Hi!

So i've downloaded a few custom portraits from http://samods.org and I'd like to know how to replace a zealot portrait from that site with the original Fenix(zealot) portrait? Could anybody give me the exact recipe for this thing? I'm working with DatEdit, do I need any other tools? If yes then what and how to use them?

thanks in advance!

i did it with winmpq... and mpq draft. There should be like 5 .smk files that make up the portrait.
I just looked at stardat.mpq in winmpq and looked at the unit i wanted the portrait to be then renamed each .smk file to match the original units.
Then you make a new mpq and add each file under portrait\.
You then run the new mpq you made with mpqdraft.

(Im sorry if this isnt too clear, im not to good at explaining things and im a noob)

You can use portdata.tbl to add new portrait entries (if u dont want to replace). Then in portdata.dat, assign one of the unused (i.e. Merc Gunship) to your entry in portdata.tbl (-1 based???).

Modmaster, could you tell me how to get WinMPQ to run, cause it shows a bug about a file vb40032.dll that it can't find it .

Could you make some screenshots on how to do this stuff?

just download vb40032.dll and move it into the WinMPQ folder, then it should work.
for RoryFenrir's suggestion, open stardat.mpq (in your sc folder), and find the .smk files which are all part of the portrait. Then you rename the custom ones you downloaded to match the names in stardat.mpq, and put them in a directory in the mod folder (that matches it in the mpq).

vb40032.dll is visual basic

Download Visual Basic Runtime six, and then just put the necesarry DLL's into your Windows\System\ and Windows\System32\ foldiers.

Some claim that you need to put it in your WinMPQ folder, but I've never had this problem.

Also keep in mind that you must have listfiles in order to be able to tell what file is what. You can find them at www.zezula.net

Ill screenie and instructions tomorrow...

Okay, I got to run the WinMPQ. Thanks for the help with this issue.

Now I'm only waiting for screenshots on how to change Fenix(zealots) portrait with the one custom I already have from the net.

First, open stardat.mpq (make sure you have a listfile or you'll get a list of unknowns)


Then, find the .smk file names for the zealot portrait somewhere in the mpq:


Finally, with these custom .smk files, put them into a directory in your main mod folder that follows the name of the file in WinMPQ (also rename the .smk's accordingly). After you compile your mod into an MPQ, it should work. Also you can see that the .smk files downloaded has one extra, which you can just delete.


Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 29 2007, 8:07 pm by someone09.

Hey!

Thanks man, I managed to do this now. I got some cool portraits attached to my campaign now, awesome!

Lol...I have a way to add without replacing .

Hmm...

Do you know how to add units to Staredit, or just place them in-game?

For example. I can only use 2 firebats, and let's say I want to have 3 different, the terran firebat, gui montag and a third one. Is this possible?

modmaster50: it's completely pointless to add new entries for the portraits, when you can simply replace them.

Saox: No, you can't add a third firebat with staredit.

Let's say my mod adds shield for a firebat(protoss shield) and I don't want it to be named Gui Montag, and if I want to change the name I must undu the default statistics for Gui Montag, which causes him to have no shield in-game. How do I overcome this problem?

It will have a shield ingame, if you're running the mod while playing the map.
To change the name of a unit with the mod, just open
rez/stat_txt.tbl with TblPad (search on google). It's in stardat.mpq as well.

if you wanted 3 firebats you could take an unused unit like the bengalass and extract the firebat.grp and rename it jcritter.grp and then copy/paste the iscript for fire bat and change the headders. But that probably is a little much work.

...Or you could just give the Bengalaas the Firebat graphics in DatEdit?

That will probably generate a crash, because different .grps have different amounts of frames, and therefore if the iscript of the Bengalaas calls an unexistent frame, the game will crash.

Also, you would have to go add attack and idle headers, as well as eliminating the random movement of the critter.

Replacing sucks when you're making a minimal-replacement mod, which happens to be what I was doing. I was attempting to touch as little of normal sc melee game units as possible. My mod also needs the heroes for campaign.

Another problem:

I want to give a zealot special abilities(cloak and so on) and I heard that this can be done by using a program called FireGraft, but unfortunetly this doesn't work with my version of SC(works only with the old one). So tell me, how can I patch this program? Or is there anything else I could use for this operation ?