Tutorial: Replace RF's Icon for Free

[AndyCR]

This tutorial will show you how to replace the icon of RealityFactory.exe without using a C++ compiler. This is, to my knowledge, a delicate, dangerous process, though I have not had any trouble with it. Therefore, be careful, and keep a backup of your game directory.
The first step is to download Resource Hacker. This program can open and change resources in compiled files such as .exe, .dll, and so on. You can get it at http://angusj.com/resourcehacker/ . After downloading it, extract it to any folder and open ResHacker.exe.
In the menu, click ‘File->Open …’ and navigate to your Reality Factory folder. Choose RealityFactory.exe. Don’t worry, it’ll make a backup of it. Expand the Icon folder, expand the 1 folder, and choose 1033. Reality Factory’s icon should appear in the pane on the right. In the menu, choose ‘Action->Replace Icon …’ and click the ‘Open file with new icon…’ button in the dialog box that comes up. Choose the icon you wish to use, click the ‘Replace’ button, and click ‘Close.’ Finally, click ‘File->Save’ to finalize the changes. If anything goes wrong, you can restore from the backup by deleting RealityFactory.exe and renaming RealityFactory_original.exe to RealityFactory.exe.
Enjoy!

(Note: I do not take any responsibility whatsoever for any problems stemming from this tutorial. Just letting you know.)

[steven8]

Resource Hacker is how I changed the icon on my demo. Worked just fine with rf.exe. It is a good program, but more often than not, it will corrupt an exe, due to different compression methods. You can restore, though.

[AndyCR]

this is actually doing well, modded several of the rf tools, even added a bitmap image placed into the main window of inieditor and changed the window caption of actview, and havent had it produce a dud yet somehow... probably because they were all compiled with such a common compiler...

[MakerOfGames]

There are many ways to make icons for windows.
In microsoft paint, when saving, name the file and add an .ico to the end of it. Now it is an icon! This also might work in other programs. I found this to work in MGI photosuite.

The second trick:

I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS IS SAFE FOR YOUR COMPUTER AND WARN YOU NOW: TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In any open folder, click tools and then folder options. Then click veiw and uncheck the option "Hide extentions for known file types". Click apply and then OK. Now make yourself an icon picture file with any extention. When you are ready to make that picture an icon right click it and rename it with a .ico for the last 4 characters. Then click to accept the name change and windows will pop up a message. The message states, "changing the file extention may make the file unusable, continue?" click yes and now the file is an icon.



Now with the icons you can create shortcuts for RF and replace the icon with your own. Simply right click the shortcut. Click the shortcut tab and then click the "change icon" button. Now find your icon and apply it. This wont change the exes icon but it can make the shortcut you see on the desktop be unique to your game.

[AndyCR]

just as a note: using the method to create icons outlined above, the icons are not truly icon files; rather, they are simply bitmap files with a .ico extension. due to that, they cannot have features such as transparency.

[MakerOfGames]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. If you want transparentcies you will have to obtain an icon making program.

[dylanwinn]

Or, you could just change the shortcut's icon... xD

[Allanon]

XN Resource Editor makes changing icons and other resources easy. Also, this program is free.