How to change unit banners and faction icons

**Sir_Lysander** · 02-08-2009, 06:56

Originally Posted by SubRosa

You will not have to repak banners or faction symbols with 1.5. At least not if you are using a mod folder.

I thought so - Amazon TW was one of the mods I was looking at to confirm that repacking wasn't necessary. I'll keep playing around with it to see why it's not doing what it "should" - everything is in a mod folder, so it should work. Any thoughts about the file-size issue I ran into?

**SubRosa** · 02-08-2009, 19:26

I have never run across that file size issue. But that does not mean it is not real. My texture files always come out to be 86kb so I would not have encountered it.

**Dol Guldur** · 02-09-2009, 13:12

Upload a banner, then. I would suggest that it is strange to not have the same filesize as vanilla. Probably something wrong with it.

**Makanyane** · 02-09-2009, 14:35

Sir_Lysander have you selected 'generate all mip-maps' when you save the DDS?

**Sir_Lysander** · 02-09-2009, 19:50

Originally Posted by Dol Guldur

Upload a banner, then. I would suggest that it is strange to not have the same filesize as vanilla. Probably something wrong with it.

I'm not entirely sure how to do so; let me look and I will, or send directly to you.

Originally Posted by Makanyane

Sir_Lysander have you selected 'generate all mip-maps' when you save the DDS?

Yes; NVidia settings: DXT1 ARGB 4 bpp | 1 bit alpha, Generate All mip-maps, 2D Texture. These are the same settings I've used to edit unit textures wit no problem.

I'm putting the files in "mod\Data\models\textures," but it's defaulting to the Vanilla ones.

**Makanyane** · 02-09-2009, 20:23

I use DXT5 ARGB 8bpp interpolated alpha

have a go with that

(if you need to 'upload' something here, normal method is actually to upload it in a zipped folder to somewhere like Megaupload or FileFront and post the link)

**Sir_Lysander** · 02-10-2009, 01:13

Originally Posted by Makanyane

I use DXT5 ARGB 8bpp interpolated alpha

have a go with that

(if you need to 'upload' something here, normal method is actually to upload it in a zipped folder to somewhere like Megaupload or FileFront and post the link)

I'll try that setting.

Odd though - the setting I was using works perfectly fine for editing unit skins, but doesn't appear to for faction standards. I wonder what the rationale was behind such a change. I'll let you know if it works.

**Dol Guldur** · 02-10-2009, 12:27

Nearly all the tga.dds files in RTW should be saved in the same format (the only ones that differ are not related to units or banners or buildings). You must be doing something wrong. I use Nvidia and have never had a problem. I do not have it installed now so cannot help but if you upload it I'm sure someone else will have a lok at the file information for you.

**Sir_Lysander** · 02-14-2009, 04:26

Originally Posted by Dol Guldur

Nearly all the tga.dds files in RTW should be saved in the same format (the only ones that differ are not related to units or banners or buildings). You must be doing something wrong. I use Nvidia and have never had a problem. I do not have it installed now so cannot help but if you upload it I'm sure someone else will have a lok at the file information for you.

I hadn't had a chance to update here, but - it's working. I'm doing banner skins using the "DXT5 ARGB 8bpp interpolated alpha" (86 kb file size) setting and unit skins at "DXT1 ARGB 4 bpp 1 bit alpha" (43 KB file size). (that and the banners txt file threw me with the "../modfolder/data" directory reference rather than simply "modfolder/data"). I'm not sure why banners are one way and units another, but so long as it works, it works, so why mess with it

.

For the record, I tried a 43 KB/DXT1 tga.dds for the banners and got a pure-white banner (with the proper "../modfolder" setting); when I tried to open the file to save it as a 86 kb/DXT5, Photoshop said the file was corrupt. The original "WIP" file I had "wasn't" corrupt, so I went from there.

**Dol Guldur** · 02-14-2009, 11:21

Unit skins should be at DXT5 too - are you sure they are working correctly at DXT1? My own experience is that there are problems if they are nto saved exactly right (sometimes with alpha layers)?

**SubRosa** · 02-14-2009, 19:28

I have always saved everything like so:

**Sir_Lysander** · 02-15-2009, 05:34

Originally Posted by Dol Guldur

Unit skins should be at DXT5 too - are you sure they are working correctly at DXT1? My own experience is that there are problems if they are nto saved exactly right (sometimes with alpha layers)?

No problems to report with the DXT1/ARGB for unit skins; I may go back and see if it was simply a text file error that prevented the DXT1 version of the banners from working. Since I deleted the file Photoshop called corrupt, I'm not sure exactly what the nature of that file's problem actually was.

I originally figured that it was a file saving problem that I ran into - I did that once with a unit card (saved a .tga at 32bits/pixel rather than 24.) That lead me to check the file sizes, and my original post on it.

Originally Posted by SubRosa

I have always saved everything like so:

I just checked my models_unit\textures folder and my file sizes runs from 43 to 171 kb - so the file size, in and of itself, is not a problem as I had earlier thought. All my unit skins are done with the DXT1/ARGB setting, so at least that portion of the game engine can digest those files without too many hiccups.