack it in and submit a patch, once time comes.

Phalanx wrote:Even though MNGs are not icon formates, I can not see an icon format doing animations!

You know little about icon formats. There is an extension to .ico that allows it to animate in the same way as .ani cursors can. It's just not supported by Windows itself. I believe Compaq once had a patched win95 with animated icons *shiver*. It was pretty horrible to look at if you ask me, but to each his own I guess.

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:34 am

mf wrote:
Phalanx wrote:Even though MNGs are not icon formates, I can not see an icon format doing animations!
You know little about icon formats. There is an extension to .ico that allows it to animate in the same way as .ani cursors can. It's just not supported by Windows itself. I believe Compaq once had a patched win95 with animated icons *shiver*. It was pretty horrible to look at if you ask me, but to each his own I guess.

I too have seen that, but it become a waste of memory when these days icons are larger, with larger channel for more colours and not really compressed well (if at all). Personally I think that the single colour transparency in icons is not really good enough (not like alpha, but maybe there is alpha in new versions I don't know about). And when programs start coming with vector icons, if you don't support them you will have trouble with those programs. Candy does bring users that does bring need. Its how monopolies grow.

counting_pine · Post by **counting_pine** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:23 pm

For someone who knows what they're doing, I imagine it would be quite easy to add support for any image type, although maybe animated icons would require a bit of extra work.
In any case, considering Longhorn is so far off, I don't think vector graphics are something we need to worry about just yet.

Phalanx wrote:not like alpha, but maybe there is alpha in new versions I don't know about

There is alpha support in icons now. You just need at least Windows XP to use it.
This is what the Windows XP "My Computer" icon looks like:
[ external image ]
Note the anti-aliased edges and the shadow. That's thanks to Alpha support.

mf · Post by mf » Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:46 pm

Phalanx wrote:I too have seen that, but it become a waste of memory when these days icons are larger, with larger channel for more colours and not really compressed well (if at all).

Wow, you live in a world where standard display buffers support PNG compression? The world that I live in (also known as reality), any compressed image data needs to be decompressed into memory to be displayed on screen. (Of course the exception to this is DXT (which is lossy) compressed texture data for DirectX games.)
Basically, whether you compress it or not, it's going to require the same amount of memory.

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:13 pm

mf wrote:
Phalanx wrote:I too have seen that, but it become a waste of memory when these days icons are larger, with larger channel for more colours and not really compressed well (if at all).
Wow, you live in a world where standard display buffers support PNG compression? The world that I live in (also known as reality), any compressed image data needs to be decompressed into memory to be displayed on screen. (Of course the exception to this is DXT (which is lossy) compressed texture data for DirectX games.)
Basically, whether you compress it or not, it's going to require the same amount of memory.

For animated icon I do hope it does not work that way. Course its going to take memory, look at Gate's famous (wrong) quote. I do not think that having every frame extracted at once is a good idea.

mf · Post by mf » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:15 am

Phalanx wrote:For animated icon I do hope it does not work that way. Course its going to take memory, look at Gate's famous (wrong) quote. I do not think that having every frame extracted at once is a good idea.

Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles(tm).

Anyway, on a more positive note, here's a sneak peek at what I've been up to the past days!

[ external image ]

MadRat · Post by **MadRat** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:00 am

*covers eyes*

...the lack... ...of color... ...is not... ...exciting... ....*sigh*

peat · Post by **peat** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:03 am

Great Icon mf !
I like your icons. Please make more of that Quality!

counting_pine · Post by **counting_pine** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:10 am

You've got a slightly off-colour background again.

btw, does anyone know if ReactOS supports 32-bit colour icons yet?

ReactOS icon set

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