Tutorial: Adding a new faction symbol

[alpaca]

Can you give me your files so I can test it?
It should work.

[kornsoadhts]

How would you go about changing the mouseover image? (The semi transparent white overlay is what I'm talking about).

Also, where does the SMALL_... file show in game? In other factions diplomacy scrolls? It's not showing up on the faction selection screen if thats where it's supposed to be.

EDIT: I still need help with the other things mentioned but I figured out that the faction selection screen icons were located in the symbols24 and 48 folders.

[wilddog]

The selection screen uses data\menu\symbols\fe_buttons_48

The small_ symbol is used in several screens eg the faction ranking screens.

To change the overlays its the same as for the main symbols. Simplest is to amend the existing overlay image in the TGA files.

[kornsoadhts]

Ok, I compiled a stratey.sd and shared.sd of the overlay.

I had two tgas, one that contained a white overlay with open alpha and the other a mouseover file to go with it.

When I go in game it's still the old shield_hl.

I'm also trying to get rid of wooden_pillar with no result.

[wilddog]

Ok, I compiled a stratey.sd and shared.sd of the overlay.

I had two tgas, one that contained a white overlay with open alpha and the other a mouseover file to go with it.

I take it then that rather than amend the old one you added a new one in a new TGA file?. If that is the case did you change the text to refer to the new one? Otherwise that's why its easier to replace the old TGA (I haven't tried including it in the new TGA's and therefore needing to recompile the .sd for the overlay).

Don't know why you aren't getting the wooden pillar to disappear as its quite straight forward. Edit the campaign script and simply add

restrict_strat_radar false

Near the start eg
; Campaign script
;
script
restrict_strat_radar false


That's all you need to do.

[kornsoadhts]

Oh, I wasn't aware of a command to get rid of the pillar so thank you. I'm going to try to ammend the old tga and hopefully it will work out.

[tornnight]

You should add that you need to put any new mod_page.tga that uses the shared.sd into

data\ui\middle_eastern\interface

as well. Otherwise, middle eastern factions won't see those images.

[tornnight]

Ehh disregard that last post.
You don't need it in the

data\ui\middle_eastern\interface




I finally got it working stable for me. After many different attempts, it seems like it was unstable when using two different .tga files for shared.sd and strat.sd. With this combination, I would see frequent crashes when clicking on interface buttons.

Once I merged my images into 1 tga file, it worked fine.

[alpaca]

Hmm interesting. Not sure what could cause that but maybe the game has problems with it.

[Beregorn]

can anyone help me? When I choose alpha layer the image won't show. How do i edit to see my image as white

[alpaca]

What do you mean the image won't show? Please be a bit more specific.

[Beregorn]

oh I sorted it out now (though I don't know how I did it:D ) and succesfully putted my own symbol. thanx for your help.

[stilgar]

Hello,
I try to did a new faction symbol but I failed.
Files I change :

strategy.sd

tga=modpage.tga

entry=FACTION_LOGO_LEINSTER
top=0
left=0
bottom=69
right=66

shared.sd

tga=modpage.tga

entry=SMALL_FACTION_LOGO_LEINSTER
left=67
top=0
bottom=+29
right=+20

but when I want to run the modpage.bat:



Nothing is created why?

[alpaca]

You have to install python 2.5 (get it from http://www.python.org)

[Aleynasdad]

Hi Alpaca!

Tried to downlaod SD converter but when I unpacked from rar all I got was a another rar fıle called sd.converter.rar.

Any idea why?

Trying to create a logo and banner for my new faction but withou your converter I am a bit flummoxed. Also don't have paintshop.

[alpaca]

Try it with another archive software (such as 7-zip).

[Miloshus]

I have successfully added large symbols, but with a smaller problem, I cannot click on the symbol, when I point my mouse on the symbol nothing happens, I cannot open faction summary. Help ?

[alpaca]

It should work, are you sure you edited the alpha channel correctly?

[irishron2004]

I have been trying to use this program and I get the error it is missing stratpage_01.tga_mouseover.tga. When I installed this convertor, I got alot of straegy.tgas without a clue for which is which. I figured out strategy (6).txt was strategy_sd_desc.txt and strategy (14).txt was battle_sd_desc.txt but don't have a clue what to rename strategy (5).tga, strategy (7).tga, etc. All help would appreciated.

Edit: Corrupted download. Now works. Now I have to learn how to use it.

[Beregorn]

I did everything you've said but for some reason it only shows the bottom left corner. Anyone knows hoew to fix it?

[alpaca]

I did everything you've said but for some reason it only shows the bottom left corner. Anyone knows hoew to fix it?

Maybe your symbol is the wrong size or you specified wrong coordinates?

You could also try using the xml files supplied with the retrofit mod instead of the sd converter.

[zxiang1983]

The xml files are amazing but useless...

No matter I put them in mod folder or M2TW folder, they will not create the .sd files and have no effect at all.

Maybe we need some special command line?

Edit:

Ah, those xml files work!! I thought I should delete those .sd files and let them recreate new sd files but actually just modify the xml files and leave the original .sd files there and they will work!

Really useful files from retrofit mod! It is much easier to add in new faction symbols now.

[alpaca]

The xml files are amazing but useless...

No matter I put them in mod folder or M2TW folder, they will not create the .sd files and have no effect at all.

Maybe we need some special command line?

Edit:

Ah, those xml files work!! I thought I should delete those .sd files and let them recreate new sd files but actually just modify the xml files and leave the original .sd files there and they will work!

Really useful files from retrofit mod! It is much easier to add in new faction symbols now.

Ah sorry, my mistake. I only tried them once (left the rest to Solo) and must've confused them with something else

[wilddog]

Alpaca
A slightly different question on this theme. Have you come across anything whereby you can use a different (bigger) sized image to the one displayed? Problem I have is the resolution of the game seems to be set at a lower resolution than my monitor (1600*1200) so these symbols get expanded and become more blurry. For other menu ones you can do that but I don't know if its possible here.

Other alternative is if you know how to adjust the anchor point. At the moment larger images seem to keep the same height and possibly top left corner. So if I could adjust that it would give more flexibility.

[alpaca]

I think the game interface automatically defaults to a size of 1024 and then creates the other resolutions by bicubic resizing which is the reason why it's blurry on different resolutions.
I have the same problem with my LCD that has a native res of 1280*1024, things get blurry with either resolution

You should be able to change the size but it won't be of any much help in the game I believe because key interface positions are set absolutely.

[wilddog]

Alpca
Thanks I figured that was likely to be the case so just clutching at straws in case there was a way around it.

I opted for a slightly larger symbol in the end so that I can get a bit more detail even though the enlargement still blurs it.

I also saw on an earlier note a reference to an XML. Did Kingdoms do anything to simplify this. I haven't had time to go back and recheck that.

[alpaca]

Alpca
Thanks I figured that was likely to be the case so just clutching at straws in case there was a way around it.

I opted for a slightly larger symbol in the end so that I can get a bit more detail even though the enlargement still blurs it.

I also saw on an earlier note a reference to an XML. Did Kingdoms do anything to simplify this. I haven't had time to go back and recheck that.

There are some xml files which are written into the sd files by the game released with the retrofit mod (they should be used instead of the sd converter).

[wilddog]

Alpaca Thanks for that. I hadn't down loaded the retrofit mod so I guess I need to. I've still been using the SD files from your converter.

[wilddog]

OK it worked Just needed to remember everything starts counting from zero.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Great tutorial Alpaca, got it working 1st time (and thats a 1st for me when modding!)

What would I need to do to get the logo to appear outwith camaigns, and even on the select faction screen?

EDIT: I tried editing the logo there, replaced it with the venetians using copy/paste. However, when looking at the coordinate info I get really low values, eg 2.23, 1.45 etc. Not 119 or big values like in the tutorial. I set 2 of the values in the text file to 2 and 3, the other two are still 0 obviously. Works in game fine. Tried resetting the figures closer to the values you get, symbo still appeared fine ingame, but when I clicked on it the white shine was a bit out of place.

Also are there any tools for editing battlemap banners?