Enhancement icon pack fix

[LKN-351]

I didn't find much when I attempted to search and see if anyone else had figured out how to fix this so I figure I should ask.

 

 

I'm using an older enhancement icon pack and this was an issue before sunset IIRC. How can I make the icon that're being used in the two IOs and have them used by the SO's also? Those are the only two that have different images being used and it bugs me lol

[LKN-351]

I'm honestly surprised no one has weighed in here.

I know there's at least two people that might know the answer, one of them being @AboveTheChemist and the other one I can't think of the name off hand but he or she was going back and fourth with Vanden in his thread about the power icons.

 

I've already fiddled with E_POG_BUFF_DEFENSE.texture, E_POG_DAMAGE_RESIST.texture, E_ICON_GEN_RESIST_DAMAGE_01.texture to get the desired result but no luck. I have the modded designs I want but the SO and the IO don't pull from the same file.

 

So I thought I posted this post and then I had an epiphany and I came back to find I didn't actually post it yet lol.

I think E_POG is the SO's and E_ICON is the IO's. So I copied the E_ICON file and renamed it with the name of the E_POG file. Loaded the game, the resist SO image was still the same but the def buff SO is a tiny white square with a black background. I'm gunna try that test again to see what my outcome is.... lol this time actually posting this

[LKN-351]

No luck at all. It's been forever since I messed with costume files but I think there was some sort of tag or header file that went along with them to place them into the game and that's likely what's causing my roadblock. Unfortunately the old programs I used to use seem like they don't work on the current version of Windows, which makes sense cause I had issues with them back then too.

 

The other person that was going back and fourth with Vanden about the power icons was @Felis Noctu maybe he/she knows something. I already messaged Vanden but he didn't do the enhancements so he couldn't tell me anything.

Edited December 15, 2021 by LKN-351
moar Nfo

[AboveTheChemist]

I read this post last night and pondered for a while how I might respond, but ultimately I decided not to respond because I wasn't sure I fully understood your goal, and I wasn't sure I could definitively answer it regardless of my understanding.

 

What I do know is that each enhancement icon image consists of 4 files:

• two files define the icon border, one for the left half and one for the right half, with filenames that begin E_ORIGIN
• one file that defines the icon background color, which I commonly refer to as the 'pog', with filenames that begin E_POG
• one file that defines the icon image, with filenames that begin E_ICON

My best guess is that the game builds the various icons from those component pieces. That's how I do it when I am generating icon images to go on the wiki. I start with the two border images, essentially putting the two halves together to make a whole border, then I overlay the background pog on top of that, then finally I overlay the icon image on top of that. There is some offsetting involved, because the files are of different sizes and don't always overlay perfectly on top of one another, but that's the basic idea.

 

You may already know this, but each texture file consists of some header data placed on top of an image file. Reading the posts above again, it sounds like you likely need to look in the piggs to figure out the icon texture names (the files will start with E_ICON) for the various SO textures you want to replace. You'll need the header data from those texture files (which I'll call the source headers). The destination files will be the texture files that you want to show up on the SOs. You'll need to remove the headers from the destination files, and replace them with the source headers. The Philotic Knight created a handy Detexturizer tool that can assist with that. The final texture file, which will contain the source header and the destination image, should be named the same as the source texture and saved in the appropriate folder as noted below:

 

<CoH Install Folder>/data/texture_library/GUI/Icons/Enhancements

 

Keep in mind that my experience with enhancement icon modding is quite limited (I've only done one that I recall), so I might have missed a step and/or might be overlooking something critical. Also consider that replacing those icons will replace them everywhere they appear, so any such mods might have unintended consequences.

Edited December 16, 2021 by AboveTheChemist
typo

[LKN-351]

Yeah that was exactly what I was looking for. I figure if no one else has messed with it the best plan would be to do it myself. I did forget about the image headers though so that's why the simple file rename didn't work. I thought it was at least worth a shot though without no other direction to go.

 

Now I should be able to make some progress. It's bugged me since before sunset lol I wish I had any idea where I even came across these enh subs in the first place, but either way I love them aside from this little thing with the def and resist differences. I should be able to get it all working now.

[LKN-351]

Well I fixed the SO def issue but it still seems like the resist SO has some other thing going on with it. I don't even know where it got the blank with the pink background image from in the first place cause that's the only place that I've see it. I'm not even sure how to figure out where that image comes from.

 

Just in case someone else messes with enhancement icons in the future, E_POG is IOs and E_ICON is any TO/DO/SO enhancement.

 

@AboveTheChemist I know you said E_POG is the background colour but that doesn't seem to be how the files are set up.

^^ E_ICON_GEN_RESIST_DAMAGE.texture

^^ E_POG_DAMAGE_RESIST.texture

^^ E_ICON_GEN_DEFENSE_BUFF_01.texture

^^ E_POG_BUFF_DEFENSE.texture

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by LKN-351
The images where in the wrong format to post on the forums, I'm convertint them right now and will add them in a few minutes. Edit #2 added pics

[AboveTheChemist]

14 minutes ago, LKN-351 said:

Just in case someone else messes with enhancement icons in the future, E_POG is IOs and E_ICON is any TO/DO/SO enhancement.

 

I am not sure this statement is correct. E_ICONs apply to whichever enhancement type they were designed for. There are E_ICONS for IOs as well as for TOs, DOs, and SOs. And as far as I know, pog colors are universal regardless of enhancement type. Healing generic IOs, healing SOs, and healing set IOs all use the same green background and presumably the same pog. The HC wiki has a list of pogs, which appear in the 'Color Example' column. I haven't checked if that table is complete but it appears at least mostly complete.

 

The resist SO you show in the top post just has what looks like the damage resistance pog (the colors are sometimes hard to tell for sure). without any icon overlain on top of it. I would guess that either the icon that is supposed to be there is a transparent image, or perhaps it's been replaced by the pog itself.

[AboveTheChemist]

53 minutes ago, LKN-351 said:

^^ E_ICON_GEN_RESIST_DAMAGE.texture

^^ E_POG_DAMAGE_RESIST.texture

^^ E_ICON_GEN_DEFENSE_BUFF_01.texture

^^ E_POG_BUFF_DEFENSE.texture

 

 

Those images do not look at all like what their unmodded counterparts look like in the pigg files. If you are using those as the 'Rosetta Stone' to try and decipher how enhancement icon modding works then I fear you are in for quite a confusing ride.

 

Here's what the 4 files look like that I listed above. First is the border. I've spliced the two halves together for convenience, and in this case it's the invention border:

 

 

Here is a pog (stun in this case):

 

and here is an icon (Absolute Amazement)

 

These just happen to be what I have on hand that I could post easily. As I noted before, you'll have to alter the specific part of the icon that you want to change, because as far as I can tell the game composites the images starting with the border(s), then then pog, and finally the icon. The result would look like this (after offsetting):

 

 

If you look at all the Tech SO icons, and compare them to the generic IO icons (in the 'Icon Example' column), you'll notice that there isn't an easy way to map the generic IO icons onto their SO counterparts. For example, the Tech SOs for Defense Debuff, Healing, Hold Duration, Slow, To Hit Buff, and To Hit Debuff ALL use the same icon (which is called E_ICON_NANITE_01):

 

The corresponding generic IO enhancements for those categories all use different icons (except for the two To Hit categories, which appear to use the same one). So, trying to map generic IO icons onto SO enhancements doesn't look like it would work since several of the SO enhancements seem to share common icons.

[LKN-351]

I did get all the defense buff IOs and SOs working the same.

 

Then I found that the resist SOs where out of alignment and I hadn't even messed with those... it doesn't help that GIMP seems to like to change the image size when I do adjust things. Argh.

 

Hey, just FYI I'm not trying to argue with you even in the slightest. I'm sure uou know way more about this than I do, I'm just making comments about things I see. For some reason, whether it be GIMP or the file converter, I converted all the E_ICON_GENERIC_*** files. The only ones I could see in GIMP where the def buff, resist, and end reduction. The End reduction one looked like you said it would but the other two looked like the images I posted. I've no idea how it works but I got the intended results from what I've done. I replaced the def buf pog  with the def buf icon.... lol and despite GIMPs best effort the one that I put in myself is aligned in-game... and I just realized that the two IOs in my OP where already slightly up and to the left.

OY VEY I'm gunna have to spend a few hours to fix it cause I'll never unsee it now LOL

[AboveTheChemist]

8 minutes ago, LKN-351 said:

I just realized that the two IOs in my OP where already slightly up and to the left.

 

I actually noticed that almost immediately last night when I first read the OP. I think that means I have spent way too long looking at how borders and pogs and icons align!

 

On a more serious note, given the modded pog files that were posted above, I would be extremely curious to see a screenshot from the AH showing one or more of the defense sets like Karma or Red Fortune, and/or from one of the resist sets like Impervium Armor or Titanium Coating.

 

Please do feel free to argue if you want, I am by no means an expert and I would be more than happy to be proven wrong if that is the case. It's certainly possible that there is a clever solution to all this that I have not considered. In the end as long as it works and/or looks like you want that's all that really matters.

[LKN-351]

I'll grab some shots of all of those sets and post it up in a bit. I took out all of the modded enhancements a couple of days ago when I was trying to figure out what I could do to fix the def/resist problem... LOL Wow, it'd been a long time since I'd seen the actual normal images used *cringe* I can't go back

 

Your last few posts explain to me where that blank image came from on the resist SO but it still makes no sense how it came out that way and I'm not sure I'm the one to figure out what's going on.

 

Here's an odd thing though... there's files for E_ICON_GEN_JUMP_DISTANCE_01.texture and E_ICON_GEN_JUMP_HEIGHT_01.texture

That blows my mind lol I don't remember ever seeing both of those in game and unfortunately I couldn't view the contents of either of those files.

[LKN-351]

Now that I'm REALLY looking... all of the IOs are a pixel up and to the left O.O

 

Pics you requested

 

and I think my inspirations are all modified too

 

Here's two shots of the rest of the IOs and SOs. Those resist ones stick out and it just dawned on me that they don't have the candy coated dome effect to them either. I wonder if there's some sort of issue with how the game translates the icon that goes over the background. I'm gunna fiddle with that tomorrow and see if I can just plug the OG icon over top of that pink background image. When I originally posted this I actually contemplated making all the SO and IO images consistent. It'll be a job but I may just end up doing it lol

 

 

 

[AboveTheChemist]

Interesting. It looks like whomever made the mod also replaced at least some of the set IO icons with pog/icon combos to keep the set IOs from looking odd with the modded pogs from earlier. And you are right, they didn't quite get the pixel offsets correct so they do look a little shifted. The modded tech SOs do look kinda spiffy though. Your inspirations look stock to me but there might be a subtle difference I am not seeing.

 

Here's what the stock versions of those two jump icons look like, but who knows what is in the modded ones. The jump height icon appears not to be used in-game (although a similar icon appears on some power icons I think).

 

Distance - Height

Edit: If you are interested, I exported everything from texture_library/gui/icons/enhancements from the original piggs and the homecoming piggs. This includes all the stock borders, pogs, and icons, plus a couple other goodies. It includes the original texture files, converted DDS files, and converted PNG files. It might come in handy if you end up doing serious work on your mod, especially if you need to see what the un-modded versions look like. It's a fairly small download (less than 5 MB I think).

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PdMq_eW-lCYFRDCch2tCGaKUshF_8pji

Edited December 16, 2021 by AboveTheChemist
added download

[LKN-351]

Cool, interesting about the jump icons. I wonder what the original usage was but I'd bet they where gunna do height and distance separately and just left the resources in there. lol I'm glad they didn't do it that way.

 

I do remember they where trying to mimic Vandens power stuff and I'd say it worked lol cause everything looks like hard candy and I love it.

 

Yeah I'm definitely going to download those and fiddle with them in the future. I think in the morning I'll stick the files I've got up on dropbox or google drive and I'll post up the link.

Speaking of inspires, I know i have some sort of mod with those but I've used it so long I don't remember what they're actually supposed to look like in game. I think it's just a bit of a sheen compared to the OG basic looking inspires.

[LKN-351]

I was mistaken, I don't have any inspiration mods. Could've sworn I did.

Edited January 8, 2022 by LKN-351

[LKN-351]

I messed with this for quite a while today again, I fixed a few things like the Nanites that showed up on enhancements still and Stagger's horrible alignment but everything I've tried with the resists ends up with the same result.

I figured out that the icons don't show up when I convert them because the file is empty... whoever originally made this just put the candy coated image into the pog file. That's what I did to fix the Nanite issue. It's a simple design but still for some reason resists have something different about them, and I can't seem to figure out what it is. I'm not even sure how to figure out what makes them different.

I'm thinking about putting the icon I want to show up as a substitute for the icons they use on SO/DO enhancements. That may be the only solution.

[LKN-351]

Substituting the original icons used for the SO/DO resist enhancements wont work cause the original icon is used on all sorts of enhancements lol

 

I fixed the Stagger IO alignment pretty damn good, then I checked on the recipe... it's way way off now lol

The reason Stagger specifically is so badly aligned is due to the original image being centered in the image file as opposed to EVERY other enh image being all the way to the left and top. Due to this it'll always be aligned on one but not the other.

 

I found quite a few different IO sets that either weren't converted to fit the style of the candy coated enhancements or where only partially converted due to the way the game stacks the image files to create the enhancement images. I'm gunna try to fix this since it'll be rainy on my days off from work this week, but it'll be tough cause I don't think I can replicate the image styles and colors the original creator used.

[LKN-351]

I figured out what the issue was and apparently it has been there for quite some time. It was in the mod pack itself. The resist pog was using the OG pog instead of the modified one. I'm still mildly confused as to how this happened cause I've redone that specific file numerous times. I guess the why is lost to the aether cause it's definitely working as intended.

 

I also figured out the alignment issues and the worst one was due to the game file of the IO ring. It was created slightly out of alignment so I had to mod that file too, it's not perfect yet but I've nearly got it there.

 

I've also got everything I need to Corvus style the newer IOs the HC Devs have added.