loading screens

[Javolenus]

Hi there,

I've just returned to VanillaMod after trying some other mods. I've added some new medieval music to the game and would now like to replace the vanilla loading screens with some contemporary medieval art. But how can I do this?

I thought it might be aneasy matter, and downloaded some images from the web. I saved these images as TGA files (via Photoshop) and simply dropped them into the loading screens folder, but nothing happened!

I'd really appreciate some help on this. Is there a simple, step-by-step way of adding new loading screens?

Many thanks!

[FactionHeir]

Hiya,

I have not worked with loading screens as of yet, but I'd recommend you unpacking your game and find where loading screens are located by default. Then copy that particular folder only into your VanillaMod folder and note down the file names of the loading screens. Once that is done, you can delete the current loading screens and replace them with your own, making sure they are named the same way.

[Javolenus]

Hi FactionHeir,

Thanks for this. OK, I'll give it a try. Will I have to add anything to the VanillaMod preferences.cfg? I'm not sure if I would need to, but but thought I'd ask.

Otherwise, I'll just follow the steps you have listed. Thanks again for the advice.

[Javolenus]

Hi FactionHeir,

I tried to insert my own loading screens into VanillaMod but it didn't work. I guess i did something wrong.

Basically what I did was:

Download pics from the web and converted them to TGA files via Photoshop. I also renamed the imaged as per the vanilla loading screen files (i.e. loading_screen_1 through to 17).

I unpacked the game files using the unpacker tool and copied the loading screens folder to the Vanillamod data folder.

Then I copied over my loading screens, thus replacing the original ones.

But when I loaded the game the hourglass icon kept revolving for ages and then an error message came up, saying that Medieval had encountered an unspecified error and must close.

And so I deleted the laoding screens folder from the VanillaMod data folder and launched the game again. this time it worked fine.

I guess it's not really that important, and I don't want to mess up my installation, but just thought i'd let you know how things went.

P.S. In the England campaign I just started, I just noticed that a Papal states army is besieging Rome, which that faction already owns - is that normal?

[FactionHeir]

Hmmmm can you add following lines to your VanillaMod preference file and then try the loading screens again:
[log]
to = logs/errorlog.txt
level = * error

Also, did you resize the downloaded pictures to the same size as the normal loading screens?

Regarding the papal army besieging Rome: Are you sure it is not a rebel army doing so? Never had this occur to me and according to game mechanics this would be impossible. Post a screenshot though :grin:

[Javolenus]

Hi There,

Many thanks for the reply.

I never considered matching the size of my custom images to the vanilla loading screens but I take your point. Thing is, as a modding novice, how would I go about this? Would I have to convert the TGA files to bitmaps or jpegs and match the sizes in Photoshop? And what about file size? the vanilla loading screens average 3MB, whereas my custom images vary between 4MB up to 20MB.

Basically, any advice on matching the sizes would be welcome.

Actually, I tried pasting the loading screens from 'Ornamentum' into the loading screens file but that didn't work either. I must be missing some fundamental trick.

And as for Papal States attacking themselves in Rome - you were right, the city had turned rebel and was being besieged by Papal troops - my mistake!

[Javolenus]

Hi FactionHeir,

I think you're right about matching the size of any new loading screen to the vanilla file.

I managed to get the Ornamentum loading screens to work in VanillaMod, and when I checked, these were the exact same size as the MTW2 vanilla files.

I have now installed a prog called Pixillion, which will help me convert TGA files and resize them, so I should be on my way to designing my own custom loading screens.

Thanks again for great support.