imagefont.bin tool for PS3 and Vita

[sandungas]

Good, so i can use the same i made for managunz at 32x32 size, we decided to use that size because is an standard for windows/linux icons and PC in general
you know... 16 --->24--->32--->48--->64---> and so on
From that sizes the one that matched better with managunz taskbar was 32

I keep 1 pixel fully transparent at the borders, because the tiny3d graphic library (used by iris, managunz, etc...) have some problems displaying semitransprent pixels at the edges, this same problem happens in the graphic library of openloader for PS2, and i guess it could happen even in the official firmware
So i tryed to control it very well, my icons are 32x32 but only 30x30 pixels are used

I will make them are 32x32 except the double icons (EFA293 and EFA294) at 64x32

Btw, you mentioned the dualshock battery icons before, i think that ones is better to dont change them because there are some more battery icons pretty much the same inside an .rco (it was impose_plugin.rco ?)
And in that screen/s of impose plugin sometimes appears the battery icon from imagefont.bin and sometimes from the .rco

 

[sandungas]

Im having a problem, not sure if is something normal @littlebalup It seems the script doesnt indentifyes well some indexed images
Im using https://pngquant.org/PNGoo.0.1.1.zip (the GUI for pngquant, is very handy)

And use this icons https://www.sendspace.com/file/o59zi7

If i choose in the "color settings" tab of PNGoo:
colors 256 <---- the "repack_for_PS3.bat" doesnt works
colors 128 <---- the "repack_for_PS3.bat" works


The problem seems to happen when trying to use 256 indexed colors, and with the dualshock square button (if i remember right), so it seems to happen only with some of the icons, not all
The python script stops, and complains about an incorrect indexed palette
But... right now i dont get why is hapening, i remember i was doing it this way time ago and it was working fine, also the imagefont.bin format reserves a palette of colors with 256 slots

I know i can build it using icons with 128 indexed colors, instead of 256... and to be honest, the difference is barelly notable
But well... im wondering if there is some problem in the python script... or if is me who created the problem :P

 

[DeViL303]

I was putting all the images through https://tinypng.com , that seemed to work well. I think maybe I had to put 1 image through it twice but might have been my own mistake.

 

[sandungas]

I always used PNGoo since the first private alpha versions, i like it a lot because in the GUI it shows a preview where you can see how many pixelation is going to generate the palette you choose
And it works in batch... you can drag-and-drop some tenths of icons into the GUI, click in the "go" button and it converts all them

 

[sandungas]

Hmmm, i think i found my problem, it happened because PNGoo only overrites the images where the "optimised" size is smaller than "original" size

In the main window.... when you click in "go"... at the right column there are some icons that appears as:
"complete: PNGquant used" <--- this ones has been indexed, and are compatible with littlebalup tool
"complete: Original file copyed" <--- this ones has not been indexed, grrr



Edit:
The solution is to enable the checkbox "Output / Ovewrite Even if Larger Than Original"
Lesson learnt... when using PNGoo together with littlebalup tool is mandatory to enable that option in PNGoo

 

[sandungas]

Here i fixed it ---> https://www.sendspace.com/file/ve7awg
Is the official imagefont.bin (compatible with firmware 4.60 up to 4.85 btw), i only replaced the dualshock icons

@DeViL303 I made it like this (instead of adding them in your imagefont.bin) because you are using some icons from PSVita... but im replacing them
So... dunno, is a matter of preferences i guess

 

[DeViL303]

@DeViL303 I made it like this (instead of adding them in your imagefont.bin) because you are using some icons from PSVita... but im replacing them
So... dunno, is a matter of preferences i guess

I guess there can be a few versions as long as the meaning is the same it does not matter. There are a couple of the Vita icons I like, the select and start and the DPad directions mainly. Also be nice to stick to 36 height as a standard So going to go with the vita icons for now.

 

[sandungas]

I guess there can be a few versions as long as the meaning is the same it does not matter. There are a couple of the Vita icons I like, the select and start and the DPad directions mainly. Also be nice to stick to 36 height as a standard So going to go with the vita icons for now.

The D-PAD icons of the vita looks good visually but are a pentagon with the tip of the pentagon aiming in the opposite direction... so are not intuitive in my oppinion
The SELECT and START have non-squared dimmensions and are a pita for code and alignments... for a program like managunz is better to have all the dualshock icons in a square of the same size


---------------------------------------------------------
Btw, you mentioned before that you had problems generating the color palette of animated icons, because in the way you was doing it every "frame" had a different palette
I imagined a way to do it in photoshop, is a dirty trick, probably there are other ways to do it, but i think this should work
The idea is to create a single image with all the frames... lets say if the frame size is 30x30 and the animation have 3 frames we need an image of canvas size 90x30, and paste the frames like in a film, one next to the other
Then convert the image to indexed colors, using 256 colors and save it
Load the image, crop the first frame, and save it as frame 1
Load the image, crop the second frame, and save it as frame 2
Load the image, crop the third frame, and save it as frame 3

I guess this way the color palette should be exactly the same in all them
To veryify it... i use an image viewer named "irfanview", it has 2 options to "export" and "import" color palettes from indexed color images
I dont remember the palette format, but it can be opened in a text editor and you see all the 256 "slots" and the colors stored in them
The point is after creating the frames (by cropping them in photoshop), you can extract the palettes with irfanview to verify that are identical


Edit:
If you have some candidate images for an animated icon upload them to me and i will do the photoshop and irfanview editing

 

[sandungas]

Also be nice to stick to 36 height as a standard So going to go with the vita icons for now.

To be honest... i dont like some of the things you did, but is ok, lets complete that idea and i think is about time to make this tool public
I rebuilt the icons at 36x36 and made an screnshot for comparison purposes, at left the official PSVita dualshock icons, and at right my custom dualshock icons

FILE: https://www.sendspace.com/file/9fxelt

 

[DeViL303]

To be honest... i dont like some of the things you did, but is ok,

Cool, that is why I posted it before its finished, So we could get some feedback or suggestions? Some of the emojis I dont like myself, I am considering removing all PS4 smileys as I can not be arsed trying to find replacements for all of them. If someone else wants to add/replace a few icons cool, But I have not got much time at the moment.

I rebuilt the icons at 36x36 and made an screnshot for comparison purposes, at left the official PSVita dualshock icons, and at right my custom dualshock icons

Yeah they look good and at 36x36 its fine. I just didn't like the idea of mixed resolutions really. I do not mind them being off square as long as they are 36 high as we do not have to worry about alignment on the XMB really, all characters take up different widths anyway so there is no alignment.

If you have some candidate images for an animated icon upload them to me and i will do the photoshop and irfanview editing

I have not got any ready, none of my tests worked so I gave up. There are only 19 animated icons in total so it would be nice to do those too. I can do some of them as they just require rotating or mirroring of the same image.

I don't like these either, they need more of a transparent border, I will fix those.

As you made the other buttons, could you make replacement for these 2? I don't know where they are used but be nice to have full set matching.

 

[DeViL303]

One thing I noticed with the Vita icons and the same with yours, it can be harder to see the colors than the originals. I know this is down to the fact that the originals are more cartooney and the new ones are more realistic.

Originals and yours:

I was thinking when I was going to use the Vita icons, of increasing the saturation on the colors of those 4 icons a little so they "pop" a little more. What do you think though? Just looking at your screenshots of all the icons they look a little dark. its different here when they are zoomed in on white background.

Example of yours with extra color next to the originals:

 

[sandungas]

As you made the other buttons, could you make replacement for these 2? I don't know where they are used but be nice to have full set matching.
View attachment 20884

I dont know either what represents, at this point i think they belongs to some peripheral suported by PS3 and PSVita... (and PS4 too ?, im not sure where you got them at 36x36)

I was taking a look at them before and they have some mistakes that are laughable... or cryable if we consider this became part a retail software product
A comparison at 800% zoom for loling purposes, at top the officials from PSVita, and at bottom my custom ones

Spoiler

And i didnt put much effort in making this 3 icons, i could do it better if i knew what they represents and/or how they looks in the real world

Im uploading the whole collection again because this 3 new icons belongs to it, are 30 icons in total, i guess could be used for PSVita


FILE: https://www.sendspace.com/file/wr147n

 

[sandungas]

One thing I noticed with the Vita icons and the same with yours, it can be harder to see the colors than the originals. I know this is down to the fact that the originals are more cartooney and the new ones are more realistic.

Originals and yours:
View attachment 20886

I was thinking when I was going to use the Vita icons, of increasing the saturation on the colors of those 4 icons a little so they "pop" a little more. What do you think though? Just looking at your screenshots of all the icons they look a little dark. its different here when they are zoomed in on white background.

Example of yours with extra color next to the originals:
View attachment 20887

Im not sure if this is a good idea, i started making this icons months ago, at this point this is version 24 of them and i changed the colors of the CROSS, SQUARE, CIRCLE, TRIANGLE several times, at least 2 or 3 was to change the same you are mentioning... his brightness/darkness and small variations of the color tones

I dont have any problem in changing them again, but in my experience i can tell is needed to display them in the PS3 (on runtime) and make an screenshot of them, because the graphic library used by the XMB could make small adjustments, also it depends a lot of the configuration of your PC monitor, your TV, etc...
Is not so easy to "hit in the nail" with the color tones

There are many times when i make a new icon in PC that looks perfect in photoshop, but when i display it for first time in managunz the color tones looks different

 

[DeViL303]

I dont know either what represents, at this point i think they belongs to some peripheral suported by PS3 and PSVita... (and PS4 too ?, im not sure where you got them at 36x36)

I was taking a look at them before and they have some mistakes that are laughable... or cryable if we consider this became part a retail software product
A comparison at 800% zoom for loling purposes, at top the officials from PSVita, and at bottom my custom ones

Spoiler

And i didnt put much effort in making this 3 icons, i could do it better if i knew what they represents and/or how they looks in the real world

Im uploading the whole collection again because this 3 new icons belongs to it, are 30 icons in total, i guess could be used for PSVita


FILE: https://www.sendspace.com/file/wr147n

Nice one. They look good.

Im not sure if this is a good idea, i started making this icons months ago, at this point this is version 24 of them and i changed the colors of the CROSS, SQUARE, CIRCLE, TRIANGLE several times, at least 2 or 3 was to change the same you are mentioning... his brightness/darkness and small variations of the color tones

I dont have any problem in changing them again, but in my experience i can tell is needed to display them in the PS3 (on runtime) and make an screenshot of them, because the graphic library used by the XMB could make small adjustments, also it depends a lot of the configuration of your PC monitor, your TV, etc...
Is not so easy to "hit in the nail" with the color tones

There are many times when i make a new icon in PC that looks perfect in photoshop, but when i display it for first time in managunz the color tones looks different

Ok, They are fine for me the way you have them anyway.

I managed to make 1 animated icon. My first ever. It could be better I know. I just used windows rotate on it .

Replacing:

I also added a bit of transparent border to those:

Speaker icons are still crap, I will probably revert those to originals if i cant find better.

 

[DeViL303]

To be honest... i dont like some of the things you did, but is ok, lets complete that idea and i think is about time to make this tool public

I want to make it public too, but as I know I have crap design skills so I am completely the wrong person to be doing this really. So please if you have ideas for better ways lets do it.

We could make a smiley animation to replace this:



Out of these 2 smileys:



Can you try do that. I was going to try your method of combining them into one image and then crop them, but I don't know how to crop without effecting the image properties.

 

[littlebalup]

Feel free to make it public when/how you want.

 

[DeViL303]

BTW: These 2 were made by me as they were missing. They were kind of placeholders.

This is why I should not be doing this.

 

[sandungas]

I want to make it public too, but as I know I have crap design skills so I am completely the wrong person to be doing this really. So please if you have ideas for better ways lets do it.

We could make a smiley animation to replace this:

View attachment 20978 View attachment 20979

Out of these 2 smileys:
View attachment 20980 View attachment 20981


Can you try do that. I was going to try your method of combining them into one image and then crop them, but I don't know how to crop without effecting the image properties.

Im trying a lot of different things in gimp, photoshop, and irfanview but i dont know how to do it in a aceptable quality :/

Im not used to generate images with indexed colors in photoshop or gimp, what i use to do is to create them in rgb and then convert them with pngquant/PNGoo
Anyway, i will keep trying other day, i guess there is some trick i dont know, i need to google it

 

[DeViL303]

I am working on the smileys. Trying to piece together the missing ones from the PS4 smileys. eyes from here, mouth from there etc.


These ones will do I think. Not very happy with F40F but best I can do.

What do you think those ones above @sandungas @littlebalup ?



A lot of the smileys on PS3 are actually stupid, I'm not even sure what emotion some of them are trying to convey. Like look at this one, Its a smiling blushing winking face.

Is this a sleep doctor, or feeling sick or something.

I guess back in 2006 they didnt know so much about emojis.

I have a few more to do.

 

[sandungas]

Are good
Btw, they uses originally indexed colors in the PS4 firmware, or are you converting them to indexed colors manually ?