Warhammer Dark Omen Forum

I was recently asked a very good question -

"Is it possible to change the background of a banner in game? Night Goblin Archers have a round banner and its background but i cant find a way to change it for other banners. For example if the Grudge Cav banner is made round with a green surround, its still displays its normal background for that banner in game. Is there anyway to do it that you know or is it hardcoded to specific unit?"

Also another Good Question -

"Do you know if mounted units got movement based on steed they are using? As i think i cant change speed of mounted units"

Good Topics for discussion and we will do some research....

:)


Is it the HUD sprite that does the Banner Backgrounds? If it is then each sprite must be told which Background HUD Frame to use, I will have to examine the sprite files in a HexEditor. So Goblin Archer Sprite Banner may use Frame 93 of the HUD sprite perhaps. Lets hope it is set to use the correct HUD frame, within the Banner sprite file, rather than in EngRel.exe, as easier to MOD.

(http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4324/hudq.png) (http://img26.imageshack.us/i/hudq.png/)

A simple test of swapping the OBNGARCH.SPR Banner sprite with HBGRUXBW.SPR demonstrates HUD background Banners.

(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1683/gobbanner.jpg) (http://img80.imageshack.us/i/gobbanner.jpg/)

(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7311/xbowbanner.jpg) (http://img72.imageshack.us/i/xbowbanner.jpg/)

Simply replace the correct Background Banner Frame (of the HUD sprite) with a small DOT

(http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4430/bannerdot.jpg) (http://img707.imageshack.us/i/bannerdot.jpg/)

(http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/4010/banner3ol.jpg) (http://img94.imageshack.us/i/banner3ol.jpg/)

More tests to follow....


:)

This will be useful when I get back to DOE. Thanks Olly.

Olly's switch example shows that information about banner background is stored somewhere outside the banner file itself. Is it known how to change background? Is it in army file?
E.g. how can I change banner background for my Grudgebringer Cavalry w/o changing the banner?

It's stored in EngRel. There is somewhere a string list containing all banner files. Between these strings there is a number. This number defines the used background.
I will tell you more when I'm at home.

Thank you,
I seem to have figured it out using your information.
In EngRel, 33rd byte after filename contains a value - a sequence number of banner background in HUD.spr

As an offtopic, I hoped similar information would be in EngRel concerning Sprite Files - that is sprites amount and structure..But sprite file names go with bare zeros.
The problem I encountered is if I want to insert new archers, I have to replace one of existing archers sprite file, and there aren't many of them. I wonder if there is an easy way to allow more archer sprites.

Encountered another Banners problem that I failed to avoid.

I use Dark Omen Sprite Viewer to open HUD.spr - a file where banner backgrounds are stored among many other pics.

Simple export to filmstrips and import from filmstrips w/o editing them creates a buggy HUD.spr file. See attached screenshot

[attachment=1]

All banners are shifted, amount of troops in a unit is shifted out of its proper box.
The bug is connected with 14 missing small dots that DarkOmenViewer can see in original HUD.spr but fails to see in imported HUD.spr

Is there a way to avoid this bug and change banner background?

IIRC This is because the sprite viewer doesn't save the X and Y position of each sprite to the filmstrip file.  It currently guesses where to place the sprite (centers it around the dot that represents the origin) - this is a good guess for most unit sprites, but not a very good one for banners.

You can move the position of sprites in the sprite viewer by dragging them - you should then be able to align them properly before saving as .SPR

Yep, gotta move that pinkish box so it fits. Think it needs be down in the corner iirc.

Yep, moving tokens in Sprite Viewer would help.
The problem is there are too many of them in HUD.spr and I fail to put each precisely at its rightful place.
So I think I had better live with current banner backgrounds than make many things slightly out of place. :)

Since we can edit banner shape in xslots.txt..is there a place on the forum where all possible banner shapes are enumerated?