I just got a new hat! :D screaming with joy Looking at so many users looking all exquisite with their stunningly 'fitted' hats, I'm wondering if there's an option to resize or rotate a hat?
PS: Happy Winter Bash everyone! :)
5 Answers
Sorry, but I have to decline this. The main problem with this is that I want to keep the hat image files used on the major pages – in other words, the question pages – small, because every visitor has to load them. But in order to make scaled or rotated hats (where sub-pixels start to matter) not look horrible, the base image size would have to be much bigger.
Update, one year later: For Winter Bash 2014, we switched to using SVG images, and you can now rotate and scale your hats.
answered Dec 17, 2013 at 11:06
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3"the base image size would have to be much bigger." SVG? Dec 17, 2013 at 14:08
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2@TimeTravelingBobby Sure, that's a thing we can look at next year, but this year we're stuck with bitmaps. Dec 17, 2013 at 14:12
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1You're using an image sprite. Users only have to load it once. Your servers only have to serve it once per user.– user212646Dec 18, 2013 at 8:42
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Also, I notice that the hats are the last thing to load on a page, so I would bet you have something going where it is loaded last so the page does not appear to lag and loads all the important content first.– user212646Dec 18, 2013 at 8:50
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1@fredsbend I'm talking about the vast majority of people who come in from Google through a question link and only ever see one page. For these people "once" is equivalent to "always". And this is not about "our servers" (the images are on a CDN anyway). Dec 18, 2013 at 8:59
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2I guess I don't understand the problem. That one image is only 57KB. A doubling in size is not that significant. Also, I'm sure you could make it so that it only shows to logged in users (but maybe the promotion is meant to attract new users, though it seems to be designed to keep regular users throughout the holidays). I understand not doing it this year because of time. For future years, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.– user212646Dec 18, 2013 at 9:06
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@balpha you can create several "versions" of the same hat, for some of the hats. Not custom resizing or rotating but rather several "tailored" options. Is this feasible request for next year? :) Dec 18, 2013 at 10:09
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On the update: maybe I need a dunce cap, but what's the UI for doing the rotation and scaling? Can only figure out how to move it...– mattdmDec 16, 2014 at 21:09
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@mattdm "After choosing a hat on your hat rack and before clicking “Wear hat,” you can move your hat around on your avatar with your mouse (or, on a touch screen, your finger). For advanced adjustments or if you don't want the hat to disappear behind your finger while moving it, check the “show controls” box. This will display two handles that you can drag around, one for moving the hat and one for resizing and rotating it." (from the FAQ). It also showed the UI, I believe, in the blog post. Dec 16, 2014 at 21:14
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@TravisJ Fair enough, it's a WB 2013 question, but I guess it doesn't matter much. Dec 16, 2014 at 21:17
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As noted by @balpha, this is now live.
Here is how you use it:
Red: When you select the check mark for "show controls" the brown and blue controls are shown.
Brown: This control is a click and drag, and allows for the line between the hat and the control to dictate size (by distance) and rotation (by angle).
Blue: This control is a click and drag, and allows the hat placement to be moved much like a window would be moved. If the hat is moved towards the edge of the avatar zone, the hat shrinks automatically. You may also move the hat by dragging directly on it.
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2The blue thing isn't strictly necessary; you can move the hat without "show controls" just by dragging the hat itself. I just added the blue drag handle for two reasons: a) It makes it more obvious that you can move it, and b) on touch screens, where your mouse cursor is your finger, it's nice that you can move your hat while it's not hidden under your finger, so you can see how it fits your avatar. Dec 16, 2014 at 21:33
You actually don't need the controls to make the hat smaller. Just drag it out of your profile picture, like this:
answered Dec 31, 2016 at 9:16
We do not have any option to resize or rotate the hat. We have only to move the hat which can be done while selecting the hat. May be this should be a feature request for the next Winterbash.
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7It would be awesome...we could wear the Passed Judgement as beard! Dec 17, 2013 at 10:00
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3Yup, that's a valid request for next year. And to think previous year we couldn't even change the hat position... how did we survive?! ;-) Dec 17, 2013 at 10:10
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@ShaWizDowArd, All I can say is, we can close this question as status declined and reopen next year.– AzikDec 17, 2013 at 10:11
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4@hims056 show off! As for tag... status-next-year sounds just right. ;) Dec 17, 2013 at 10:16
There's the the important coding and on-site considerations, such as how big or small can it go, does it fit ok at smallest and largest across all possible placements, etc, etc.
But more than that, aren't the hats just a bit of fun?
You have your avatar, then for a few weeks in winter Stack provide some hats to slap on your avatar for a good old simplistic bit of fun.
Resize, change colours, rotate, all unnecessary and in fact I think would take some of the fun element away from them.
If the hat fit perfectly it would just look like any old real avatar image, whereas I like seeing them hap-hazard and slapped on looking too high or low or too wide etc. Makes them look like a fun-like stick-on bit of a laugh.
Each to their own of course, but if you feel that strongly about it, use a graphic editor and resize it yourself directly onto your avatar image and re-upload.
;( ;( ;(