Customising Load Screens

By Lord_Chris

Are you tired of looking at the same load screens all of the time in Stronghold 2? Well, fear not! Now you have the ability to change them for good! This tutorial shows you how to customise any load screen, victory screen or anything in-between in Stronghold 2 or Stronghold Legends.

Essentially, you are doing the exact same thing for changing a load screen, victory screen, defeat screen .etc. However, it is important to backup your original files in case you would like them back. You download the original load screen from our gallery if you no longer have them, but it is recommended you keep your own backup. If you lose a file, you need to re-install the game to recover it.

The folder where load screens are stored depends on whether you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit system. For 32-bit systems, use the folder Program Files instead of Program Files (x86).

Load screens are stored in the folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Firefly Studios\Stronghold 2\ui\frontend and are under the names of loadscreen_1.jpg, loadscreen_2.jpg and loadscreen_3.jpg. Additionally the editor background is called scenario_editor_screen.jpg.

In Stronghold Legends, victory screens, load screens, losing screens and credit screens are all stored in folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Firefly Studios\Stronghold Legends\interface\backgrounds. You can also modify existing backgrounds in this folder too. Each faction has a unique victory and defeat screen, along with a standardised background for loading the game called loading.jpg, and a standardised load screen while loading maps, called loading_mission.jpg.

There are two main ways of adding custom load screens into the game:

1. Rename existing load screens
2. Edit the existing load screens

Since editing is harder, I will focus on that second. To rename a file, it must be in JPEG format, and it must be 1024x768 pixels wide. Next go to the directory above, rename the file loadscreen_x.jpg (x being the number of the loadscreen you want to replace) and copy the custom picture into the same folder. Rename the new picture, and you will soon see the difference!



Now for the hard way. It's not really that much harder, but requires you to have knowledge of editing images and the ability to be able to edit them well - which personally is where I fail. Copy the loadscreen you want to change to your desktop, then open it in a program such as paint.net (which is what I use) or photoshop. Edit the image, then replace it using the first method. However, there are some points you should know before editing:

• All screen backgrounds are JPEG images
• All images must be 1024x768 pixels
• All images must be in RBG format, with the bit depth of 8
• The main thing is the progress bar (in the first loadscreen) because that shows progress while the game loads. Coordinates for the red progress bar are as follows: top-left, x,y 34,738 and the bottom corner is at x,y 989,753
• The size of the progress bar on the screen is 956x16 pixels
• The x,y top-left corner is 34,738 and the x,y coordinates for the bottom-right corner are x,y 989,753
• The RGB colour is 128,0,0
• The HSL colour is 255,255,64
• The HTML colour is #800000
• It's simply drawn on over the background and is 100% opaque
• The size for the gold frame for the progress bar is 967x27 pixels
• The x,y top-left corner is 995,759
• Additionally, it's important to note that the game version will be shown in white at the bottom-right of the loading screen
• The top left-corner of the version number is 955,707 and the x,y bottom-right corner is 995,719. The actual dimensions of the version are approximately 41x13 pixels

Victory & Lose screens

Victory screens are stored in the folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Firefly Studios\Stronghold 2\ui\frontend\win_lose_screens. The only difference is the directory they are stored in. Below is a table showing the different screens are where they are used in the game.

 Lose screens are generally located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Firefly Studios\Stronghold 2\ui\lose_screens. They are used whenever you lose, picked at random. Credit screens can be located in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Firefly Studios\Stronghold 2\ui\frontend\credit and they are all updated in the same way as the guide above states. You can also customise any JPEG image in the game using this method.

Here is a brilliant example of a custom credits screen:



Finally, check out our custom load screens gallery for custom uploaded screens. You can view the gallery for Stronghold Legends custom load screens here. Users are more than welcome to upload their own!