Vista Users - get your giant icons here!
As you may or may not know, Windows Vista supports a new icon format... a new ridiculously enormous icon format. While XP maxed out at icons that were 48x48 pixels, Vista has upped the ante to a gigantic 256x256 square.
Vista users may have noticed that I caught this in time for episodes 4 through 6 - those games ship with the epic MegIcons already there and working, and look very pretty in Vista. Episodes 1 through 3, however, are limited to a (now) meager 48x48.
I am here to remedy this!
Behold: Vista-size icons for Sam & Max Episodes 1 - 3
And what would a weird zip full of mystery files glommed on after the fact be without a convoluted dance step of an install guide with at least four too many arrows? I couldn't really tell you what it would be, because I've never seen such an occurrence, so here's a quick step by step to upgrade your bliss Windows icon experience!
If you run into any issues with these, let me know. Otherwise, showering this thread with thanks will suffice.
Vista users may have noticed that I caught this in time for episodes 4 through 6 - those games ship with the epic MegIcons already there and working, and look very pretty in Vista. Episodes 1 through 3, however, are limited to a (now) meager 48x48.
I am here to remedy this!
Behold: Vista-size icons for Sam & Max Episodes 1 - 3
And what would a weird zip full of mystery files glommed on after the fact be without a convoluted dance step of an install guide with at least four too many arrows? I couldn't really tell you what it would be, because I've never seen such an occurrence, so here's a quick step by step to upgrade your bliss Windows icon experience!
If you run into any issues with these, let me know. Otherwise, showering this thread with thanks will suffice.
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Comments
thanks telltale, now my sam and max icon set is no longer deformed :rolleyes:
P.S. can we get extra large icons for the other telltale games..... csi, bone, etc..
I don't know how large the source art is for those icons, but it would be nice, wouldn't it? I'll look into it and get back to you within 4-6 business months.
fast answers..... slow solutions, thats the telltale way
hint: you could create in a matter of minutes(to hours. :P) your own set of icons, to bridge the time. *g*
:spam:
I also think your installation guide is nifty.
I'm using your icons though.
NO! How could something so important have been revealed like that! The episode is ruined! RUINED! *goes off to rock back and forth in a fetal position while sobbing uncontrollably*
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173435.aspx
Hope this aids.
1. Get the Microsoft DirectX SDK (500mb or something) which includes the GDF Editor
2. Use the GDF Editor to fill out the details for the game (this is the easiest part)
3. Build it into a resource file which you then have to build into a DLL (or the game itself)
4. Register the DLL into the Game Explorer with an installer of some such
5. Repeat for every Sam & Max game. :eek:
Links:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173435.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb206359.aspx
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Game_explorer
Once I get it all figured out, trust me, I'll put it all here for any other Vista users to enjoy.
Yet, I still managed to reach SUCCESS!
If you don't want to go through all that trouble, I made this NSIS Installer which should take care of everything for you. You probably need to run it with administrator rights. Just select the Sam & Max Episodes you have installed and it'll register them on the Games Explorer. Or at least it works for me. If it ends up making your computer disappear into a black hole or something... um... I'm not held responsible.
In any case it has an Uninstaller that undoes it all, in Programs > Telltale Games > Uninstall Sam & Max Vista Support.
Thats ok, I'll have to replay Episode 1 anyway. By that logic Brady Culture wasn't the baddy, but
I just got a new laptop for my birthday with Vista installed, and while Abe Lincoln Must Die! does indeed have a 256x256 icon, the 96x96 icon strangely refuses to show up. Any tips?
Cyberlink, try refreshing, restarting, hovering the icon or just delete and recreate the shortcut to make sure Windows is doing it right. The problem is it's not a task for ultra-layman, or even a regular-layman :P but I'll try (btw you probably need to have "Administrator privileges" to do all this):
(you can edit the registry through the Registry Editor in Start > Run > "regedit" but you can't undo anything, so don't screw it up!)
Just look at the existing entries for your installed games to get an idea. Or if that's not enough, the key has to contain these string values:
ApplicationId = The GUID for the game
ConfigApplicationPath = The path of the game
ConfigGDFBinaryPath = The path to the DLL with the GDF info
ConfigInstallType = 2 (I think this controls whether the game is installed for all users or not, though I install everything for "all users")
IsSigned = 0x00000001 (DWORD value)
Title = Title of the game
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer\{GUID}\Play\NUMBERS FROM 0 TO WHATEVER\some shortcut.lnk
(you might need to turn on "access to protected folders and crap" in Folder Options if you can't get here)
(each folder can only have one shortcut, and you need to create at least the "Play" shortcut so you can run the game from the Game Explorer. Again, just look at the folders for the other games when in doubt)
And... done. You might need to restart for the changes to work. Now aren't you glad you asked me? :rolleyes:
Still running Windows 3.11, then? DOS 6.2?
yep, how did you know?
I especially love the boot logo for Windows 3.11. It's fabolus!
You gotta admire the artwork
why, because compiling DLLs isn't simple?
Because everything is too simple, and things that are not are insanely NOT simple. :P
If I wanted to be treated like an idiot, I'll get a stupid haircut. It's cheaper too :P (unless you're David Beckham)
no, because I understood very little of what he said, and I thought changing the icons that a game shortcut should use was simple. I didn't even understand that compilining DLLs was involved in that long explanation.
If I want to change an icon in XP, I just make an .ico file with the picture I want to use as an icon. Then I right click the shortcut, and select "Shortcut" and then "Change Icon...". Then I just browse to my newly made .ico file, and voila, by pushing "ok" two times I got a new icon for the shortcut. I just didn't understand why changing the icon in Games Explorer should be any more difficult. Just the thought that one has to make a program to do it properly is quite the shocker to me.
Also, reading this note didn't really make me feel it was easy either: You need to build the resource files into a RES, then add it to a library (DLL) with some compiler, then register that DLL with the Game Explorer with an installer... (more info here) needless to say, Microsoft really knows how to complicate things.
To get to the point. I just don't understand the point of making stuff more difficult behind the scene, when it's supposed to be easier to work with for the user. In linux I can change practically anything in readable files, why does Microsoft have to make everything so complicated? Also, why do they try to make stuff less logical than they actually are? With every Windows version, understanding the inner workings of Windows gets more and more complicated and illogical. Soon one have to be a programmer just to be able to prevent programs from starting automatically...
Anyone can add games to their copy of Games Explorer simply by dragging the game's exe file or shortcut into the Games Explorer window... but there is a bunch of additional info that Games Explorer supports which isn't easily user-modifyable (eg the name of the developer, name of publisher, system specs, website for the game, etc).
SupSuper was explaining how users can add their own detailed information to Vista's Games Explorer for the Sam & Max games. He wasn't talking about how to change an icon.
2) I think they decided to make it effectively not editable by users so that they could regulate the information that goes in there. For instance, the games in Games Explorer can have system requirements listed, which Games Explorer will then attempt to rate against your current machine. This isn't necessarily the sort of thing that Microsoft wants users to decide - the thinking is that things like that, or the URL to go for tech support, should only be edited by the developer/publisher of the game.
Do I agree with that mentality? Not necessarily. I'd rather it worked like a Wiki, or like the FreeDB CD information database (which many media playing programs use to download track information for CDs you drop into your drive), which are built up over time and fact checked by users, greatly improving the breadth and depth of the information included in the database... but community-driven and Microsoft are pretty much the antithesis of each other, so don't hold your breath.
Yep, I'm sure they mean well, and I don't see Microsoft going for an open solution either. I just wanted to express my frustration with how difficult things seems to be in Vista, even though it's also appears to be user friendly
I'm sure when Microsoft designed the Games Explorer, they didn't have a games database in mind. Yes it's nice to have the Developer, Publisher, Release Date and Boxart in there, but you'll most commonly use those for commercial games. And they're just there for sorting, I think. And Microsoft already went to the trouble to add support to the thousands of pre-Vista games. Users can still just add their shortcuts in there and customize them to their will, and it'll still store the Last Played date for them so users can use it for sorting. Plus it's meant for commercial games, which Vista games (well, the ones with the "Games for Windows" logo) will all support. Because the "computer performance" rating only applies to high-end requirements (the 1 being the minimum to run Vista). Most non-commercial games don't have boxart and rating info. Other developers probably don't need to worry about it and deploy their games as they always have. You can still create shortcuts however you please.
Plus the GDF files also hold the rating information which links to the parental controls, and given Microsoft's tendency for security leaks, they're probably making sure they don't get one there. If the average user could add their games to the Games Explorer, the parental controls would be rendered useless quickly, and they probably don't wanna join the "blaming games for violence" bandwagon.