Preface
This article will help you figure out how to use any icon up to 128x128 for your game/app with full 32-Bit windows XP alpha transparency.

The article is written for VB 6, which isnt free. But if you can find any other programming language/dev environment that can do similar, it shouldnt take much to convert.


Background
If you plan on making a professional application, a good quality icon helps a lot. But MMF (Or jama afaik) will keep you down to 256 Colour and 32x32, something thats always annoyed me. Well; With a little ingenuity and very very little coding (copy and paste if you like) you can have a nice high colour/res icon for your game/app (yes games can have it too )

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Above - Old crappy MMF made icon for iPublish.


First of all...
When building your final game/app instead of making it .exe wrap the output filename in quotes and use .dll at the end (or dat, bobby, etc. thats up to you) this will obscurificate the actual exe (with the crappy MMF icon)

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Note: Be sure to update any references to these files by external exe's.


Secondly...
Now that youve made your main exes harder to execute (custom file exts) its time to open VB. Create a new standard exe.

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Now that thats done, add the following code on form_load (Create the form load bit by double clicking the blank form)

Add this code: 


Private Sub Form_Load()


    Shell App.Path & \data\ipb.dll, vbMaximizedFocus


    


    Unload Me


End Sub


The Shell function is similar to MMF's Run an external application but it has different parameters. The first one is self explanitory however. 

App.Path + \data\ipb.dll

This section executes the fake dll file i compiled (app.path is just like appdrive$ + appdir$, be sure to start the path with a \ though). 

vbMaximizedFocus

The default startup mode for the exe. 

Unload Me

Will quit your loader once its executed the shell command.


Build the test loader
First of all, save the project and accompanying form and then click File -> Make *appname*.exe set a filename and compile it to whever your data files are (or the folder above in iPublishes case.

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And hopefully...
The app should run, if not. Check the path settings.


Making the icons
Now, use your favourite app to make the icons (if you want to do alpha ones; Photoshop, Paint Shop pro or Macromedia Fireworks are reccommended) and set up a 48x48 canvas (transparent background) once this is done. Start making your icon (i shouldnt need to guide you through that)


Creating the .ico
Once your icon is done, export it as a 32 big PNG file. Then, use an icon creator package (this example will use axialis icon workshop, not cheap, but there are many freeware ones) import your PNG (good icon packagers will read the alpha bits and allow you to auto scale into other formats.

Once your import has been done successfully, ensure that you create the following icon formats to be compatible for all PC's

16x16 - 8 Bit
24x24 - 8 Bit
32x32 - 8 Bit
48x48 - 8 Bit

The same for: 16 Bit, 24 Bit and 32 Bit (32 bit only if you are doing alpha blending)

Once this is done, the ico should be an all in one file (with all formats stored within it)

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Putting into your loader
Once the icon creation is all done, its time to give your VB app the icon.

Select your main form and scroll down the properties panel until you reach a property entitled icon

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Browse for the saved icon, and then click ok.

Youre done!

Just re compile the exe and place it in the same place the test version was built.

As VB is pretty optimized, it'll only add between 30 and 80kb to the total MMF project size.

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Above - The happy new iPublish loader.

Extra advantages of this:

You can also play with the versions and file descriptions without violating your MMF license

If you dont have the tools or the time to make this, dont hesitate to dcmail me if you want a nice icon setup done and compiled for you (you can provide your own gfx if you wish) but i'll only do this for apps that are 99% done or complete