Adding and modifying structure graphics etc

[Jinjin]

Hello!

Been researching on making mods for OpenRA. Only made minor changes so far such as changing names and attributes etc. Currently making sure I can do what I want to before I start any larger projects. Grew up with RA and C&C and always end up coming back to it, so want to do something "more". So to my question! : )

I saw that someone made an asset editor at some point (long time ago though https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/2532). Is there some standard way to edit assets, replace them etc. If I wanted to change a lot of assets is there a workflow one would normally follow? I mostly work on Linux but have access to Windows so both would work. Does anyone have any advice here? : )

I have been reading up on the Getting Started for the SDK, watched some tutorials on Youtube etc. But finding and editing everything related to units, structures etc feels so far a bit confusing to me (I'll learn). For simply making "smaller" changes to units, say I wanted to change the graphics + animation and maybe so attributes for a specific unit or building, I feel that some form of GUI where I can get an overview of that specific unit/structure and then make my changes would be ideal .

Is there something like the above asset editor that is still in use and up to date? Or how do people normally work when editing assets etc? : )

Would very much appreciate some wisdom here

[abcdefg30]

Hi. Unfortunately there is no such GUI editor. The closest we have is the Assets Browser (which you can find in the "Extras" tab in the main menu) to view assets. To edit graphics you will want to extract the original files from the .mix files inside the Content folder by either using XCC Mixer or the utility shipped with OpenRA and then edit them using OS SHP Builder. It is also possible to convert the shp files to pngs and edit them but that is a bit more fiddly. (The game can load png files as well.)

[Jinjin]

Thank you so much for the input!

Some follow up questions then.

1: Is there any tutorial, video or otherwise, that you would recommend to learn all the ins and outs of modding openra? If I am going to start modding I will want to develope some tools for it (just usually how I work). So I would love to get some good instructions on how everything works and how to do everything. Like, how to edit an existing unit or structure, both attributes and graphics, or how to add a new one, etc. I usually build my tools in Python but for this I feel like I want something easy to use with a GUI, so might go for Visual C# here. I will of course share any tools I make in case it's of use for anyone else.

2: I noticed that the front page for OpenRA says that there is a lack of man power. Now, this might sound unusual or silly, but hear me out. Would a "bounty" system be worth considering? As in, a feature or ticket approved by the core team gets a bounty, where the bounty itself is a small amount donated by a fan (me, for instance). A contributor who finishes the ticket will get the bounty once a core member has accepted and merged the PR. I think that might motivate people to come and start helping out, and I'm sure there are die hard fans like myself who would love to spend a little bit of money now and then to help out even if everyone can't code or just don't have the time : )

I am a coder myself but have limited time these days (even though I make time for fun projects), so I think I will probably work on this "mod maker" tool once in a while. My dream mod for OpenRA is rather ambitious so I would need a tool to make some of the "fiddling" a lot easier.

Anyway, would love to hear some thoughts on this : )

[abcdefg30]

Sorry for the late response. We don't really have extensive documentation on modding. If you want to start with it I suggest looking at https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRAModSDK/ ... ng-Started . The only Youtube Video Series about modding I am aware of is https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5zr ... 8txyXWotTp but I don't think it is complete.

Fwiw, we had some bounties on issues via BountySource, but that service shut down apparently. The bounties didn't really help either with recruiting people.