How to modify GameFonts.tga for FREE

[Ekmek]

thanks snipper, in my other thead I posted my newer version and now the problem is that they don't show, i uploaded them hear:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=263448

 

[Ekmek]

snipper,

I checked my BTS original gamefont - i hope i didn't save it wrong - but it is mainly white with black icons and it still works normal in game. weird.

I'm still having problems with my tga. I have the colors working and the icon will show in the corporation screen, but it will not show on map/city name and the icon pictures are all screwed up. I have the blue dots in the right place so I don't know what it could be...

also for those interested in the tga this post has some interesting info: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6414258&postcount=2

EDIT: I just tred replacing all my icons with a cut-n-paste of the firaxis original corp icons just to see if i had a pixel color problem or something. And i get the same problem, so i don't know what I'm doing wrong

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Sorry, I didn't find room to make tutorial before. If you send me blueprints via PM I will reconstruct 2 tgas for you. And, eventually a tut for everybody to share my "technique".

 

[Ekmek]

thanks snipper, I'll be pming you in the next day or so. I need to clean up my file

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Sorry. There's something wrong with the file you send me, Ekmek. I still think I can send you back a clean file but it will take a little longer.

 

[Ekmek]

snipper,

I kind of got my file work today. In stead of trying to take a negative image i just took the alphachannel squares from confucianism and pasted them in the spots where my new icons should be. I also placed t he blue dots by copying and pasting instead of painting it. So I got it working. But there really has to be a better way. I look forward to your tutorial.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Yes, It is the way I make it. It seems to work if done carefully using the method Eusebius showed. I still have some improvement to show that make editing easier. Even if I'm on vacation I found myself at work this afternoon. hopefully, I will have enough time to provide a tutorial and do some long awaited stuff for friends. On the bad side, my DVD drive has broke and I can no longer run civ. On the good side, I will grab a new comp soon.

 

[OzzyKP]

I just had an interesting case. One of my alpha channel icons was one pixel too many to the left which caused the game to consider the two icons to be a single icon (of double size). This caused later icons to be "off" by one, so when I founded Zoroastrianism I got the icon for Tenrikyo instead.

I fixed it by moving the alpha icon to its proper position. It is possible someone else will run into this, so I thought I would post.

Cheers,
Eusebius

Thanks for posting this (and for the guide overall). I had this same problem with the double icons. Was a pain in the ass to fix too. Having to move an icon a pixel over, reload the game to check. Finding out it didn't fix it, and having to try again. And again. And again...

 

[Ekmek]

i just write coordinates of the corners and then try to paste to match...still sucks though

 

[deanej]

Can a mod change how the font files function? I'm having trouble getting my fonts to work in my Star Trek mod, yet they work fine in Final Frontier. What can I do to fix it?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=270386

 

[Ekmek]

for the record i think there is an issue when you try to copy more than one icon at a time in the alpha channel.

this TGA sucks. Firaxis needs to go straight dds with the next patch

 

[davidlallen]

I have added a detailed explanation of why the gamefont.tga file gets broken, and how to fix it, in this new thread.

 

[Ekmek]

I've found some other discoveries recently. if you add religions or corporations their needs to be a gap for resources. I think the exe reads lines +1 or something. I filled in the religion and corporation line and then had to copy all the resources etc a row below to get it working. weird. in civ4:colonization they better use dds only!

 

[deanej]

In Civ4: Colonization I hope they ditch the font file (and all atlas files too, for that matter) completely. They should instead use a GameFont.xml file that has locations to individual icons used for the font, rather than a very hard to edit and easily broken file.

 

[davidlallen]

I've found some other discoveries recently. if you add religions or corporations their needs to be a gap for resources. I think the exe reads lines +1 or something. I filled in the religion and corporation line and then had to copy all the resources etc a row below to get it working. weird. in civ4:colonization they better use dds only!

I agree it's awkward to get this file working. But, if they used the same reader with dds instead of tga, it would be just as hard. It's their assumptions about the data, not the file format.

 

[zulu9812]

How would I go about making icons to into the font files? I have artwork, but what do I need to do to make it compatible?

 

[Al-Iskander]

@the OP:

Thank you so much!

This worked great!!

 

[Cowman]

Is it possible to see the alpha channel using Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8?

 

[Ekmek]

i had nothing but problems with PSP 9.0. thde DXTBmp program is the best way to go

 

[The Capo]

I agree with Ekmek, if anything that program is super-easy to use.