This article has been approved and can also be read at the University. - Leif Ericson

Well, I'm a bit nervous because I never have posted anything in the University Forum, but this question is in a few posts throughout the Aok heaven forums, and I have some information regarded to it, by testing infinite times on this subject: changing the User Interface.

THE BASICS

Every mod has to have a properly designed UI for each civilization. It's not very accurate that the new civilization of the -for example- Zulus to have an User Interface from the Japanese or the Goths.

A Total Conversion Mod is specially praised if it has unique designed UIs for each civilization changed. Let's take for example my A Song of Ice and Fire mod, a Game of Thrones. Its really a buggy thing that the Night's Watch, namely the Man in Black, builded in the place of the Koreans, to have the colorful blue and red UI from this civilization.

So we have to change it. For doing this, we have to use one of the grahic programs: Mod Pack Studio, Turtle Pack, or the many others.

I prefer the Turtle Pack. It's very user-friendly, and, altough it has its tricks, it's an easy program to use. With Mod Pack Studio we can do it anyway, but you have to replace the gaphics, and you cannot add new ones -but, for this topic, it would be useful anyway.

THE DRS LIBRARY
Once we have chosen the program, it's time to open the library, and found the graphic we want to replace. The Interface Graphics are in the Data folder, in the Interfac.drs library. We can open it with the DRS editor of Turtle Pack, a program that allows us to see, extract and replace the SLPs that we want. Then we can use the SLP editor to see, extract, create the SLP or replace the bitmaps from an existing one.

I'll give you a list of the User Interface SLPs in the DRS Library:

INT51101UI English small
INT51102UI Franks small
INT51103UI Goths small
INT51104UI Teutons small
INT51105UI Japanese small
INT51106UI Chinese small
INT51107UI Bizantines small
INT51108UI Persian small
INT51109UI Saracen small
INT51110UI Turkish small
INT51111UI Viking small
INT51112UI mongol small
INT51113UI Celts small
INT51114UI Spanish small
INT51115UI mayan small
INT51116UI aztec small
INT51117UI Huns small
INT51118UI Koreans small
INT51121UI English medium
INT51122UI Franks medium
INT51123UI Goths medium
INT51124UI teutons medium
INT51125UI japanese medium
INT51126UI Chinese medium
INT51127UI bizantines medium
INT51128UI Persian medium
INT51129UI saracen medium
INT51130UI turkish medium
INT51131UI viking medium
INT51132UI mongol medium
INT51133UI Celts medium
INT51134UI Spanish medium
INT51135UI mayan medium
INT51136UI Aztec medium
INT51137UI Huns medium
INT51138UI Koreans medium
INT51141UI English Large
INT51142UI Franks Large
INT51143UI Goths Large
INT51144UI teutons Large
INT51145UI japanese Large
INT51146UI Chinese Large
INT51147UI bizantines Large
INT51148UI Persian Large
INT51149UI saracen Large
INT51150UI turkish Large
INT51151UI viking Large
INT51152UI mongol Large
INT51153UI Celts Large
INT51154UI Spanish Large
INT51157UI mayan Large
INT51158UI Aztec Large
INT51159UI Huns Large
INT51160UI Koreans Large


Small, medium and large are the sizes used by the game for different screen resolutions. Make shure that you make one UI for every size, or at least warn the downloaders that you only have changed the UIs in x resolution. The equation is simple, larger resolutions use larger UIs. There you choose what to replace.

CREATING THE SLP

Let's discuss something else. I've cracking my head on the walls in this particular topic: You extract the SLP, then you go to the SLP editor and extract the bitmap, then you edit that, and try to replace the bitmap in the SLP with the new one.
It's all there, I'll wait until you have learned the basics of the program.

You are sure that you are doing everything OK, and even choose the auto mask off and the transparency in the 255 value, but... there is not transparencies. The user interface look like this:



The transparent (white) screen is white, and there it is all sort of odd transparencies troughout the UI (background in pink).

This is because the program recognizes the last line as the transparent mask. It doesn't really matters that you choose auto transparent or 255: if you try, every time the program launches the same values.

There are two solutions:

-first: you leave a line whit a random colour, the same you use for the screen, let's say magenta (value 252). It recognizes now the transparent screen. Now you set the anchor in x0 y0 (this is important: the X in the screen MUST be exactly in the left superior edge), save the SLP, replace the SLP in the DRS, save, and voilà you have the UI correctly placed... but there it is a nasty magenta or white line in the bottom of the screen. No way to fix it: it will be there always. So

-Second Solution: go to the Paint or the program you use, select the BMP, and then go to the Image option, and then inverse colours. Or directly, press CTRL +I:



Then you see the Ui like this:


Then, all you have to do is select the bucket option, and paint the screen pitch black, like this:



Then, inverse the colours again, and save. But remember ALWAYS inverse the colours and paint pitch black the transparent area AS THE LAST ACTION BEFORE SAVING. Every other change in the picture will return the 255 white to another white value. The real 255 white is the opposite colour to the pitch black. Then when we have it done, we save, and replace the picture in the SLP for our new UI, set anchor to x0-y0, replace the correspondant SLP in the DRS, save and voilà, we have the fancy North UI -in this case, replacing the celtic UI INT51133-:
.

Cheers, and I hope it could be useful.

-PD-By the way, excuse me by my english. I'm a spanish speaker with only High School english lessons.

[This message has been edited by Leif Ericson (edited 08-17-2014 @ 06:15 PM).]