MO2 Splash Fit

Description

For modlist authors. Your list's splash, the picture Mod Organizer 2 shows while it starts, fills every player's screen at any resolution, any shape and any Windows display scaling.

MO2 never resizes splash.png to the screen. It shows it at the picture's own pixel size, scaled by Windows display scaling, in the middle of the monitor. A splash made at 1920x1080 is:

- a box with a margin round it on a 4K monitor;

- cut off on a 1080p laptop at 125% scaling;

- a picture with bars on two sides on an ultrawide or a 16:10 screen.

No single picture fits every player, and you cannot know their screens.

With MO2 Splash Fit you ship the splash at several screen shapes. On each player's PC the plugin picks the closest shape and sizes it to that player's monitor, so the splash is edge to edge from the very first start. The download includes a tool that makes the shapes from your one picture, and a finished demo set.

Generative AI disclosure: this tool's code, this page's text and its banners were produced with generative AI (Claude), directed and tested by the author. The page is tagged accordingly.

Main features

- Fits on the same start. MO2 loads its plugins just before it reads splash.png, so the plugin sizes the file to the monitor first and MO2 then shows the fitted picture. It works on a player's very first start and after any change of resolution or scaling.

- The right monitor. It reads the monitor MO2 is about to centre the splash on, from the same setting MO2 uses. It checks again when the main window opens.

- Closest shape, exact size. Any splash-*.png in a splash folder beside splash.png is a candidate. The shape is read from each picture. The chosen one is scaled to cover the monitor's exact size, and a sliver is trimmed when the shapes differ slightly.

- Light touch.

- It writes only when the picture, the screen or the file on disk has changed.

- It keeps your original splash.png once, as splash-original.png.

- It has one on/off setting and nothing else.

- A tool to make the shapes. tools\make_splash_variants.py (Python 3 with Pillow) makes seven shapes, 16:9, 16:10, 21:9, 32:9, 4:3, 5:4 and 3:2, from one master picture:

- frame keeps a border's corners as they are, stretches its straight edges and re-centres your lettering;

- cover scales and crops a full-bleed picture;

- pad fits a picture on a plain background.

- A worked demo. Demo - Njordlinger splash is the set made for the Njordlinger modlist, with the master, all seven shapes, a preview and the exact command used. It shows what a finished set looks like; make your own from your own art.

Installation (modlist authors)

- Copy plugins\MO2SplashFit.py into your list's MO2 plugins folder.

- Make a splash folder next to splash.png and put your shapes in it, named splash-<anything>.png. Use the tool, or any image editor. About 2160 px tall keeps them sharp on 4K.

- Ship both with your list. For Wabbajack, include them among the files your list installs into the MO2 folder.

- Not a mod: do not install it with the mod manager.

Debugging

Send <your MO2 folder>\plugins\data\mo2-splash-fit.log with any bug report. It has one line per start: which picture it chose, at what size and on which monitor.

Fastest route: the Apocrypha Realm Modding Hub on Discord.

Requirements

| Mod Organizer 2 | GitHub releases | 2. 5.x (tested on 2. 5. 2). A PyQt5 fallback for 2. 4 exists but is untested. |

| Python 3 with Pillow | python.org | Only for the author tool that makes the shapes. Players need nothing but MO2. |

Compatibility notes

Runs inside Mod Organizer 2, not the game, and works for any game MO2 manages. It writes splash.png, splash-original.png (once) and splash\splash-fit.json in the instance folder, and nothing else. With MO2's splash turned off it still fits the file, which does no harm.

Apocrypha Menu Framework 2. 0. 2 and later (Skyrim SE) reads the same splash folder for its in-game start-up curtain.

Credits

The Mod Organizer 2 team - the plugin API this is built on.

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