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How to change flag in counters?

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hirulog

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Oct 20, 2004
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I tried to change the flag that is displayed in the lower left part of the counters in HoI 1.06c
What I did was going to the folder ....\Gfx\palette and change the counter which I wanted to change (in fact I worked on the files counter_ger.bmp and counter_hol.bmp).
Following the "flag" change you can do for sprites (by changing the flag_XXX.bmp file), I changed the flags in the \gfx\palette-files and saved the updated files in the same place under the same name. When I started HoI again I was really disappointed to see that there was NO change - the old flags were still there! So it appears that these flags come from somewhere else.
I have searched all files in the HoI directory to find the flags, but I just cannot find them.

Can somebody tell me where these flags are coded and how to change them?

:confused: :confused: :confused:
 
I believe that to modify the flag in counters, you have to modify the counter itself.
 
That's exactly what I tried to do! I took the counter-file from the gfx\palette folder and changed the flag using a bmp editor. Checking that file showed that I indeed had changed the flag in the counter-file, however after restarting HoI it turned out that IN the game still the OLD flags turned up!
 
Wow, glad to hear that someone else uses counters when they play! I thought that I was the only one, since I have never seen any mention of how many of the flags are missing/wrong on the counters.

Anyway, to change the flag you need to have a program such as Paint Shop Pro (I use PSP 7). You need to open the counter_ger.bmp file and then access the Colors drop-down menu and select Edit Palette. This will open the palette for the bitmap.

The palette is broken down as follows:

Palette Index 0 - Transperancy bit
Palette Index 1 - ?
Palette Index 2-127 - The flag on the left counter (9 rows of 14 bits)
Palette Index 128-142 - ?
Palette Index 143 - Border color for flag on the left counter
Palette Index 144-243 - The flag on the right counter (10 rows of 10 bits)
Palette Index 244-250 - ?
Palette Index 251 - Darkened edges of counters
Palette Index 252 - Lightened edges of counters
Palette Index 253 - Background color of unit type (ie. Infantry, Armour, Air)
Palette Index 254 - Color of counter outline and unit type
Palette Index 255 - Base color of counters

If you actually changed the bitmap itself, you must get a new version of the counter (usually by re-installing HoI, as your original German counter is now corrupted). Or if you feel comfortable with the following, save the palette from the counter_ger.bmp. Copy another country's counter and rename it counter_ger.bmp, open this new German counter and load the original palette from your counter_ger.bmp. This should fix the german counter.

I hope that this info helps!
 
Last edited:
Counter palette assignment

Dear gkhager - THX for your help!

I'm not very familiar with PSP (or bitmaps whatsoever) so I try to get a grasp of it.

Working along the lines you pointed out, I can indeed change colors in the flags, by changing the corresponding pallette color. What doesn't work though is changing the flag border color by changing palette color entry # 143 (doesn't do anything visible). It turns out that when you change Palette index 254 this not only affects the counter outline but ALSO the flag border color.

As I would like to change the flag border color only - have you got any idea on how to do that (of course without changing the outline colors)?
 
hirulog,

I guess it depends upon which counter you are trying to modify. Most of my work was done by copying the counter.bmp to whichever country I needed (ie. counter_sau.bmp). On the counter.bmp palette it appears that index #143 changes the upper and right sides of the flag outline, while #254 changes the left and 2/3 of the lower portion of the flag outline (as well as the counter outline).

To answer your question about the separation of the flag outline from the counter outline, that would have to do with the way that the palettes are interpreted by HoI itself, and can not be changed by anything within the bitmap itself. As you saw, the bitmap itself is not really used by HoI, but is used as a representation of how the counter will look in-game.

Again, I hope that this is helpful to you.
 
gkhager,

This was indeed very helpful - thanks for helping me out!

BTW, you suggest that you have been changing/adding flags on counters yourself - which ones did you mod?

I used your explications to change the flag in the counter for Germany into a more "authentic" flag. As this forum does not accept such "authenticities", I posted the modified counter in the forum entry in "The Stony Road Forum Index » Stony Road to War » Stony Road Graphics&Sprites » Use NATO counters instead of sprites".

Maybe you could upload your modified counters there too? (or here, if they are "allowed") - might be appreciated if you'd share them (at least I would!)

Anyway - THX! ;)
 
In that case you'd better read my post more thoroughly: I asked gkhager which mods he has made and to up these if they were "allowed" - it was my guess that the quotes would indicate the political correctness (i.e. not allowing "authenticities") enforced on this forum :mad:
 
hirulog,

Thanks for the interest, but the counters that I made are in no way as nice as the ones that come with 1.06, so I don't think that many people would be interested. I mainly made them for the countries that didn't have counters supplied for them in 1.06 (ie. Saudi Arabia, Tannu Tuva, Mongolia, Bhutan, Liberia, Sinkiang, India, etc). I also prefer the counter strip that was updated for Historical Stony Road, because you then see the Air Force Roundels for each nation, but because of this, I also had to modify some counters that came with 1.06 but had no Air Force Roundel (ie. Latvia, Oman, Yemen, Nepal, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Haiti, Mexico, The Philippines, Tibet, New Zealand, etc.). The only others that I updated were mostly from South and Central America and Portugal which had white outlines on their flags.
 
gkhager, you probably got my PM (yup, just saw your reply :)), but if anyone else is interested, the program and some instructions on using it is at http://gwalcmai.no.sapo.pt/.

It isn't "Insta-counter 2000", though (;)), it just helps simplify the process of getting the flag on the counter. You paint it in PSP (or other program that can save as RGB) and use the program to convert it into something you can then splice into a palette file.
 
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