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[SAS~Gerax]

Change your 4.12 menu background!

following this request here:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,43499.0.html

I did a little search and got this when extracting 4.12s files.sfs:



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to change this?

I copied the text from Storebros's post here, starting with "splashscreen":
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,37662.msg416705.html#msg416705
as this here is very similar, changed the text a little bit.

Thank you Mike: for the text and your help with this! 

The Games menus chooseable backgrounds reside in the "gui" folder
of the game's file structure, which means if you wanna use
your own Background(s) you first have to setup a regarding
own Mod folder like this:

Code: [Select]

<Your Game's Folder Name>\#SAS\<name for your Background Mod>\gui
Please replace "<Your Game's Folder Name>" by the folder name
where your game is installed, e.g. "C:\IL2\Modact 5" and replace
"<name for your Background Mod>" by what it tells you,
e.g. "MyCustomBackgrounds". In the Mod I uploaded below I have: "Backgrounds_TEST".

All 4 Backgrounds exist in two variations,
both "normal" (i.e. 4:3) aspect ratio
and "wide" (e.g. 16:9) aspect ratio.

In stock 4.12 these two variations exist for 4 countries "hangar scenes",
German (de),  Japan (jp), Russian (ru) and English/USA (en).

Each background consists of a ".mat" file and a corresponding image file ".tga".

The file size of the image file must not exceed 4MB and the file has to be
in 24bpp uncompressed format, this means the maximum resolution
for 4:3 aspect ratio images  is 1366x1025 pixels and for 16:9 aspect ratio
images it is 1577x887 pixels.

If you want to implement your own custom Background Image, you have
to create the set of ".mat" file(s) for the Country required and the
corresponding ".tga" image file(s) for the aspect ratio(s) required.

The safest way is to create files for all 4 countries and aspect ratios,
the same way as Modact 5 does.

For the Background Images the file names required for the ".mat" files are:

Code: [Select]

gui_background_de.mat
gui_background_en.mat
gui_background_jp.mat
gui_background_ru.mat
wide_gui_background_de.mat
wide_gui_background_en.mat
wide_gui_background_jp.mat
wide_gui_background_ru.mat

The dimension (width/height)of the stock images is 1024x512,
the "normal" pics will be scaled to 4:3, "wide_" to 16:9.   

The content of such a ".mat" file looks like this:

Code: [Select]

[ClassInfo]
  ClassName TMaterial
[Layer0]
  TextureName <Your Image File Name Here>.tga
  tfNoWriteZ 1
  tfNoDegradation 1
  tfMinLinear 1
  tfMagLinear 1
The only thing you need to edit is "<Your Image File Name Here>"
which you replace with the name of your Backgrund Image
(TGA 24bpp uncompressed <4MB) file.

In my download I used the same names for TGAs the mat files have.

But this can be changed:
For instance if your Background Image is "Spitfire_attack.tga"
then the content of the ".mat" file would be:

Code: [Select]

[ClassInfo]
  ClassName TMaterial
[Layer0]
  TextureName Spitfire_attack.tga
  tfNoWriteZ 1
  tfNoDegradation 1
  tfMinLinear 1
  tfMagLinear 1
And so each ".mat" file points to a corresponding image.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Download my Test version as I have it for my setup:
4.12 MA5.30, 4:3 screen with 1280x1024 resolution.
and see how I did it. This should help to understand
the text above ..  but sadly I can't test "wide screen"
so for a different setup you have to create your own
background images mod following the text above. 

btw: you can have this as "standalone" mod or you can combine
it with some splashscreen mod, the folder structure is the same.

DL Backgrounds_TEST mod with Backgrounds for 4:3 1280x1024 screen:
https://www.mediafire.com/download/ag36moqh2832jq7/Backgrounds_TEST.7z

For 4.12 ModAct 5.xx: extract the 7z and copy/move the mod
"Backgrounds_TEST" into #SAS.

For 412-TFM: extract the 7z and copy/move the mod
"Backgrounds_TEST" into #SAS.

For HSFX7: extract the 7z and copy/move the mod "Backgrounds_TEST"
into either /mods folder or copy/move the mat and tga files from
"Backgrounds_TEST/gui" into /files/gui. I tested it in /mods folder, works flawlessy.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


My backgrounds now looks like this:



change it here:



and get a new one  :



make it transparent (User Interface color = 6, User Interface Detail = 1):




Have fun. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To dl more background (and startscreen) pics go here,
GUI mod for 4.12 by vpmedia: 
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,43590.0.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To get all the stock 412 start-pics dl this file (see reply #13):
https://www.mediafire.com/download/sa7rv7uc404hpa3/412_start_tgas_as_jpgs.7z

[vpmedia]

Thanks a lot!

My new german menu background, looks way better then the stock one:



I selected this for the russians:



I also put together a set of loading screens without text, just a logo, same artist



They're all 1440*900, 24bit tga, for 16:10 screens, shall I upload these?

[cgagan]

Gerhard, many thanks!!!!
Istvan, yes, please...

[SAS~Gerax]

Istvan, I have all this Truds ..   
but maybe others want to use them. 

btw: the german background is superb.

[LuseKofte]

Yes the german one wass good, but I like those Russian dumps-truck´s so my favorite is the LA-5

[vpmedia]

I got an extra set of loading screens, large part of it are works of the IL-2 community screenshot artist:



I also plan to share that large il-2 edited screenshot collection from which many of these images were selected. I need to do one more check and I will upload everything tomorrow.

[The Radge]

That's really so cool!

[Knochenlutscher]

They're szép/beautifull.
Thanks to Gerax sharing this nifty Tool

[BOYAN]

Thank you mr. Gerax for realising the request!

I`m on 4.12 MA5.3, 1680x1050. I had to name tga and mat file the same name for it to work (wide_gui_background_en). Works great from splash screen mod folder also, no need for separate folder. I`ll use the same picture for splash and gui for now (1680x1050, no need for resizing or stretching or squeezing any of them, user interface color set to 6 for best transparency...):



Found the pic here, great site: http://www.warbirddepot.com/

[Tony4mori]

if you want you can find beautiful pictures on my background:


http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=4792

[stockplane]

Great work, thanks!

If is possible , please , a information: i wish extract the main background of 4.12 ( the initial background ).

Is possible and where it is located, i presume in a sfs file.

Thanks for any informations about.

Best Regards.

[SAS~Gerax]

about the startscreen backgrounds pics:

They all are in the file "files.sfs", "hidden" there as alfanumeric files
(you know this FE89070DAF9708D stuff).

I extracted all of them with SFS-Extractor 3.1 by PAL,
deleted all with 1KB-8KB size and when renaming the rest
then as tgas I got the background pics. Its that easy.   

DL the 7z file, inside you have all orig 412 start-pics. 
https://www.mediafire.com/download/sa7rv7uc404hpa3/412_start_tgas_as_jpgs.7z

They come in this size formats, when you want
to resize them, use Irfan view. With this tool
yu also can convert them to tgas if needed.
(I converted them to jpg's to have a smaller 7z file!)