FOF Black (a graphical tweak)

[Dutch]

Nothing major, but I thought I'd share it with the crowd. It's a jet black background for use with FOF that enhances the look on wide screen monitors. The background now matches the black edges of the screen.

Also included are some of the cleaner bmps that can be added using reshack.

You can get the files here --> http://www.explodinghouse.net/fof/black-fof.zip

http://www.explodinghouse.net/fof/black.jpg
Added my favorite positional tags that were created by Cuervo and largely based off the cleaner tags from FOF2k4.

EDIT: Oh, and you have to do the "Choose/Edit Color Scheme" stuff by yourself.

[QuikSand]

Looks pretty sweet, and I am totally game. Do we need to be graphics wizards to make this work? (I have never mucked around with reshack or similar utilities)

[gstelmack]

Well, it would be easy to use if a ResourcePatcher pack was created. Samples included with the UtilitySuite, see CuervoResources.dll/xml and IcyResources.dll/xml for examples. You just need to bundle the resources into a DLL, create an xml file for the replacement mappings, then give to folks to drop in.

[Dutch]

Greg's way is easier for everybody but Greg. :) When I have a minute, I'll be glad to write up some quick instructions.

[Kobeck]

snell - lol

[MIJB#19]

I actually thought this would be about a FOF mod that has the skill bars removed.

Didn't somebody suggest that as a challenge of some such?

[Firefly]

Thanks, it's pretty cool!

[Dutch]

Here's the step-by-step.

1. Download Resource Hacker from Resource Hacker (http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/)
2. Download FOF Black from http://www.explodinghouse.net/fof/black-fof.zip

3. Start reshack.exe
4. Open fof2007.exe (File-->Open and search for your FOF2007.exe instance)

5. Expand 302-1033 so you see the BMP image you wish to replace.
6. Click on Action-->Replace Bitmap and select "Open File with New Bitmap"
7. Browse to "302-1033.bmp", double-click that image and click "replace" to update the image.
7. Repeat steps 5 through 7 with images 300-1033, 302-1033, 305-1033, 306-1033, 328-1033, 329-1033, 323-1033, 325-1033.
8. File-->Save and then File-->Exit.

OPTIONAL FOF Color Tweaks

9. Go to Choose/Edit Color Scheme
10. "Set List Background Color One" -- White
11. "Set List Background Color Two" -- White
12. "Set Screen and Disable Box Text Color" -- Black
13. "Set Button Background Color" -- Dark Gray
14. "Set Button Text Color" -- White
15. "Set Selected Button Text Color" -- Dark Gray
16. "Set Highlighted Button Text Color" -- White
17. "Set Disabled Button Text Color" -- Light Gray/Silver
18. "Set Active Box Background Color" -- White
19. "Set Active Box Text Color" -- Black
20. "Set Screen and Disabled Box Background Color" -- Dark Gray (or better yet a custom dark Charcoal Gray)
21. "Set Drop-Down Box Text Color" -- Black
22. "Set Title Bar Background Color" -- Black
23. "Set Title Bar Text Color" -- White

24. Save your Color Changes

And you're all set. Takes a minute, but it's worth it.

[QuikSand]

I think this tweak looks great, and I'd love to use it.

I suspect I'm among many who are thrilled to have a number of graphics tweaks accessible through the gstelmack utility stuite... and simultaneously put off (or intimidated) by the set of instructions above.

Would love to see this get into a "check this box to apply this bakground" option somewhere.

[Dutch]

Well, it would be easy to use if a ResourcePatcher pack was created. Samples included with the UtilitySuite, see CuervoResources.dll/xml and IcyResources.dll/xml for examples. You just need to bundle the resources into a DLL, create an xml file for the replacement mappings, then give to folks to drop in.


QS, that would work better, but from the above comments from Greg, I'd have to package up the files into a DLL and then point to them with the XML. I don't know how to package the files neccessary into a dll file. I'd be interested to know how that's done though.

[gstelmack]

QS, that would work better, but from the above comments from Greg, I'd have to package up the files into a DLL and then point to them with the XML. I don't know how to package the files neccessary into a dll file. I'd be interested to know how that's done though.

Well, you should see if ResHacker lets you create a DLL from the get-go.

I did the couple included via Visual Studio. The XML file is easy, it just says "replace resource 301 in FOF with resource 124 from the DLL". But yeah, building the DLL requires something that can create resource-only DLLs.

Also note that steps 9-24 above are done inside FOF and would not be replaced by ResourcePatcher.

[Firefly]

I think this tweak looks great, and I'd love to use it.

I suspect I'm among many who are thrilled to have a number of graphics tweaks accessible through the gstelmack utility stuite... and simultaneously put off (or intimidated) by the set of instructions above.

Would love to see this get into a "check this box to apply this bakground" option somewhere.

It's easier than it sounds. Just open the game exe with Resource Hacker and replace the bitmaps with the new ones. For example 328-1033.bmp will replace the bitmap in Bitmap --> 328 --> 1033. You don't have to replace all if you don't want to. The details you can figure out by yourself or look at Dutch's instructions if you get lost.

When you're done click "save" and you're all set.

[MizzouRah]

When is the "...and justice for all" tweak coming out? :)

Great work Dutch!!!

[MizzouRah]

The same one for 302 (position tags), also goes into 151 (not sure why position tags are listed twice)

Some addons I also like to use in addition to this great mod:

219, 220, 221, and 222 (scoreboard)

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/1086/wheelssb.png

330, expericence tags

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/834/330yabanciexperiencetag.png

223, scoreboard numbers

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/5771/fonts4wheels.png

224, scoreboard team names

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8865/wheelssbupdate2.png