FYI - How to Make True HD Icons/Minimap Thread - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

After racking my brain for a week or so, I've discovered something that I believe modders will appreciate. If you didn't know, virtually every single DDS image file is resized if its boundaries (within textures_descr) are not proportional to 16:9 format, even while playing in 16:9. This includes weapons, icons, minimap, and even loading screens. The minimap you've been looking at this whole time is blown up almost twice the size of the original source image, resulting in some atrocious interpolation and totally not high-fidelity HD.

Hud icons and the minimap are some of the worst offenders, which is what I'll be focusing on here.

The icons for hunger, over-encumbered, thirst, etc are 18x19. However they appear in-game as 34x27. The minimap is approximately 155x158, but in-game it appears as approximately 230x235. As a result of this resizing the images are nowhere near as sharp and crisp as they could be for their size represented in game. They are rescaled because their boundaries are not in 16x9 proportions.

Want to make true HD icons for a mod?

• Measure the dimensions of any hud icon. Using whatever image editor you have, do not leave any space, gaps, or padding around the icon. You need the Width x Height of the icon.
• Within the appropriate Config file that handles the icon, make sure that the Width and Height equal your measurements. (Example - Maingame.xml - Line 21 - Hunger/Starvation icon)
• The textures_descr config sets the boundaries for each icon. This is where the magic happens. The Width here must be equal to the Width (measured before) multiplied by 1.875. The Height here must be equal to the Height (measured before) multiplied by 1.40625. The boundaries are now in 16x9 proportions

I should note that I play in 1920x1080 and the above multiplication values are the product of (1920/1024) for width and (1080/768) for height.

Now, after placing the edited image in the appropriate gamedata folder you will see a true representation of the icon. It will be much smaller than before. This is a good thing (if you're interested in sharp, HD icons). You are seeing the true size of the icon. This now means that you can create a larger icon, allowing for more graphical fidelity, and it be the same size as the original non-HD icon. (Or it can be whatever size you want)

Remember, the boundaries of the icon must be multiplied accordingly to 16x9 format within the appropriate textures_descr Config file.

I've already started creating my own new icons that are of similar size to 'vanilla' Anomaly icons, but with substantial improvement in visual fidelity. Perhaps I'll showcase some, if anyone is interested.

You may realize (like I did) that if you're wanting to create new HD icons, or revamp existing ones, that you'll have to do the work of creating a new DDS image file for your icons because you simply don't have enough space on the original ones to expand the icon boundaries. (ui_actor_hint_wnd, ui_common, etc) Then you'll have to direct the appropriate config files to use your custom DDS image (and NOT use the original, vanilla icons. I have just been commenting out the original code and putting in my own).

Any questions, just ask.

To me, this is a huge discovery. I don't know if anyone else knows this. As far as I can tell, we now know how to implement true HD icons.

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Below are some renditions of various icons. Icons on left side are original Anomaly icons. Some originals aren't so bad, while others look much better when the icon boundaries are edited and a new icon is designed from scratch. These are all work in progress, some of them are probably not permanent. Just showing them off for now. The ammo icons were just for fun, I doubt anyone is interested in new ammo icons.

Pay attention to the edges of the original ones vs the new ones. They look much smoother and sharper. The middle status icons are my own designs and I anticipate adding some more detail to them in the future.

It's a little harder to tell the difference in quality for the minimap. But the transparent compass lines and text are clearly much better. The edges are better, but require you to zoom in to tell. Still worth redesigning. This is just a test example. Original (left two) and redesigned (far right).

Edited by: Droscoe

Thank you, this is interesting because I tried to edit texture files from the mod HD armor mesh and texture and found I could not save the files properly, the new files appeared to be cropped into, as you say, 4:3 format, but the original mod texture files are not 4:3... The mod by itself does not result in missing portions of textures on render in game, so I'm at a lost to resolve how to edit/save these texture files ...

Edited by: BandyRFC

BandyRFC wrote:

Thank you, this is interesting because I tried to edit texture files from the mod HD armor mesh and texture and found I could not save the files properly, the new files appeared to be cropped into, as you say, 4:3 format, but the original mod texture files are not 4:3... The mod by itself does not result in missing portions of textures on render in game, so I'm at a lost to resolve how to edit/save these texture files ...

I mistakenly used "4:3" when I meant 16x9.

That sounds like you have a mismatch between the textures_descr file and config file that draws it. Without seeing it I couldn't tell you. Make sure your icon dimensions are correct and your boundaries are correct.

Or you're making a mistake in your image editing program.

Edited by: Droscoe

Hey

Damn! These icons look super sexy. I always wondered why so many item icons where so low quality.

Amazing work.

Wookienator wrote:

Hey

Damn! These icons look super sexy. I always wondered why so many item icons where so low quality.

Amazing work.

Thank you! Still working on things, the minimap look much better in my opinion after editing its image boundaries and redesigning it.

Hopefully I'll get to make my first addon for Anomaly!

Just noticed, rather than drastically change the ammo box appearance can you not improve the texture but leave it with the bullet(s) in the icon? People have learned the ammo type by the old icon, and changing it to just a box is going to be a pita to adjust to.

Besides, I like the bullets or buckshot in the icon since it is instantly recognizable as to what it is, rather than having to mouse hover... (I am one of those who carries a vacuum cleaner when I stalk the zone, LOL). Otherwise fabulous improvement.

Edited by: BandyRFC

BandyRFC wrote:

Just noticed, rather than drastically change the ammo box appearance can you not improve the texture but leave it with the bullet(s) in the icon? People have learned the ammo type by the old icon, and changing it to just a box is going to be a pita to adjust to.

Besides, I like the bullets or buckshot in the icon since it is instantly recognizable as to what it is, rather than having to mouse hover... (I am one of those who carries a vacuum cleaner when I stalk the zone, LOL). Otherwise fabulous improvement.

I really don't anticipate doing ammo boxes in the future, unless it was a popular request. Even then, I think my tastes will differ from a lot of people. (which is fine I guess, people don't have to use my addon, right?)

I actually don't take issue with having to learn a new icon for ammo, but I understand that others do. Every new game I buy and play has new icons, and Stalker is so old that it could afford some fresh new things to learn, in my opinion.

Again, I totally understand your comment, and if I do redesign the ammo, I might include the bullets in the icon. They just look cool and help with discerning what it is, so I agree on that point. Thanks for your comment!

This is great work. I understand that you play in 1920 x 1080 but could this method be used to create a set of 1920 x 1200 (16:10) scope textures? This would resolve this issue: Bitbucket.org

Is it possible to make on the basis of the basic icons of weapons and armor HD options? There is a program Topaz Gigapixel, which increases the image quality several times. Thus, with the help of your method, you can achieve great results.

This is great work. I understand that you play in 1920 x 1080 but could this method be used to create a set of 1920 x 1200 (16:10) scope textures?

I'm sure it's easy. You would simply switch out my resolution for your resolution in the formula (1920/1024) and (1200/768). These would give you the height/width multipliers.

I've noticed that ONLY Anomaly does this. Misery, for example, does not stretch out it's icons for HUD or even inventory. The weapons and items in inventory are stretched a little bit and it looks terrible compared to other mods. I'm sure what config file would handle this, but my method works for recreating properly sized images. That scope texture, by the way, is most likely 1024x1024 (I'm not certain though) and it's stretched because youre playing in 16:10. So anyways, yes, I'd imagine the image boundaries need to be modified (just like my icons) in order to not look stretched.

Someone really needs to contact Anomaly author and ask why inventory icons and HUD icons are stretched in their mod, but not in others.

Maximilyan wrote:

Is it possible to make on the basis of the basic icons of weapons and armor HD options? There is a program Topaz Gigapixel, which increases the image quality several times. Thus, with the help of your method, you can achieve great results.

I don't think this program is necessary (or economical) for our purposes. I haven't been enlarging any images or working with any enlarged images. Modifying the boundary sizes for icons gives good results because of the way they're stretched and enlarged in-game.

If you were to use this program on Stalker weapon icons, for example, it'd appear much sharper, but not any more clearer. They are not large enough in size and any sharpening done to them would most likely result in worse visual appearance. It's the actual resolution of the image files themselves that need to be modified for good results to happen.

Can you make any video for sure? I dont know where to start for make new HD Icon and put it in dds file, I do before but it icon randomize and not sure for spesific I want to. Sorry for bad english.

Edited by: EisakuRenkai

I tried to dealt with this problem before (for scope) but my technical knowledge just isn't there to be able to fix it.

The issue with scope is that it isn't just one texture (1024x1024) cover the whole screen.
It appear that there are some sort of side-padding on both left and right side, you can imagine the screen is divided up into 3 columns.
[ padding with half transparent plain color ] + [ scope texture ] + [ padding with half transparent plain color ]

So... I dunno how to deal with those numbers, math, calculations, etc etc etc...

We're moving away from 2D scope anyway... so this is probably not worth the work to "fix" it.

Edited by: digitalifeless

Hey digitalifeless! I have managed to deal with this problem somehow. I am using Photoshop and after i did my redesign i filled everything ouside the scope with this color: #acacac with 100% oppacity. You can see the result here: Moddb.com

Edited by: Basstrap