CUSTOm Icons tutorial
This page will show you how to create custom icons to use in game. Icons are the images used to represent a unit or building on the HUD. Lower down on his page is a tutorial for another type of icon, bobble heads.
Icons are located in the following directory: art\ui\flash\shared\textures. Here, they are separated into folders based on their use in-game. |
Halo Wars: Definitive Edition uses .ddx files, which themselves cannot be edited. Right-click the file and rename it. Change the .ddx extension to ".dds". This will allow the file to be opened and edited.
Many programs do not recognize this type of .dds file, so they must be opened by certain programs. Visual Studio is one such program. For those who do not like Visual Studio, you can convert the .dds into another file type, such as .png, to edit in another program, such as Paint.net. You can now create a custom icon using preexisting icons or make your own entirely.
Once you have created a custom icon, you'll need to put it into the game. To do this, save the image as .dds, and rename the file extension to .ddx so it is recognized by the game. Make sure that the file is placed in the correct location: art\ui\flash\shared\textures. If your custom icon is being used for a new unit, you will need to do the following to make sure it is used by the correct unit.
Navigate to the following directory: art\ui\flash\hud\hud_menu. Use PHX to convert the two files (hud_menu_unsc/hud_menu_cov) to .xml. Each file is used to determine what icons each faction will see when they view a unit or tech upgrade. Keep in mind that each faction's tech upgrades only need to be in their respective files, while unit icons should be in both. Open the appropriate file for your custom icon.
For organization's sake, search for similar unit, tech, etc. icons to your custom icon. Copy/Paste one of the other lines as a template for your new icon. Each line consists of an icon type, name, texture, and owner.
Icon types include buildingicon, uniticon, techicon, abilityicon, miscicon, staticon, and powericon.
Name refers to how the icon will be identified in techs.xml. For example, this is how the Warthog's icon changes when upgraded in-game.
Texture refers to the directory in which the .ddx file for the icon is contained.
Owner refers to which unit, tech, ability, etc will be assigned this icon.
Name refers to how the icon will be identified in techs.xml. For example, this is how the Warthog's icon changes when upgraded in-game.
Texture refers to the directory in which the .ddx file for the icon is contained.
Owner refers to which unit, tech, ability, etc will be assigned this icon.
Once you have put in the correct information in each section of this line for your icon, it should then appear in-game.
Note: in objects.xml, there is a portraiticon line for each object that directs to an icon for this object to use. This line seemingly serves no purpose, as the icon will not actually appear in-game.
Custom Bobble head Icons
In addition to the HUD icons, there are icons that appear above a unit's head called bobble heads. In the base game, they are only used by Spartans, Forge, and Anders.
Bobble heads are assigned to a unit in squads.xml using the tag <bobblehead></bobblehead>
Bobble heads are found in hpbars.xml in the data folder. Navigate through the file to the bobble heads.
Copy/Paste one of the preexisting bobble heads to use as a template for your custom bobble head.
<PortraitTexture> refers to the icon that is displayed in the bobble head.
<VetTexture> refers to the icon used for veterancy, which will be displayed around the bobble head.
<BackgroundTexture> refers to the background in the bobble head.
<VetTexture> refers to the icon used for veterancy, which will be displayed around the bobble head.
<BackgroundTexture> refers to the background in the bobble head.
Go to each of the locations indicated by each texture's directory to edit or add new textures using the method indicated earlier on this page.