 Tired of looking at the same old SH2 load and menu screens? This tutorial shows you how to customize all the screen backgrounds in Stronghold 2. From the Loading screen to the Victory screens, all can be changed to anything you desire.
Submitted by Sir_Knight, Aubergine, Merrill the Just, LordBritian
The process of changing the different load, menu and win/lose screens is generally the same. We will start off with an example on how to change the load screen, and then expand the idea to any file. NOTE: Back up all of the files that you are planning to change!! Any files that are lost can only be replaced by a full reinstall of the game. Customization of the Load Screen These files are in C:\Program Files\FireFly Studios\ui\frontend and/or ...win_lose_screens  To change the loadscreen, either of two way can be used. The complicated way or the more simplified way. The Simplified Way For this method, you take the easy way out by renaming a file. 1. Get a picture that you want to use for your load screen. *(Make sure it is 1024x768 pixels large) . Resize it if needed, using your preferred graphics editor.  2. Now go into C:\Program Files\FireFly Studios\Stronghold 2\ui\frontend. 3. Back up the file “loadscreen_1.jpg”. 4. Now, copy the custom picture to use into this directory, “C:\Program Files\FireFly Studios\ui\frontend". 5. Rename the new file to use as “loadscreen_1.jpg” and the next time Stronghold 2 is loaded, the new picture will be used. Example by Sir Knight.  The Complicated Way The more complicated way is, well, more complicated, but it is more customizable toward your liking. 1. Open up “loadscreen_1.jpg” in a graphics program, such as Photoshop or Paintshop Pro.  2. Edit this as desired, but keep in mind that you probably want to see the load progress bar, which can be copy and pasted in to the image. See sec. 1.0 in “Technical Info.” Also you want to be able to see your version number. See sec. 1.1 A template will soon be available for download. 3. Here is an example of the final product of a load screen using the hard way, from Merrill the Just  Technical Information (use this to place the progress bar & info on version number) Screen Format All of the screen backgrounds are JPEG files that are 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels high in RGB format with a bit depth of 8. The Loading Screen The key special feature of the loading screen is that it has a progress bar to show progress while the game loads so the custom load screens need to take account of this. Sec. 1.0 The top left corner of the red progress bar is at x,y 34,738 and the bottom corner is at x,y 989,753. FYI: The size of the progress bar on the loading screen is 956 x 16 pixels
- It's x,y top left corner is 34,738 and it's x,y bottom right corner is 989,753
- It's RGB colour is 128,0,0
- It's HSL colour is 255,255,64
- It's HTML colour is #800000
- It is drawn over the top of the background image and is 100% opaque (ie. not see-through)  The size for the standard gold frame for the progress bar is 967 x 27 pixels
It's x,y top left corner is 29,733 and it's x,y bottom right corner is 995,759 Sec. 1.1 In addition to the progress bar, the game version will also be shown in white text at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. To ensure this is visible either:
- Make sure the custom image is dark in that area or
- Place a dark box there to improve contrast of the version number.
The version number's top left corner is at x,y is 955,707 and it's bottom right corner at x,y is 995,719. The dimensions are about 41 x 13 pixels. The version number is shown in white, anti-aliased text and must therefore have a dark background.  The version number is in a left-aligned text box hence it should not be right-aligned with the end of the gold border around the progress bar. Victory or Lose Screens The only difference with these files is the directory. Many are in “C:\Program Files\FireFly Studios\ui\frontend\win_lose_screens” folder. To change the lose screens go to “C:\Program Files\FireFly Studios\ui\frontend\lose_screens” folder.  Now follow the same directions to change these as with the load screen. Credit Screens These files can be found in the “C:\Program Files\FireFly Studios\ui\credits” folder. The same steps apply as above to update these screens.  Remember to replace any of these pictures with your custom 1024x746 pixel images. Below is an example of the Credits screen updated, courtesy of Sir Knight.  All others Instead of writing these steps for each of the screens, the below highlights all the folders with “.jpg” pictures in them that can be customized in the game. Make sure you create backups!  Follow the same process to update any of these files. Check out the Stronghold 2 Gallery for Custom Load Screens. Here is one last example of what you can do, courtesy of Aubergine.  Now make those screens exactly how you want them, and then share them with the rest of the us!
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