I suppose this is as good a place as any to post these rather unspectacular findings in case anyone else finds them to be of interest.
I noticed many years ago that a particular mace icon (which is used by Miliaman's Pike) had a funny pink bit on the left side that clearly didn't belong there. Eventually, I realized this was an artifact left behind by poor placement of the item icons in the game's UI files. Think of the icons as being lined up in huge grids that are "cut" horizontally and vertically at regular intervals so that each occupies a 48x48 pixel square space. In the case of this mace, the neighboring icon happens to be the brain icon (which is used by Astatine's Brain). Incidentally, a quick glance of the brain icon in game will reveal that the right side cuts off abruptly. There are indeed a few more pixels that belong to the brain icon, but they were caught in the mace icon's square due to sloppy placement. (Nobody can fault the original developers for something like this, given the sheer volume of icons and their puny size!) The result is that the brain icon is slightly smaller than intended and the mace icon is left with a strange pink oddity on its left side.
I've skimmed the rest of the icons and have located such anomalies in the following cases:
In addition to these, I've also noticed some presumably unintended pink pixels in three icons:
I'm curious why these pink pixels are here. I believe they're R255 G0 B255, also known as the infamous magic pink that the Live team was so fond of using for various transparencies. These could be easily fixed by simply removing the pixels altogether (especially in the case of the giant head) or by desaturating the icons' pink levels.
I admit this is probably as unimportant a find as possible, but would it be worthwhile for a person to dig into the UI files and manually correct these flaws so that the icons can be used in SoD as they were originally intended? Perhaps there's something to be said for leaving their imperfections in place, though, simply for nostalgia or in the interests of purism.
Anyway, hope at least somebody finds something of interest in this post!
I noticed many years ago that a particular mace icon (which is used by Miliaman's Pike) had a funny pink bit on the left side that clearly didn't belong there. Eventually, I realized this was an artifact left behind by poor placement of the item icons in the game's UI files. Think of the icons as being lined up in huge grids that are "cut" horizontally and vertically at regular intervals so that each occupies a 48x48 pixel square space. In the case of this mace, the neighboring icon happens to be the brain icon (which is used by Astatine's Brain). Incidentally, a quick glance of the brain icon in game will reveal that the right side cuts off abruptly. There are indeed a few more pixels that belong to the brain icon, but they were caught in the mace icon's square due to sloppy placement. (Nobody can fault the original developers for something like this, given the sheer volume of icons and their puny size!) The result is that the brain icon is slightly smaller than intended and the mace icon is left with a strange pink oddity on its left side.
I've skimmed the rest of the icons and have located such anomalies in the following cases:
- A ring (icon #1041) is cut off on the right; lost pixels appear in a necklace (1053)
- A sword (1195) contains excess pixels in the top left corner; source of excess pixels unknown...
- A brain (1204) is cut off abruptly on the right; lost pixels appear in a mace (1216)
- A fish (1207) is cut off abruptly at the tail; lost pixels appear in a tusk (1219)
In addition to these, I've also noticed some presumably unintended pink pixels in three icons:
- Coldain head (icon #1257)
- Coldain beard (1258)
- Giant head (1260)
I'm curious why these pink pixels are here. I believe they're R255 G0 B255, also known as the infamous magic pink that the Live team was so fond of using for various transparencies. These could be easily fixed by simply removing the pixels altogether (especially in the case of the giant head) or by desaturating the icons' pink levels.
I admit this is probably as unimportant a find as possible, but would it be worthwhile for a person to dig into the UI files and manually correct these flaws so that the icons can be used in SoD as they were originally intended? Perhaps there's something to be said for leaving their imperfections in place, though, simply for nostalgia or in the interests of purism.
Anyway, hope at least somebody finds something of interest in this post!