2D Art

[Hoehrer]

Just to put my 2c in here as well ...

1.) The image used for the laser tech was a test I made quite a while back and was never intended to stay like that. I'm sure anything Blywulf comes up with looks better than the current one

2.) I agree with everybody who says that the image of the finished research should NOT be displayed before research is finished. It just does not make sense in most cases (there are exceptions to everything) so see something you don't know about yet (crystal ball anyone?). So I think we can solve this in 2 ways:

* Display no images at all and/or use a dummy "Unknown Tech" image.
* Create custom pre-research images.

EDIT: Forgot to mention an idea on the "thumbnail" problem ... If aspect ratio is a problem we could still create custom cropped thumbnails out of any finished images (no matter what size the full thing is). Just think how the various web-galleries handle it - just with bigger thumbnails. This would also help in adding custom "frames" and stuff in the process if needed.

Werner

[Blywulf]

I like the idea of a general research proposal image, a little more involved than a question mark.

  Sounds cool. I thought of a similar thing myself. I could come up with a pre-research image showing a lab and scientists at work.

  The only thing that I need atm is some reliable info on the size of the UFOpaedia images and their exact on-screen placement (like: image 120x120 pixels, located in the center of the bracket in the right lower corner of the email window). Also, it's important for me to know what sort of background is the image going to be displayed on.
  I realize that it depends heavily on the current user interface which, IMO could use some improvement. If it was up to me I'd redesign the whole thing - the layout, the artwork etc. (actually I think that's where we should start. If there is a chance for a change of the UI of course. Yeah, I'm aware of the fact that it would create extra work for the coders and that it's not a priority).

  BTW Is there an easy way to change the artwork of the tactical UI (using all the current nodes and stuff)? I'd like to give it a shot.

[Winter]

I like the idea of a general research proposal image, a little more involved than a question mark.

Yeah, a question mark would be nothing more than a placeholder for something more involved.

Sounds cool. I thought of a similar thing myself. I could come up with a pre-research image showing a lab and scientists at work.

That sounds good to me -- something simple that gets the point right across. Maybe just one or two scientists in a really advanced-looking lab environment.

The only thing that I need atm is some reliable info on the size of the UFOpaedia images and their exact on-screen placement (like: image 120x120 pixels, located in the center of the bracket in the right lower corner of the email window). Also, it's important for me to know what sort of background is the image going to be displayed on.

Apart from the background colour, where I have no idea how it'll end up, there should be absolutely no problem with image size if your works are perfectly square, pixel for pixel. Any size source should scale well regardless of what size it ends up.

Regards,
Winter