Changing the Ingame Minimap

[Sabertooth_X]

This is a simple tutorial on how to change your ingame minimap! I've seen this explained all over the place, but have not seen it in a tutorial. I even tried searching for it in tutorials on here and hive, and found nothing. You can now also only change the preview!
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Pre-Tutorial notes:
--You can take a tga and convert it to a .blp, if you wish. Just remember when you import to change the path to either War3MapMap.blp or War3MapPreview.blp instead of .tga.
--The minimap does NOT need an alpha channel.

Step 1: The Image
• Open up an image in any program that can make .tga files.
• Take any image, make it's size 256x256 OR 128x128.
• Save it as a .tga (either 24bit or 32, but not 16 because that crashes WC3) -- If you're using a .blp, bypass this step.

Step 2: Importing
• Open Worldedit
• Go under the import manager (look next to the "test map" icon on the toolbar up top.)

• Go under File -> Import File and then find your image. Make sure it is a .tga image.
• Change it's path to custom and make it one of these two options:

• War3MapMap.tga- This will make both the minimap preview and in-game map the chosen image.
• War3MapPreview.tga- This will make ONLY THE MINIMAP PREVIEW the chosen image. The in-game map will remain untouched (as in, what minimaps normally are)
• **If you set both a War3MapPreview and War3MapMap, the War3MapPreview image will override the War3MapMap image as the preview image only. The ingame minimap will still be the War3MapMap image.**

Step 3: You're Done!
• Now, you should be done. If you've done everything correctly, when you start your map, the minimap should be replaced with the image you selected.

[Pyrogasm]

Originally Posted by Sabertooth_X

(i believe it can be 128x128 as well, not sure)

You should test and find out if this works for sure.

Aside from that, I like the simplicity and usefulness of this tutorial! Good job!

[Sabertooth_X]

Thank you, Pyro.
It does work with 128x128, and I have updated the post with the screenshots, as I said I would.

[Dark.Revenant]

.blp's work as well. They are also (usually) slightly better compressed than .tga's. Perhaps you should mention that...

[Sabertooth_X]

I know .blp is what you need for the Loadscreen, wasnt sure if you could use them for the minimaps. But I'll see what the change in quality is in a bit, in a game on bnet right now.

[Rao Dao Zao]

You simply need to replace war3mapMap.blp; I don't quite understand this needing to fiddle with any game interface settings.

[Sabertooth_X]

And it just got made even simpler.
I only had that extra step in there because I originally must've screwed up something and it only worked when I did that. I knew something was funny with that = /

Thanks RDZ.
EDIT: I've also added in how to just change the minimap preview. :D

[abriko]

You forgot to tell about paramaters of Tga format. 16,24 or 32 bits/pixel ?

[Sabertooth_X]

I honestly didn't pay attention to that. I just found a random image and saved it as a TGA then imported it.

[Tide-Arc Ephemera]

It's 24 as far as I know.

[Rising_Dusk]

This could be a really useful tutorial if you know, it covered all aspects of the thing and explained them all. Right now, it's really kind of unhelpful and unspecific.

If you explained the types of targas it accepts and probably whether or not the damned thing needs an alpha channel, it would get nothing but better. If you don't know, I suggest testing it yourself.

[Sabertooth_X]

Okay. I only have one targa option when saving, so I don't even know what other types of targas are. I only have .tga. That's it, and its 24.
As far as alpha channels go, no, you don't need one for the minimap or the minimap preview.

[Tide-Arc Ephemera]

There's 16, 24 and 32. As far as I know 24 is the one that's used.

[PitzerMike]

I was surprised to see we didn't have a minimap tutorial yet.
Anyway, to get my approval I ask a few things:

1. Elaborate on the supported TGA types. Since an alpha channel is not required that pretty much leaves us with 24 bit images. However I'd be interested if War3 supports RLE-encoded TGAs. You can download the free Paint.NET program where you can save TGAs with different settings and try them ingame.

2. Remove the colors from your post. The green doesn't go well with some themes (eg. Tauren). Use size=5 or somthing instead of the colors.

[Sabertooth_X]

Colors removed, Pitz.

Paint.NET is telling me that I need some framework thing so I can't get it working right now.