German flag mod for download

[tedhealy]

I threw together a quick mod to edit the german flag. File size 3.3 MB and is at rapidshare.
http://rapidshare.de/files/2434747/German_flag.rar.html

****EDIT************
Version 1.1
V1.1 - adds color to the small german chip and includes changed chip for loading menu which was missed in 1.0.
http://rapidshare.de/files/2451491/Germ ... 1.rar.html

Version 1.2 - adds color to german battle chips. 2 versions to choose from now
A) chip without cross
B) chip with cross

http://rapidshare.de/files/2487419/Germ ... 2.rar.html


(if you haven't used rapidshare before, scroll down at link location and click free. You may have to wait a few seconds for download link.)
*********************

Hakenkreuz

Flag replacement

!!!! BACK UP ORIGINAL FILES !!!!!!
In case you want to go back or something should go wrong, please back up your original files.

These files will replace german flag with closer to historical version.
Extract to your GGAW folder.

Or by hand:

Matrix Games\Gary Grigsby's World At War\dat\art
German-Allied.tga
German-China.tga
German-Engl.tga
German-Neutral.tga
German-Russia.tga
German chip.tga

Matrix Games\Gary Grigsby's World At War\dat\art\gui
Axis.tga
CurrentPlayer.bmp
Flagbut.bmp
Flags.tga
LoadMenu.bmp
MainMenu.bmp
MainMenu_but.bmp
PolStat_but.bmp
RegionInfo_but.bmp
Replay-But.tga
SaveMenu.bmp
StrategicMapButton.bmp

Only tga's and bmp's were altered using hakenkreuz image at
http://www.nobelmann.com/about/haken/hakenkreuz.gif

Feel free to alter and distribute it as long as you give my work a mention.

June, 2005
tedhealy

[Titan79]

Your mod is really well done, mate, and gets straight to the point - congrats!
However, I'd have one (last, I swear!) favor to ask: how about colouring red the now gray background of the german chip? just to make it look like the original flag. This would truly be the icing on the cake... Anyway, thanks right now for your great work!

[tedhealy]

Version 1.1 [:D] Coming soon. I'll try and do it this weekend if not sooner.

[Titan79]

You're too kind Ted! Waiting for the stuff...

[tedhealy]

V1.1 - adds color to the small german chip and includes changed chip for loading menu which was missed in 1.0.

http://rapidshare.de/files/2451491/Germ ... 1.rar.html

Link is also in the first post.

While not as crisp as the chips next to them in game when the larger version is shown, they get the job done.

[Titan79]

Thanks again, tedhealy. The new chip also looks good and there's no comparison with the original featured in the game. However, I had in mind something slightly different; and now that I know what files need to be modified I'll spend some time on them to show what I mean. When I've done I could upload'em - but could you explain to me how does rapidshare work? Alternatively, I could simply email them to you, just write your address. Looking forward for news!

[tedhealy]

Just go to http://rapidshare.de/

Hit browse button, find your zip or rar file on your computer and then hit upload. It will take some time, but eventually it will spit 2 links back at you - the download link where you get the file and a delete link to remove the file from rapidshare (if no one downloads the file for 30 days, it automatically gets deleted). That's it [;)] Just post the link here and people can start downloading. Happy modding/uploading, looking forward to your changes[:D]

[Titan79]

Urgh! Well, first of all I have to congratulate to you once again because I've discovered that the work you've done (although very, very good) wasn't as "simple" as it could look at a first glance. My idea was to modify your german chips by adding a full red background (the "classic" swastika flag: Hakenkreuz-white circle-red background) instead of the one you did (the black and white "cross" background, the same of your new flag); but mine looks nearly horrible [:(] and that's because I'm unable to keep the graphic depth effect, as you did.
Apart from that, there have to be modified this way even the combat chips, which at the moment are gray as they were. My suggestion is to color the german background half of the chips fully in red (same thing as for the other chips), but this needs to be done by someone who's able to... could you help, if it isn't too boring?

[tedhealy]

It really isn't that hard, you just need to take your time and work with individual pixels more or less. Check what your work looks like at actual size as you go and you'll get the hang of it. I was going to color the german half of the battle chips red, but I wasn't liking how they were turning out - specially the soviet red vs the german red. I might give it another go.

Dropping the cross portion of the chips shouldn't be that hard with a good image editor. You want to be zoomed in very tight and work pretty darn close to pixel level. Just replace the black and white cross portions with all red, then add darker and lighter shades of red where needed.

[Titan79]

Ok, I'll give it a try but it sounds like a rather long thing... [:(] how much time did you take to do the mods?
Anyway, if you'd have the time and will to modify the chips the way I suggested (all but the battle ones) just let me know... [;)]
So long, mate!

[tedhealy]

Ok, I did a bit more. I went through the battle chips and gave them a red background (instead of gray).

I think I'll pack 2 versions together to choose from - one with the black/white cross portion on the chip and one without. I may finish it the next few hours otherwise I'll probably have it up tomorrow.

[tedhealy]

V1.2 - adds color to german battle chips. 2 versions to choose from now
A) chip without cross
B) chip with cross

http://rapidshare.de/files/2487419/Germ ... 2.rar.html

[Titan79]

Well, in one word: excellent. Imho, this is the ultimate german cross mod and it will make happy all those people like me who prefer to see the historical swastika in place of the "politically correct" (of course I can understand that) Balkenkreuz. Thank you very much again, tedhealy, and keep up the good work!

[tedhealy]

[:D] I'm glad someone besides me likes it. Thanks for the feedback (and prodding to do the 2nd version [;)]), I like the way they turned out.

[Titan79]

I repeat: they're GREAT, man - really well done. And of course no problem for the prodding [:D] ; it was a pleasure, particularly because it's you who did the modding... [;)] Congratulations!

Besides that, did you too have the feeling that the japanese and chinese faces in the country selection screen are inverted? That's my opinion, at least - the japanese should be the chinese even because he's got a red dot (sun emblem?) on the cap, and vice versa. If you agree [;)] , just invert the name of the two files (HumOp-CH.tga & HumOp-JP.tga in art\dat\gui) to get the job done...

[Titan79]

Tedhealy, I've got a technical question for you: when modifying the chips, how did you make the black background look transparent in the game? [&:] Mine doesn't disappear, so the chip looks like it's actually inserted in a black square... [:(]

[tedhealy]

I used photoshop and did nothing special to retain the transparency - just opened, edited, and saved. What are you using to edit the .tga's?

[Titan79]

I used ArcSoft Photostudio, a program that's included with my scanner. The oddest thing is that I didn't even touch the outside of the chip... could you see if the chip gives the same problem on your pc? Here it goes: http://rapidshare.de/files/2554091/German_chip.tga.html . I've only made the cross a bit thicker - why does the background turn black, when the chip is copied in the game's directory...?!?

[tedhealy]

I downloaded and tried it out in game - big black box. [&:]

Maybe you can try just opening up a chip in Photostudio that you know works. Don't edit or touch a thing, just save/overwrite it and try it out in game. If that gives you the black box, Photostudio isn't getting along with the .tga and you either need to fiddle with the settings somewhere or try another image editor.

[Titan79]

Ok - I'll give it a try and tell you what happens. Stay tuned.