My first post (ok, maybe second) in this forum after many years of lurking and being a Matrix customer, is to thank you for your outstanding work!
Below are my "historically corrected" flag and roundel files, adjusted for your mod. I hope you can find the time to review and integrate them better.
I have just updated the flags using the files you've provided. They were perfectly done; no need to tweak. I have given you the due credit in the instructions file. Thank you.
I really like your work on this mod Cabido, and have used several elements of it for my own. Especially the transparent movement arrows are a stroke of genius.
I just wonder, would it be possible to make the cursors feel a bit less "floaty"? I.e. make the drop shadow closer to the cursor, more like a default Win cursor? I just can't get used to the "floatiness" of it.
Also the animated cursor is a neat feature, but I find it at times a bit too much, would it be possible to tone down the "shinyness" of the effect?
Other than that -- much respect for the work you've done! [&o]
OUW (Order of the Upgrade Wars) There are folks out there with way too much time on their hands.
- Norm Koger
The option for animated cursors was due to the lack of change to buttons when hovering over them, so that the animation indicates a hotspot. I used a static solution in the first version of the mod. Just download it and grab the cursors.
As for the shadows, this was an aesthetic choice in order to increase the feel of a real board. This is something I'm not willing to change, since people can always use the original cursors, if they will. Nevertheless, you can easily get rid of the shadow using a cursor editor like this one: https://www.cursor.cc. Just click the transparent checkbox, delete the shadow and save again.
Thanks for the reply Cabido, I'll try to just use the older static version. And I'll look around to see if I find other cool cursor sets, a quick search reveals there's a lot of free ones out there too [:)]
OUW (Order of the Upgrade Wars) There are folks out there with way too much time on their hands.
- Norm Koger
Great work, the board game look would always be my preference. After playing a bit, I decided to continue using the UI and counters, but I returned to the original map. This modded map is too bright and there's too much beige and yellowish colours, as for my taste. It works good with the desert scenarios but the European maps don't look like war torn Europe. I'd prefer to see more darker, green colours. Well, maybe there'll be a different version some day Thank you for your efforts!
Quick question, in the installation instruction file it states:
"3. In “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Operational Art of War IV\Graphics” delete the following three files (save a backup of these in another place or just change their names to something else)"
Is this step only necessary for a Steam installation or do we need to delete/change these files in a non-Steam installation as well?
Great mod, thanks for providing this for the community.
I'm sorry for not answering earlier, but I was travelling with no spare time at all.
Ivanov, there is a lot of subjectivity to mods. Psychological effects of color are real, but will be different from person to person. I can understand your preference for darker colors when representing war torn europe because of the images we have been exposed to when WWII is the subject, even if some battles took place in sun bathed fields on yet untouched little towns. But the main reasons for the lighter colors are the greater contrast with things like roads and railroads, and also flexibility; each tile must work well with each other tile and its difficult to do it when we have very contrasting background colors. It's easier for real looking terrain, since then the little irregularities and dithering make blending of elements more easy. Flat colors don't allow that.
Anyway, if you wish, you can go through a graphics software like Gimp (free to download) and adjust Hue/Saturation (every graphics software package has this command), note down the values and apply them to every other tile. It's easy to do. A good tip is to get some TOAW captured screen with most terrain elements on it, apply Hue/Saturation changes until you fell its the way you want it to look, and apply these changes to each tile individually then. It won't reproduce exactly what you saw on the original captured screen changes (because of transparency blending for some tiles), but it will be close.
rjantzi, the files must be deleted, since the overlay have a higher priority and will display if present.
I used 7Zip to unzip the fragment that did download and it seems to have unzipped the entire package and I had no problem with it after that. Thanks for asking.
If you need to put warheads on foreheads who you gonna call? An FO...just one will do.
But, to be honest not sure if I like these graphics either. Too bright and not enough contrast I think.
There are settings for brightness and contrast and they start at the lowest level but changing them doesn't seem to do anything. Maybe I need to play around with it for a bit.
. . . to be honest not sure if I like these graphics either.
Quite a few people select terrains, features and unit icons from a variety of mod sets. Suggest that you take a look thru the AAR files and find graphics you like. Post screen shots here and it shouldn’t take long to get what you need.
Regards, RhinoBones
Colin Wright:
Pre Combat Air Strikes # 64 . . . I need have no concern about keeping it civil
Post by broccolini » Sun Nov 06, 2022
. . . no-one needs apologize for douchebags acting like douchebags
I should say... finally realized you have to restart the game before changes in brightness and contrast take affect, and that has made a huge difference.
When I turn the contrast up all the ways I get extremely bright colors... particularly the red which is kinda surprising. Also, one time got a totally black and white setup (no colors) with profound looking terrain contours. Not sure how I did that but a lot of variations just with these two parameters.
Thank you for your efforts!
