I have, at long last, been able to get a poser leader into .nif format - and it'll load into sceneviewer and nifskope - but, of course, not the game as yet!

I'm having problems with these functions - I can't even do basic editing of the .nif files that come with the game without them crashing when I try to save - but this may or may not prove a minor breakthrough that someone else could see if they could do something with. Who knows, we might be able to get something to work, even if its a community effort!

I decided to do a basic (though attractive!) female, no textures, no clothing, no hair, just the basic model - after all, we don't need other things complicating the file at this point.

I've called her Gladys (as in Gladys of the Coritani). Here's what she looks like in the sceneviewer with some Boudicca hair on her head, though my system crashes if I try to save it once I've added anything from another leader:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/20480/Gladys.jpg

Here are the files (http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/20480/Gladys.rar) if someone wants to have a crack at this ;) !!

I have to admit, I'm rather surprised that no-one has commented on this yet. Has anyone downloaded the file and tried it at all?

Nice girl :groucho:
Tough boldies ala shinead o'conor aren't much my type :D

OK what i notieced in the model first (and i was expecting it with trials with civ3 units models) is high number of polygons.

There's no chance to work it out without reducing number of polygons - it's possible in 3dsmax - this i'm sure, and probably in blender and/or poser.

I don't think it would be possible to export poser models directly to .nif format - it would need some work in blender or 3dsmax earlier. Usually exporting anything that is LH from 3dsmax to civ4,s .nif causes troubles.
But i know that Firehazurd, C.Roland, Ploeperpengel was near solving (or even solved) the crash problem.

The third thing is animation. It is the hardest part. The biggest experience have Firehazurd

I don't think it would be possible to export poser models directly to .nif format - it would need some work in blender or 3dsmax earlier.
...but I've done it! Well, actually, via 3dsmax8

Thanks for your comments. I have absolutely no idea how to reduce the number of polygons - but I'm hoping that at least I've provided a model that maybe others can do something with - maybe creating an original leaderhead as a community effort. I'm not sure if it's going to work, but at least it's a start.

This model has way too many polies that's for sure. The biggest Leaderhead currently is Lincoln with still slightly less than 8000 polies. This beauty got 222113!:eek:
However I'm not entirely sure this might even be the cause of the problem. Apart from not having any bones she also got the texture included within the nif. Just a guess but this might cause some trouble with the grafikengine.
Can you try to reduce the polycount, give her a rig(no nifediting will result in any usable animation unless there's a proper rig beforehand) and export her texture to a bitmap? As soon that's done I'm pretty sure I could get her into the game;)
(well I could probably do at least the first two step with max but my time is short)

Can you try to reduce the polycount, give her a rig(no nifediting will result in any usable animation unless there's a proper rig beforehand) and export her texture to a bitmap?
:confused: I'm really not sure how to do this and could do with some direction - however, I'll load her back into 3dsmax and see what I can do.

ok i'll give you hint how to reduce the number of polygons today (i don't have max on this computer, and max is enough complicated to describe this from head). Tough the results might be not best (probably to keep her looking nice you would need to make model still bigger than civ4 standard). The good news is also we can cut everything below brest - if you don't see something, you don't need it

Thanks asioasioasio, looking forward to any help you can give ;) .

OK so couple of hints:

- cut everything below stomach

- go modifiers -> mesh editing -> MultiRes
on the right panell choose Generate button
and VerPercent choose from 100 down to the number you'll be satesfied - the model after this operation probably would need some fixes.

- the second way is go to modifiers -> mesh editing -> Opptimize
Than pump up Face Thresh on the left panel (by default 4,0) - it allows to clean model from additional poligons (sometimes to represent somethin you don't need so much polygons and it cut's it down)
in large scale it may destroy model in some parts so again model would need some fixes or just choose lower number.

Probably they are also other methods of decreasing polygons, but this one are the fastest.

OK so couple of hints:

- cut everything below stomach

- go modifiers -> mesh editing -> MultiRes
on the right panell choose Generate button
and VerPercent choose from 100 down to the number you'll be satesfied - the model after this operation probably would need some fixes.

- the second way is go to modifiers -> mesh editing -> Opptimize
Than pump up Face Thresh on the left panel (by default 4,0) - it allows to clean model from additional poligons (sometimes to represent somethin you don't need so much polygons and it cut's it down)
in large scale it may destroy model in some parts so again model would need some fixes or just choose lower number.

Probably they are also other methods of decreasing polygons, but this one are the fastest.

Thanks - I've just downloaded a polygon cruncher, so that should do the trick (though I've only got it as a 7 day trial at the moment).

What about this "rigging?" I'm a noob when it comes to 3dsmax.

Check Sharicks extended tutorial for Max about this. He explains rigging for vehicles. It basically works the same for LHs(allthough the complexity of a LH will make the process much more complicated as well I'm afraid). You also might check other Maxtutorial about it on the web(or just look at Max own helplibrary).
If you want to use vanilla animation you need to carefully examine the bonestructure of the vanilla model which animation you want to use. It will have to match exactly or it won't work properly. You also could try to import a vanilla leader and try to replace the mesh with your own however that will probably have to be nifedted afterwards as the importscripts don't work perfectly.

Check Sharicks extended tutorial for Max about this. He explains rigging for vehicles. It basically works the same for LHs(allthough the complexity of a LH will make the process much more complicated as well I'm afraid). You also might check other Maxtutorial about it on the web(or just look at Max own helplibrary).
If you want to use vanilla animation you need to carefully examine the bonestructure of the vanilla model which animation you want to use. It will have to match exactly or it won't work properly. You also could try to import a vanilla leader and try to replace the mesh with your own however that will probably have to be nifedted afterwards as the importscripts don't work perfectly.

Is that all there is to it? Well, no problem then :sad: ...

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction though :goodjob: !!

Is that all there is to it? Well, no problem then :sad: ...

Yeah it can be a long and tiring process...I know, I know:sad:

If you do the nifskope job like I did in my tut, you will probably be able to make it work in game, the thing is, it will need to be riged if you want her to be animated.