Windows 10 Start menu tiles for SS2

[67431ca76c327ZylonBane]

Thanks to new computers at work I've finally been forced to spend some time dealing with Windows 10. I noticed that when you pin programs to the start menu that weren't created with Win10 in mind they get a generic tile with a tiny icon and a blue background. But it's possible with some extra files to create a custom tile. Attached is my first attempt.

This works by creating an XML file named VisualElementsManifest, prefixed with the name of the executable that it's for. For example ss2.VisualElementsManifest.xml. Supposedly you can create an XML file without a prefix that will apply to ALL executables in the folder, but I couldn't get that to work, so I included three copies of it that will hopefully cover all common names for the SS2 exe.

The manifest contains some simple config info, including the names of the bitmaps, the background color, and whether or not to display the shortcut name over the medium icon.

Microsoft's guidelines recommend creating an icon that floats inside the tile borders, but it seems that games have been covering the entire tile, so that's what I did.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/dn449733.aspx
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/controls-and-patterns/tiles-and-notifications-app-assets
https://blog.katiebroida.com/formating-firefoxs-visualelementsmanifest-file/

Anyway, I was thinking we could include this in SS2Tool.

To install, unzip all files directly into the root of the SS2 install folder.

[67431ca76c551Kolya]

Sounds like a good idea. I've personally been using ClassicShell for so long, I don't even know what the current start menu looks like. But I will try this out.

[67431ca76c66bZylonBane]

I was intending to put Classic Shell on this thing, but I figured I'd give the new Start menu a chance. Once I discovered you can unpin all the default crap and create your own groups of frequently used stuff, it's not so bad.

[67431ca76c7f0Kolya]

Okay, this works. A few minor points need ironing out:
- the name of the game executable is shock2.exe or ss2.exe if you renamed it. That's the only names supported by SS2Tool. The 3 XMLs only reflect ss2.exe and two aberrant names.
- the font looks awful on the tile. There seems to be a way to have no automatic lettering and instead bake the title into the graphic, which would allow a lot more design freedom.*
- I'm unsure where the shortcuts should be placed to generate a tile automatically. The current place (C:\Users\Kolya\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Shock 2) doesn't show up in any useful fashion or I just don't understand this start menu.

//*Having the title baked into the graphic would also allow to give it a better name than "SS2" or "Shock2".

[67431ca76c9a6ZylonBane]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the "shock2" variation.

Tiles are never generated automatically. You have to right-click the shortcut in the program list on the left and select "Pin to Start".

Yes, you can disable displaying the shortcut name. I did actually try baking the title into the icon image, but it wasn't much better. There simply isn't anywhere else on the image to put "System Shock 2" except across the bottom. Even if you abandoned the SHODAN face for the icon and used something like the box art, the SS2 title logo does not scale down well, because it uses very small lettering. Scaled down to icon size it becomes almost unreadable.

Worst-case we could shrink SHODAN down so she's not filling the entire tile. But I don't think it looks too bad as-is.

//*Having the title baked into the graphic would also allow to give it a better name than "SS2" or "Shock2".

I'm not following your logic. SS2 and Shock2 are exe names. The exe name has nothing to do with what's displayed on the tile. The shortcut name is displayed on the tile.

[67431ca76caa2Kolya]

I didn't mean to change the position of the text. My idea was that we could use the square font and maybe a double sized "2" at the end.

I guess my tiles were titled "Shock2" then because my manually created shortcut was.

[67431ca76cba6Kolya]

What I got so far. The tile seems to get resized on my system, which doesn't bode well for baked in text. A fitting tile size might help with that.
[ss2_start_tile.7z expired]
[VisualElements_150.png expired]

[67431ca76cc8eZylonBane]

Yeah, you don't get to make the tiles whatever display size you want. No matter what the bitmap size, it gets scaled to the same display size as all the other tiles.

[67431ca76cf69Olfred]

If you have a shortcut in your start menu (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\), the tile will take the name you have given the shortcut.
Now you can go wonky with unicode characters.

[67431ca76d0d7Kolya]

The Remarks section of ZB's MSDN link suggests you can define additional files for various DPI scaling plateaus (80%, 100%, 140%, and 180%). This might be a way to get a better image display.

I understood the part about the shortcut names now.

[67431ca76d21cZylonBane]

Note that Win10 apparently limits Win32 EXE shortcut tiles to just Small or Medium display size. So no matter how big the actual tile image, it's still going to get scaled down. For example the "150" (medium) image I included is actually 300x300 pixels... and on a 1920x1080 screen Medium tiles are rendered as only 100x100 squares. At that size you're really better off letting the operating system render any text.

Here's an example of how other games do full-frame tiles. My proposed SS2 tile seems par for the course.


[gametiles.png expired]

[67431ca76d300Kolya]

Not to argue with you, but I think the tile in your screenshot is 150x150. Was that taken on a different resolution?

[67431ca76d3ccZylonBane]

It's 100x100.

[67431ca76d4a7Kolya]

Right you are, as usual.

So yeah, in this situation the OS lettering is preferable.

[67431ca76d57dKolya]

I placed the files on the server and tested them. They can be gotten through SS2Tool update mode.

[67431ca76d644ZylonBane]

Just ss2 and shock2 XMLs then, correct?

[67431ca76d709Kolya]

Yes.