[TUTORIAL] Change Login Screen For a Picture

[samgartell]

Tools Required
BLP Converter
MPQ Editor
(Both inside this package from Eluo's thread http://bit.ly/w2StYU - Mediafire)
Any Picture Editor
(I recommend GIMP 2.6 http://www.gimp.org/ any should do though)
As pointed out by Sina, some particle effects from the dragon and the rumble still take place, nothing too serious, but just a warning.
How To

To get started, I'm not sure if this has been posted before, if it's old news or anything along those lines. I have no intentions of making a spam post, so if it is un-needed, feel free to just remove it.

OK. Start by finding your image, try to get a high quality image because it WILL lose some quality, by picking a good one now, it will at least be respectable quality later. I picked this [spoiler:2el99kgo][/spoiler:2el99kgo]

Open that image in your chosen editor, and rescale it to 1024x1024, then make sure to save it as a PNG, any other format will not work in the converter. After saving, drag and drop the PNG file onto the BLP Converter, after doing so, you should notice another file pop up, the same name as your PNG, but with the file format .blp, if you don't right click the blp converter, go to properties, compatibility then tick "Run as administrator", press OK and try the step above, again. Once this is done, rename the new BLP to "WotLK_Login_Citadel01" without quotes.

Now this is done, you can create a new MPQ using MPQ editor and name it anything from Patch-A.MPQ to Patch-Z.MPQ, (1-9 works too) inside it, you want the file tree to look like this


Drop "WotLK_Login_Citadel01.blp" into both
"Interface/GLUES/MODELS/UI_MAINMENU/Northrend" and
"Interface/GLUES/MODELS/UI_MainMenu_Northrend"

But, this leaves unwanted effects like snow, the skybowl, and the dragon, we don't want that. So I've done those textures already, making them completely transparent, meaning they won't show up, download them here: http://www.mediafire.com/?e5muxtpt9d0c9hy Extract them from the ZIP, and put ALL the folders inside "Tut", inside the root of the MPQ.

With all that done, start up WoW and you should have got something like this:
[spoiler:2el99kgo][/spoiler:2el99kgo]

If I've explained something strange or wrong, which looking at the time would not be a surprise at all, just let me know and I'll correct it straight away, whether it be a spelling mistake or something more important.

(My MPQ so you can take a look around and edit it to how you want: http://bit.ly/rFf9Dt)

[Sina]

Still got some effects from the dragon, and it looks a little bit strange, as the screen moves ^^

But, nice tut, works really fast and gives a lot of individualization (:


(if this screen-rumbeling and the music could/is changed, it would be extremely nice)



Edit: Could someone who did some more with Loginscreen/Modeling change this plane, so that the quality of the pictures is much better and it doesn't rumble anymore?

[samgartell]

Yeah, should have noted that at the start, this was a fast way of doing it. The particles of the dragon show, I'm almost sure they're hard-coded and the animation is irremovable.

You could try using a low polygon modelling program like Milkshape to create a plane, add a light and textures then convert the OBJ to M2? Not too great with 3D things, but I've seen people using MDLvis a lot recently, you should check that out too if you have the time

Edit: The music changing is easy, just get your MP3, rename it to "WotLK_Main_title.mp3" and drop it in a new MPQ with the treepath "Sound/Music/GlueScreenMusic" ;P However this doesn't cover the dragon sounds. I'm still looking for the .wav/.mp3 that controls that.

Edit2: Found them! Sound/Ambience/GlueScreen and the following files
GlueScreenLogin, Wrath_Login_1, Wrath_Login_2, Wrath_Login_3, Wrath_Login_4
All in .wav format tested it by replacing it with a water sound. Goes great with the Zangarmarsh image

[Sina]

You're the Edit-king! And epic! ^^

I took a look at MDLvis and also M2 in Blender. Buuut I think, if I start with this now, I won't get Vakara finished xD

I'll try the music now Thanks again.

[samgartell]

Haha, good luck with your project, hopefully MDLvis/Blender works out for you, I've heard a lot of people say MDLvis is a very difficult program to use >< Once again, good luck ;P

EDIT: Just noticed something in the Cataclysm files, there's an alternative "Low Bandwidth" model, which consists of what I should think to be a single plane with a picture on it, the model probably needs converting to 3.3.5a, BUT would provide the effect you want

[Sina]

Sooo, i made a little package.
Placed in the MPQ it will remove the dragon-sounds and switch the music with some bird-thing and flute.
If you want to take your own music, call your mp3 "WotLK_Main_theme" and place it in Sound/Music/GlueScreenMusic/.
http://[url=http://www.mediafire.com/?dq25x7f5qppk52g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.mediafire.com/?dq25x7f5qppk52g[/url]


(that's all you told, just a little bit faster dragon sounds were changed with silence)

[samgartell]

Sooo, i made a little package.
Placed in the MPQ it will remove the dragon-sounds and switch the music with some bird-thing and flute.
If you want to take your own music, call your mp3 "WotLK_Main_theme" and place it in Sound/Music/GlueScreenMusic/.
http://[url=http://www.mediafire.com/?dq25x7f5qppk52g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.mediafire.com/?dq25x7f5qppk52g[/url]


(that's all you told, just a little bit faster dragon sounds were changed with silence)

Nice, thanks will come in handy for those wanting to remove the dragon sound altogether Oh and I assumed that everyone had cata and wotlk on their PC's before, so here's the flat plane and the blp that goes with it, I found it under "Interface/Glues/UI_Mainmenu_lowbandwidth" but when I tried to extract the .skin files, MPQ editor crashed so I can only give you the M2 and BLP Here: http://www.mediafire.com/?vguh37gb6y6amry MPQ Editor (Latest) just isn't working properly with some cata MPQ's (Art.MPQ, etc. basically any that isn't in the enGB folder ><)

[Sina]

Well, I tried to look up the plane, buuut there are lots of planes. ^^

Then I first tryed to remove the dragon (just by moving him up), but M2Mod3 just crashes (it also crashes, as I want to convert the unchanged model :/).
As I try it with the changed it says something about MaxBones, as I try it with the original m2i about Boneweights. Don't really know, what to do with this information ^^

Will work on there another time.

[schlumpf]

You might go easier with editing the XML file describing the UI instead. That would require a GlueXML fix though. With that , you'd just go about and not use the model but display the textures themselves in the interface.

[Keta]

Could you perhaps make a fast tutorial on how that is done Schlumpf? Im sure a lot of people would like to know how that is done

Thanks
Keta

PS. LOLOLOLOL! 100th post!

[samgartell]

Could you perhaps make a fast tutorial on how that is done Schlumpf? Im sure a lot of people would like to know how that is done

Thanks
Keta

Just came here to ask the same thing Just need something along the lines of how you'd go about doing it. Thanks

[Supora]

I've made this only by XML and Lua editing

[Steff]

Just delet the m2 loading layer and add a new grafix layer with your image. All just XML.

[Avicii]

I've made this only by XML and Lua editing

Just delet the m2 loading layer and add a new grafix layer with your image. All just XML.

Looks pretty kewl, even though it's supposedly "so easy" ^^

Avicii

[Sina]

I never worked anyhow with XML, don't even really know, what it is. :/

Won't help me until I got the lots of time to spend in learning about it.