Changing the Loading Screen graphics
 

Using the Blizzard's Interface kit, we can change various UI textures by simply replacing them with our one customized ones by mimicing the folder tree and names such as:

Blizzard's Interface kit tells me that the Loading screen textures are located in the following internal folder:

So to test if I could change a loading screen, I took the one for Eastern Kingdoms (LOADSCREENEASTERNKINGDOM.BLP) and named it according to the one for Kalimdor (LOADSCREENKALIMDOR.BLP) and placed into the folder that I created like the one above.

However the replacement did not occur as I had hoped, logging into Orgrimmar yielded the regular Kalimdor load screen.

Using one of Blizzard's existing BLP files ensures that all attributes are correct, but I tried making a customized BLP myself, which did not work either.

What am I missing here? Is this an UI modification not allowed by Blizzard?

I *believe* (could be wrong) that these are handled from within the MPQ files and not within the actual UI realm.

correct the loading screen graphics are handled within the MPQ files and changing those is like changing any other graphic in the game... not allowed.

Why would Blizzard prevent users from editing 'static' images that are outside the game world itself? It wouldn't hurt anyone, nor would it interfere with any aspect of game play!

You are asking the wrong people, no? ;)

Why would one want to change the loading screen graphics is my question.

To add more boobies of course. :p

It makes no sense to change the loading screen graphics. You're not sitting there long enough to view it anyway lol.

but... but ... but its for the boobies!!!!

Treat yerself to a boob job... then you can see em anytime you want! But then again, you prolly won't be playing much of WoW.

To quote a Steve Martin movie; "I couldn't be a lesbian, I'd just sit around and play with my boobs all day."

My work here in complete!

If there was a quick way to do it I probably would TBH. The reason being I play in widescreen and playing WoW on a widescreen resolution you get the annoying black bars on the side of every loading screen.

I actually see the loading screen quite a bit, testing addons constantly reloading, every zone in to an instance or raid, etc. Not a big deal but would be a nice change.

With all the mentions of the word "boobs" in this thread you'd think it was about trade chat.:D

Just to wager a guess on this subject...

Blizzard's game files are protected from change to keep the end-user from exploiting them. It is easier to protect the file as a whole than to unpack it an examine each file individually for changes and only protect certain files in the archive. Protecting files within the archive individually would mean foreseeing every possible exploit that the modding community could come up with. If I'm anywhere close to the mark on this protecting individual files inside the archive seems like a whole lot of superfluous hassle to me. I believe I read somewhere that the files were checked at runtime to make sure they had not been tampered with.

Game files loaded from the clientside make for better load times and cut down on required bandwidth, but if any of you ever played a game called ROSE (Rush On Seven Epidsodes) years ago when it was in beta then you may remember an exploit to that game because textures could be modified in the client-side files. People were changing the textures for mobs to one solid color (specifically that pink color used for transparencies) that would not be found in great abundance in the game field. With the textures changed to solid colors a third-party program could search the screen for the color the mobs were and click on the mob and begin attacking it. This allowed a person to automate their toon while they were away. This is what I think of when I think of the possible exploits a person could do if they were able to change the game files.

1. Because I'm an artist with a vivid imagination.

2. I play the game very often, therefore I'm bored with seeing the same few load-up screens (the ones I see outside the actual online game).

3. For the sake of novelty, I'd like to see my own artwork, and change it when I desire something different.

etc... etc... etc...

I used to be able to open a .mpq file (in older games) and extract images (.jpg, .bmp, etc.), modify them with CorelPaint, and resave them. It's been too many years since I've done that, so my memory is vague on even how I did it. Heh heh.

Anyway, I don't see the harm -- even potential harm, from editing a static opening screen image.

It would be just for viewing on my local system during game boot-up and could not interfere with the game-play itself.

Can it be done? Anybody know how I can do it? It's on my own machine.

The static images are untouchable as has always been, now if you want to change a texture or font, sure that seems doable with the aforementioned method, but other than the sake of ****ography and general "because I want/can" attitude does not apply.

I will say the reason you gave are good reasons to change those screens. But again I still don't see the point because as someone else stated the screens are not up long enough (at least for me anyway) to bother doing something like this.

The problem though with changing these images is it is against the rules. This is not Diablo were talking about, this is an online game people pay monthly to play. If Blizz allowed us to edit these files a lot more than loading screens would be changed. These files are "protected" for a reason.

Now changing these loading screens is most likely possible but I think you may run the risk of getting your account banned if Blizzards Warden detects this change. For me personally that risk alone is not worth the few seconds I see these screens.

Quoted for emphasis.

From my understanding, the login screens are actually made up of textures that are used throughout the game. So modifying the screens would also affect certain textures/zones. So those out there that HAVE modified those screens have used the pre-bc screens so not to mess with too much but as stated, this would potentially be against the rules because you might essentially modify something that unknown to you makes it easier to see enemy players, etc.

Read this info from simply doing a google search for: change wow loading screens