Modded Team Selection Screens

Started by Tony Stark, July 12, 2012, 10:03AM

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July 12, 2012, 10:03AM Last Edit: July 12, 2012, 07:08PM by Hyperman360
Here I'm going to explain how to mod the team selection screen. For those who just want to replace it with another one, I'll explain that at the bottom.

Retexturing the team selection screen is very, very simple. It's basically the same as skinning a PC character.

First, here are some examples of modified team selection screens: http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,8258.0.html
You'll notice that the one marked "Cerebro" is actually much different. The person who made this one (Overload; he's not with us anymore) actually changed more than the textures; BLaw informs me he used 3ds Max. Presumably, you'll need to use the meshing tutorial to do it; I don't know much about that. Feel free to try it out and if it works, let me know how you did it so I can add the steps here.

Anyway, here's the instructions on how to modify it:

The standard file for the selection screen is located in a subfolder of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance folder wherever you installed the game to. In the MUA folder, open the ui folder, then the models folder within that. Now in this folder find the file "m_team_stage.igb". This is the file which contains the team stage.

First of all, make a backup of it. Just copy it and rename the copy to something else.

Now take the original file and skin it like you would a character. You will need skinnerui to do this, and here are the necessary offsets to add to the cfg file:
m_team_stage.igb,-DXT1,256,512,61088.

(If you know how to mesh, this would be where you'd do that instead of skinning.)

Something to note about retexturing the standard character selection screen: the textures you use will be applied to more than one place. For example the walls are the same as some of the edges and the platform that your selected team stands on. Also, when testing out the texture, be sure to go to replace the characters, because the floor beneath the mannequins isn't visible unless you're selecting one.




Replacing team selection screens:

1. Go to your Marvel Ultimate Alliance folder in the Program Files. Open the ui folder and open the models folder in it. (For example, mine is located at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Marvel - Ultimate Alliance\ui\models".)

2. Find the file called "m_team_stage.igb" and make a backup of it (just rename it to something like "m_team_stage_backup.igb".)

3. Download a replacement file. Make sure it's named "m_team_stage.igb". If it isn't, rename it to that. (Watch the file extension though.)

4. Place the new version of the file in the models folder you opened in step 1.

5. Open up the game, and go to swap out characters.

6. Profit.

The person who made that (Overload) knew more about this game than anyone else. And he used 3ds max to do it.

Anyway thumbs up for the tutorial!

Quote from: BLaw on July 12, 2012, 06:50PM
The person who made that (Overload) knew more about this game than anyone else. And he used 3ds max to do it.

Anyway thumbs up for the tutorial!

Thanks BLaw! (Added that tidbit.)

I hate to revive an old thread, but I would like to know if anyone knows of a file that references the character select screen model (m_team_stage.igb).

I tried to Hex-Edit a custom exe I created (for an all X-Men Alliance) to read "x_team_stage" rather than "m_team_stage" then renamed the Cerebro character select stage model (igb) accordingly.

I saw no changes in game. Which leads me to believe that that file is being referenced elsewhere. I'm not exactly sure where tho. I'd like to further customize my custom themed herostats by editing more than just the herostat and charinfo and the character select screen is key in making custom exes stand out even more. Plus, I'd like to try my hand at creating a new mesh similar to what Overload did a few years back.

If it is, in fact, a .engb or .xmlb that references that .igb, is that file recognized in the exe?

I'd also like to eventually customize some ui elements, such as dialogs and menu ui, to correspond w/ different themed herostats/.EXEs. I'm wondering if Teancum can help enlighten me on this matter as he's pretty knowledgeable about those items (considering his outstanding work on the X-Men Legends for PC mod)

^^view MelloMods' Mods^^

Offsets does not work :(
P.S I tried this on Original,not Remastered (if you interested)
My releases: http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,9772.0.html

UPD since 30.11.2021
I'm ok and will be back to modding as soon as i can
I can gurantee what i will back with a lots of new ideas and finish old projects.
Right now i'm not mod and only posting posts thank you if you readed this!

Quote from: Dorpond on September 05, 2016, 11:16PM
Offsets does not work :(
P.S I tried this on Original,not Remastered (if you interested)

That is the very same offset I used to make my Tron themed selection screen. It should be right; the original game hasn't had any updates or anything since I did that. You're probably missing something.