[RELz] Daggerfall Icons : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:33 am

I had googled around for some replacements, but, to my surprise, I couldn't find any Daggerfall icon replacers. So, I set off to make my own. I've had these sitting around since forever, but it wasn't until today that I thought to find an .ico plugin for Photoshop. :facepalm: Lysandus gets a face-lift, and now there's a little D logo from the Daggerfall dagger to match your Morrowind Moon & Star icon.

.

ownload:.
http://www.mediafire.com/?wg4rmjzzhjm

.:Screenshots:.
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr50/Alaisiagae/Mod%20Screenshot%20DF/TES2_daggerfall_icon.jpg - the space inside the border is black
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr50/Alaisiagae/Mod%20Screenshot%20DF/TES2_lysandus_icon.jpg - the area around the head is transparent

.:Readme:.

Name: Daggerfall Icons
Version: 1.0
Date: 11/13/2009
Category: Icons
Author: Alaisiagae

Description
===========
Two new icons for TESII: Daggerfall.

Details
=======
Contains two new icons for your Desktop shortcut to Daggerfall. All icons are 32x32, 32-bit color, .ico format.

1) Lysandus.ico - some early, unused box art depicts a less decomposed Lysandus; I used the head from that version of the box art, as the regular box art's head is far too muddy and brown.

2) Daggerfall.ico - uses the hilt of the Daggerfall dagger logo that's on the manual. I placed a border around the icon, now it sort of matches the Morrowind icon.

Enjoy!

Install
=======
1. Extract the files to a temporary location.
2. Place the icon(s) wherever you want. I put mine in the same folder as the original icon.
3. Right click on your desktop shortcut to Daggerfall, click Properties, and select Change Icon. Navigate to the directory where you placed the new icon and select it.

Uninstall
=========
Change the icon of the Daggerfall shortcut to something else.

Then delete the following:

lysandus.ico
daggerfall.ico

Known Issues or Bugs
====================
There shouldn't be any. If you find any problems, let me know.

History
=======
1.0, 2009/11/13 - Initial release.

Contact
=======
You can find me on the official Elder Scrolls forums as 'Alaisiagae'

Credits
=======
Thanks to Bethesda for creating Daggerfall.
Thanks to the folks at DOSBox for creating DOSBox.
Thanks to the folks on the Bethesda forums for their support and feedback. You guys/gals are great!.
Thanks to Adobe for Photoshop CS2.
Thanks to LHammonds for the Readme Generator this file was based on.

Tools Used
==========
Photoshop - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
Readme Generator - http://lhammonds.game-host.org/obmm/tools_readme_generator1.asp

Licensing/Legal
===============
You can do whatever you want with this mod but all I ask in return is that you give me credit if you distribute any part of this mod.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:14 pm

Nothing particularly innovative, but useful nonetheless. I don't care much for how you used the "fleshy" UK box version of Lysandus instead of the far-superior original rendition - but I guess this one is easier to cut out?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:04 am

Do these have properly scaled 16x16px icon variants as well? I intend to use them in my Steam games list.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:07 am

@Stonefrog: yeah, the US Lysandus would be a p.i.t.a. to pluck out of the background. I might give it another try at some point.

@Frosty: no, I don't have those. If you don't have an image-editing program with an .ico plugin, you could try http://www.iconempire.com/iconcraft/ program I stumbled on while using google.

If I get more requests for different size icons (64x64, 16x16), I might whip those up, too. The problem is, I can't do a larger resolution of the fleshy lysandus head, because I (in an artistic hissy fit) seem to have, ah, misplaced (permanently) the source image I was working from, along with my works-in-progress files.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:46 am

Ah, well. MobyGames has numerous cover scans, though none are particularly high res enough to look good on icons larger than, say, 256x256. As for the US version of Lysandus, did you consider http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/elder-scrolls-daggerfall/cover-art/gameCoverId,46973/ scan of the German version of the box? From what I can tell, it's identical to the US version (sans language), but the box itself was not holographic - so the scan has a bit more clarity to it than any original prints of the game.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:25 am

Ah, well. MobyGames has numerous cover scans, though none are particularly high res enough to look good on icons larger than, say, 256x256. As for the US version of Lysandus, did you consider http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/elder-scrolls-daggerfall/cover-art/gameCoverId,46973/ scan of the German version of the box? From what I can tell, it's identical to the US version (sans language), but the box itself was not holographic - so the scan has a bit more clarity to it than any original prints of the game.

Oooo, nice scan! I might not be able to keep the strands of hair, but I could definitely get the skull. However, the colors of the crown and the color of the skin are so similar, it might be difficult to differentiate them when I reduce the resolution to 32x32.

Do you think I should try for the D-logo again from that scan? Or is that not as interesting as a lich skull? :unsure:

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:08 am

Maybe I'm imagining it, but the Daggerfall logo in your current icon seems to have more golden "trims" to it than the one in the US and German box scans. The box with the less-decayed Lysandus has the additional trims, as do miscellaneous instances of the Daggerfall logo on the US versions of the disc and I believe even the Daggerfall logo in the introduction itself.

The red contours within the D are kind of hard to make out at such a small size however - perhaps you could use the plain "fill" D (as seen in the scan I linked you) for the smaller versions and use the more detailed one for larger icons?

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:19 pm

Maybe I'm imagining it, but the Daggerfall logo in your current icon seems to have more golden "trims" to it than the one in the US and German box scans. The box with the less-decayed Lysandus has the additional trims, as do miscellaneous instances of the Daggerfall logo on the US versions of the disc and I believe even the Daggerfall logo in the introduction itself.

The red contours within the D are kind of hard to make out at such a small size however - perhaps you could use the plain "fill" D (as seen in the scan I linked you) for the smaller versions and use the more detailed one for larger icons?

The Daggerfall logo I used is the one that's on the DF manual (I used the image on the Imperial Library, 'cause I didn't feel like scanning in my manual).

Is there any way I can extract the resourced from the game? That way, I could make an icon based on something from the game, you know?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:21 am

You mean the logo used in the game? I'm sure it can be found somewhere using Interkarma's Daggerfall Imaging/Explorer, though I wouldn't know where. I do happen to have a http://i35.tinypic.com/27yub90.png of the logo on hand, however.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:59 pm

Really nice I want the claw of Lysandus for a mouse mointer too

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:36 am

The main problem I have with the D logo is that it doesn't have a width similar to its height; it is a very slim D, which means that there's a lot of empty vertical space sandwiching the smallish D.

I've started up on the more-rotting lysandus head, it wasn't too hard to pluck it out from the background. Still working on adjusting the brightness and contrast to make the eyes stand out more.

EDIT: Update. Icon with the rotting head looks really, really bad. :shrug: I'm not going to pursue it any further.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:15 am

I've tried making a Daggerfall icon of Lysandus' rotting head, and I actually think the result is pretty decent. The problem is that I don't exactly know how to create icon files that keep their high quality, and also provide icons for the several icon sizes. I guess you need a special program for that?

Anyway, http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6105/samplegl.jpg (This is a fake picture, I just wanted to show the icon in a... "natural environment".)
(I like how it stands out between all those happy and colorful icons.

)

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:01 am

That's pretty good Fearabbit. I think the biggest problem with the decayed Lysandus head is his hair - all the black space between the strands, you can't really get it to look natural for smaller-sized icons. Leaving just the head. I think the shadows around his "teeth" are a bit off, but otherwise it's a very nice attempt.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:57 am

That's pretty good Fearabbit. I think the biggest problem with the decayed Lysandus head is his hair - all the black space between the strands, you can't really get it to look natural for smaller-sized icons. Leaving just the head. I think the shadows around his "teeth" are a bit off, but otherwise it's a very nice attempt.

The trouble I had when I tried making it was that the icon looks fine as, say, 64x64... but once you shrink down to 32x32, you can barely see the detail. =/

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:27 am

Possible solution: Only using a part of the head for smaller icons. It's true, if we're at 32x32 pixels, there's not much detail left. So for that resolution, I only take a 64x64 square (of the 128x128 image) around the eyes, and shrink that one down.
That looks quite okay, I think.

I'm thinking about making two versions of the Lysandus icon, both ranging from 128x128 to 16x16.
As for the Daggerfall "D" - maybe it could be meshed into these Lysandus icons? You know, the D at one side of the icon, and in the background and slightly to the right, Lysandus' head. Might be worth a try.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:55 am

I only use 256x256 .png icons for my dock, but cool nonetheless.