Alternative Dota UI graphics + UI mods

Providing some alternative or slightly modified graphics for things like ability and item icons to adjust the look of the interface in a small but possibly pleasing way :)

Also remove the shadow on player names.

How to use the graphics/mods

Whatever graphics/files you use simply need to be copied to the right place within your Dota 2 folders, and given the correct name. A launch option tells the game to use those graphics/files instead.

Edit Dota 2 launch options

1. Right click on Dota 2 in your Steam library, click Properties and choose Edit Launch Options.
2. type '-enable_addons' (without quotes) and click OK.

This tells the game to look first to see if there are things in folders to use instead of what it is inside the games data files.

If Dota is running you will need to restart it to see the effects of this launch option, and any new graphics you have copied in.

Copy the graphics provided here

Easy way: view this guide in your browser and save the images (in Steam: right click, 'Copy Page URL', paste in browser address bar).

Or, reading the guide in Steam, click the images themselves to load the image in a window and right click, choose 'Copy Link Address', then load that individual image in your browser (you can also type this address into Windows Explorer).

Rename the graphic file exactly as listed below the image.

Now read the rest of the guide to choose the different graphics you want to use!

important note for those who have used override_vpk in the past:

adding this line means the game will use any correctly named data files that you put in your dota directory instead of inside its vanilla data file. If you have ever used any files in the past (such as npc_heroes.txt), make sure you check for outdated versions of those files in your folders (can cause weird errors or crashes in-game).

Ability Icons

These icons replace some of the ability icons for heroes. Unless otherwise specified, the icons listed here are modifed versions of Valve icons old or new, or simply different versions of the icons which they have now replaced. All copyright to Valve yadda yadda.

Where do I copy these icons?
Copy these icons to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\resource\flash3\images\spellicons

where C is the drive you installed Steam. 'Dota 2 beta' may just be named 'Dota', and 'Program Files (x86)' may be simply 'Program Files'.

If any of the folders inside the \dota folder (such as 'resource') do not exist, then you can create them.

* denotes that I have modified an icon.

Axe

Current icons comparison:

His icons are a bit too varied in style and high in contrast for my liking.

Alternative icons:
Valve have used some better versions in the past with a graphic novel style which remains consistent and mirrors his simple approach: get angry and hit things - and wear a pony tail. Apart from that they kept the helix icon mostly the same. I don't think there's a more interesting version of battle hunger (tell me if you have one!), so I've slightly adjusted the current icon to fit (will work on improving this soon).


axe_beserkers_call.png
2012 era Axe icon.


axe_battle_hunger.png*
Current Axe battle hunger icon. Colour and levels shifted.


axe_counter_helix.png
2012 era Axe icon. Axe has a pony tail in this one :)


axe_culling_blade.png
2012 era Axe icon.

Broodmother

Current icons comparison:

Some time around Diretide 2013 Valve worked over her icons for a more simplistic red/pink and black palette (and gross infected hand). I personally feel they are bit obvious and I miss her presence on my UI (but maybe someone in the team is an arachnophobe...!) So, back we go to some older versions. I haven't replaced her new Ult icon because I think it's actually pretty great.

Alternative icons:


broodmother_spawn_spiderlings.png
2013 era Broodmother icon


broodmother_spin_web.png
2013 era Broodmother icon


broodmother_incapacitating_bite.png
2012 (?) era Broodmother icon

Mirana

current icon comparison:

I noticed that Mirana's appearance in her gallery art was generally warmer and more appealing than on the heavily blue-saturated ability icon for her ultimate, and I don't feel it suits her too much, so I made some simple changes to it.

I may modify her other icons later.

alternative icon:

mirana_invis.png*
current Mirana 'moonlight shadow' icon. Adjusted colours and levels balance.

Phantom Assassin

current icon comparison:

Around Diretide time last year, PA's icons were adjusted and her dagger had a bright pink background to go with it. Just not a huge fan of how it looks on the HUD.

alternative icon:

phantom_assassin_stifling_dagger.png
pre-October 2013 PA stifling dagger icon.

Undying

current icon comparison:

With the same patch, Undying also recieved an update to his tombstone icon. Whilst the art on this one is cool, I still prefer the older gothic style tombstone icon.

alternative icons:
choice 1 -

undying_tombstone.png*
pre-October 2013 tombstone icon. Colours rebalanced to match the other icons.

choice 2 -

pre-October 2013 tombstone icon.

Ursa

current icon comparison:

This is frankly terrifying and like something out of a gore horror flick. You might like that :)

alternative icon:
I just love the style of this Ursa icon. For me it fits his tree-hugging character much better!

ursa_enrage.png
Current Ursa low-violence Enrage icon.

Item icons

These icons replace some of the item icons. General tweaks to better suit the item or add clarity to the game. For example, if you use these int icons together you'll notice that your intelligence component items now go well together when they inevitably sit in the inventory for absolutely ages (supports high five).

Unless otherwise specified, the icons listed here are modifed versions of Valve icons old or new, or simply different versions of the icons which they have now replaced. All copyright to Valve yadda yadda.

Where do I copy these icons?
Copy these icons to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\resource\flash3\images\items

where C is the drive you installed Steam. 'Dota 2 beta' may just be named 'Dota', and 'Program Files (x86)' may be simply 'Program Files'.

If any of the folders inside the \dota folder (such as 'resource') do not exist, then you can create them.

* denotes that I have modified an icon.

Crystalys

current icon:


alternative icon:

lesser_crit.png*
Current Crystalys icon, tweaked the levels and colours so it has more definition.

Headdress

current icon:

I never understood what this thing was meant to be.

alternative icon:

headdress.png*
Headdress icon from 2012 era, with added glowing eye cos spooky magicks.

Mystic Staff

current icon:


alternative icon:

mystic_staff.png*
Icon from 2011/2012. These colours are more appropriate to an intelligence item. Minor levels/saturation tweak.

Reaver

current icon:


alternative icon:

reaver.png*
Current icon. Not a fan of the green-yellow current icon, so I tweaked levels and colours to better suit a strength item pickup, even if it's just a component item. Added definition.

Robe of the Magi

current icon:


alternative icon:

robe.png*
Current icon. I like the icon design, but again, too much green and yellow on an int item, I edited the colours to match a version from 2011 where they used blue and violet (but on a weird looking robe).

Tranquil Boots

current icons:


alternative icons:

tranquil_boots.png*
tranquil_boots_active.png* (this is actually the 'broken' boots)

Current icon. Slight saturation and levels adjustment because the boots are quite bright.

Vanguard

current icon:


alternative icon:

vanguard.png*
2011 era icon. Oh, Vanguard. For a long while I never bought this item, in equal parts because of its not being very good on many heroes, and because the icon in my opinion is absolutely terrible! Purple and red and grey.. some weird red glowing eyes.. a complete lack of definition, and a weird camera angle. Ugh. I couldn't stand to have it sitting in my inventory!

The icon I use now is from 2011, which looks like a shield, and it has horns so you can feel properly metal about it. I worked over the colours and levels. Yes, it's pink. If you can't rock a pink shield in battle then you're doing something wrong!

Vladmir's Offering

current icon:


alternative icon:

vladmir.png*
Current icon. Was never happy with how bright the green and red were when playing the game, always felt that this item was about skulking about in the jungle off-the-radar. Changed the green background so that it somewhat resembles a forest green, adjusted levels on the mask so it has more definition, toned down the red glow.

Void stone

current icon:


alternative icon:

void_stone.png*
2011/12 era icon. Another icon I really dislike. Doesn't really represent anything clearly - it's actually meant to be a gem on a ring, when viewed from above (?). Good news - Valve actually used a really nice looking ring icon for this back in 2012. I changed the colours of the gems around and added a bit of highlight and tweaked the levels so it had some definiion. Now building Perseverence actually makes sense - it's two rings melted down.

Remove the shadows/border on player names

NOTE: as of a month or so back, Valve changed the way modding worked with Dota and created a whitelist with a list of files that they were okay with being overriden by the user. Unfortunately, they have not yet re-added the font file to the whitelist, so this section of the guide is currently not working.

If you think the shadows are excessive and you would like to be able to use the below part of this guide, I encourage you to post about this problem on Reddit (or on the dota dev forum) ask that the font file is added to the whitelist in Dota.

-------------------

preview:


A recent change that really bugged me was the added shadow effects and thicker border around player names that show above heroes. You might not have noticed this if you have player names disabled, unless you pay close attention to streamers who don't - so this is a change purely for those who have names enabled.

Tracking down the specific change Valve made to the text proved pretty difficult. I think perhaps that they made an innate change to the font used for names (and some other things in the game UI - like loading screen tooltips), that gave it a thin border, and I haven't been able to completely disable that effect. However, the good news is that actually once the shadow is removed, and the border is reduced, the text names actually look pretty nice (though not as nice as the border-less coloured names in my opinion).

This was basically a change made for no real reason and one that they should have really added an option to disable in options.

How to mod the player names text

The file I've made changes to is clientscheme.res which is essentially a style sheet for a lot of fonts used around the game. You can fairly safely change things here yourself and try to work out the in-game effect, it doesn't usually cause crashes although thing may look strange!

File available here as a pastebin:
http://pastebin.com/2dZ55k9A

Save this file as clientscheme.res inside this folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\resource

where C is the drive you installed Steam. 'Dota 2 beta' may just be named 'Dota', and 'Program Files (x86)' may be simply 'Program Files'.

If any of the folders inside the \dota folder (such as 'resource') do not exist, then you can create them.

The specific changes I made were to remove the dropshadow and outline styles for a few of the fonts.

If you know how to remove the player name label outline entirely (or you happen to have an older clientscheme.res from a few months back), please comment!

Notes and changelog

End note/Future additions

I hope others get some use out of these graphics. If you would like to find older graphics for use in your game, I recommend using waybackmachine, and look at sites where the icons were uploaded, such as Cyborg Matts old blog.

I have more graphics that I haven't added yet for other parts of the UI (HUD) (such as the old attribute icons), as well as more item and hero graphics. I will edit the guide in future to add those. I also use some icons from other people who have edited the UI (such as Senkoukura), I will probably add their icons once I have contacted them about it.

Changelog
April 29 2015 - updated with the new file override line 'enable_addons', added note about player names currently not being moddable.
July 17 2014 - removed Techies icons; no longer needed!
July 11 2014 - added fix for player names.
July 7 2014 - guide created.

[Harmonica]

All the graphics are working. However, Valve changed the way that overriding files worked a month or so back, and so far they have not re-added the ability to override the font file. I posted about it on the dev forum and one day they might notice and add the font file to their mod whitelist.

They also changed the command line that you need to use, so I've updated this page.

[Darth Vladi]

Is this a working mod or a draft of an idea?