Just had to chip in here...
How do you think people create images for their plugins? First they create the image, save it as png (or any other format really but png is usually best. for the purposes of discussion though the format is irrelevant - Nova can't use a PICT file any more than it can use a PNG file) and then import it into their plugin via their tool of choice. How does this work? Well obviously, the plugin editors can't simply 'open' the image file. In EVNEW you must first create a new PICT resource and then import the image into that resource. I'm not entirely sure how Mission Computer works but I think it's similar - you create a new PICT resource and then copy/paste the image into it.
Back to what orca said, it's probably worth explaining what a PICT really is. It is not an image format. It is merely a wrapper for an image which can in fact be any format supported by QuickTime, including png. However, usually when you import an image into a plugin it just uses some default format, ignoring the format of the source. This is good because Win Nova actually can't use PICTs which are in any other format, as demonstrated by the original rEV release whose PICTs were in png format.
Back to your plugin, why exactly do you want an invisible sprite the size of a med blaster? Surely the size would be irrelevant if it was invisible. If you want to be as efficient as possible just make the spin reference an existing PICT but give it dimensions of 0x0.
This post has been edited by Guy : 10 November 2006 - 04:38 PM