Replacing game graphics?

Hello everyone!

I have a simple (or perhaps not?) question. How do I replace the existing art, i.e. graphics of terrain, buildings, game objects? I've used Arcanun to unDAT arcanumX.dat files, I've even found an "arttobsp" program, really handy. But how the heck does one convert a .bmp back to .art? I know it's possible, as I've checked Carcanum .dat file, and tere were custom .art files there.

Also, is it possible in any way to view the .art files? They all are named so werdly, I can't find what I need unless I used arttobsp program, which might become a problem wit 1-2 tousands of .art files. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance. (By the way, the main reason I want to do htis is to change water grapics - the arcanum is nice and all, but some graphics plainly don't hold the standarts. Also, how does one tile diamond-shaped images? i know one can offset images in Photoshop so as to tile them, but this won't work on diamond shapes...

 

Changing and adding new object graphics is easy.
Changing existing scenery and walls should also be easy.
Adding new scenery and walls is not easy.
Adding new facades may be impossible.

If you want to change a sword into the image of a stick. Take a bmp of a stick. Turn it into an art file. Rename it the same name as the sword file. Replace the sword file with it.
That's it.
Do this in the data\art directory, not the undat directory you create.

You can convert all the art files in a folder at once by using wildcards. When using art2bmp, instead of the name of the art file type *.*

 

The art2bsp.exe file doesnt give me any command line! It opens and then shuts down! The only way I can use it is to drag the .art files on the program.

Also, how do I save .art files? A special program is needed, perhaps?

 

If you run the other files that come with art2bmp then a window will pop up that explains how to use it.

To convert a whole folder: Put the art2bmp file in the folder.
Run this (from the Windows command line or whatever you are using):
C:\SIERRA\Arcanum\modules\Arcanum2\art\interface\art2bmp *
Where the path is whatever folder you want to convert. The asterisk is a wildcard so that all files in the folder will be converted.

bmp2art will convert bmps to art files. However the bmps must be of a certain size to be correctly converted.
Just google for the file. If you can't find it then I can send you a copy.