Search the Community

A Builds Gallery - By Newton3010 - Current Rank [Creator] Ver 1.16 - 1.17 Era Just wanted to post these in case I forget to back them up. Most if not all builds made use of redstone mechanics in some way. Underground rail systems to take harvested items to one of the self sorting silos. Iron doors controlled by classic pistion t-flipflops and dropper/hopper t-flipflops almost everywhere. The Mansion - 3 Levels Plus Basement Space Featured The 48 Item Sorter - Dual Redstone Elevators - 3x3 Piston Main Door/Gateway 48 Item - Compact Access Sorter The Villager Apartments - 4 Level (Almost 5 Levels) Each level for different villager types. XP/Copper Farm Auto Harvest Sugar Cane/Melon/Carrot Farm - Underground rail system to transfer items to the sorting silo. Newtonshop - My Store and Weapons Shop The First House & Storage Silo XP/Gold/Rotten Flesh Farm Blaze Farm Wither Skull Farm - Never really worked as intended due to captured/tagged & Armored Piglins still despawning. Still got many skulls from it. Villager Houses Automatic Wool Farm Automatic Chicken Farm And Automatic Bee Farm Axolotl & Turtle Aquarium Automatic Potion Maker - Inside the First House - Created potions by clicking the desired ingredients in the proper order. Not a Build - My Vault Contents for 1.18 - Totems/GApples & 4 Stacks of VoteKeys. - Ready for 1.18 !

Yes, I know - it's a really minor detail. You probably look at them for about 20 seconds tops. Hell, you may not have even noticed them. Well, you're gonna notice them today motherf- Sorry - got a little too excited. Anywho - icons! As subtle of a detail as they may be, they should still always be quality and easy to look at. The old icons, while not exactly dated, were a product of a young graphic design student who only made them with a limited knowledge of what looked good vs. what didn't. In fairness - the icons aren't awful, especially when they're so small. However, deep within them, there are some pretty awful things about them that, for me personally, make them really awful. We'll get into those in a few minutes, but first - it's time for Granddad Halo to give you whippersnappers a history lesson! The Classic Icons (2012-2014) The icons that started it all. They're old-school, pretty dated by modern standards, super low-res, and... unoriginal? That's right - most of the old CU forum icons were pulled straight from the internet. You won't find as many nowadays, but some of the icons can still be found on some icon websites. They weren't hand-crafted by some designer just for CU, they were available for any regular Joe to use - free of charge. One example of a publicly-available icon is the following - the General Gaming icon. The left one is the one that was used on the CU forums. The one on the right was found by doing a reverse image search on Google from that original icon. Turns out - there's a higher resolution one out there that has significantly more detail! This is important for another reason that we'll get into later. Now, while the old icons may not have been original - they're somewhat iconic (pun not intended) in my opinion. They were seen for most of the old CU's lifespan - and, hey - they're nostalgic. And that's why the first custom icon refresh in 2016 was intended to modernize those original icons. The Flat Icons (2016-2020) I'd been fairly early into learning graphic design at my tech school (some of you around back then may recall it). At several points during the class, there was allocated "free" time - it wasn't really free time, rather you were supposed to work on any assignments or portfolio work. A few things came out of those instances of free time. The Elaztek logo, the HD version of the CU logo that we still use today, and - you guessed it, the forum icon refresh! You may recall me mentioning the importance of locating higher-resolution versions of the original icons. This wasn't always possible, but in cases where it was - it was a massive benefit. In order to create icons that were truly faithful to the originals, the more original detail - the better. The original arcade cabinet icon seen above was pretty low-resolution, and several details might've been missed - such as the specific shape of the joystick or the angled edges on the bottom corners. Since we're already using that icon as the benchmark, let's stick with it. On the left is the HD icon found online, and on the right is the flat recreation I made in 2016. At a glance, it probably looks pretty clean. However - and maybe this is just a case of me noticing all the problems in my own work - upon closer inspection, some weird issues begin to emerge. We're gonna go through a few of the major ones - across various icons. The Flaws This is the part where I nitpick a few of the icons. I ended up putting far too much effort into these fancy little diagrams - enjoy. The breakdown of each icon is each in its own spoiler and labeled accordingly. If you don't care about the specific flaws (or don't feel like poking fun at my old designs with me), feel free to skip past them to find where we get into the new icons. General Gaming Icon Console Gaming Icon Suggestions & Feedback Icon News & Announcements Icon MineCraft Registration Icon Computers & Tech Icon PC Gaming Icon There are other flaws with other icons not mentioned here. The general point being made is that the old icons, while they served their job of being modern replacements of the old ones, could've been a lot better. So, four years later, I finally did. The Brand-New Icons As of today, both the Chaotic United and Elaztek forums will be rocking a brand new set of icons. Icons that are both modern - but aren't just flat and devoid of detail. For instance, have a look at the new General Gaming icon: So far, everyone who's had a look at these icons says they're pretty good. And while I can't say for sure if they genuinely mean that or not - I'm pretty proud of how they've turned out. They've got just enough added detail from the originals to make them feel fresh, but at the same time they aren't overly detailed to the point that they look dated. All of the other icons showcased above can be found in the spoiler below. Additionally, a page has been setup where you can see each iteration of every forums icon thus far. I'll likely keep that page updated as we continue to update/redesign icons - because hey, archiving doesn't hurt - right? For the most part, the designs of each icon is the same as it was - just with a fresh coat of paint. However, several icons saw fairly significant departures from their originals. You can check the comparisons on the Icon Gallery page - but for now I'll describe the changes here. Computers & Tech - The icon is now of a purely front-facing perspective rather than a 3D perspective. I was honestly on the fence about this one - and honestly I may end up changing my mind later. The main reasoning behind it was partially to due with laziness, as properly replicating the original icon in it's 3D perspective is not a simple task. Along with that, it also ends up being somewhat out-of-place - as every other icon is of a front-facing object of some sort, with this single icon being a full 3D render of a PC tower and monitor. The new icon is a front-facing view of the original icon, with the front of the tower maintaining the same design and the monitor getting the original wallpaper back. If you like, you can download a 1080p or 4k version for your own wallpaper. I figured why not - it does look kinda neat (to me anyways) PC Gaming - The icon is now of an actual PC rather than a Mac. Additionally, rather than just being an ugly flat purple background, there's a real wallpaper and desktop UI represented. Fun fact - the wallpaper is the same design as the one used for Computers & Tech, and yes - you can download this one too. Both are linked at the bottom of the page. Sports - The icon has been changed from a Soccer Ball to a Football, Baseball, and Basketball. Why? Because soccer balls are annoying to make, and because the old soccer ball isn't even original. You can find the exact one on Google. Good job 2016 haloman30 Cars & Vehicles - The icon has been changed from a goofy looking car to a tire and wrench combo. Cars also happen to be annoying to draw and - just like with the soccer ball, it was pulled straight from Google. So - a redesign was in order. Music & Movies - Similar story to the first two, but with a little more depth. The original icon was just of a music note and a film spool. However, the particular arrangement of those two happened to look really clunky and just...bad. The note and the film reel were both pulled from Google, and since the icon itself was already pretty ugly - a full redesign was needed. The new icon is a blue play button. There were other minor adjustments made, but in general most of the icons are still largely based on their originals. Part of the redesign goal was to remain faithful to the originals, where I felt that the 2016 ones weren't as faithful as they could've been - even besides the whole flat style, since that's largely just a design decision. Whew - that was a lengthy topic, all about a handful of icons that most of y'all probably don't even bat an eye at. I figured I'd go into some of the nitty gritty details of some of the icons, because I'm sure there's at least one or two of you out there who can appreciate some of these details. If not, that's okay too. As mentioned above, you can grab 1080p and 4k wallpapers of the backgrounds used for the PC Gaming, Computers & Tech, and Streams icons. Along with that, you'll also find the link to the Icon Gallery below - where you can take a trip through the history of the icons found on the CU forums. Anywho - that's all for now. That break I mentioned before is still in effect as of writing this, I just had an urge to make icons. Not the most important thing ever - but hey. See you folks around! Wallpapers: PC Gaming PC Gaming 4k PC Gaming (no icon) PC Gaming (no icon) 4k Computers & Tech Computers & Tech 4k Streams Streams 4k Icon Gallery: https://chaoticunited.net/material/icon_gallery.html