Custom goods icons

blizzard · Post by **blizzard** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:43 am

I've searched and nothing. So I thought I might ask for some help.

OK, I'm stumped. What I can not figure out is what directory my custom goods icons go in. I have the one that shows when you click to build a new industry in a city, but the icons on the industry and demands screen are pink. I am at a lose. Where might they go so they show up as the correct icon and not a pink square? I even copied one from the Holiday map (cookies) and named them to what I want, but still pink. Any insight would be great.

And I see some of the custom maps have .fpk files with them stored in the CustomAssets folder. Do they have an internal directory structure and if so, what is it? Like how does the game find a file in the Assets/Interface/Goods/ folder if there is NO Assets/Interface/Goods/ folder unless its in some directory in one of the .fpk files? And unfortunately, the .fpk packers and unpackers I have don't show/extract the directory structure.

Simple questions I know, but ones that are eluding me. Any help would be great.

Thx, Blizzard

G3mInI · Post by **G3mInI** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:28 pm

I see a folder for icons at...

C:\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\Resource\Railroad\GoodIcons

Now I have not messed with icons at all as of yet. But it sure does seem as though all of the Goods icons are located in that folder.

willie g · Post by **willie g** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:29 pm

This is probably like the blind leading the blind but....

The "build a factory in your city" icons are referenced in the Industries.XML file under the szIcon tag. What I don't know is where those icons reside. Using the MS XP search function doesn't find them.
But if you are creating your own "build a factory" icon you can put it in a scenario specific custom asset folder (as in "dogassets" in the Dogworld scenario) and reference the files there - and apparently that will work.
-willie g

choobacca · Post by **choobacca** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:50 pm

Since I build FPK files, I just have all my asset files in one directory, so it is like having all the files in the CustomAssets directory if they were unpacked. But I have also used the approach like Dogworld where he created a dogassets folder under CustomAssets.

Here is the XML I used for Taconite Ore:
<szGTMLIcon>Assets/Interface/Goods/icon_TaconiteOre_32.tga</szGTMLIcon>
<BitmapLarge>
<szFile>Assets/Interface/Goods/icon_TaconiteOre_64.tga</szFile>
</BitmapLarge>
<BitmapSmall>
<szFile>Assets/Interface/Goods/icon_TaconiteOre_32.tga</szFile>
</BitmapSmall>
<BitmapTiny>
<szFile>Assets/Interface/Goods/icon_TaconiteOre_16.tga</szFile>
</BitmapTiny>
<BitmapCar>
<szFile>Assets/Interface/Cars/SDSgoods.tga</szFile>
<uiX>32</uiX>
<uiY>0</uiY>
<uiWidth>32</uiWidth>
<uiHeight>16</uiHeight>
</BitmapCar>
<BitmapCarEmpty>
<szFile>Assets/Interface/Cars/SDSgoodsEmpty.tga</szFile>
<uiX>32</uiX>
<uiY>0</uiY>
<uiWidth>32</uiWidth>
<uiHeight>16</uiHeight>
</BitmapCarEmpty>

Just make sure you have created all these TGA files the right sizes and Alpha layer and they are in the CustomAssets directory somewhere. You can put them in a new folder and the game will find them.
Don't read much into the paths for these files. They say "Assets/Interface/Goods" but the game finds them anyway. I have been removing this path in my new maps.

blizzard · Post by **blizzard** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:16 pm

Hey, thx for the feedback.I believe I know what the prob is. It seems my alpha layer is not sticking to my .tga files.

G3 - I put my icons in that folder with the same outcome, just the pink icons. I do think it's the alpha layer missing that's giving me those colored icons.

Willie G - I do have that icon showing up in the game when I go to build or buy an industry. So evidently, the icon associated with the industry doesn't use the alpha channel but the ones displayed for the goods does. That does seem to make sense as the industry icon seems to be masked by the gui panel where as the goods icons show as free floating.

choobacca - I think you hit the nail on the head. It seems the alpha layer is not sticking with the .tga files of my icons. fe If I right-click on any of the goods icons that came with the game, I get a preview of the .tga and it shows as it does in the game. That is round without squared corners. When I preview mine, I see the icon picture as well as the background, thus the icon picture is square and not round. Weird though because when I open my icon .tga in Photo-Paint, I see the Alpha layer but evidently it's applied to the wrong layer as Photo_Paint seperates .tga files into their RGB components. That is I see a layer for each; Red layer, Blue layer and Green layer as well as the Alpha mask layer. Maybe I'm just putting the mask on the wrong layer. I don't know. I need to experiment, bwah-ha-ha-ha! Lock up your daughters, Blizzard's at it again! As far as the .fpk directory structure, I was beginning to believe it is not a necessity as I just put any custom files in one directory and .fpk it in the CustomAssets folder. Added industry shows up correctly with correct colors and such, so I left well enough alone but thought I would ask since I did come across references to directories I don't have, like the one mentioned in my first post.

Thanks for the feedback all and I'll post back if I get these working. I'll post back faster if I can't get them working. Seeing that not a lot of people I chat with uses Corel Photo-Paint, instead use Photo Shop or something else, I'll delve into the tutorials for alpha skinning .tga files. I just hope Photo-Paint can do that with .tga files. If not I'll probably need to export to another format, then convert to .tga with alpha enabled. Oh joy

~Blizzard

blizzard · Post by **blizzard** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:37 pm

Got it!

It seems I am unable to cox Photo-Paint into adding the alpha channel for the goods icons. So I fired up GIMP and lo-an-behold, success. My custom goods icons now show as the proper icon and not a pink square. Yea!

~Blizzard

Post by **Warll** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:54 pm

I was going to suggest GIMP. Only I thought since alpha layering is one of the few things I know. I thought I'd offered to help.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:58 pm

We need a few of you who are good at and interested in this icon changing to work with a few of the mappers and do a little adapting for them. The Arizona map could use something more like a Bank, Air Force Base and a Hotel. Possibly with USAF instead of the cross on the Air Force Base.

blizzard · Post by **blizzard** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:26 am

Snoop, by which you mean icons for Industries like say, an icon of a $ or money bag for the bank and a pillow or something for the Hotel and maybe the Star with straight Ribbons behind it for the Air Force. Is that what you had in mind?

~Blizzard

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 4:45 am

If you want to volenteer

, go to Talk and read Dopey Competitors...? I was talking to Karsten on that

.