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how do you change units from what they look like.
example : changing a marine to a warcraft 3 grunt. how do you do that?

Use RetroGRP to compile images into a grp of the grunt.

Then replace unit/terran/marine.grp with the custom grp (named marine.grp) and run the patched MPQ

Will be added to the tut/faq when I get time.

thanks for the help. yeah i cant wait till the mod database is up! now all i got to do is get retrogrp

Hmmm... yes, RetroGRP would be the start of it. But you'd need ICE or IceCC to reprogram the animations as well, and Arsenal III to make the Grunt use the proper weapon.

Great, Something else to wait for today , But it's worth it. It's going to be fun. Time to wait.

You could use photoshop, Or just look on the internet for unit graphics. Or just do it yourself.

I can't or don't know how to convert the images to ".grp" or find them... Or erm... yeah...

Use RetroGRP to convert it to a .grp extension. If that doesn't work, Then I don't know what will.

I haven't got RetroGRP in front of me at the moment, but if I remember right, here are the simple steps to using RetroGRP, presuming you're going to use the same number of frames.

Turning GRPs into BMPs
1. Click choose output directory to choose where you want the BMPs to be saved.
2. Click that second button under choose output directory, I can't remember what it's called exactly, but it will ask you to select the GRP file you want to extract.
3. Click the extract to frames button or whatever it is called. It's in the middle of the window somewhere.
4. If you go to your output directory now you'll see a whole lot of BMP files in there.

Editing
1. Open up the BMP files and edit them.
2. Only use the colours you see on the palette that is encoded with the BMP, don't go along and change the palette unless you understand what you're doing because you won't get the results you want.
3. Remember to save your edited BMPs as 8-bit run length encoded (sometimes called 8-bit RLE).

Turning BMPs into GRPs
1. Click choose output directory to choose where your final GRP will be saved.
2. Click the "Compile BMPs to GRP" button or whatever it is called, and find the RAL file which was extracted when you converted from GRP to BMPs.
3. Now if you go to your output directory, you'll find a file named x_<something>.grp, where the <something> is the name of your original GRP file. You can stick that into your mod if you know where to put it.

That's the general idea, I go into a little more depth with my full tutorial which I hope I'll be putting up somewhere as soon as I can. It's got information about RAL files, changing wireframes and a few common GRP filenames you might need.

He didn't want to know on how to use RetroGRP... He wanted to know what could give files a .GRP extension...

He didn't but I did
I bet you people are glad I decided to read through here instead of post a new topic when this has already been answered.
Now I have a green dark archon in Starcraft (soon) W00t!!

Hey farty, Would it be possible for you to let me use the green Dark Archon? I have a great idea for it .

And if you do decide to let me use it, Please make sure it is in .bmp format/extension.

Just take the Dark Archon sprite and bleach it green. I don't think Farty has the complete sprite set for a Green Dark Archon.

Oh okay, I think I will bleach all of the units , And I will bleach all of there frames, So it all looks good.

Your in luck, because for the SEN Mod I said I wanted to be a green dark archon and that I would make the .grp files. I am done with them. Check your PMs soon

Oh, And I am not about to send you 214 bmps

ADDITION:

Wrong, I do. Ha. Already sent them to him in .grp file and all green

Could you please make the green Dark Archon .grp available for the rest of us, Farty? Some of us might be interested in using green Dark Archons in our mods as well.

Sounds like we could start a whole section on shared customised graphics. That'd be great! I love this place! I've never been so immersed in a modding community until now.

Its my green dark archon I specifically got into modding so it could exist.
Just somehow say its mine and you can use it (Spent several hours changing the red to green).
 GreenDA.zip ( 69.51k ) Number of downloads: 1


EDIT: There, now I don't have two of the same file...