Creating Your Own Loading Screen

UPDATED: 31/12/05
Created by desmasic (aka. Nikhil Sharma)
Website: desmasic.samods.org

- Open the map Monolith included with The Frozen Throne (default location for this map would be C:\Program Files\Warcraft III\Maps\FrozenThrone\Scenario\(4)Monolith.w3x)

- When the map is loaded in the editor, press F12 to open the import manager. Export following files from it (press Ctrl+E to export):

LoadingScreen.mdx
LoadingscreenBL.tga - ( Loading screen Bottom-Left )
LoadingscreenBR.tga - ( Loading screen Bottom-Right )
LoadingscreenTL.tga - ( Loading screen Top-Left )
LoadingscreenTR.tga - ( Loading screen Top-Right )

From all the files given above, you will be editing only the .tga ones. Don't bother with the .mdx file.

- Open all of the .TGA files in an image editor like Photoshop. Edit them according to your likes. Do a copy and past or whatever you want to do.

- After you are done editing all the images, save them. If you have edited them using new layers, then you will first have to Flatten the image, then save the images as 32-bit .TGA. Their names remain the same.

- Import the new editing screens in your map using import manager.

- Specify the Custom Path for the imported files as following..

LoadingscreenBL.tga - ( change the path to LoadingscreenBL.tga )
LoadingscreenBR.tga - ( change the path to LoadingscreenBR.tga )
LoadingscreenTL.tga - ( change the path to LoadingscreenTL.tga )
LoadingscreenTR.tga - ( change the path to LoadingscreenTR.tga )

All in all, do not specify custom path for .mdx file. But or the .tga one's, specify custom path and remove war3MapImported\ from all of their paths.

NOTE: If you are finding making custom screens with 4 TGA images difficult, then I recommend creating your screen as 1024 x 768 image in Photoshop (or any other software you prefer) and then slicing that image into four parts. Then you will have to flatten the layers and save each part as .tga files. This is how I usually make my own loading screens.