"New Unit" modders - some shield images

[Wellington]

Hi guys,

This is strictly for peeps who are involved in New Units creation/amendment. Over the last 3 months or so I've noticed a lot more people have become involved/interested in this area of MTW modding. This is great - knowledge is a precious commodity Anyway, after scouring the web for "usable images" for my own purposes (and having considered Barocca's reorganisation of download areas from The Org) I thought it may be an idea to upload some images that I currently use (or even start a specific download area that is purely concerned with "image resources") that may be of use to others.

Therefore I've downloaded a BMP plate of some shield images that I've been playing around with for the last few weeks. For those who know how to it's relatively straightforward to add/replace weapons or shield images in the Unit BIFs.

So, for anyone who's interested/involved in creating New Units in MTW, and want's some more "resources" I've collected a few shield images that are usable and uploaded this BMP to The Org.

The BMP is not so big, only 100K or so. Its called "TEST_MTW_New_shield_images". You can find it here -

http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mtw_Uploads/MTWbeta/

If this area of modding is relevent to yourself then download it, have a look and play about with them. None of these images are copyright.

As a related 'aside' - is it an idea to create a new area in MTW download/uploads pertaining just to resources such as these (Barocca/LK?) ?

I also have other BMP plates with other images (different weapons, other shields etc) if anyone feels they may be usable.

Have fun,
Welly

[Lion King]

Hmm one or two of them might be of use for my mod. Thanks

[kyodai-britishbeef]

thanks they are great. But i have a problem getting them into the bif reader, i can get my bifs in but the bmps just mess up when i export them in http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif any ideas ?

[Wellington]

Quote[/b] (kyodai-britishbeef @ Dec. 22 2002,03:44)]thanks they are great. But i have a problem getting them into the bif reader, i can get my bifs in but the bmps just mess up when i export them in http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif any ideas ?
Ok, here's how to add/replace a shield images. Remeber, the
40+ shields are in a BMP - NOT a BIF. Therefore, the basic
idea will be to -

- extract all 12 BMPs from the hi res figure BIF
- select/choose a shield from the 40+
- copy the selected/chosen shield into each of the 12 BMPs
- import the 12 BMps back into the BIF
- do the same for the lo res figure BIF (after resizing the shield)
- amend the various shield paramters for the unit

For example, lets say we want to change the shield for the
cavalry unit SipahiofthePorte. This unit is based on the TurksCav BIFs which are found in the folder Textures\Men\TurkSCav.

1) open the file TurkSCav_H.BIF (the hi res images) with Bifreader 2.2
2) use the option "Extract all frames" - don't change the name, use the name Bifreader selected (in this case TurksCav_H)
3) this will create 12 files (BMPs) in the same folder, named TurksCav_H_f1.BMP to TurksCav_H_f12.BMP
4) open the file TEST_MTW_New_Shield_Images.BMP (in Paint) and select a shield you want to use (select the rectangle to outline it, right click and select 'copy&#39http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. This copies the shield image to the clipboard.
5) open each of the 12 extracted BMPs (again in Paint) in turn, select the rectangle, right click and select 'paste'. Now move the shield image to some
'free space' in the BMP (eg: just on top of the other 3 shields in this BMP). Save each BMP after you've positioned it correctly.
Note: make sure you place this new shield image in EXACTLY the same position for all 12 BMPs.
6) open the file TurkSCav_H.BIF again with Bifreader 2.2
7) use the option "Import all frames" - again don't change the name, use the name Bifreader selected (in this case TurksCav_H_f)
8) you should now have an amended BIF containing the new shield image for all 12 frames (you can check if you've positioned the shield correctly on all 12 frames by using the "Timer(Go)" option.
9) You can now delete the 12 BMPs.
10) Do EXACTLY the same, steps 1) to 9), for the lo res images (TurkSCav_H.BIF), the only difference being you have to reduce the shield image by 50% before pasting it into each of the 12 BMPs. Resize it by selecting "Stretch/Skew" in Paint and amending the Horizonal and Vertical values to read 50.


Now we should have both BIFs with a correct shield image in the same positions for each of the hi res and lo res BIFs.

11) Open the lo res BIF again and write down the x/y coordinates for the top left hand corner and bottom right hand corner of your new shield image.
Note: Bifreader will tell you the x/y coords when you run your mouse over the areas - you make need to expand the image in order to do this precisely.
12) Open the file 'Shields.txt' and add these 4 values to the next line (should be the 4th line)
13) Open the file 'SipahiofthePorte_S.txt' and change the 3 to a 4.

Now play a game, use SipahiofthePorte units and check out there new shield

[Wellington]

Forgot something -

14) copy the folder 'Textures\Men\Items\Shield3\SipahiofthePorte' (containing 7 text files for the shield positions per action) to a new folder 'Textures\Men\Items\Shield4\SipahiofthePorte'

Note: you can also, in step 12), just replace the values in the 3rd line with the new values for your new shield image - in this case you don't then have to do steps 13) and 14)