SPLASH SCREEN EDITING
I'm going to assume you already have a splash screen you want to edit and know where to replace it. Here's how to get everything working right. First note that this will ONLY work if you are using a Custom MPQ instead of a Stardraft CWAD. The patch loader will mess up your tFont.pcx and tEffect.pcx files because of a bug. =P If you are using a Stardraft CWAD, then you will have to use the same palette as the original pcx file to get everything looking right.
You should probably know that any 256-color, 640x480 pixel splash screen will look fine in starcraft no matter what you are replacing. Of course it must be a *.pcx file. The only problem is that the text that is overlayed on that screen sometimes gets messed up (color-wise).
Well, all you have to do is open up the tFont.pcx file that is in the same mpq directory as your splash screen. Export the palette from your custom splash screen and import it into the tfont.pcx file (using the matching closest color option; don't keep the palette indexes the same). Now just replace both the tFont.pcx and splash screen file in your custom.
This doesn't completely prevent the text colors from changing, but it will match them as close as possible to the colors in your images' palette and usually it will look just fine (unless there's no close matches for a color at all).
Also, if there are other images that are overlayed on the screen (usually other pcx files in the same directory or certain smacker videos), you will want to change their palette's to use your splash screen's also. This is because the palette of the background "sets" the palette of all the other images on the screen. If there are transparent overlays that should be displayed (like the "see through" buttons and menus), you need to import your palette into the tEffect.pcx file that is in that directory to keep the effects.Make sure to check Broodat.mpq, Stardat.mpq, and Install.exe for these files (they tend to be all around but are almost always in the same path as the splash screen in all the mpqs).
To get the cursor arrow to have the correct color, you will have to extract the arrow.grp file from the same directory of your splash screen and make it use your palette. The easiest way to do this is to open up the grp in your viewer with the original palette of the splash screen (not the default unit one). Then write out the bmps and import your palette as above. Make sure the parts that are supposed to be transparent are the transparent color (for RetroGRP, its black). Then recompile the grp.
Make sure you do not use the first index color (usually R-0 / G-0 / B-0, otherwise known as black) in any of these images except the parts are supposed to be transparent. Starcraft will automatically make this color fully transparent.
Of course, you probably only want to do all this for basic screens like the title since it is a lot of extra work (and files). Otherwise, just use the original palette of the splash screen you are replacing.
DI (aka MAGNUS99)
August 1, 1999
