Wide Icon Project Options

[ressurectionx]

THE WIDE ICON PROJECT

I'm working on putting together a set of wide icons for my Box. I've come across a lot of them along the way. With this goal in mind, this is a preservation and organization project. It is intended to give the artists of the Wide Icons credit as well as keep the work alive long after the threads have faded into obscurity.

For historical purposes, here is the original beta of the Wide Icon Pack (OLD): DOWNLOAD

Wide Icon Pack Version 2 (07-05-09):

APPS
COMPANY LOGOS
EMULATORS
GAMES
HOMEBREW & PORTS

(Thanks to nate1579 for putting it together and cataloging it on a spreadsheet for us.)

Here's the Spreadsheet so nobody is making duplicate wide icons: SPREADSHEET

If you'd like to make new wide icons to be included in future packs, post them here to be added. Please be sure to check the spreadsheet so you're not putting a lot of hard work into making an icon for a game somebody else covered. We do keep track of multiple icons per game though, so if you feel you can do better, go for it!

I will also use this space as a place to request wide icons I feel need to be made to make the set complete. By now, I pretty much have a wide icon with a PM3 border on it for every emu/category/company/xbox game i have backed up, but some could use a little more character.

Thanks to everyone who has and will contribute!


REQUESTED WIDE ICONS:

Emulators:
Apple McIntosh Plus
FMSXBox (if there is any difference between this and games BlueMSXBox plays)
SarienX (Sierra Games Player)
Thomson to7-70

Homebrew:
XBomberbox 1
XBomberbox 2 (This and XPong below are the two things I actually don't have a wide icon at all for)
XPong

Company:
Commodore

Categories:
Arcades
Other Emulators

PC:
Abuse
Gladiator
Out of This World


Also, I was hoping we could see some Regional stuff like this (I've got plans for them in the future):

US Licensed
Europe Licensed
Japan Licensed
Unlicensed
Prototypes
Hacks
Translations
------------------------------

Be Creative!



HERE'S THE BORDER I'M USING FOR MY PERSONAL COLLECTION:



Thanks to NineT9mustang for making this and giving me a way to make my set look uniform. If I put a border around an icon or somebody else did, I put both versions in the pack.



If anybody sees their stuff in the pack and it didn't have your name on it, let me know. If anybody objects to their stuff being put in this pack, let me know that as well. Thanks in advance if you're cool with it!


Thanks!
~Rx

This post has been edited by ressurectionx: Jul 15 2009, 12:51 PM

[mtsaint]

by border do you mean the pmIII xpr texture thats in the back ground? if so I'll just make it out of that

[sotu]

[sotu]

[ressurectionx]

Nice work Sotu. That's a few of them that I didn't have yet.

Any chance talking you into putting the PM3 Border on them?





Hey mtsaint,

This is what I mean by PM3 border:





I don't have it, but I'm going to get the border so I can post it at the top of the thread for everyone to use.

Later,
~Rx

[ultimate509]

Here

[nate1579]

hey soto could you make a whole set one for each game system i love that dreamcast vmu one

[sotu]

I guess I don't understand how that dark gradient border is supposed to portray PM3's style.

From a designers point of view the border cuts off a third of the icon's image so you have less area to work with, effectively making an already narrow icon even more so. I prefer using the entire area of the icon to it's fullest. Waste not want not.

PM3 has a glossy finish which is what my icons have. No knock on whoever came up with the gradient border, I just don't care for it.

[Bomb Bloke]

Effects (especially borders) can make an icon all but unusable in various skins. It's easy to add these effects if you wish to have them, but those who would prefer to do without (eg me!) would have a far, far harder time removing them if they were pre-applied.

"Base images" without any effects applied to them are, in my opinion, a heck of a lot more valuable. Say you grab a pack of icons with the corners rounded off. They might look very nice, but they won't fit in with all your other icons... Unless you round off all those corners too. But why should you be forced to conform to that effect if you don't want it?

So;

A Really Simple Guide To
Slapping Border Images On Things
For those who want them.

1. Open your image in Paint.NET. There are many other programs you could use for this, but I'm suggesting this one as it's free and simple to use. Goto the Image menu, select Resize, uncheck the "Maintain aspect ratio" check box and enter the width/height of the border image you'll be using under the "Pixels" section. Click Ok.

2. Goto the Layers menu and select Add New Layer. Make sure this new layer is highlighted in the layer window (which, if you've closed it, can be accessed via the Window menu).

3. Open your border image in another Paint.NET window. Use Ctrl + A to select the entire image area, then Ctrl + C to copy it to your system clipboard. Switch back to the first window and use Ctrl + V to paste the border on top of your icon. The result should look something like this (depending on your border):

4. Save your finished image, making sure you select JPG or PNG as the file type. You'll be asked whether you want to discard the layering information, say Yes to this, and you're done.

5. Watch sotu cringe at his disfigured work.

[ressurectionx]

I wouldn't use the borders if somebody would make a complete set. But getting somebody to do that is like pulling teeth. I should know..... I've been lobbying for it for over a year now.

This is the only way I could come up with to make all the icons look uniform. Until now, I've had icons of different styles and sizes and it looked like crap, even with all the great work behind the individual borders. My brother seems to think it looks a lot better like this anyways. When they ALL have these boarders it really looks great in the PM3 skin. That's the catch though.... you have to have them ALL like that or it defeats the purpose. There are only a few that I don't have like this buried deep in obscure categories for the most part. Even the ones I mentioned above except for a few I have icons with boarders for. Some of them are too plain or boring though and could use an update. Like sotu's great Dreamcast one is definately getting a boarder and replacing the one that I've got.

I guess the boarders are my sentence for not letting anything go and having to have every system and homebrew.... even the ones that nobody wants to make great looking icons for. Every homebrew had a comparitevly boring icon made with these boarders that I had grabbed over half a year ago. I've replaced some of them with better images wrapped in these boarders, but about 2/3rds of them still have the basic ones. Even though they're two completely different styles though, they still look like they belong together.

This post has been edited by ressurectionx: Apr 14 2009, 02:11 PM

[FrankMorris]

That is actually PM1 border.
Hey we really need to standardize the size of the wide icon. 758 x 140 is what Team XBMC suggest.

http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Wide_Banner_Icons


This post has been edited by FrankMorris: Apr 14 2009, 04:00 PM

[Horscht]

Does someone know where I can find the .psd template for those icons:



I know I had the psd sometime, but I can't find it anymore. I would be thankfull for any help

[ressurectionx]

I think Sotu might have those Horscht..... ?

I think it's actually Cospefogo...

Can anyone tell me what format the pics need to be named if you're going to use them for .CUT files? I assume that this is the only reason we have wide icons made for games within emulators, correct?

This post has been edited by ressurectionx: Apr 14 2009, 10:40 PM

[sotu]

Since my image host account got deleted, I'm going to re up the images then I'm going to try and do the icons you requested for these:

REQUESTED WIDE ICONS:

Emu Specific:

CoinOPS Ignite
Sega Dreamcast VMU
Apple IIe
Chip8
Thomson to7-70
Apple McIntosh Plus
SarienX (Sierra Games Player.... probably use a Kings Quest I box for a great pic)
Company:
NeoGeo (I know it's not the "Company", but I need a good icon that's just "NeoGeo")

Homebrew:
XBomberbox 2
XPong

Categories:

XBox Games
Other Emulators
Multi-Player Hombrew Games

The problem I bump into when it comes to the less popular emulators is that there are no HQ or even medium quality source images or logo's to use. Since I'm always battling time restraints trying to fit things in around changing diapers, cooking, cleaning and making the wife happy. It just really helps having something decent to use as source material so I don't have to make it all myself. Which just takes a lot of time. The DC VMU icon took me over an hour. But I'm not as fast as I used to be but I do try to do my best on each one I create.

[ressurectionx]

I understand Sotu. No need to justify it. You've done great work, and it's very appreciated around here.

I wasn't implying that anybody wasn't doing something right, just that something about the situation wasn't right and that this suits my tastes as a way to fix it. I understand it might not be for everyone.

I have a ton of icons in my pack that I know belong to you. If you can't find yours let me know.

~Rx

Can anybody tell me what you have to name the images to get them to work on .CUT files? I'm not trying it now, but since I'm putting this pack together I'd like to have the pics named the way they should be named.