ID:2267942
 
(See the best response by Foogimicester.)
I'm quite noobish and I am having a hard time to find a built in proc/var to i guess dimm the icon with out editing it, I came across the the SetIntensity proc but i can't seem to get it to work? any advice?
As per http://www.byond.com/docs/ref/,

You should be able to set the alpha level for the atom.

atom/var/alpha is a variable on all atoms (mobs, turfs, areas, objects, etc) that determines the transparency as a value from 0-255.
Decreasing alpha makes things more transparent.

SetIntensity is an icon proc that changes the brightness of an icon. The icon procs can only be used after you make an /icon object, which is useful mainly if you want to modify an icon and then save it as an icon file, not for dynamic visual effects.

Changing the "color" var lets you dim things. You can simply set something's color to some shade of gray to dim it.
In response to Kaiochao
Kaiochao wrote:
Decreasing alpha makes things more transparent.

SetIntensity is an icon proc that changes the brightness of an icon. The icon procs can only be used after you make an /icon object, which is useful mainly if you want to modify an icon and then save it as an icon file, not for dynamic visual effects.

Changing the "color" var lets you dim things. You can simply set something's color to some shade of gray to dim it.

Unless you add a black or white overlay and change its alpha?
Best response
Adding an overlay would work, but Kaiochao's solution would be better than adding an overlay since it will work for all icons, whereas your overlay won't play nicely with icons that don't fill the entire tile. If you have one square overlay and one round object, you'll get some not-so-great results.
You're really far better off playing with atom.color and/or atom.alpha, which can do all kinds of things quicker and easier than by changing icons.

Altering atom.alpha lets you fade an icon out.

Altering atom.color can multiply the icon by a color; SetIntensity() is a version that alters the physical icon, and only in a monochrome way.

You can also use color matrices with atom.color for special effects. It can multiply colors, add them, and even remap them by individual components so you can do things like have a grayscale/sepia effect.