Animaated Icons

is it possible to have animated icons?

i think that would be so cool :D

No.

I suppose you could make 50 different icons showing a second's worth of animation and give them each to a unit with a remarkably intensive trigger...

No, let's just leave it at, no.

Theoretically, you could directly edit the icon MDX to give it a sequences texture, making it animated, but it'd likely be mor trouble than it's worth.

What do you mean? Icons are in .blp format. Icon's cannot be set to use a .mdx because it won't work. Unless you can have multiple frames in a .blp file, I don't think its possible to animate them. If the game supported other formats, like .gif, you could easily have your icons animated. I've never thought about this myself, I might go give it a try.

An alternative would be to have a periodic trigger constantly remove and add an ability; it wouldn't be exactly a smooth animation, but you could probably get 2 frames per second without a problem.

but then you wouldnt be able to use the ability.

So the answer is no.

Sure you would be able to use it; the ability-switching trigger would only need to be disabled on the "unit begins casting an ability" event for the duration of the casting of the spell. And if it's a passive ability, then no problem there.

if the ability is forever changing then you cannot use it (if its castable) dunno about passive tho, but if its castable and u havnt cast it before the ability changes, then the whole thing resets.

I believe that the buttons are models with textures, so if you edit the button model it should be possible to apply animated textures to it. Theoretically at least.

Animated Textures, huh? Well, are there any other models that use animated textures in the game? Animated textures usually require multi-frame textures. The point I was trying to ask was can .blp files have more than a single frame, such as a .gif. If so, wouldn't it be possible to just use a multi-frame texture for the button model?

Sorry but the buttons use a .blp format (not .mdx) which is short for Blizzard Bitmap. So no amount of model editing will allow for animated buttons. HexenLordX's suggestion is the most viable option I've seen so far.

Actually, the icon BLP is simply a replaceable texture that's applied to an icon model. So you can edit it.

And in answer to whether there are animated textures in Warcraft III: Look at the Water Elemental. It used a set of sequences textures to give the correct effect.

There are some blp/icon mdxs that use animation as far as I can tell. Auto Cast abilities...

you got a point their, unless the 4 models going around the icon with a glow/blur effect o_O