[Spell] Any pre-made loading screens that i can import? Or a way to make em?

[hypsandar]

The guide seems to be outdated..
Creating a Custom Loading Screen
The website for the program needed for this is broken.

So err, does anyone know a secret database of sort that contains loading screens and needed files to import them.... Hence, Google doesn't know.

 

[Jampion]

You can use any program can convert images into .blp. Try warcraft viewer for example.

 

[hypsandar]

You can use any program can convert images into .blp. Try warcraft viewer for example.

Well, apparently its not working for some glitchy reasons. Thanks though.
Blizzard plans to update the world editor, right? I'm sure the way loading screens are made will be updated too. It only makes sense thus its, errr, very outdated.

 

[DaneTheBeast]

Will this help you?

 

[A]mun]

I just checked this real quick, it's still working.
Use https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/blp-lab-v0-5-0.137599/#resource-66344.
I just picked a random picture in google, resized it, opened it in blp lab and saved it as .blp.

Also loading screens with loading bars are very nice, like in DaneTheBeast's link.

 

[hypsandar]

Will this help you?

Maybe.

I just checked this real quick, it's still working.
Use https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/blp-lab-v0-5-0.137599/#resource-66344.
I just picked a random picture in google, resized it, opened it in blp lab and saved it as .blp.

Also loading screens with loading bars are very nice, like in DaneTheBeast's link.

Thanks, i'll see if this ends up working and i'll get back to you.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Try warcraft viewer for example.

I would not recommend that program... Ever... I am not sure if the JPEG content BLP files it makes can even be loaded anymore.

BLP Lab (sufficient but not fully conformant) or my hacky Java tool (usability problems but more conformant) are about the best BLP creators at the moment.

Blizzard plans to update the world editor, right? I'm sure the way loading screens are made will be updated too. It only makes sense thus its, errr, very outdated.

You could just use a tga image. As long as you alter the loading screen model path to load a .tga texture it will display normally. Not very space efficient though due to no image compression and bad compressibility.

Will this help you?

Probably not. A lot of old BLP tools no longer work with WC3 due to changes to how JPEG content BLP files are parsed. JPEG content BLP files without a full set of valid JPEG mipmap images will now load nothing, instead of replacing the missing mipmaps with transparent black as they did in older versions of WC3.

A]mun's approach will work. I recommend it over the other methods. To add to it make sure that the BLP lab is set to have at least the required number of mipmap levels. It also is pointless making a BLP file above 512*512 pixels as WC3 will only load mipmap levels that are at most 512 in any dimension.

 

[Chaosy]

I'll look into writing an updated tutorial for it.

 

[hypsandar]

A]mun's approach will work. I recommend it over the other methods. To add to it make sure that the BLP lab is set to have at least the required number of mipmap levels. It also is pointless making a BLP file above 512*512 pixels as WC3 will only load mipmap levels that are at most 512 in any dimension.

Alright, tnanks.

I'll look into writing an updated tutorial for it.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Chaosy]

Simple Loading Screen

Seems rather fine though, it's not the program of choice for me but the process is pretty much the same I would use.

 

[hypsandar]

Simple Loading Screen

Seems rather fine though, it's not the program of choice for me but the process is pretty much the same I would use.

I will look into it, thanks.

 

[hypsandar]

Hmm, I just want a black loading screen.. This seems to be a lot of err, work for that.
Is there a way to get a black loading screen by causing a model to be un-read or something?

 

[Chaosy]

Err

open paint, save as black image 515x515
convert image to blp
import to map as Fullscreen.blp

this should take 2 minutes at worst.

 

[hypsandar]

Err

open paint, save as black image 515x515
convert image to blp
import to map as Fullscreen.blp

this should take 2 minutes at worst.

Oh, does this work with any texture?

Edit:

Alright well, I did that. I used the BLP lab to convert the image, imported it in w3.
I tried with default path and custom path "Fullscreen.blp" But when I open up the
Scenario>Map Loading Screen, it doesn't read the file. Alas, it reads random models, but not this file.

 

[Chaosy]

You need the loadingscreen.mdx from the linked tutorial.

 

[hypsandar]

You need the loadingscreen.mdx from the linked tutorial.

Oh, I thought this would be much harder. Works fine, thanks.

 

[Dr Super Good]

open paint, save as black image 515x515

Needs to be at most 512*512. WC3 will not load mipmap levels above 512*512 pixels. This means that a 515*515 blp is at best visible as 257*257 (<<512*512).

 

[hypsandar]

Needs to be at most 512*512. WC3 will not load mipmap levels above 512*512 pixels. This means that a 515*515 blp is at best visible as 257*257 (<<512*512).

Actually it worked fine with 515x515
Its a texture, not an actual image so it didn't really matter much.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Actually it worked fine with 515x515
Its a texture, not an actual image so it didn't really matter much.

It will show the mipmap 257*257, which being a mipmap looks like a lower frequency version of the full sized image. This means you waste the 515*515 image.

Unless loading screens use some special magic that allows them to load mipmap levels >512*512... That or BLP lab automatically resamples to 512*512.

To downsize the full scale image to be at least 512*512 you will either need to bilinear filter sample it down logarithmically (since bilinear filtering only works well up to a reduction of half the resolution) or use the more recommended area average down sampling (not all programs support this, GIMP does not).

 

[hypsandar]

It will show the mipmap 257*257, which being a mipmap looks like a lower frequency version of the full sized image. This means you waste the 515*515 image.

Unless loading screens use some special magic that allows them to load mipmap levels >512*512... That or BLP lab automatically resamples to 512*512.

To downsize the full scale image to be at least 512*512 you will either need to bilinear filter sample it down logarithmically (since bilinear filtering only works well up to a reduction of half the resolution) or use the more recommended area average down sampling (not all programs support this, GIMP does not).

Oh, makes sense. Doesn't seem to affect the texture much so i'll leave it be for now. I might make a more complex loading screen later on, this a good thing to know.