Feature request: Improving icon visibility

[hackedpassword]

Before creating

• This is NOT a gameplay feature from Civ VI, BNW, or outside - see Roadmap
• This is NOT a gameplay feature from Vanilla Civ V or from G&K - If so, it should be a comment in Missing features from Civ V - G&K #4697

Problem Description

Long-standing issue I've had with Unciv world screen icons. Some civs icons are hard to see at best in certain scenarios, impossible to tell without focused effort in others.

Combination of factors include:

• Civ color 1 and 2 camouflaging into tile colors
• Transparency for non-active units
• Shape of unit icon becoming indistinguishable
• Mod color palette may not be uniform with civ default palette (unmodded civ colors)

There may be other reasons also.

The end result, as a present example, using my current tileset mod with stronger primary colors, and Korea which uses strong primaries also, icon differentiation is sketch.

Related Issue Links

No response

Desired Solution

A proposed simple solution. Render the icon twice. First layer is the icon colored black, scaled +5% or so. Second layer is the usual icon render. We now have a black border to cleanly display the icon, same technique unitset icons generally apply for visibility.

Alternative Approaches

The whole circle area could have a 50% opaque backdrop too which might help. The icon border effect sounds more visually interesting.

I'd tried unbordered unit sprites not long ago, stripping down a few from FantasyHex as well as new sprites. Same result - where are the units? 👀👀👀😲 so I reapplied the borders but at 90% opacity for a slight anti-aliased effect against the tile. Subtle!

I suppose a cheaper solution could be applying such a border when building the atlas but that wouldn't be consistent unless applied at runtime, and that's still an android no-go.

Additional Context

Icons could be made isometric 3d, now that'd be fancy.

[yairm210]

I like that you put stealth bombers for this example ;)

[yairm210]

The unit icon is surrounded by a circle, currently that whole thing is transparent'd
I think the answer should be - the icons on the circle should be transparent, but not the circle itself
This could be fiddly to implement though :|

[hackedpassword]

I'd considered that, but the icon representation would remain obscured, imo. Your solution would help reveal the quantity of units available, and their positioning - a useful boost for those other units scattered around, but still may not be enough for the purpose of having the icon. Otherwise, there's really no point in rendered sprites having one. Which raises a thought, is it actually necessary to have icons on rendered sprites? If it'd help I can create mockups of any direction you'd like to try.

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On Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 9:02 AM Yair Morgenstern ***@***.***> wrote: The unit icon is surrounded by a circle, currently that whole thing is transparent'd I think the answer should be - the icons on the circle should be transparent, but not the circle itself This could be fiddly to implement though :| — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13008 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A4TK4CXYPK6MHJPYAODLFDD2SB3ADAVCNFSM6AAAAABYAYVLLGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDMOJQHA3DKOBXGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***> [image: yairm210]*yairm210* left a comment (yairm210/Unciv#13008) <#13008 (comment)> The unit icon is surrounded by a circle, currently that whole thing is transparent'd I think the answer should be - the icons on the circle should be transparent, but not the circle itself This could be fiddly to implement though :| — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13008 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A4TK4CXYPK6MHJPYAODLFDD2SB3ADAVCNFSM6AAAAABYAYVLLGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDMOJQHA3DKOBXGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[yairm210]

Definitely, they're the source of truth
They always exist even for units without sprites, they remain constant between unitsets, and never have the visibility problems that sprites sometimes have