Noel,
So I was just comparing the two versions of the program,
and I think I figured out what it is I didn't like about the normal one:
The icons get too small when you zoom out to see more map. Just too
small on the 3" VGA screen for my taste.
So, they get too small too quickly in both versions, right? I only expanded them in the second, but didn't change when/how they get small.
I do kinda like the bigger icon at higher zoom levels.
I don't think they really need to made any bigger.. at least not on this
screen. But it would make them look nicer at high zoom, so I'll work on
that.
So the 2x maximum expansion looks good to you? I concur with that opinion as well.
Also, what overall size (X/Y) should I make the grid for the larger icon
set?
To get them up to double size clearly, we'll need each square to be 42 pixels instead of the current 21 pixel squares (21-4 giving the 17x17 icons that the program ends up painting).
I did a quick experiment here with IrfanView and I think if you start with just a resize/resample 200% retaining aspect ratio, you'll have a good starting point to clean them up. As I mentioned before though, try to make sure that all non-important pixels are actually pure white (RGB(255,255,255)) or they won't go transparent correctly.
I'm trying to figure out how to fade them out and keep the transparency so I quit getting the square around fading stations. If you look close at the red dot in the screen caps you sent me, you can see what I'm talking about. I was drawing it at 50% fade, but that messes up the transparency. I'm going back to 100% for the red dot, but aging stations will still start having a square around them as they fade. I'll get it fixed somehow!
Thanks again for any efforts you can do on getting clearer, bigger icons. I'm hoping that I can just use them for all resolutions with the 320x240 phone just using them at 50% with Win32 doing the scaling for me. Scaling down tends to look better than scaling up!
Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ
