How to replace the splash screen of Warcraft III

[Barade]

Hey,
for my modification I'd like to replace the Frozen Throne splash screen with Arthas' picture when you start the .exe file. Is this even possible or is the file hardcoded into the .exe file?

 

[Emm-A-]

sry this might be stupid, but if you cannot find a way to change the screen, you could run a splash screen yourself, that is exactly overlapping the blizzard one to hide it.. I know it would be probably ugly ...

 

[IcemanBo]

Open the .exe with Resource Hacker, it worked for me. There you can replace the bitmap.

 

[Barade]

ok thanks, I will try that

 

[Dr Super Good]

It is hard coded into the executable. Be warned that tampering with the executable in any way violates ToU and may trigger anti-cheating measures on BattleNet.

 

[Barade]

Maybe then the first approach is the best, to start a custom script or executable which only shows a splash screen and starts the normal .exe.

 

[Dr Super Good]

The splat screen should not even show anymore on modern computers. It only appears if loading takes more than a few seconds, which given how simple WC3 is can only happen if the program is not in the file cache and if a modern mechanical drive is under heavy I/O strain.

The reason the splat screen existed was as a liveliness prompt while the CD protection was run, which took considerable time due to the slow speed of CD drives. As that was removed in a patch and computers are considerably faster today its existence is limited to appearances in extreme cases only.

 

[Emm-A-]

In my case, the screen flashes for some very short time before wc3 starts, but I can still see it. Loading takes less then a second but I can still see the screen come up

 

[Dr Super Good]

In my case, the screen flashes for some very short time before wc3 starts, but I can still see it. Loading takes less then a second but I can still see the screen come up

Yeh, but it should flash so quickly that no one really cares about it anyway. As I said, it only exists as a liveliness prompt for the now removed CD protection. Far better to use the standard executable when possible, this is better for future compatibility since when updates are released you do not need to worry about the executable changing.

 

[A Void]

You could create your own .exe and make it show an image and then run War3.exe after some time.

 

[Barade]

If anyone is interested in this: I wrote a Qt application which starts my .exe file as process and creates a QSplashScreen on top which overlays Warcraft's splash screen. So I don't have to modify the .exe file. Unfortunately the flag Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint does not always work, so I asked on Stack Overflow: Hiding the splash screen of another process with a custom splash screen

Apparently they immediately thought I would do plagiarism etc. -.-

If I find the propery flags in Qt everything should work fine. Most of the time it works but sometimes Warcraft's splash screen is still on top. Of course I will add Blizzards Copyright to the splash screen :/
Here you can find the source code: gitweb.wc3lib.org Git - dmdf.git/tree - splash/TPoFSplash/

 

[A Void]

If anyone is interested in this: I wrote a Qt application which starts my .exe file as process and creates a QSplashScreen on top which overlays Warcraft's splash screen. So I don't have to modify the .exe file. Unfortunately the flag Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint does not always work, so I asked on Stack Overflow: Hiding the splash screen of another process with a custom splash screen

Apparently they immediately thought I would do plagiarism etc. -.-

If I find the propery flags in Qt everything should work fine. Most of the time it works but sometimes Warcraft's splash screen is still on top. Of course I will add Blizzards Copyright to the splash screen :/
Here you can find the source code: gitweb.wc3lib.org Git - dmdf.git/tree - splash/TPoFSplash/

You don't have to create one on top of the old one. Run "War3.exe" directly and it will show no splash screen.

 

[Barade]

Hm then I will have to use war3.exe with MPQDraft. But when I select the path customly it says that the filename and path must exactly match the file name AND path I have entered. Isn't that a problem when I distribute my custom .exe file.

 

[A Void]

Hm then I will have to use war3.exe with MPQDraft. But when I select the path customly it says that the filename and path must exactly match the file name AND path I have entered. Isn't that a problem when I distribute my custom .exe file.

You will be able to rename your .exe later on.

 

[Barade]

Okay, I hope it finds the path for other uses in the registry. Thanks!

edit:
Using a direct path to war3.exe does not work with MPQDraft. It won't use the registy path of Warcraft and therefore it won't find Warcraft at other player's computers.

Therfore I still use my splash screen overlay.