Xbox engineer fixes user's tiny, 15-year-old 360 gamerpic
I see what you did there.
An Xbox engineer fixed a user's tiny, 15-year-old Xbox 360 gamerpic so it now displays properly on modern devices.
Earlier this week, video producer and editor Gabriel Roland tweeted a picture of their 360 gamerpic as it appears now on modern consoles: tiny.
This Pac-Man gamerpic, bought for 80 Microsoft Points in 2006, shrinks with each new console generation as resolutions increase.
Most Xbox users updated their gamerpic years ago. Not Roland, though.
"With each passing generation, Xbox tries to shame my Pac-Man ghost avatar by shrinking it ever smaller and smaller," Roland said.
"I will not yield. I bought this gamerpic for 80 Xbox Points in 2006, and I'll be fucked if it won't remain the best dollar I've ever spent until the seas boil over."
Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie took notice, and vowed to do something to help out Roland's ageing gamerpic.
"Listen, I can't promise anything, but I'm going to make it my personal mission to fix this," Marie said.
Marie began her quest by buying the Pac-Man avatar, which is still on sale, although now priced $2.38.
Marie later discovered 360 gamerpics can never get bigger than 72 x 72 pixels, which explains its tiny look. She also discovered if you upload a PNG with transparency as a custom gamerpic, the Dashboard and Guide will respect that transparency in most places. Some of the built in gamerpics have transparency built in, too.
So, Marie treated the 360 gamerpic as a square within a larger gamerpic circle, with the rest transparent.
The below is the end result:
Roland replied - and sounded delighted: "I have never and will never feel better about a dollar in my entire life."
Then:
It's a cool result for this gamerpic, of course, but, tweeting, Marie said a change can be made to how all 360 gamerpics show up on console, not just certain ones. This is an update that will need to roll out with other console updates, but it sounds like it's coming.
Hopefully my tiny Master Chief head will soon look good enough to see again!