Skinning the game

[Lomgren]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone else had tried skinning the game yet.  I decided to try it myself, modifying the original files for my own use.  And in doing so, I found some interesting issues.  I'm attaching a screenshot for feedback and also for noting one of the issues.

I know the game has a look and feel that corresponds with a planet with less water, but I wanted something a bit more lush.  This is what I came up with in a quick bit of editing.

[Tei]

This is awesome. Can you release the files in some way? even a unusable way, and how you did it.

[Lomgren]

Well, it's a start.  Makes me wish that more of the game could be easily skinned with the "theme pack" that I have seen.  Basically, I found the images inside the data.jar file, inside the "skins" directory.  Though it looks like it may be using an old images directory for part of it the game itself, which, at this time, doesn't appear to be skinnable.  I just modified those and dumped them into the regular "skins" directory in a new folder.

Unfortunately, that's part of the problem with doing this - the borders and the rest of the game really don't match up with with the theme.  It'd be a lot of fun if the entire game was more easily skinnable, so if someone wanted to, they could give a whole new look and feel.  But the dry, desert look currently remains.

I'd have to wait on answers from higher-up before I could release something.

[Big Head Zach]

Why is it that I don't see anything resembling an image or an attachment?

[Lomgren]

I have no idea, what I see is an attachment at the bottom of my first post called "screenshot.png."  And it has been viewed 29 times as of this post.

[TrevDor]

I See An Attachment too

[LethalZen]

Very cool.  And I couldn't see an attachment when I wasn't logged in, but logged in I could see it.

[Dave37]

This thread inspired me to look into how to make a skin. Using my method you can recolor or completely change the art for the entire game. Just to test it out I did a simple recoloring. Here's how I did it:

1) Open MULE/data folder
2) Copy "data.jar" and rename it to "default_data.jar"
3) Open "data.jar" using WinRAR
4) Inside "data.jar" edit the image files within the Skins/default folder
5) Inside "data.jar" edit the image files within the Images folder (and it's many subfolders)
6) Start up the game and make sure default skin is chosen

Congratulations, you now have a custom skin (if you want to go back to the original skin just rename "default_data.jar" to "data.jar"). 

As you can see in attached image mule_4.jpeg, there is still a tan colored border around the map, despite my having changed every tan color image to gray. This makes me think it cannot be changed without editing the game's code. Oh well. Also, I wish it was easier to customize skins for this game but hey, this is what it is I guess.

[Tei]

So.. we have a green planet, and a moon planet, now we need a skin that make the game looks like "on space" with the desert as space and the mountains as asteroids :-)

[Dave37]

So.. we have a green planet, and a moon planet, now we need a skin that make the game looks like "on space" with the desert as space and the mountains as asteroids :-)

That's a great idea, I didn't think of that. But I suppose you would also have to add jetpacks to the characters or it would look funny. Yet, I don't think that would be hard to do.

[Lomgren]

The game is actually set up to allow skinning without replacing data.jar.  If you look in the install directory, there's a sub-directory called "skins."  Any skin can be placed in there in its own folder.  But it only includes images based on the "default" skin, sadly.

I do wish that we had a bit more information on skinning.  And that more images were in the actual "skin" directory.

[Dave37]

The game is actually set up to allow skinning without replacing data.jar.  If you look in the install directory, there's a sub-directory called "skins."  Any skin can be placed in there in its own folder.  But it only includes images based on the "default" skin, sadly.

Yeah i noticed that. But if you want to change anything like the characters, shop, into, etc. then you need to use my method.

[Dave37]

So.. we have a green planet, and a moon planet, now we need a skin that make the game looks like "on space" with the desert as space and the mountains as asteroids :-)

What do you think? And thanks for the idea. All I need to add to this, and I doubt I will because I'm lazy, is jetpacks for the characters and MULEs. I guess it wouldn't be that hard to do, but I'm not feeling like it at the moment.

I wish there was some way to get rid of the border. 

[Tei]

So.. we have a green planet, and a moon planet, now we need a skin that make the game looks like "on space" with the desert as space and the mountains as asteroids :-)

What do you think? And thanks for the idea. All I need to add to this, and I doubt I will because I'm lazy, is jetpacks for the characters and MULEs. I guess it wouldn't be that hard to do, but I'm not feeling like it at the moment.

I wish there was some way to get rid of the border. 

WooooooooooooooooooooooooW   

[Salinga]

We need a Subtrade skin, since that Amiga MULE clone looked very nice: