Changing The Cursor
 

I have made a few cursor graphics. When I load up the UI I get the parts of the new cursor but in the shape for the old cursor so my leaf looks like an arrow. Any insight as to what I am doing wrong would be appreciated.

Did you log out and then back in, when changing the graphics files after you do /loadskin you'll need to get out and back in (some say zoning works too).

Yea...
 

I tried that but it still does the same thing. It is like there is a shape filter defined somwhere.

If all you did was paste in a leaf graphic to Window_pieces01.tga, the Ui is just using the same pixels as it was before, except they're colored different now.

You'll have to make a new TGA with the leaf graphic and specify that file to be used as the graphic for the cursor. I've seen people replace the graphics for hp bars and such, so it shouldn't be too hard to do.

This is assuming that the graphic file for the cursor isn't hard coded.

Modding the cursor
 

I've modded the cursor, but I just used a different arrow-shape. The cool thing about the tga format that I've found is that it preserves levels of transparency.

I use Photoshop, and this is the method I use to mod the graphics for the UI:

- box-select a portion you want to modify (the cursor for example)
- copy it (Ctrl-C)
- create a new graphic; use the default size that comes up -- that is the size of your copied area.
- paste into the new window (Ctrl-V)
- create a new layer
- draw your new graphic in the new layer (to make sure you line up elements correctly; you can turn the other layer off if it distracts you, but turn it back on periodically to check the "pointer" part. For other elements, like window corners, etc, you need those defining parts aligned correctly too -- depends on what you're changing)
- when you're done, delete the extraneous layer, merge visible layers in case you have text, etc.
- Ctrl-A (to select your graphic)
- switch back to the source graphic window
- Ctrl-V to paste. This is the cool part; if you haven't de-selected your original selection from this window, you should paste into the same position as you originally copied from. This should give you a new layer, too. This is a good thing.
- Erase the original graphics under your new graphics with the eraser tool, and make sure you get a good area around the cursor... there may be semi-transparent pixels there.
- Merge visible

Another thing that helps me is to add a layer and fill it all with pink... that shows me where all the transparencies are. Then just discard the layer when you're done.

- When you're drawing your new parts, be aware of the "opacity" setting in Photoshop; this will allow you to make partially transparent areas to make them look better, sort of like the shadow under the mouse pointer in Windows 2000 and XP.

That's one of the mods I did; I just about copied the windows XP pointer; it's easier to see -- more contrast. The default EQ one is too grey and too hard to see sometimes.

I hope some of this made sense :)

Kal

My Druid Skin has a neat little Sword Pointer, has anyone thought of making various different pointers for the classes, say like a flute for a Bard, Sword for a Warrior and so forth?