Help Editing Shroud/Fog

Anubis_Atomicus · Civilian **Joined**: 17 Feb 2026

I'm attempting to get offline maps (including campaign) to load up as semi-transparent/visible by altering the unexplored black shroud properties. Though, not sure which elements or files to look at and delve into. I remember this tweak was implemented as part of some previous community mod or patch, however I can't recall which one (otherwise I'd have replicated from that source).

Happy to receive useful guidance on how to get this customization/edit functional.

Thanks. Smile

Mig Eater · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2026 12:06 pm Post subject:

The shroud and fog are rendered by shroud.shp and fog.shp in the conquer.mix file.

You can edit both with SHP builder, they're alpha images which will require a custom grayscale pal to edit tho.

If you just want to make the shroud semi-transparent, you can extract fog.shp, rename it to shroud.shp and put it in the main folder.

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Anubis_Atomicus · Civilian **Joined**: 17 Feb 2026

@Mig Eater --Thank you for responding. Smile

However, after attempting your suggestion, it may be helpful to specify which "main folder" you're referring to.

I extracted from conquer.mix the fog.shp as instructed, renamed to "shroud.shp", and then placed it inside the client directory containing the game.exe. After launching and starting a new skirmish, the black shroud remained as normal and wasn't transparent. So it didn't work.

I thought maybe moving the shroud.shp file to MIX directory instead... nope, also had no effect on in-game transparency.
->Also placed in Client sub-directory. = Ineffective
->Also placed in Resources sub-directory. = Ineffective
->Also placed in Ini sub-directory. = Ineffective

Is there a reason to expect it would only apply if the renamed file is reintegrated with conquer.mix ?

^Rampastein · Rampastring **Joined**: 11 Oct 2008 **Location**: Gensokyo

In case you are using Vinifera, Vinifera disallows modifying the shroud SHP to prevent cheating in multiplayer.

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CnCNet Client | CnCNet TS patches | Vinifera | World-Altering Editor (WAE)

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

It doesn't work from the client folder. Attaching the renamed fog.shp to shroud.shp in a mix file, place it in the client's MIX subfolder.

ecache45.mix

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ecache45.mix

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Anubis_Atomicus · Civilian **Joined**: 17 Feb 2026

^Rampastein wrote:

In case you are using Vinifera, Vinifera disallows modifying the shroud SHP to prevent cheating in multiplayer.

Thanks for the reply. At the present time, I haven't added/used Vinifera.

That said, your statement makes me think that TSClient ought to have two distinct data repositories/directories as part of it's installation, so that users can modify to their hearts content whatever they like (for offline, even with Vinifera) and then to switch (go online for multiplayer) the client would initiate automatically a file integrity check of the other separate directory to ensure fair play. Is that sensible?
To me, it's somewhat annoying that - solely to prevent online cheating - it's hardcoded like this not to be modifiable at all, knowing that personal offline customization really shouldn't be so heavily restricted/policed.

I figure most modders are already manually duplicating their own directory files (keeping the original aside unmodified) for this purpose.

Anubis_Atomicus · Civilian **Joined**: 17 Feb 2026

E1 Elite wrote:

It doesn't work from the client folder. Attaching the renamed fog.shp to shroud.shp in a mix file, place it in the client's MIX subfolder.

Thank you, so much! Can confirm that by adding this custom MIX file together with the originals does indeed change the shroud.
I think Mig Eater's above comment was slightly ambiguous, and inadvertently mislead me into thinking the extracted shp could simply be placed in the main install directory alongside game.exe.
I should've realized TSClient would only acknowledge the renamed shp if it was compiled back inside a MIX container.

One follow-up question on this, concerning the naming convention for user-made MIX files. You've used "ecacheXX.mix" instead of "expandXX.mix" which is obviously deliberate. What differentiates these two when deciding which custom files to add inside?

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Loose SHP in game folder works in RA2YR. In TS, some loose files work and some don't.

There are many factors, but main is that ecacheXX are cached in memory and expandXX are not. Typically SHP goes into ecache and vxl goes into expand. Memory used to matter in early 2000s, now it doesn't. There are also art.ini keys DemandLoad etc. which need to be applied in cases if specific SHP is not cached. Also there is loading hierarchy to consider if you are trying to override an existing file in the game.

Check - https://modenc.renegadeprojects.com/MIX

Edit: Just checked Vinifera code, it excludes campaign/skirmish from hardcoding fog/shroud SHP, so you should be able to modify those with Vinifera installed also for offline game modes.

Easy way to disable online updates when modding is to set ModMode=true in Resources\ClientDefinitions.ini. You can have multiple copies of TSClient (1 for online, 1 for modding etc.). TSClient was developed keeping modders in mind.

If you have latest TSClient - https://www.moddb.com/mods/tiberian-sun-client/downloads
you can update it to Vinifera build from within the client. Go to Options > set Updater channel to Vinifera beta and save options. Then restart client and update.