UI editing

[typicalusername]

Hi everyone,

I would like to learn about the UI editing and customization process in PW clients. First of all, I have a basic question:

Are surfaces.pck and interfaces.pck files "protected" and shouldn't be edited, or is it perfectly fine to modify the aesthetics of your PW private server user interface? I'm asking from a player's perspective, not as a server owner.

If the answer is "yes, private server owners don't get harmed in any way by editing your personal in-game UI" I would like to explore the process further, as I know many players have created custom UIs for the servers they played on.

So far, I know I need an SPCK unpacker/packer, Paint.NET, SageThumbs, and nothing else.

I'd like to find, create, or share a beginner-friendly walkthrough of the customizable aspects of the UI with your help.

Would you help me get started with this post?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Steadfast]

Hey I'm willing to help but where to start depends on whether or not you already have these programs and your experience with PW development in general. Hope to hear back soon.

- Steadfast

 

[typicalusername]

Hey I'm willing to help but where to start depends on whether or not you already have these programs and your experience with PW development in general. Hope to hear back soon.

- Steadfast

Hi, appreciate it! I have the programs already, but no experience with PW development at all.

 

[Steadfast]

My best advice to you would be find a server where they dont have the .pcks protected (may be hard idk) because to fully edit aesthetics you also need to mess with gfx.pck in some capacity (especially if you are going the route of designing custom weapons) but, yes most servers do protect them, not from being edited but from being plagiarized.

Also note every time there is a patch on said server you will need to re-do your UI edits. Saving and just copy and pasting a old file wont work because if new data was added and your client doesn't recognize it when interacted with then it wont operate and will likely crash.

But once you find a server with no protection on their .pcks you should just be able to view it with whatever program of your choice and just poke around the files and open them up and see what they are. You'll quickly learn which folders and files correspond with elements of the UI you want to edit. Once you isolate a file that corresponds with a UI element you want to edit you can open it up in photoshop or paint or what have you and edit it, overwrite it using your spck tool and open the game and see if it applied how you like it.

PS: Make sure it is extracted from the .pck before trying to edit it

 

[typicalusername]

How do you recognize the .pck files have no protections? I don't want to mess with weapon fashion, cuz i firstly wanna learn how to custom the UI. Maybe that would be a future project for me to learn, but i woul like to learn UI editing first. Also if they do major updates that incluse UI edits i need to re-do all the work but if it's only patches or guild icons i can just copy paste old .pck, update the client and re-paste the edited one with the new guild icons right?

Is there a post or somewhere i can learn from which file and folder modify what, once i'm able to modify .pck files?

 

[Steadfast]

If it is not protected it will view normally when you try to open/view it with spack program. If it is protected it will give you some error.

 

[typicalusername]

I unpacked a .pck file with the sPCK program, but when i do my edits and repack it back it doesn't allow me to run the client. Does it mean it's a protected one or am i doing something wrong?

Note: The size of the file itself change after the process, and even if i just unpack and repack the same file, without edits, it doesn't allow me to run the client.

 

[Steadfast]

If you were able to normally view the contents of the .pck then you did not need to repack it to see your changes. Just export the file within the .pck you want to change. Make your changes, add it to the pack by just dragging the file back in. My program specifically saves as soon as its imported but I don't know if they all work like this.

 

[typicalusername]

Ye i do exactly that, but when i drag the file back and put it into the client folder, it doesn't work anymore, that's why i'm confused about it.

 

[Steadfast]

What program are you using

 

[typicalusername]

This one https://forum.ragezone.com/threads/winpck-v1-33-0-3-updated-for-read-new-pcks.1223802/ version 1.31

 

[Steadfast]

Looks like the one I use. I'm not sure I'm not very experienced on .pck editing. It's my weakest point rn in PW development

 

[typicalusername]

Anybody a bit more familiar with the pck editing wanna jump in? We might both learn something haha. Anyway, when you use it, you can edit, redrag back, and it makes you run the client with your modifications?

 

[Steadfast]

Yup usually gives me no issues

 

[typicalusername]

Did you modify anything on compression settings? Also, does client version matter?

 

[Steadfast]

No I don't modify any settings. Honestly I'm not 100% sure but I want to say no. As long as the .pcks aren't encrypted it should work fine

 

[jv90]

If the latest PCK Tools cannot open the PCK files then the PCK files are protected or the header is relocated. This is all irrelevant. To rule it out, try these:

Yes they have a false flag on antivirus, no they are not a virus.



These 'should' work with very recent stuff up to a certain point. WinPCK especially. Simply open pck file extract it work with files and then put the files back inside.



You will mostly be editing in .XML, or a GUI based AngelicaUI Editor if you choose to go that route, you will get hard crashes when you remove something important so always keep backups and compare with something called BeyondCompare, I attached BeyondCompare portable for you for when you mess up a file and need to fix it again!



Here is

To view the content, you need to sign in or register

, use the attached files for the pck tools I prefer currently:

 

[typicalusername]

Thanks! I'll try the files you sent and see if they fix my issue. So far, I only saw ppl editing UI appearance with paint.net. Do you think that AngelicaUI editor do the job better? Is that newbie friendly from your perspective?

If the latest PCK Tools cannot open the PCK files then the PCK files are protected or the header is relocated. This is all irrelevant. To rule it out, try these:

Yes they have a false flag on antivirus, no they are not a virus.



These 'should' work with very recent stuff up to a certain point. WinPCK especially. Simply open pck file extract it work with files and then put the files back inside.



You will mostly be editing in .XML, or a GUI based AngelicaUI Editor if you choose to go that route, you will get hard crashes when you remove something important so always keep backups and compare with something called BeyondCompare, I attached BeyondCompare portable for you for when you mess up a file and need to fix it again!



Here is

To view the content, you need to sign in or register

, use the attached files for the pck tools I prefer currently:

 

[jv90]

UI Editor is not very user friendly and just a simple tool for experienced users but you COULD technically try it, though it will export some errors to be manually corrected I believe depending on the game.


Any-who, I would simply edit the image files themselves with Paint.net or Adobe Photoshop and then edit layouts and coordinates with text editors myself personally


It's all just a bunch of XML files, other text files, DDS TGA BMP etc etc, and some embedded .GFX files which are 2D UI style .GFX type.