Before I go ahead I just wondered about something - should I aim for CEP 2.x compatibility or not. The reason I ask is because for my previous submissions I have tried to make most of my stuff compatible. The thing is that, unlike placeables.2da, I don't know an easy way to find a 20 item slot for the model/icon numbers within what CEP have already used. Which is why, contrary to what I would like to do, I am leaning towards not having compatibility.
So thoughts please.
TR
I'd forgo CEP compatibility, especially for shield models. As far as I remember CEP has reached the limit on large shield slots, maybe even tower shields. Some of them are, well... out of date. You could theoretically overwrite some of those, but imho it's not worth the effort.
Make it Q compatible! Dare to challenge yourself!
I've come across what I regard as a strange problem. As part of testing this I have created an inventory item icon that is (as per the baseitems.2da) 2 squares wide by 3 tall (64 x 96 pixels). I have placed the model, both textures, a modified baseitems.2da (increased maxrange to 255) and the icon in my override directory.
Here is the icon (click the image to download the tga file).
And this is what it looks like in the inventory.
In order to maintain the aspect ratio it was necessary to have quite a large amount of transparency both above and below the actual image of the shield. In spite of this NwN manages to both distort the image, shift it to the right and to cut a large chunk of the icon off the bottom. Any ideas of what gives?
TR
They should have a 1:2 ratio. Shield icons are usually 64x128 pixels, with the bottom 28 pixels unused. It's similar to portraits having a small unused area beneath them.
Thanks, that mostly worked. Any idea why it would be slightly shifted to the right? This is one more reason why (something that is unlikely to happen) we need a new custom content guide.
TR
Hmm, you're right, I haven't noticed that before. I had a look at the original shield icons and they seem to have the same issue. It's barely noticeable with them though, as they have rather large gaps on both sides.
You'd have to scale the icons down a bit and maybe shift them to the left to compensate. It seems to be a 2 pixel shift (took a screenshot and measured it 
)
I have a theory on where the shift comes from:
A single tile/slot in the inventory is 32x32 pixels wide. But there are also those grey lines, which are one pixel wide and there lies the issue. If an item stretches over multiple slots it would need to be scaled up or at least moved a little to compensate for those grey lines. The engine doesn't do that and this causes a slight shift.
So we have to do that ourselves. I think all icons need to be shifted to the left by 1 pixel for every slot it takes, i.e. 1 pixel for 32x32, 2 pixels for 64x64, etc. It may be necessary to do that vertically too, but I'd argue it's barely noticeable there.
As for icon sizes:
I also noticed that only large shield icons have that small unused area under them:
Like large shields cloaks too use 64x128 icons with a small area under them unused.
Dang. I am going blind. I just didn't notice until now. For some reason, the model that Gunner was so kind as to make me flips the front design texture horizontally. It wasn't until after I had finally made the 21 shields and item icons too. In fact I was testing the keys (see page 1 of this thread where you will also see that the texture is flipped) icon that I noticed.
I finally found that reducing the width of the shield (keeping aspect ratio) to 56 and then applying an asymmetric canvas enlargement (2 pixels on the left & 6 on the right) makes for the best appearance.
TR
Here's the latest update on this project. I have now created a hak with 21 shields as a demo. Here is how they look in the toolset -
In game they look like this -
When placed on the ground,
equipped and in the inventory, while here's 15 of them equipped
(only 16 out 21 because I couldn't fit em all in and I pressed the wrong key 5 times 
)
Once I make an initial stab at the documentation would anyone like to beta test this for me please?
(And yes, that is Darth Vader's helmet - well you've got to have a sense of humour haven't you?)
TR
Finally it is done. It is now on the vault. Apart from the 2668 png image files there is an essential hak, a short txt readme and a 23 page (includes TOC and over a dozen large images) manual. The hak contains the shields illustrated above. Any custom shields that the user creates override 1 or more of those designs.
Anyway, get it here and let me know what you think.
Special thanks to GunnersaurusRex for the brilliant original model these are based on.
TR
<switching to maximum sell mode>
Do your custom shields look too clean? Do they look unused even though they have spent millennia in a mouldering tomb? Have you just mashed in an opponents face with your shield and yet it remains pristine? Fear not! All you need is the additional 7z archive on the same page on the vault. Yes with our new "Added Grunge" you too can create a shield with just that level of unloved-ness (probably) that you so desire. This package contains 21 levels of grunginess (21 images) for you to play with. So hurry on over and get your grunge today!
<instructional mode>
These are pretty simple to use. All you do is create your shield design as normal, then as the last thing you do before you go on to make your icon, copy and paste one (or if you insist - or more - not recommended) of these images on top. Of course, if you want a before and after effect this does mean that you will need to make 2 versions - a clean and a grunged version.
TR
Here is what the grunge looks like. As I deliberately made 21 shades of grunge, I paired each one up with a shield design from the included hak. As I was doing this simply for the purpose of making pictures, I haven't made any grunged icons. Therefore the top hak created just for the illustrations will not be made available. Anyway, here goes.
These are the images after grunging.
Those are the grunged shields in the toolset.
While those are the shields in game. Lastly...
Here is everyone in actual usage (hint click the image to see large version). As you can see some grunge is more subtle than others but I assure you that there are 21 different grunge overlays in use here. BTW, the white rose shield is the one that was used to mash someone's face in...
<thought to self - now will I get actual comments? I do hope so as that place where cats go reluctantly is just too damned hot...>
TR
Just wondering on a number of things -
Thanks.
TR
Having looked into it I have decided against making a matching flag (vexillum) kit. I came to the conclusion that there are just too many different designs. That is not to say that it is hard to do. In fact using "Lisa's Standards (or Army Flags)" as a basis (it includes instructions on just that), it is reasonably easy. Just make your flag to match your shield design.
If you choose to do this, here are a couple of references. The gallery of flags by design. The other is a pdf document on designing flags - Good Flag / Bad Flag.
TR
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