3D Leader Test (issues)

Looking at the texture errors it looks a little like the small rigging errors. Ug you changes the shape of the mesh it shouldn't add red to flesh. And the hands too. Or did you changing mapping?

I did noticet that when I imported a nb2 that the material data would be dropped and I had to recreate the materials to get it to map right.

Ekmek said:

Looking at the texture errors it looks a little like the small rigging errors. Ug you changes the shape of the mesh it shouldn't add red to flesh. And the hands too. Or did you changing mapping?

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No I didn't change any of the UV maps. There are a couple of issues with using the more sophisticated shader types on custom models:

1) It is possible for meshes to have two UV layers in the GR2 format. You can see that the mesh for Wu's hands has both TextureCoordinates0 and TextureCoordinates1:

Somehow I think the different UV mappings are being used for different textures - which is possibly why the shading looks weird on my Wu's hands. At the moment all the export/import code written only supports one UV layer per mesh. Blender does support multiple UV layers but I've not done anything with that before.

2) There are some numerical parameters for some of the shader types which are not yet visible/editable in Nexus Buddy 2. For example, Leader_Glass has float parameters called HackHilightIntensity, HackHilightLightColor, etc. These may have a significant effect on the visual appearance of the model.

Eventually it would be good to support these two things but particularly the first one is a fair amount of work.

For now I suggest using Leader_Opaque_Matte or other simpler Leader shaders. You can use the fancier ones but the textures for every layer will need to match the same UV coordinates.

Ekmek said:

I did notice that when I imported a nb2 that the material data would be dropped and I had to recreate the materials to get it to map right.

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The materials are not important until re-import into NB2 and the assignment of textures, which is why I'm not concerned about importing/exporting them. The UV mapping data belongs to the vertices in the mesh, not the material. You can import and export from Blender with no materials at all, and just attach all materials in NB2 at the end of the process.

Thx good info. I think the hacklighting and multiple uv maps might be what lemmy and binky ran into before they stopped. I think we can get by without them. With civ4 we got pretty far without any shaders so what we have now is fine by me.

The Overwrite Meshes technique is now working for additionql meshes. I was able to overwrite the Wu model with 16 meshes when the original only has 13. All the rigging specified in Blender is preserved.

With some tidy-up of my code I may be able to upload the new tool later today.

Deliverator said:

She works in game too.

A few issues with the shaders/textures - I was trying to use all the same ones as the original Wu - but the main thing is the 13 meshes are all good and animates properly in game.



Edit: The original for comparison:

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I realised that UV mapping was getting screwed up by new export script. I fixed that and the skin now looks better.

Great catch! Have you tried the replacement method with multi skeletons?

Looks like all that's left is some gloss mapping on her robe. Well, her face is a bit off too.

Irkalla said:

Looks like all that's left is some gloss mapping on her robe. Well, her face is a bit off too.

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It looks like it's mostly the way that the edges are behaving right now, along with the gloss mapping.

Ekmek said:

Great catch! Have you tried the replacement method with multi skeletons?

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Not yet.

I'm going to upload the latest tool and scripts later today - single skeleton/multi-mesh is enough to cover Units and most Leaders.

Multi-skeleton support will have to wait for the next version of Nexus Buddy 2 and the scripts - it is simple to do I just need to update all the export/import code to handle multiple models/skeletons. I'm away on holiday from Saturday and I'm pretty busy when I get back, but I'll try to get the multi-skeleton stuff done by sometime in late July.

Looks like all that's left is some gloss mapping on her robe. Well, her face is a bit off too.

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It's not quite as simple as just gloss mapping - some of these Leader materials use 6 or 7 separate texture layers! The most obvious issues are with the eyelashes and the hair-fringe and the lack of silkiness on the robe, but even the skin lacks some of the subtler top-layer texturing. I will try and spend some time debugging these issues and increasing support for the more sophisticated shader types next month. For now, the scope of what can be done with 3D Leaders is already massively increased.

Deliverator said:

For now, the scope of what can be done with 3D Leaders is already massively increased.

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So what would be the steps to import a custom 3D model into the game?

Ok, I can verify that a modified skeleton can work in game if made from a br2. next step is to add new objects (and of course start reskinning).

Wow!! Looks like you guys are really making progress, which is sensational!

One question: would it be relatively straightforward to knock the glasses off Gandhi? He'd be ideal as a leader for the Harappans (and the original background would work too) if only he weren't wearing those glasses!

so as i understand reading from the above posts, is it now possible to have a proper 3d Model? with movements like CIV IV for custom leaders? IF SO AWESOME

Goodluck to you guys

Does this work only for replacing existing leaders or can this be used for adding a completely new civ and leader?

Rob (R8XFT) said:

One question: would it be relatively straightforward to knock the glasses off Gandhi? He'd be ideal as a leader for the Harappans (and the original background would work too) if only he weren't wearing those glasses!

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Yes, this would be pretty simple to do - simpler than the example of changing Wu's hair shown above as you would only be deleting part of the model rather than editing it.

Hashishim said:

so as i understand reading from the above posts, is it now possible to have a proper 3d Model? with movements like CIV IV for custom leaders?

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Yes. The only limitation is around using the more sophisticated shader types, but that is not a big limitation really.

0Artur0 said:

Does this work only for replacing existing leaders or can this be used for adding a completely new civ and leader?

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You can now create a completely custom leader that uses an existing Civ 5 leader's animations provided you have the 3D modelling skills to do it.

Deliverator said:

You can now create a completely custom leader than uses an existing Civ 5 leaders animations provided you have the 3D modelling skills to do it.

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So, I can make a completely new civ with a new leader.. the only "restriction" is that the new leader is going to move exactly the same as the one I used for the base? So, let's say I use Alex for the base (I won't)... so my model also needs to be on a horse? I'll probably use Haile Selassie or something like that.. so when Haile moves his left arm, my model is going to do the same?
I'd really like to completely understand this before I start modeling since it's very time-consuming.

0Artur0 said:

So, I can make a completely new civ with a new leader.. the only "restriction" is that the new leader is going to move exactly the same as the one I used for the base? So, let's say I use Alex for the base (I won't)... so my model also needs to be on a horse? I'll probably use Haile Selassie or something like that.. so when Haile moves his left arm, my model is going to do the same?

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Yes, the animations will be exactly the same as the leader you use as a base. This was exactly the situation for Civ 4 as well. Custom animation by hand is possible, but is a more advanced topic so most people stick to using existing animation sets for units and leaders.

Deliverator said:

Yes, the animations will be exactly the same as the leader you use as a base. This was exactly the situation for Civ 4 as well. Custom animation by hand is possible, but is a more advanced topic so most people stick to using existing animation sets for units and leaders.

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Ok, I can live with that.
I'm browsing through Steam Workshop to find any new civs with custom made 3d leader but I'm not finding anything.

0Artur0 said:

I'm browsing through Steam Workshop to find any new civs with custom made 3d leader but I'm not finding anything.

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Because none exist.

0Artur0 said:

Ok, I can live with that.
I'm browsing through Steam Workshop to find any new civs with custom made 3d leader but I'm not finding anything.

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so far I've attempted two custom models but got stopped with blender errors.