Blip Replacer

The Blip Replacer swaps RDR2’s map blip icons for pictures of your own. Pick the blips, give each one a picture, and download a RedM resource that streams the rebuilt blip dictionaries. Everything runs in your browser tab; your pictures are not uploaded.

What it is for

Changing what a blip looks like everywhere, for every script that uses it: a custom shop icon, a gang marker, a server logo on a stable. You do not touch any script. Every blip style that draws that icon picks up the new picture.

To place blips or choose a style instead, use the Blip Placer and Blip Styles.

Quick start

1. Find the icon in Stock blips. Search by texture name or label, or narrow it with the dictionary chips.
2. Click it. It moves into Replacements with an empty picture slot.
3. Click the dashed slot next to it and choose your picture.
4. Repeat for any other icons, then press Build and download in the Download panel.
5. Unzip fivemad_blips.zip into resources, add ensure fivemad_blips to server.cfg and restart the whole server.

You can also drop pictures named after a texture (blip_shop_store.png) anywhere on the page, or use Pictures named after blips to pick several at once. Each goes straight onto the blip of that name. A name that matches no blip texture is listed in an error under the page.

The dictionaries

RDR2 keeps its blip icons in three texture dictionaries. The chips show how many icons each holds:

That is 628 different icons. Two of them, blip_direction_pointer and blip_radar_edge_pointer, are in both blips.ytd and blips_mp.ytd; replacing one of those writes both files.

The grid holds every icon that matches the search and the dictionary chip, all 628 when both are empty. Scroll it, or type part of a name to narrow it down.

Why the download holds every icon

A .ytd in a resource’s stream/ folder replaces the stock dictionary of the same name as a whole. It does not patch one texture into it. A blips.ytd holding only your icon would leave the other 320 blips with nothing to draw.

So the page writes the full dictionary for every dictionary you touched: your pictures where you replaced something and the stock icons everywhere else. The Download panel shows which Files will be written and how many Textures written that comes to.

Your pictures

Each picture is fitted into the size of the icon it replaces, keeping its proportions. Most stock icons are 64 x 64; 41 are 256 x 256 and one is 36 x 36. The row under Replacements shows the size and the dictionary for each one.

Use a square PNG with a transparent background. A picture that is not square is centred with transparent space at the sides, and a solid background is drawn as a solid square on the map.

Download panel

Your replaced icons are always stored as BC3 or uncompressed, following the same choice.

Using your own copy

Export the dictionary from your own RDR2 install with CodeX or a similar tool as a loose, unencrypted file, then press Use my own .ytd. The file name has to be one of the three dictionary names. After reading it the page tells you how many textures it found and whether any stock icon is missing (a missing one is filled from fivemad’s pictures). Forget the dropped files goes back to the default.

What is in the zip

fivemad_blips/
  fxmanifest.lua
  README.md
  stream/blips.ytd

with one .ytd for each dictionary you touched. The manifest:

fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'rdr3'
rdr3_warning 'I acknowledge that this is a prerelease build of RedM, and I am aware my resources *will* become incompatible once RedM ships.'

name 'fivemad_blips'
description 'RDR2 blip icons replaced with https://fivemad.com/redm/tools/blip-replacer'
version '1.0.0'

-- Nothing to list here. Every .ytd in stream/ is handed to the streamer on its
-- own and replaces the stock dictionary of the same name.

Streamed files are read when the server starts, so restart the whole server, not just the resource. If you still see the old icon, clear the server cache folder and your RedM client cache.

Checking it in game

Once a replacement has a picture, a Checking it in game block appears under the page. It adds a /blipcheck command that puts a blip with your first replaced icon 20 m north of you. For blip_shop_store:

-- Test for blip_shop_store: /blipcheck puts a blip 20 m north of you with that icon.
RegisterCommand('blipcheck', function()
    local p = GetEntityCoords(PlayerPedId())
    -- BLIP_ADD_FOR_COORDS (0x554D9D53F696D002) with BLIP_STYLE_PICKUP_WEAPON (1664425300)
    local blip = Citizen.InvokeNative(0x554D9D53F696D002, 1664425300, p.x, p.y + 20.0, p.z)
    -- SET_BLIP_SPRITE (0x74F74D3207ED525C): blip_shop_store
    Citizen.InvokeNative(0x74F74D3207ED525C, blip, 1475879922, true)
    -- _SET_BLIP_NAME (0x9CB1A1623062F402)
    Citizen.InvokeNative(0x9CB1A1623062F402, blip, 'blipcheck')
end, false)

The same command is in the README inside the zip, with the steps of the smallest test: replace one blip, build, install, join, run /blipcheck.

Tips

• Test with a single replaced blip first. If that one shows, add the rest.
• Keep icons simple and high contrast. They are drawn small on the map and the minimap.
• Do not run two resources that both stream blips.ytd. Only one copy of a dictionary can be in use, so one set of icons is lost. Put all your blip changes in one build.

Limitations

• Not tried in RedM yet. The files follow the layout of the game’s own dictionaries and read back cleanly, but nobody at fivemad has loaded one in game. If blips go missing or the map crashes, remove the resource and tell us your RedM build number.
• The game ships the blip dictionaries twice, an HD copy and a standard copy. These files are the HD sizes (64 x 64, 256 x 256 for the 41 mission area icons, 36 x 36 for one); the standard copy is mostly half that. Which copy a streamed file replaces on each texture quality setting is not known yet, so an icon that only shows on one setting is probably that.
• Your own .ytd has to be loose and unencrypted. A file still packed or encrypted cannot be read.

Related tools

• Blip Styles
• Blip Placer
• Folders to YTD
• Map Editor