A tutorial by
In order to create new backgrounds for the menu images for your mod, you will need to create the following folders in your mod directory:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\FreedomForce\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes
There are two sub-folders there that you need to be concerned with. These are:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom
Force\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot
And: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom
Force\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main
The "mg_ff_team_main" is the MAIN menu background; the "mg_and_manbot" is the background that appears BETWEEN missions (with the mission results info).
Each of these folders must have a sub-directory named "textures", as follows:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom
Force\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures
And: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom
Force\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures
You will need to unzip your art.ff directory and locate the following images:
\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\char_1.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\char_2.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\char_3.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\char_4.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\char_5.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\char_6.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\ff_logo_01.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures\ff_logo_02.tga
All of these images should be placed in the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ff_team_main\textures
The "char_[x].tga" files are 256x256 images. For backgrounds, I suggest taking images, shrinking them down, then pasting them into the existing char_[x].tga images. I'm not sure if you will have to re-do the alpha channel, but these files MUST have an alpha channel that matches the image that you want displayed. If you're not familiar with dealing with alpha channels, PaintShop Pro has a great tutorial explaining how to deal with them.
The files show up in order -- "char_1.tga" appears as the upper left-hand image, "char_2.tga" appears as the top middle image, "char_3.tga" appears as the upper right-hand image, "char_4.tga" appears as the lower left-hand image, "char_5.tga" appears as the bottom middle image, and "char_6.tga" appears as the lower right-hand image.
Finally, the "ff_logo_01.tga" and "ff_logo_02.tga" files are the logo that appears in the upper left-hand corner of the main menu screen. Again, you must use the alpha channel in order to get this to appear properly.
For the secondary menus, you will need to unzip your art.ff directory and locate the following images:
\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures\bg_01.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures\bg_02.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures\bg_03.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures\bg_04.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures\bg_05.tga \Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures\bg_06.tga
All of these images should be placed in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModFolder\Art\library\interface_scenes\mg_ant_manbot\textures
These are also 256x256 images. You can simply re-use these images as your background for the secondary menus if you'd like. I suggest altering the brightness/contrast to make the images appear as a pale, "ghosted" (or washed-out) background image, so as not to obscure the mission results info that is overlaid on top of it. Just take the "char_[x].tga" files and rename them to "bg_0x". If you choose to create a different set of images for the secondary menu display, remember that these images also require proper use of the alpha channel.
The secondary menu image files also show up in order -- "bg_01.tga" appears as the upper left-hand image, "bg_02.tga" appears as the top middle image, "bg_03.tga" appears as the upper right-hand image, "bg_04.tga" appears as the lower left-hand image, "bg_05.tga" appears as the bottom middle image, and "bg_06.tga" appears as the lower right-hand image.
I used single images for the sake of simplicity, but you can also use a single large image and cut it up into six (6) 256x256 images.
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