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Changing icons (Retina & Non Retina).

WeegieMac

WeegieMac

Guest
Original poster
Jan 29, 2008
3,274
1
Glasgow, UK
Ok, people will no doubt know this, but I didn't so thought I'd post incase someone else is looking for a "solution" to this.

It annoys me having apps that have no high resolution icon artwork. If you look at apps in the App Store on your iPhone, the icons are all high resolution, yet some (like GTA Chinatown Wars & Sonic 4) have low resolution art which looks out of place among the other high resolution icons on the iPhone 4 screen.

I used to use a jailbreak tweak called iRetiner GUI to apply the iTunes high resolution art to the icons, but since I'm no longer jailbroken (and don't particularly wish to be), I was delighted to find that you can simply use the program iPhone Explorer, navigate to the .app folder of the app you want to change the icon for, and replace the icon image as appropriate.

I've changed GTA Chinatown Wars, Geometry Wars, Sonic 4, Lumines, and R-Type which had low resolution icon artwork, as well as changed all the EA titles I own (Dead Space, FIFA, Madden, Woods, NFS, Fight Night) to icons that match the console versions cover art.

I think it looks better, and yeah ..."Cool story, Bro" etc. I just thought some others who didn't know this was possible would appreciate it.

img0003q.png


Icons changed:

Final Fantasy III, GTA, FIFA, Woods, Madden, Fight Night, Dead Space, NFSU, NFS Shift, Hot Pursuit, SF4, Devil May Cry 4.
 
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Certinfy said:
Didn't know this. Thanks for the info, will check this out. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I mean you need to be pretty sad (yup, that's me lol), but all you do is search Google for a good resolution image of the cover/art you want to use.

Then as long as the horizontal & vertical sizes match, you can use them no problem. I just use the Grab keyboard shortcut on OS X and select the area I want to use, making sure to check the pixel count it shows.

The Final Fantasy III one is a personal favourite since the default white block with just the title was a bit boring. I'm also pleased with the EA titles, they came out really well.

And, best of all, no jailbreak needed. Some of the icons are a little sneaky though, in that they're not all called "icon.png". For example, Madden's was called "maddenicon.png" and you also had to replace the "maddenicon@2x.png" as well for the change to take effect. This is because, unlike apps that don't have a Retina Display enabled icon, you have to replace the icon for 3GS resolution and iPhone 4 resolution. Only changing one has no effect. :D
 
Thanks for that, will have a go later and hopefully succeed. And yeah the EA ones really do look fantastic, they really caught my eye.
 
I love the retro games from SEGA, the Mega-Drive was one of my favourite consoles, but SEGA's choice of artwork was rotten. Streets of Rage didn't have a high resolution icon, and Streets of Rage 2 & 3 did, but they were awful close-in artwork, and the games looked inconsistent on the iPhone. The same goes for Sonic 1 & Sonic 2, both have low resolution icons.

Well, after some digging around the internet, I obtained artwork from the Mega-Drive original console packaging, and this is the result:

img0006r.png


How they looked before the change with stock icons:

screenshot20110618at141.png


Sonic 4, Lumines, and Geometry Wars have also received high resolution artwork identical to their originals.
 
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They look great WeegieMac. I'll be giving this a go later most definitely.

Those original streets of rage logos do look awful.
 
ChazUK said:
They look great WeegieMac. I'll be giving this a go later most definitely.

Those original streets of rage logos do look awful.
Click to expand...

I have a ZIP file with all the icons needed along with instructions, waiting to be sent to anyone who wishes them. :)
 
Those look great. And you're not jailbroken?

I might've done this when I played a bunch of games on my phone. Now it's kind of useless to me, but very cool nonetheless.
 
ozzyman500 said:
Those look great. And you're not jailbroken?

I might've done this when I played a bunch of games on my phone. Now it's kind of useless to me, but very cool nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Not jailbroken mate, back on stock 4.3.3 after a full restore and setting up as a new phone. I was on iOS 5 Beta 1 previously, but I'll wait for Beta 2 before considering using iOS 5 exclusively I think.

All you need is iPhone Explorer and a bit of patience. :)

Thankfully, since I've sourced most of the icons above and cut them from artwork online, etc I've got a file here ready to send people if need be. I'll just add to it as I do more titles.
 
Did you make all those yourself?

It really annoys me that EA always puts that silver border around their apps. Also the Sonic 2 icon looks great, one of my favorite past time games.
 
ozzyman500 said:
Did you make all those yourself?

It really annoys me that EA always puts that silver border around their apps. Also the Sonic 2 icon looks great, one of my favorite past time games.
Click to expand...

Yup, basically I searched the web for artwork of decent resolution, then used the OS X keyboard shortcut to activate grab, and selected the area I wanted, ensuring that both horizontal and vertical pixels were identical. There's no limit on how big the image is, the largest one was 565 x 565 (Streets of Rage 2 I think), but iOS just resizes the image into the icon dimensions. You also don't need to worry about the rounded edges, as again you simply upload the image and iOS does the rest.

Infinity Blade, Real Racing 2, Ridge Racer, and FM 2011 are the only ones on the first screen which are stock.
 
iRetiner GUI just uses the iTunes artwork for the icons so what really gets me is that the devs don't even take the minute to update the icon. Pathetic really.

Nice to see that you can change them on a non jailbroken iDevice though. Great work.
 
Can you give a step by step explanation? :)

When I try to open a folder, it says "File or directory not found"
 
Nice find.
I personally couldn't be bothered switching the icons but its nice to know there is a solution
 
WeegieMac said:
I have a ZIP file with all the icons needed along with instructions, waiting to be sent to anyone who wishes them. :)
Click to expand...

Hey

Is it possible if you can send me all of your icons especially your EA icons to me in a private messages?


Thanks in advance. :D
 
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