WoW Icons, Custom Units, DDS Compression

The Galaxy Editor is not out yet however it is still possible to start working on maps. I will show you different projects that have already been started by the Mapster community.

Tutorial: Import WoW Icons by Iggyhopper

The number of Starcraft II icons is really small. You probably one to use one of the hundreds WoW icons, the process has been explained by Iggyhopper and is now trivial. It takes no more than a minute to convert an icon. Some automated tool will probably come later.

Tutorial: Custom Units by lurkerbelow

A new tutorial appeared on nibbits written by lurkerbelow. He explains all the steps required to create a new unit based on an existing one. At the end of the tutorial you will have a brand new Dragoon based on the stalker.

               <!-- Click to view the full tutorial -->
<CButton id="Dragoon">
    <Icon value="Assets\Textures\btn-unit-protoss-stalker.dds"/>
    <AlertIcon value="Assets\Textures\btn-unit-protoss-stalker.dds"/>
    <EditorCategories value="Race:Protoss"/>
</CButton>
               <!-- Click to view the full tutorial -->

Compressonator by ATI

You probably use the DDS Photoshop plugin to convert your images into DDS. First of all, you should know that Starcraft II is able to read both PNG and JPG images if you don't want to bother using DDS. If you want to get the best possible compression, ATI released a tool that allows you to try different compression methods and have a visual representation. It also supports a batch functionnality.

SC2Mapster