Is there a way to add new textures for UI without modifying materials.json or replacing existing textures?

Age of Empires II: DE II - Modding
1

Hi everyone :wave:

Is there a file that can append changes to materials.json like there is for strings? Or any other methods?

If anyone could help me out or point me in the right direction I’d appreciate it a lot. :slight_smile:

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I just want to add regional textures to the background of the tech tree preview panel. I know I can do it by adding the new textures to materials.json, but that requires updating the mod almost every update no? And I know I could do it by finding unused textures and replacing them with my own, but that would be likely to randomly conflict with other mods?

So was wondering if there is another way to do this?

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For anyone that reads this later and happens to have the same questions, I’ve settled on it being impossible to add new large UI elements that don’t invalidate multiplayer.
Editing materials.json carries the risk of breaking the UI when the game updates, and would conflict with any other mod that edits that file.
As for replacing unused game textures, the only ones I can see are legacy icons which are referenced in materials.json from the ingamepanels.dds atlas file. So, replacing them with large UI textures just doesn’t work.

Hope this can save someone else some time.

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