Okay, so I'm not exceptionally talented with computer coding/progamming or anything like that. But I was curious. Is it possible to replace the textures in arena with higher definition textures? If it even USES textures. I'm not even sure how the engine in arena works. But whatever it uses for walls, floors, weapons and NPCs, can those be replaced? I don't really want it to look beautiful of course, but playing strains my eyes. it's hard for me to stare at a computer monitor as it is, and trying to play with the terrible pixelation gives me a headache but I love the game too much to stop. If its not possible though, it's no big loss.

I dont think u'll get a lot of help on this, BUT if there's any, then its somewhere in this link:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Arena

try 'tehnical info' or downloads' to see if this helps. I read sth about "WinArena" and "DaggerXL" but have no idea what those ae...

Well WinArena lets you get the files.. Not sure about replacing said files.

I'm going to look into this...If they get extracted, in theory, we should be able to "repak" them into the global.bsa. I have the same issue. I'm playing it again (first time since I bought it in 94) and since you can't bump the resolution, the textures get very pixelly in long corridors and on the streets. I think best thing would be "simplifying" the wall and floor textures. I'll let you know what I find out.

EDIT: Success ...sort of.

Apparently Arena's image files are just 12 byte headers followed by pixel by pixel color data (no compresssion). Thanks to the Xentax Game File forum, I found a few clues to help me along the way.

Import RAW into GIMP (or photoshop) ...offset 12 bytes (for the header) and load the PAL.COL file as palette with offset 8. Then you can edit the image. Now if you save it back raw you will have to reinsert the 12 byte header data to make the file work (actually I don't know this but I assume so ...I'll try it without just for kicks though). In theory, to reinsert the 12 bytes you'll need a hex editor copy the first 12 bytes then when you open the newly edited file reinsert the data back at the front. I haven't tested this but I will.

Then it's a matter of reinserting it into the BSA. This also can be done by cut and pasting but that could be tricky. I will likely try a Game file utilitey (Game file extractor) and see if it can reinsert successfully. I will also see if it would work externally from the BSA (like alot of modern games) can't hurt to try.

Once I get this all sorted out I'll do a tutorial.

Anyone know anyhandy programs to ease this process (or even automate it?)

Ok. First thing..

WinArena actually converts the textures to GIFs. The original .IMG format is what Arena uses along with a color palette. I tried Dagpic and it does load Arena's .IMG files but doesn't load the .COL (color palette) correctly. This is actually seems to be Arenas fault because the file actually stores red where blue is normally stored. I think it's possible to make a custom DAGPIC palettle file just for Arena by manually swapping the values with hex editor (might be easier if I new programming but I don't). Then the custom palette will show correctly in Dagpic and the image will still look correct in Arena.

That beats loading the file into GIMP using the raw file format (takes longer but workable) then saving in raw. There are more tedious steps to get it back into BSA.

I have successfully altered the Barrel.img and it works in game so this give me hope. I'd like to "simplfy" the textures so that the pixelation isn't so bad. Gonna test a few wall and floor textures next.

Nice work, Pinkertonius.

Skillfully done. I've never seen anybody make any headway in modifying Arena's files, other than that French translation group and WinArena. Let us kno wif you make any more progress.

Well that was fun...typed a nice long post and the page errored :brokencomputer: ....so you get the short version.

SET files (the wall and floor tiles) work great outside the BSA in the ARENA directory. :foodndrink: All of them there might be messy but it's already messy anyways (especially after you have played for awhile). I done one complete dungeon set to try it out. Works. Limited due to the 256 color palette and the low low low resolution (seriously some times I think ...this is what it would look like if my computer had a Litebrite for a moniter).

As I said, the barrel worked, but I had to manually reinsert it. Not sure if I can get the IMG files to work outside the BSA.

Daggerpic... loads the IMGs fine but even after I manually edited the palette files (i.e. hex editor) to swap the color values, it still didn't display right. I might give it one more go (maybe I switched the wrong values). It would be much easier if I could ues that program. The altered palette file would only need to be used with Daggerpic so you could see the image correctly. I don't have high hopes though.

I'm working on a Torchlight Texuture Overhaul right now so this is like my secondary Pet project. I do intend for it to be a ARENA texture mod though just can't give any kind of completion date. I will try to get a picture or two up within the week though :tongue: