LEADER PICS TUTORIAL
By Sekinoss
Here we will discuss how to make your own leader pictures and importing them to HoI. This won't be as long as my sprite tutorial as the task is simpler and shorter. Anyway, first, decide who you want the picture imported into the game. As an example here, I use Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.
Tools required here are:
- Paint Shop Pro (www.jasc.com) or any other image editing software
- Microsoft Excel (www.microsoft.com) or other spreadsheet editor
First, look on the net for a picture of Rommel. Use Google and it's IMAGE SEARCH to look specifically for pictures. I've found a good one to be used as an example:
Great! Now lets edit the picture.
Open up Paint Shop Pro and load up the image.
The file size right now is wrong. The picture should be of size 36x50
Luckily, the ratio for the picture is already accurate, so we should in this case resize directly to 36x50. If ratio is not correct (ie. one side is too long while another too short), try cropping the image by selecting the select box tool, which is indicated here
and selecting the bits you want to crop (discard unwanted parts), pressing Shift+R to crop the image.
Anyway, now that we're ready to resize Image then Resize on the menu. On the Resize box be sure to select Smart Resize and 36x50 as the size.
After the picture is resized, select Color and choose Grayscale in the menu. This will gray scale the picture to black and white. If you cannot do so (the grayscale option is grayed out) then you don't have to worry as the image is already in black and white. Next, you select the shape create tool
and open up the Tool Options window and be sure Rectangle is selected. Also, make sure AntiAlias and Create as Vector are NOT selected and line width is one.
Then, look for the right (underneath the color palette), and you'll see to boxes. One with forecolor and the other with backcolor. Select the arrow/triangle on the backcolor (the one below) and choose the NONE symbol so you have no background like:
Also, make sure the forecolor is WHITE, which can be done by clicking on a white color with your LEFT MOUSE BUTTON on the palette. Next, drag a box just around the picture (on the outlines) so you have something like this:
You're done with EDITING. Save the image AS A BMP (which can be done by selecting Windows BMP in the file type select on the Save As window).
Save it on the directory Hearts of Iron\GFX\Interface\pics.
Works not done yet. We have to tell HoI to use the picture. To do this go to the directory Hearts of Iron\db\leaders (or ministers, if you want to replace ministers(?)). Then, using Microsoft Excel, open up german.csv or any other country's file to add the picture to that country in the game.
Rommel's name is just around the top (actually, it is, rightfully, ON TOP). Following the guidelines outlined at the very top, Rommel's original picture is given by the file rommel_erwin_ger (without BMP extension). We want to change it to rommel_erwin_new that we just created, so you select 2-A (Rommel's line) and at the edit window at top change the old file name to the new so you have (in this case):
Save the file. When some question is asked (like incompatibility) during saving just press OK. And that's it! You're done. Now go to the game and look for Rommel's picture. You now have:
Well done! This concludes the tutorial on importing leader pictures. You can also import pictures for leaders without potraits. Just save the file (preferably by name) in the same directory. Then open up the country.csv and then look for his name. Next, instead of unknown(or something?) as the picture file just put in your new BMP (without the BMP extension). Be sure to check out my other tutorial on Sprite Making. Bounce any questions to sekinoss@yahoo.com
- Sekinoss
