A question about icons in windows explorer.

[Malo]

Hi,

In libriairie, we can see icons. I would like to know, if it will be possible to see this icons, instead of the generic icon, in windows explorer?

[Rodney]

In libriairie, we can see icons. I would like to know, if it will be possible to see this icons, instead of the generic icon, in windows explorer?

 

No. But...

 

The image data of the icon is such that a shell extension could likely be written that would accomplish that but.. that isn't very likely.

I periodically forget what the image data format is. I think it is Base16.

I've often thought of putting in a feature request to update that format to base 64 because that is more readily accessible by browsers but... even then this wouldn't allow the operating system to display the icons without some form of shell extension written to allow for that.

[Malo]

thank Rodney for the answer.

[Rodney]

I found some of the pertinent info regarding the image format.

Yves Poissant is/was the expert that shared this info...

 

He said:

It is binhex RLE encoded raw RGB data.
You have the size in the [PREVIEW] header.
In the [DATA] section, you get a sequence of lines, R line, G line and B line, etc.
Then basic RLE stuff:
read byte
byte >= 0 ? read next n+1 bytes
byte

 

[robcat2075]

I'm pretty sure Windows icons are just one per file type and there isn't one an icon stored for each file.

 

Or is there?

[Rodney]

I'm pretty sure Windows icons are just one per file type and there isn't one an icon stored for each file.

 

Or is there?

 

I'm sure there are utilities that allow for this but...

 

There is a way to get standard icons (.ico files) to appear with the files but it's by way of a hack.

Specifically, if one wanted to go through the trouble of doing this they could set up two folders with the first being the original files and the second being shortcuts to those files. (They could be in the same directory also)

Shortcuts can have their icons modified via Properties (i.e. there is a 'change icon' button).

You would then use a program/utility such as Irfanview to generate the .ico files from an image and assign it to the file.

 

Edit: This makes me think that the shortcut icon/pointer could be hacked together much more automagically. Hmmmmmm... I'll have to look into that.

 

Automation-wise shortcuts can be made by selecting an entire directory full of files, right clicking and selecting 'Create Shortcut'.

The tedious part would be creating and assigning the icons.

 

An alternative approach that works with HTML would be to include a preview image (usually the same one that was used to generate the file's preview image) in the folder. This image usually should have the same name as the file itself. (example: building001.mdl... building001.png). The HTML page would then point to the png image as well as provide a link to the model.

 

If the embedded preview image was Base64 javascript (or php code) could be used to pull out the image out of the file into any modern browser.

Easy to say of course... harder to code.

[NancyGormezano]

I remember back in vers 7.1- 8.5 days that A:M had the ability to change the icon on an individual basis for the model files for sure (windows 95? 98? etc)

 

It was great and was sorry to see it go. Could get an idea of what each model looked like just by listing the content of folders outside of A:M. The ico image used was the same image that was generated with "make icon" feature in A:M (if I recall correctly).

 

I also remember there was a feature to create a "clippy" bot type animation character agent - forget what those are called - the standard one that came with A:M was the merlin guy. But those didn't go over too well, as most people want to hide those annoying creatures when working.