Starter Question

[Kettleforger]

I just found this site a few hours ago and learned I was able to make my own mods (something I've been desperately wanting to do, but have never done before in any game).

So I installed everything and began reading and reading...I understand what is going on and I've been fiddling around with some things. I also downloaded some of the available mods and compared them to the game defaults so I can see what people are doing to change particular items.

Now, I've picked something easy to start with, the Compass, and have a question or two on the default game one.

I understand that what is displayed is only a part ('crop') of the entire graphic. What I don't understand is why there is a huge scroll page with 3 of the exact same graphic in them (I checked the coordinates in the DDS file)...are the other two pics just 'buffers' to prevent some odd displaying when you reach the end of the graphic source rectangle?

Any insight appreciated.