How on earth do I edit the .GIF files?

[Sarah Edmunds]

I have the freeware version of Civilization II MGE with the x64 patch. It's worked alright so far, and I've been playing it for several months.

Recently, I wanted to get into the modding scene so I wanted to do something simple: Go into CITIES.GIF and change the regular "Modern" textures to "Modern Alt." Pretty easy, right? Wrong.

I've tried just copying what's in the squares and replacing it in Modern Field, copying the squares whole (including the borders) and replacing the Modern side, and so and on.

I'm using the paint.NET editor to edit the images because MS Paint would screw it up when I saved it.

Here is an image of what happens when I load the game: https://imgur.com/a/lF9qq

 

[Patine]

I have the freeware version of Civilization II MGE with the x64 patch. It's worked alright so far, and I've been playing it for several months.

Recently, I wanted to get into the modding scene so I wanted to do something simple: Go into CITIES.GIF and change the regular "Modern" textures to "Modern Alt." Pretty easy, right? Wrong.

I've tried just copying what's in the squares and replacing it in Modern Field, copying the squares whole (including the borders) and replacing the Modern side, and so and on.

I'm using the paint.NET editor to edit the images because MS Paint would screw it up when I saved it.

Here is an image of what happens when I load the game: https://imgur.com/a/lF9qq

Just convert the .gif files to bitmaps. You don't need to turn them back, as the game will read data from .bmp files as readily as it will from .gif files.

 

[St. Leo]

If you use Jasc Paint Shop Pro, you'll need to save the palette when you first load a file (Image > Palette > Save) and then load it when you save it again (Image > Palette > Load)

 

[Sarah Edmunds]

Just convert the .gif files to bitmaps. You don't need to turn them back, as the game will read data from .bmp files as readily as it will from .gif files.

I tried that too, and it got me a similar error (cities were invisible, save the shield present on units and cities which was a solid black).

What role do the little orange and blue dots on the fields have? THe Modern and Modern Alt. textures have different positions for them, but it still seems to screw up regardless.

 

[Noire Leblanc]

I have best results doing the final copy with an old (Windows XP vintage) version of Paint and saving as a 256 color bitmap (for best results, start by opening an existing one like those generated by the MGE Scenario Editor menu when you change something's graphics; this seems to ensure getting the right palette.)

The blue dots on the green lines are where the shield for units and the flag for cities are positioned (top and left side of the box; a vertical line through one and a horizontal through the other will intersect at the top left point of shield/flag.)

I couldn't remember what moving the orange dots did, so I tried, and the answer appears to be "nothing" although it might have been intended as the offset for the size box.