Modding mainmenu.map images...

[Karlos]

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone knows a link to this Video which apparently explains the whole process of adding an image to the mainmenu.map on modded maps that you have transferred over from your PC to Xbox?

This whole process was a piece of cake, only because of the countless amounts of helpful tutorials that were out there to help me accomplish my original goal of playing modded maps on my Xbox!

But unfortunately, something that seemingly should be a piece of cake to find information for, is beginning to drive me crazy, as I've searched these Forums for hours and still haven't managed to find anything that will significantly help me in adding an image to my modded maps, so I can get rid of those evil white boxes that appears in all my maps...

I've found quite a few questions on it, but no real tutorials / video help links / answers on the subject...

I've got all the .dds files ready (that's right isn't it?) which I should be using to inject them into my modded maps, but do I use DotHalo for that? And also using the Hex Editor, what lines am I looking to HexEdit to make this whole process work etc?

The above is questions that answers would be useful for, but really, all I want is a direction to the source of how I can do all of this, so I can work it all out for myself like everyone else should do...

Posting this was the last thing I wanted to do, but I've given up...

So yes, top priority would be an essential video link (that I know does exist somewhere), similar to that of what Ketchup Bomb made for this whole process, "excluding" the mainmenu.map image part...

So, if you'd rather not reply to this (which is understandable), a Private Message would do just fine!

Thank you very much for your help!

Fond Regards,

Karlos

[WaywornMmmmm]

well, open up main menu.map in dothalo i think it is. go to the bitmaps. Find something that looks like all the level's pictures. extract the ones you want. open in photoshop. Edit. and then ask someone else how to put them in the game.

[xzodia]

to put inject them just open dothalo find the bitmap u extracted, hit inject and find the new file

[WaywornMmmmm]

Ok, so I got every thing right. Yay!

[Karlos]

Ok, so I got every thing right. Yay!

Ok, well I had to do some Re-Scaling first, but I got this message in Adobe Photoshop when I attempted to Re-Save as a different file name:

Warning
Image Width or Height are now power of 2.
Image mode only allowed.
OK

...And it wouldn't let me save my Re-Modded image as a ".DDS" file...

Is there any way around this?!

[WaywornMmmmm]

Well considering I never have skinned in my life I dont know.

[joeschmoe]

It says what it means, the length and width of the image are not divisible by 2, ex 256 x 256 would work, 256 x 255 would not work, because 255 is not evenly divisible by 2 ..... i hope i helped (giving you a lesson on 1st grade math), lol just kidding about the math part

[VoYdE]

I Think The Map Preview Images Are In The Map Itself. Think About It, How Else Would They Get The New Map Photos In For The "New Maps"

[fourn443]

cuz when u dload the new maps, they put it in the folder, i saw these images preview.xbe or sumting like that and thats what shows the preview image for the map,i think

[Agent ME]

The DLC maps are special - the image is either loaded from the patch_v3.lvl or the map itself.

How do we save a bitmap as an A8R8G8B8 DDS so we can inject our own edited versions into the mainmenu of the pics?

[Limpmybizket]

To save a 32 bit bitmap for use on the mainmenu, you need these dds settings



32bitARGB

No MIP maps

And image No MIP maps, non power 2

[Karlos]

To save a 32 bit bitmap for use on the mainmenu, you need these dds settings



32bitARGB

No MIP maps

And image No MIP maps, non power 2

That worked! Thanks!

Ok, so all I need to know now is which line(s) I hex on mainmenu.map - is it? (To make sure every map isn't displaying the same image?!)

Any help once again? Thanks...

[Limpmybizket]

I suggest using tfav's bitmap adder

[Aequitas]

http://www.halomods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36788

[Karlos]

I suggest using tfav's bitmap adder

...Hmm, it just says "Bitmap Is Already Internal." for every one I try to make Internal, although they already should be, as all blank (white bitmaps) in the mainmenu.map slots are already in the mainmenu.map itself...

Also, I've read that page before, but I'm having trouble understanding it...

I do understand that all my maps need to be multiples of 10 or something?

Like Multiplayer Map 20, let's say is 400, then Map 21 will be 410, then Map 22 will be 420, and so on and so forth...

If correct and having done that, what's the next step?

Thanks...

[Limpmybizket]

I suggest using tfav's bitmap adder

...Hmm, it just says "Bitmap Is Already Internal." for every one I try to make Internal, although they already should be, as all blank (white bitmaps) in the mainmenu.map slots are already in the mainmenu.map itself...


Thanks...

No not the bitmap internalizer, he made a RAW data adder for bitmaps. it adds RAW both the proper way as in the link Aequitas gave, and also does a faster, non proper way, that uses offsets and adds space at the end of the map. ( I couldnt find a download link so IM me if you need it)

[Agent ME]

To add new images, I found it easy when I did this-

I wanted to add containment on to the mainmenu so I could play it with no AUs, so I added it as normal to slot 12. Then, I opened containment.map, and extracted the level image dds.

Next, make a copy of mainmenu.map. Go into it in Insolence, and rename mp_map_12.bitm to mp_map_12a.bitm (or whatever it is, can't remember). Then drag it over to your main copy of mainmenu.map.

Then copy the meta offset of mp_map_12a.bitm into mp_map_12 in DotHalo, and feel free to inject containment's DDS into it, and it won't show the image on the other unused slots.

About saving it in the format, would I be able to save it like that in DXTBMP? Nvm, I'll try it out myself.

/me thinks of all the cool things me can do now that I finally know how to inject in that format...