In your FL directory "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\INTERFACE\INTRO\IMAGES" you'll see 3 .TGA files.

startupscreen.tga 800x600 24bit TGA (no alpha)
startupscreen_1280.tga 1280x960 24bit TGA (no alpha)
front_freelancerlogo.tga 800x600 32bit TGA

The first one is what most people will see, the second is for those on a screen res of 1280 or higher and the last is for the menu screen.

Most Paint progs that can do TGA formats will handle the first 2, but you need one that can handle transparencies as well as alpha channels for the the third, as the whole thing is done in the alpha channel rather then the RGB channels.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

Do I have to edit the bitmaps aswell?

no, you don´t

Can you give us a tutorial on how to make startup screens? cause Im having troble making them. if you can I would really appreciate it.

Ill take any info I can get on modding!

Requirements:
- Photoshop
- Time
- Image Editor (i use Microsoft Office Picture Manager)

1.Open up Photoshop and design your Startupscreen, first one must be 800x600
2. Save as startupscreen.tga then select 32bit. then save again as Startupscreen_16.bmp and select 24bit.
3. Open up the bitmap in your image editor, resize to 1280x960 and save as Startupscreen_1280_16.bmp
4. Open Startupscreen_1280_16.bmp in Photoshop and save as Startupscreen_1280.tga at 32bit.

Thats what i do and i never have a problem

Blaster you only need to do the "startupscreen.tga" for the main splash screen and the "front_freelancerlogo.tga" for the menu screen. The other TGA and the bitmaps are leftovers that haven't been removed.

The startupscreen.tga needs to be 800x600 and saved as a 24 bit uncompressed TGA, if you save it as a 32 bit your adding an alpha channel that doesn't do anything and is therefore a waste of time and space.

front_freelancerlogo.tga however is saved as a 32 bit uncompressed TGA as it's the alpha channel that you do your work on and as it's a transparency it lets you see the background CGI on the menu screen.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

ok Ive created my images put it in the images folder but when it starts niether the startup screen or the logo are there , not even the original one. can someone help?

Can you show us the images here?