Oddball-47 Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Guys, My friend and I are working on a scenario for CMBN/Commonwealth Forces which has an absolutely huge number of units and defensive emplacements and mines for the German side. We're getting sensory overload. As there's no way (unfortunately) to toggle off the icons for foxholes, trenches, mines and sandbagged emplacements, I thought I'd try to make them transparent; invisible. However, I quickly found that it is WAY over my head. Bottom line: I'm hoping one of you graphics wizards could help me out by making a single transparent icon for me. I can then just make some copies and rename 'em as necessary. HELP! Regards, Oddball-CAF 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFF Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Ctrl + I 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Ctrl + I Hi Luke, I think you mean "Alt + I" which toggles 'em on/off/spotting contacts only. I just fired the game up and "Ctrl + I" didn't seem to do anything. Regards, Odd 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFF Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Yes, Alt + I, my fault. Anyways, that command will toggle off all icons. You just have to press that key combo more than once. I use it all the time when making screenshots for my AARs. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Luke, I think you're not understanding the crux of the problem. I merely want the foxholes, trenches, mines and sandbagged emplacements not to show. The remainder I -do- want to see. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Idea: Go to the repository or GaJ site and hunt them down and drop in your z folder. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Idea: Go to the repository or GaJ site and hunt them down and drop in your z folder. Thank you for that clever and helpful bit of wisdom. I actually had searched both areas and came up with empty hands. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Really? Oh. They might be for CMRT? Somebody had some funky see through negligee kind of versions. Get the CMRT ones and then just copy what you need? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I made some for you and will upload them and give you a dropbox link here shortly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 PM'd you the download link with instructions. I set it as a mod tag so this scenario can have invisible trench icons but other scenarios will not. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Kohlenklau, I can't thank you enough! <Salute> I tried 'em and they worked perfectly. And my thanks once more for including "directions" for their use. Problem solved! Best regards, Oddball-CAF 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Great! Glad to hear it worked out. BFC spyware will follow all the usage and I get a 5 cent kickback every time. Just this week for 2015 Aris went and renegotiated the modder union agreement with Steve.... I am just an apprentice but I am working hard and should have my union card by the end of the year! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baneman Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 BFC spyware will follow all the usage and I get a 5 cent kickback every time. Is that per battle using the mods, or every time a turn is processed with them ? If the former, you've missed an opportunity 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Steppenwulf Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) I created my own transparent icons for these feature objects when I first got BN a long time ago. Actually always thought it should be the default option for playing the game since there's simply no point in having all those icons on screen, especially considering you can see the objects anyhow and they don't move unlike squads and vehicles which have to be monitored.Moreover, the icon clutter they create, detracts from the important information, and once you get used to not having these surplus alerts, you quickly realise how pointless these icons are. I would highly recommend everyone replace FF FF FF in favour of 00 00 00. It really is a game enhancement and not adulteration!! Edited February 12, 2015 by The Steppenwulf 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Hi Steppenwulf, What does "replace FF FF FF in favour of 00 00 00" mean? Regards, Odd 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Steppenwulf Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) Actually it should have just been FF and 00. That was confusing and I was distracted at the time of posting. Still, by way of explanation:- If you were to look at icon/image files in a hex editor you would see that the pixels are represented by a series of bytes; the alpha layer is denoted, following the actual colours, by a range falling between 0 -255, with 0 in the alpha channel representing 100% mask (or zero transparency) and 255 representing 0% mask (or full transparency). 00 is the hexadecimal number for 0 and FF is the hexadecimal number for 255. Therefore if you wanted your alpha channel to completely blot out the icon image (as you require), you would achieve this it by ensuring the relevant bytes in the file were changed to 00 (zero transparency). Icon files that are fully visible in game will have most of the symbol represented by anything other than 00 up to maximum visibility (FF). It's the variance of this range that gives the icons the different shapes; round. square, kite and allows designers to offer different styles as mods. Simply by masking. Naturally most modders will just perform this 'masking' task in some art software and don't bother understanding how the information is coded into the file. But opening up the code in an editor allows you to understand how the information is actually represented within the file. Interestingly this also opens up other manipulation possibilities with any type of file - not just image files. One can simply change the bytes within an editor. Edited February 12, 2015 by The Steppenwulf 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball-47 Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 (edited) Hi Steppenwulf, After reading your post, I realize just how intellectually-challenged I am. I will now once again take my seat in the "peanut gallery". I remain, Oddball, Pinhead Without Portfolio Edited February 14, 2015 by Oddball-47 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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