Most users don't realize you can customize some of MPT's internal resources with a little work, and you don't need to know anything about coding. This tutorial will show you how you can get started altering these resources if you so desire. There are some important things to keep in mind:
- Not all GUI features can be customized. Some that seem to be custoimizable are actually not, because the contents of a controls are dictated by code (such as menu items, etc.).
- Since MPT uses a lot of colors and styles directly from Windows, the only way to change these is thru Windows' theme settings.
You don't need MPT's source code to make these changes, but you will need a resource editor to do the work. In this article, we'll use ResHacker, a free and well-tested editor available in
this page.
Opening the Resources1. SAVE A COPY OF YOUR ORIGINAL MODPLUG APPLICATION! We're going to be tinkering with MPT's internal structure, so make sure you have a backup of the original in case something goes wrong.
2. Open ResHacker and open mptrack.exe from there. You will be presented a list of resources available for editing.
All of these resource reside inside the code structure, and can be read and probably edited.
Replacing the Resources3. In our first example we're going to alter the bitmap that the Pattern Editor uses to draw various elements in the fields. We'll replace it with another bitmap instead of the original, which you can download
here. You can also edit the original bitmap to your own desires, but make sure you end up with an
indexed bitmap that uses the original 16-color, 8-bit palette and exactly the same width and height.
4. Open the Bitmaps folder in ResHacker's folder tree. The Pattern Editor bitmap is resource 303, so open that subdirectory and select the 1033 icon. This will show the installed bitmap.
If you want to edit this (or any) bitmap, choose "Save [xxx]..." from the Actions menu (xxx is the name of the resource) so you can edit it in a paint program.
5. For now we will replace the bitmap with our own, so choose "Replace Bitmap..." from the Actions menu. The Replace dialog will be displayed. Click on the "Open file with new bitmap..." button at the top. You can then select an existing application, library, or bitmap to load. If you load an executable or DLL, the list of its compatible resources will be displayed, as shown here:
6. Find the correct bitmap if necessary, and click on the "Replace" button near the bottom. The resource on the left will replace the resource on the right. Click "Close" when you're done.
7. If you want to test your changes, choose "Save" from the File menu. Open MPT (the version you changed, not the backup copy) and look at your changes. If you're happy with it, you can close ResHacker.
Edit by Saga: Changed Link to official ResHacker site instead of a third-party download site and fixed links
