Changing Starting Keep,Color

[Lord_Chris 251]

I've promoted you, you can now post links.

[Lord_Chris 251]

Hmm... I've downloaded the file and nothing happens. Is it the spearmen that first appears on screen?

 

I have also noticed that all of the troops that are on the walls disappear underneath, which is a sign of corrupted files. I haven't actually really modified the game since I purchased Windows 8, so the only thing I can think of is a difference in version (or OS, but not very likely). I've left a comment on the file, hopefully Skullus will be able to tell me what game version he got the glitch on. Does it still work for you?

[Doomsword 1]

Running 1.4.1 games on 1.3.1 will make the troops drop into the walls. Works fine on my v.1.4.1, yes the burnt troop is the first thing you see. Nothing is really supposed to happen except the burnt troop runs around like a maniac and never dies, you can grab him and get him to move where you want but then he will go his own way. Quirky game :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

I'll update the game to 1.4.1 on my Windows 7 Machine and attempt it there. Hopefully it will work there. It does sound really cool though :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

OK, I must be honest, I completely forgot about it for a while. However, I installed the updates and tried to run it when it crashed with an error. I can't remember what it was, but I know it was due to some C++ stuff I attempted in the /stronghold 2/shaders/ directory (exactly why I need volunteers to help me :) ). I'll reinstall the game and then run it. Sorry, once more for the wait, I should reinstall it soon.

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

this is sick, thanks! :)

[Greeny 0]

Thanx for quide how to change color

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

yeah, I REALLY want to change team colour, I have been modding SH2 for years now and its the only thing I am unable to do, If you have found out Lord_Chris, it would be much appreciated if you shared it with us. :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

The first thing I'll do when I find out is post here - believe me, it's generally simple it's just finding the correct files. :)

 

It's definitely in the /stronghold2/shaders directory. And the thing is, that's all you have to change in the entire game to change any colours. Once you find the colours there, it should automatically change everywhere else. I have found several colours already. For example, when you see "COLOR0" that represents red and when you see "COLOR1" that represents black. I'm trying to figure it out more, but I'm slowed down massively by my lack of knowledge with C++.

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

Right thank you for the effort! :D

[Lord_Chris 251]

Just as a note: If you subscribe to this thread, you will receive an email when a new reply gets added.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Lord_Chris

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

oh right thanks it will be helpful.

[Lord_Chris 251]

@Doomsword: Wow, that glitch is amazing! Of all the times I've played SH2, nothing has ever happened like that before. I've even sent him into several man traps and nothing happened. The enemy just doesn't even appear to notice he's there. But, he did die eventually.

 

Very cool glitch :)

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

Your previous suggestion of changing the .dds mesh files did turn my troops black, however, so is all the other units in the game. Especially in Kingmaker, it is hard to determine which troops are mine. Have you made any progress?

[Lord_Chris 251]

I've sent @Black_Knight a PM, and I'm waiting for him to respond. He's the real C++ expert here.

 

  Quote

Your previous suggestion of changing the .dds mesh files did turn my troops black, however, so is all the other units in the game

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If you only colour part of the .dds file in you will still be able to distinguish which troop belongs to which lord. Take a look at Stronghold 2 Heaven Miscellaneous Files, premade by users. You can see how users have coloured parts in, but not all so that people can still distinguish which troop belongs to which lord. There are also one or two in our Download Central, but not as many. You are also welcome to upload any mods you make to our site here. But, obviously as Doomsword has said above it may corrupt your game:

 

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Someone from FF once said on Stronghold Knights, don't try and change the colors, it will just mess everything up

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So you'll have to be careful if you do still want to do it.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Lord_Chris
Updated broken links to downloads

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

On another note, people who were wondering why they couldn't access the towers in Saxon Keep or the other Keeps, it is because there are multiple files which configure the physical properties of the Keep. It may be a bit tedious, but after you rename the other files, say for example you wanted the Saxon keep physical properties, you would simply rename 'Keep_medium_table' to 'Keep_wooden_table', etc. Note that some files are not matched with other keeps, this is because they are other physical properties which are unique to that keep, for example, the Keep Towers.

In addition to this, about the troop color query, call this a bit over the top but I have created some black troop pictures for the barracks, unit selections, etc.

Edited March 23, 2014 by sh4d0wknight7447

[Lord_Chris 251]

  Quote

it is because there are multiple files which configure the physical properties of the Keep

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I knew that it wouldn't just be as easy as changing file names, but at least we have an answer now. At the time I was busy, I didn't have a lot of time to check it out properly and figure out exactly what to change - then forgot about it afterwards.

 

Another Note: I don't know whether you've seen my tutorial on adding units from stronghold legends into stronghold 2 - if you have, when you open up the UNI files in notepad or a text editor, you can do the exact same with the BDG files to see what files are required for that particular building.

 

However, in theory that should be no different to changing the ".BDG" files because they are the equivalent of the .UNI files from the units.

 

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you would simply rename 'Keep_medium_table' to 'Keep_wooden_table'

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Are you talking about the GR2 files, DDS files or both here? - I would take it that it should be both, but just to confirm.

 

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In addition to this, about the troop color query, call this a bit over the top but I have created some black troop pictures for the barracks, unit selections, etc.

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Could you post them here in the forum, they sound great? :)

Edited March 23, 2014 by Lord_Chris

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

Sure, and I'm not really sure what I did but it worked, I took an educated guess as to what might be the problem, and yes both the .GR2 and .dds.

Edited March 23, 2014 by sh4d0wknight7447

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

okay, so I have found something (if this aids anyone), the outlaws and estate (no ownership) all appear to be black. Therefore, your castle color must be defined by something, but the outlaws don't appear black on the mini map, instead they appear green. One thing that made me wonder about the colors was that when I opened up 'TeamColours' in the shaders directory, it stated specifically

 

TextureFactor = ;

 

This means that 'TeamColour' is already defined somewhere, and this shader module for SH2 is reading of that and translating it so that we see different colors. This may derive from Team specifics such as the lord colour, etc. However this may not be the case as replacing your lord with say Olaf still results in a red cape. But right now, it is safe to say that the team colors are keeping bloody well hidden from us, but we will find it!

[Lord_Chris 251]

One of the key files is the /stronghold 2/shaders/PhongShader.fx. You can tell this as you find this in almost every file from the shaders subdirectories.

 

#include "../PhongShader.fx"

 

In all programming, ../ means up one folder. This example was from the file /stronghold2/shaders/units/default.fx. So you go up one folder and include the file PhongShader.fx. This basically means that any coding in that file is almost added into the default.fx file for it to be used in it. This is what I'm talking about when I say it's hard - there are several files included in each file itself. We will be the people who do it though. :)

 

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This may derive from Team specifics such as the lord colour, etc. However this may not be the case as replacing your lord with say Olaf still results in a red cape.

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Not entirely true - the lord colour will always be your player colour. If you think about it, when you change to Olaf, his cloak turns to red, however, if you replace Olaf with your lord, then your lord will appear Olaf's colour. This means it is pre-decided before the game even starts, and seems to point to the fact there is something in the DDS file of unit "X" which allows the shader stuff to colour a certain part of the unit in the player colour - I.E. The stomach of the archer is the player colour. This also seems to also explain why when you attempted to colour the archer completely black it did it to all the archers on the map - you simply overwrote this "colour deciding" feature so it wasn't there for the game to use, because it wasn't there it simply did without it meaning that you couldn't distinguish which archers belonged to which lord.

 

I've also had a browse around and found where TeamColour is defined. Go to /stronghold 2/shaders/GameParameters.fx and you will see

shared float4 TeamColour = float4(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0);

on line 27. Now our next mission is to find what shared means, and what float4 is - float4 is used in nearly all the files. Ready? :)

Edited March 30, 2014 by Lord_Chris

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

Hmm. Very interesting. I'll take a look about it, and I may even ask a C++ expert to help me with this.

Edited March 30, 2014 by sh4d0wknight7447

[Lord_Chris 251]

That would be very useful as it's just guess work at the moment. Seeing what I do above confirms what I've been dreading not to find out. It means that the codes are likely to be in Hex or some other form of coding. I'm not sure whether C++ has any colour codes, if so it may be using those. This will be a lot more complex than just blue or red I'm afraid.

[Lord_Chris 251]

OK, I've found Orange.

 

I searched Google for "colour 0.95 c++" and I found the Hex code FFBF00. I then went to html-color-codes.info and entered it into the box there to get the exact same shade or orange that's in the game.

[sh4d0wknight7447 8]

If this uses Hex codes then this will be a lot more difficult I assume. I think I will have a look for what actually 'triggers' these colors in the game, and where it is triggered from. That's my mission (for now).

[Lord_Chris 251]

I'm not sure whether you seen my last reply, I'll quote it here again:

 

  Quote

OK, I've found Orange.

 

I searched Google for "colour 0.95 c++" and I found the Hex code FFBF00. I then went to html-color-codes.info and entered it into the box there to get the exact same shade or orange that's in the game.

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I also think that float4 is red, possibly why it appears to be defined so much and in so many files.