Any mods to make the Wiz 7 Gold Portraits less disgusting?

[KilledAlive]

I have been playing the DOS version for a while, and i finally figured out how to get Wiz7 Gold to run. After figuring out that the saves are not compatible between the two games, i decided to try anew. it was at that moment that is realized that not only does the new UI look just dreadful, but the Portraits are an absolute disaster. Are they any mods to make them look less awful?

[desolation0]

The saves should be compatible. Just change .dbs to .sgm then put them in the folder for your Gold saves and it should be fine. Don't even have to change the extension for Gold to read it, but the open savegame bit defaults to showing .sgm files instead of all. Works the opposite way as well, just have to type in savegame0005.sgm instead of .dbs in DOS version.

As for the portraits they're a series of .BMP files located at \wizgold\RES\BITS\PCA and \PCB and theoretically should be replacable easily using MSPaint. The bigger size shows up when creating the character or in the inventory screen. The smaller PCA one is shown as your portrait while wandering around.

From RBrown at http://www.softwarespecialties.com/dcforum/DCForumID6/1080.html
"Here is what I remember .....

1) create a copy of the picture you want to replace (in case you mess up)

2) create a bitmap, 120x110 ? or 110x120 ? of your new picture. It must be the same size as the existing picture.

3) using mspaint, open the picture you want to replace

4) Edit / Paste from / select your new picture. Paste the new picture INTO the old one.

5) Look at the picture. The colors are all screwed up. This is because Wiz Gold has a pre-set color palette and when you paste into it, mspaint picks the closest color in the Wiz Gold palette.

6) If you can't stand the picture, choose another one and try again.

7) If the picture is OK, exit and run Wiz Gold."

[KilledAlive]

Originally posted by desolation0:

The saves should be compatible. Just change .dbs to .sgm then put them in the folder for your Gold saves and it should be fine. Don't even have to change the extension for Gold to read it, but the open savegame bit defaults to showing .sgm files instead of all. Works the opposite way as well, just have to type in savegame0005.sgm instead of .dbs in DOS version.

Thank you! Hopefully Ill do a better job at those portraits than the original game...

[The Eldest Peach]

This is very much necroposting but the painless way of importing images into Wiz7 Gold is by using mtPaint, a dedicated pixel art editor.

First, it's best to extract the original palette:

1. install the program
   
2. open any of the portraits in RES\BITS\PCB directory
   
3. in Palette menu, choose Save as... and remember where you put it, then close it

Now you will never need to open any of the original ones again.

Procedure for converting an image is this:

1. open an image you want to import in mtPaint
   
2. in Palette menu, Load the one you saved previously; this changes nothing in the picture yet so don't worry
   
3. replace transparency with the last colour in the palette we loaded, selectable on the left (should be pale bluish gray); this is also the good moment to retouch the picture if needed because dithering and rescaling may (and probably will) introduce annoying artifacts
   
4. when you're confident, select Scale Canvas from the Image menu; make sure Fix Aspect Ratio is unchecked and change new values to 110 width and 120 height respectively
   
5. Image menu, Convert to Indexed; make sure to check Current Palette checkbox and play a bit with dithering methods for best results - Undo is your friend
   
6. save it as BMP in the PCB directory
   
7. use Scale Canvas again and resize it to 55x60 resolution, save under the same name in PCA directory
   
8. repeat the procedure for any other portrait you want to replace

Saved games only store indices of portraits so you don't have to worry about your game and incompatibility - any changes in portrait data will not affect the saved game and will be updated on load.

As for editing them in DOS version, I have no clue. However their resolution is extremely low and so is palette so you likely wouldn't have good results anyway.

[Tikijian]

Why not continue to stick with DOS version? It's pretty good if you play with automap mod

[KilledAlive]

Originally posted by Tikijian:

Why not continue to stick with DOS version? It's pretty good if you play with automap mod

I have stuck with the DOS version, especially since Windows 10 does not play well with the "newer" version of the game.

I'd reccomend that anyone else do the same. Not enough difference with Wiz7Gold to justify the problems I have with it.