AuthorTopic: Workbench 3.1 icons  (Read 17208 times)

Offline Arne

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Workbench 3.1 icons

on: July 02, 2013, 01:42:33 am
I'm trying to rescue my old Amiga floppies (with images, code and art on), so I put a new HDD into my old Amiga 1200 (+Blizzard 1220/4). My original HDD was dead unfortunately. Actually, I got an IDE-USB adapter for a laptop size HDD and connected that to WinUAE, and partitioned, formatted and installed WB 3.1 and other things from there. Then I propped it into the Amiga and it miraculously worked. Since I can also mount folders into WinUAE I have a way of transferring files to PC now (I was using CrossDOS and 720K floppies before). I think Ubuntu can read the HDD as it is, but I haven't tried yet.

HELLO 1991!



Anyways, all my files seem to lack extensions. I'm thinking maybe I can write a thingamajib which applies extensions and icons and associated openers. Maybe I can even write a thing in AMOS which loads an IFF and generates an icon for the file. The .info format is well documented.

While pondering that, I decided to do some regular OS icons since I never liked the original ones much. Really not a fan of the WB 2.0+ look either. The icons all have panels/borders and the beveled window borders/gadgets/widgets are a bit dull. I prefer the flat look of 1.3 (and 1.4 with the darker desktop). Tangent: Started on a GTK+ theme.



I decided to stay pretty flat in case I swap some colors around later. The icons are stored in 3 bit planes so they have no color data (just index). A thing I tried to consider is truncation to 2 bit planes (the user might go into 4 color mode sometimes) . The placement I chose for the color values (2 groups of 4) should solve this. Works down to 1bp too.

That blue was almost unused, so maybe Windows 95 teal? Here are the icons I've transferred and converted to .info so far. They might look very blurry on the real deal because of video out limitations (I use a composite yellow RCA). 16x16 icons and single width pixel fonts for file names aren't readable unless you use a proper monitor.



I set the highlight color to light-blue in an attempt to tone down the beveling, but I can't do much about the icon borders/BG plates and GUI stuff without third party hacks. I'm not sure how alpha/masks are done for the icons (if at all).

It seems PS CS5's .iff files often doesn't load in DP5. When I finally got a version to load it was pretty simply to copy-paste from DP into the Icon Editor (which apparently does color matching in case the palette is different between the clipboard image and OS... made a mess of things a few times).

The disk icons just go into the root of the disk/partition. Ram disk is different since it's cleared on reboot, so I had to copy its disk.info (icon) from hdd into ram: via startup-sequence (boot script). Files with no .info file companion count as hidden. They use a shared default icon when shown (which one depends on type) and the Icon Editor can also quicksave the the default icon dir (somewhere in ENV:).
« Last Edit: July 02, 2013, 01:48:54 am by Arne »

Offline BoodyA

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #1 on: July 02, 2013, 06:54:17 am
I love your work man <3 by the way is there by any chance you can finish that Dragon and upload it her :p id love to see it in HD rather than that picture :P

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #2 on: July 02, 2013, 09:25:20 am
As an Amiga user myself I like these a lot.  I could do without the faces on some of the floppy disks (especially the cat face which for some reason I truly hate when someone uses as an emoticon.  I don't know why... ) and the sweat drop on the format disk is a bit too 'anime' for my tastes.  But overall the icons themselves are very nicely done.  And seeing the AMOS Pro icon made me smile (still own all the disks to that and the box and thick manual in great condition)
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
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Offline PypeBros

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #3 on: July 02, 2013, 09:48:22 am
  I could do without the faces on some of the floppy disks and the sweat drop on the format disk is a bit too 'anime' for my tastes. 
Well, I'd say some of those faces might need a second pass to look like "integrated" into the art, and definitiely not some kids-scribbling over icons, but they definitely contribute to the theme's look and feel,and make it unique.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #4 on: July 02, 2013, 10:17:26 am
Well, I'd say some of those faces might need a second pass to look like "integrated" into the art, and definitiely not some kids-scribbling over icons, but they definitely contribute to the theme's look and feel,and make it unique.

Personal preference then.  It's just that one of the many reasons I still prefer the age of 8/16 bit home computers here in the UK or Europe was that it was time before the whole kiddy-anime thing that swept over here in the late 90's likely due to things like Pokémon and the internet in general and just seeing elements of it merged here into the Amiga's look is a bit of a turn-off for me. 
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
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Offline Arne

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #5 on: July 02, 2013, 11:33:12 am
Actually, I've been pushing that manga feature further :3  I've got an 80's Manga fetish, so... And I sort of despise the "euro-wacky-face" cartoon style used here back then (e.g. Hugo, Magic Pockets, Stunt Car racer).

Did this a few days ago. Wonky fly-swatted pose, more of a costume design. Kickstart globes, boing ball earrings, cursor sword, window bar leggings, trashcan moonboots, C= hair...holder thingies. WB chestplate.



I'm also making little Pokémon/Creatures of everything, like the no-fast-mem rabbit, NIL, Shell, CLI, Eyes, DP head...

I'm about to transfer over my first backup batch, maybe I'll post some of it. I did a few games back then, but some have been corrupted. I managed to use FixDisk to at least transfer some of the corrupted files. Been doing nibble copies using X-COPY pro too.



This files for this game say 1992 but it might have been done a few years later because the logo looks pretty alright I think. The game is playable enough. Gets puzzly on this level as the enemies will box you in on line of sight. Looks like only the sound bank is corrupted (I forced the copy checksum errors and all).


Files transferred! Here's the "GNOMEFIGHTER" (no .iff extension apparently). I found 2 versions of the file, and one is dated Oct. 1990 but I'm thinking it's Moonstone inspired and that game came out in '92 (though magazine previews were available earlier). I think i got my Amiga in the late 80's though, so I've gotta have files from that time.

.gif version. It's a little darker than on my Amiga. All of my files are. Should probably be brightened a bit.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2013, 11:58:29 am by Arne »

Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #6 on: July 02, 2013, 12:09:52 pm
This is all super fascinating - wish I could somehow retrieve my old computer disks.   ::)  (Though I doubt there'd be quite as much to find!)
 

Offline yrizoud

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #7 on: July 02, 2013, 05:04:32 pm
.gif version. It's a little darker than on my Amiga. All of my files are. Should probably be brightened a bit.
From the screenshot of the monitor, the difference is huge, but maybe the flash worsened it.
Some time ago, Frost had a similar critic when converting some files from Amiga to PC or back, colors couldn't be faithfully transported between the platforms. I couldn't get further details, but my understanding is that the monitors and/or video circuitry have very different characteristics and simply don't render colors the same way : ask them both to render a "pure RGB blue", what you'll see will be different on either screens.
Since the Amiga OCS can only render 4096 different colors, I'd love to have a table of the closest 24bit sRGB for each one, this would allow a much more faithful conversion - especially good for showing Amiga pictures on a PC.

Offline Arne

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #8 on: July 02, 2013, 06:29:13 pm
This is an AGA machine though, so I can set exact RGB in 24bit. I don't think it's about TV calibration since I use a new LCD TV for this. It's something with the video out. I don't know if the larger monitor port output is any different.

The image is a bit glowy because of camera exposure. No flash was used. The images are definitely darker outside of the Amiga though.

...



I've gone through one stack of 25. Installed a virus checker for the rest. Found a Butonic 3.0 and maybe a Byte Warrior so far.

Offline Arne

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Re: Workbench 3.1 icons

Reply #9 on: July 02, 2013, 10:53:59 pm
The icons work somewhat well on my screen, despite the blur.

Here's some old pixel art that I found. Did it first year in HS since this is my class logo.



Some sort of RPG stuff from the same disk. Top-down maze with random encounters for every cell. Unsure if I did code for it. Maybe the maze system.



I blacklined everything back then :/

« Last Edit: July 02, 2013, 10:55:52 pm by Arne »