custom zoning images

[iesmeh]

I've seen the zoning art a bajillion times, and while at first it was really interesting, it's become very old now.

I'd like a mod to the zoning background that displays random pictures from a folder on the harddrive that I can designate by editing a line in the xml of the mod. It should be written so the pictures are centered and resized to fit the window/screen as best they can with no stretching.

Maximum display area could be increased by removing the bars at the top and bottom of the zoning screen. The loading bar should remain, however, perhaps moved lower, to the very bottom of the screen.

I've thought about making new backgrounds and just replacing the originals, but I can't find a program that will convert images to dds, and I'm not sure whether the 1024x1024 size of the originals is important, or if a difference in filesize would cause the client to try and redownload them again and replace the new ones.

Could this be as simple as making a UI\custom\Images\loadscreens\random folder and filling it with custom dds background images that follow the same naming scheme as the originals?

EDIT:

It turned out to be exactly that simple, tho it was a chore to track down everything I needed. Thanks the gods for Google!

As a test, I edited one of the original loading screens by pasting an image over the center of it, and then pasting the new loadscreen version into the corresponding custom UI folder to match the ones over in the Default folder. I then did a batch rename with Irfanview so that all the names matched perfectly with the originals. My special loadscreen version showed up fine!

This is gonna be fun. I'll be able to make my loadscreens anything from my favorite photos to screenies of myself and my guild in action. Will take a while to learn GIMP inside and out so I can make them look nice, tho...

I wonder if I can make as many as I like and if the client will just keep choosing them at random. Or am I restricted to the original 58 filenames? Will be interesting to find out!

Sorry if everyone's been through figuring this out already and it's been common knowledge. : )