[TUT] EASY : Modify UI/HUD colors & fonts in BtS

[snipperrabbit!!]

These files are not xml but thm. it's easily moddable once deciphered.

 

[dutchking]

There's one XML file that is modified in the process snipper.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Oooops, I don't recall. I will check again, thanks.

EDIT : right. It's CIV4ArtDefines_Misc.xml where you search for type "default theme name".

 

[asioasioasio]

Yup that was the black sheep that made troubles for me - i even lost faith that making custom GUI in BTS is possible

Ok just a preview of what i get yesterday (it's not final version - i need to make font more narrow )

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6855/civlop5wc1.jpg

Once again thx for this tutorial

 

[dutchking]

Damn! I was going to make something just like that!!
It looks really good though.

 

[asioasioasio]

After changing background collor do yoou have problem with blue tech tree?

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

You mean that tech boxes are still blue, aren't you ?
It is because they are controled elsewhere in the file or in an other .thm file.
Will have to check, btw !
This UI you're making seems very beautifull and will fit 1939 mod very well !
Asioasioasio, can you tell me what files need to be altered in order to change advisor and civilopedia backgrounds. I promised myself never to go back to Warlords ( This DVD will be buried into dust ) and it implies I want to see your mod and 2ndRev coming out soon for BtS.

 

[asioasioasio]

thx - i wanted something ww2-ish

there are two backgrounds by default - the one from civilopedia is also used for example in forign advisor and tech tree. I think that can be fixed in python (so civilopedia and all advisors would use different backgrounds), but i didn't check it yet

Assets\Art\Interface\Screens\civilopedia\civilopediabg2-opaque.dds
Assets\Art\Interface\Screens\Loading\loadingscreenbgslideshow.dds

yeah bts is great in comparison with warlords both for modders and for players

 

[asioasioasio]

BTW Even final frontier has this bug with blue tech-tree

Luckly I fixed it

to make tech tree in the collor of the background you should edit one line in one of the .thm files:

Open Civ4Theme_Custom.thm file and go to line 2189
change
FactorColor = GFC_Control_Panel_Color_Inner;
to:
FactorColor = SF_CtrlTheme_Civ4_Control_Color_BG;

save and test the game

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Nice catch.
I can confirm it's working.
btw, how do you do to know number of line ?
I used notepad and searched for FactorColor

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Drawback : already researched techs aren't distinguable.

 

[Fabrysse]

Nice catch.
I can confirm it's working.
btw, how do you do to know number of line ?
I used notepad and searched for FactorColor

I use PHPEdit. So I have the number of line.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Great improvement ! Thank you, Fabrysse.

 

[asioasioasio]

Drawback : already researched techs aren't distinguable.

Aaaaargh You're right i didn't notieced it earlier.
OK So i need to fix it once again, luckly i know where to look

BTW it's possible to made other trick (i didn't tried this because i don't have such a imagination and i'm not sure i can produce black color this way)

Tech tree has separate .tga files in Resource\Civ4\Custom (and i'm quite sure that only tech tree use those two .tga)
tech_panel01.tga
tech_panel02.tga
The idea is that.
You have blue GUI and you want for example Green (so you make yellow .tga)
Blue + yellow should give green.
The problem starts when you want for example black or red and how the transparency of blue collor (it may cause that everything would have blue color)

I use PSPad - very usefull imo

 

[asioasioasio]

OK i've made this colouring the background of tech tree:

I found the colour to make black (but again researched techs wasn't distinguable)

I played a little bit and changed tech_panel01.tga
to this

mix of orange and gray (probably i could desaturate and darken it a little bit so the effect could be even better)

And here's effect (it isn't black, but dark brown fits better to new gui than blue)

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2408/techtreefixedfd8.jpg


To find good filter color of this .tga (if you don't have knowledge about colour mixing) i recommend first:
1.make new image and with paint bucket fill it to blue
2. set transparency for example to 50%
3. add new layer behind the blue one
4. experiment with different collours unless you get something similliar to the effect you want
5. Color tech_panel01.tga and check in game,
6. Adjust colors in tech_panel01.tga (saturate, desaturate, change hue, lightnes, darkness) if needed

 

[GarretSidzaka]

hey fabrysse! i get this error whenever i try to add a theme. and then crash to desktop

"GFC Error: failed to initialize the primary control theme"

HELP!

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

From the HitM thread, it seems that the files are in the wrong folder.

 

[dutchking]

It has to be:
C:/Program Files..../
Rather than:
C:/Documents and Settings.../

 

[CommanderZ]

Any way how to change HUD frames/borders color? I saw it on some screenies some time ago.

 

[dutchking]

There is, its super hard and confusing though. I'd like to try it myself before I give out the secret.

Hint: you edit an actual tga, not located in the resources folder.