[Question] How do I make custom icons that show player color

[torpedotornado7]

If I use SLX workshop to export the .dds file, I can’t make an alpha layer that indicates the player color.

Yet if I use Photoshop to to export the .dds file, everything other then the alpha layer would become blue:

[SirT_Efaisto]

OMG! I forgot how to do this too…

There’s a long thread including the answer, maybe I’ll be able to find and share the link here.

I used SLX Studio only for previewing and GIMP for editing.

You have to export your GIMP project as a DDS file with a specific format.

I’m almost sure the format is called “ABGR8”.

Please let me know if this works!

Edit: Found a mention to this same format, it’s probably the right (and only) one:

How to edit .DDS images?

Here’s how I mod DDS files for the game. You start with the DDS file you want. You tell your PC to open it using paint.net (I’ve linked to the site, just install it from the top right) You then save your DDS file that you opening in paint as a PNG. You edit your PNG using Photoshop, and save that as a PNG. You install G ! M P You open your final PNG in G ! M P. You export the PNG from G ! M P using the ABGR8 format. Now you have a functional DDS file again that the game can read. Note: Remove…

[torpedotornado7]

Thanks but I don’t think this tells me anything about keeping the player color for the icons, since the alpha filter won’t be kept in the file when you save as png.

Like I can already make icons into dds files with SLX Studio, I am struggling with the player color part:

[SirT_Efaisto]

@torpedotornado7

Like I can already make icons into dds files with SLX Studio, I am struggling with the player color part:

When generating the DDS file you have many possible encoding formats. The only one supported by the game’s graphical engine seems to be “ABGR8”.

It’s usually not the default format, so you have to set it specifically.

[torpedotornado7]

Sorry, but I don’t think you understand what my question is.

By “player color” I mean the player 1 = Blue, player 2 = Red etc part.

I can export the icon into the kind of DDS the game can read without problem.

[SirT_Efaisto]

@torpedotornado7

Yet if I use Photoshop to to export the .dds file, everything other then the alpha layer would become blue:

This issue appeared to me when I used the wrong format.

@torpedotornado7

By “player color” I mean the player 1 = Blue, player 2 = Red etc part.

Ok, now I see the difference.
Are you leaving blank the spots for the player color and using only the alpha layer?
You should “paint” them by varying the opacity of the alpha layer.

It will probably show as white where you want the pure player color, a shade of gray where you want a variation of that color, and black where you want full transparency.

[torpedotornado7]

My issue is that I can only export dds files with the color the game can read with SLX Studio,
and export dds files with alpha layer with Photoshop. I don’t know how to keep the alpha layer from Photoshop to SLX Studio.

[Ekarlath]

This is my current method to remove the team color, but result into a solid-one-pixel-type team coloring instead of shading.

Method using Gimp + SMX Workshop + SLX studio

1. Make your icon as a PNG file, with a software like GIMP2.8 or newer
2. Import your png file in SMXWorkshop1.9.4_001 or newest
3. Export as image the sprite as a PNG with a _BLUE after the original name.
4. on View tab, Player Colors, change to RED
5. Export as image the sprite as a PNG with a _RED after the original name.
6. Create a new layer on your gimp project file, same name as the original icon image but with _BLUE, copy the _BLUE.PNG file in that layer.
7. Create a new layer on your gimp project file, same name as the original icon image but with _RED, copy the _RED.PNG file in that layer.
8. move the _RED layer above the _BLUE layer in your layer tab on GIMP, but both in the same sub-folder (hierarchy level must be the same)
9. change _RED layer setting from “normal” to “difference”
10. right click in your layer window, click “New Layer from Visible”.
11. rename that layer from “Visible” to the gane name as the original icon image but with _TEAM_DIF
12. duplicate this _TEAM_DIF layer to keep a backup just in case
13. using the color picker tool, on that _TEAM_DIF layer, click anywhere on the image where it’s not the team-color part and delete the selection
14. You can smooth the transparent area by removing every loose pixel if you want to so only the part that is the team coloring pattern will be in this layer
15. duplicate the original image icon layer as a backup
16. on the _TEAM_DIF layer, with the ColorPicker tool, select any transparent pixel
17. in the gimp “selection” tab use the “invert selection”
18. select the original icon image layer in your layer tab and delete the selection
19. uncheck visiblity of all other layer except the original icon image one (from which we just removed the team color in step 18)
20. export as PNG
21. open that PNG in SLXStudio
22. save it as DDS with the required compression settings

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If you’re good with an image editing software, then basically what you have to do is select the parts you want to be the team color variation and make them alpha transaprent 0 instead of any color and then turn that into the DDS.

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The main thing to understand in how to make team-color working is that the team color part must be transaprent pixel, while the reste is colored. If you open the ingameunits dds file from the game with your paint.net you’ll see how they did it. By zooming in/out you’ll see that at a specific level the transparent pixels thay made turns into white shades (because when you zoom too much in a file with transparency, software tend to apply a white background behind it so you see those black-grey semi transaprent pixels shading the auto-white background of the software)