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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 1:32 pm
by Jersy
I tried to implement custom minimap icons for my personal project - the Trifaction Core.

However, it would seem that my current strategy of exporting from *bmp.mdl to .bmp through MDLutility, altering in MSPaint (using only black and white), saving as .bmp, importing into *bmp.mdl again and trying to use it in game, is flawed.

It would seem that if I try to launch the game with altered minimap icon, the game crashes few seconds into the launching sequence.

What is the proper procedure for implementing custom-made minimap icons? Are there any file-name restrictions? etc.

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 1:40 pm
by pkk
Do not rename files after you converted them to bmp.mdl. ;)

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 1:57 pm
by SpaceJunk
24 bits BMP, good. 32 bits, bad.

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:12 pm
by Jersy
thx, problem solved ;-)

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 4:16 pm
by Jersy
New problem encountered:

During my attempts to implement my custom devel icons, I managed to get them to appear in ICE properly. However, in-game, they all appear blank (so where they are supposed to be, I get only background and the devel name in the upper-left corner). Icons themselves are saved in the i***bmp.mdl format, and the ".bmp"s used for them are all 16-bit.

They have been created by opening one icon in MDLfx and saving it as the desired file-name, and the desired .bmp was then imported with MDLUtility (I do it this way, because it seems to me that MDLUtility cannot "create" new artwork - either by duplication or by converting *.bmp into *bmp.mdl - only import a new *.bmp into already existing *bmp.mdl).

Where might the problem be?

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:02 pm
by madpeople

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:32 pm
by Jersy
Uh oh... The contents of the MDLC download file seem to be unfriendly towards me... The MDLCmaster is not there and editing convert.bat does not bring any results and the thing just errors on me every time it tries to convert a file...

Need walkthrough :-(

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:37 pm
by Andon
Text mdls are a lot easier to use, and smaller in filesize. Once I get home (and am not on my phone) I'll post on how, unless someone beats me to it

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:41 pm
by madpeople
Put the .bat in the same folder as mdlc and the bmp you want to convert.

Change contents of .bat to (change inputfile.bmp and outputfilebmp.mdl as appropriate)

Code: Select all

mdlc -convert inputfile.bmp outputfilebmp.mdl
run the .bat

If that doesn't work you need to provide more details of what you are doing, contents of the folder you're working in (before and after running the .bat) and the errors returned.

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:32 pm
by Jersy
Okay...
- In the download file, there is "tools" folder, which contains the mdlc, so I am working with that one.
- I copy my "3FCGAac1.bmp" in there.
- I right click the "covert.bat" thing and click "edit" or whatever (don't know what do you guys have there in english versions of winXP)
- Up pops the notepad with the following line: "mdlc -convert space.bmp environment1bmp.mdl"
- I change it to "mdlc -convert 3FCGAac1.bmp 3FCGAac1bmp.mdl" and save.
- Then I run the altered "convert.bat", but when it tries to process the file, it throws that "error: program will be terminated" (or whatever that message would be in english) thing at me. (strange thing is, when I tried to make it convert more files, it didn't end upon closing that message like programs usually do, but proceeded onto the next file and repeated until the last file).
...and that's it.