[GRAPHICS] BouncyMischa Fantasy and Sci-Fi Building Models

Bouncymischa, are you holding back for a Halloween surprise?
(I ask because I am...)

Maaaaaaybe?

It's not so much that I'm holding back as that I'm trying to juggle a lot of things on my plate -- in particular, I'm trying to get my Mima civilization out in the next week or so, as it's based around a Sorceress UU that summons hordes of Skeletons, and a Crypt UI that can produce spooky Spectres. My original plan had been to release it around the 24th, but since BE is coming out that day, I figured I should accelerate my plans and try to get it out this weekend instead. X3

Still, while the Crypt uses some of the various undead building models I've converted before, I'm trying to get some extra ones (such as the Wizard's Tower and Temple) converted in time for Halloween for people who might want more spooky improvement models. :p
 
Halloween this year will be spooky as heck. Where I live it's super foggy in the morning, exactly the sort that has you seeing shapes looming up out of it... then the fog rolls in at night, so much that on a soccer field with the lights on you can't see the other side of the field except as a grayish blur. At night its pitch black, the fog makes whooshing noises, and the cornfields (yes I have one next to my house) clatter and scrape. Even worse there is a large dog (who everybody knows and loves) that roams free at night from the farm about a mile down the road, who occasionally lets loose a passable wolf howl in the old riverbed (he's a sheepdog).
:hide:Methinks I'll stay in and get my bugaboos uploaded.
 
I'm pretty sure everyone's excited about importing cool sci-fi graphics from Beyond Earth... but with Halloween tomorrow, I figured I should at least try and get some more spooky fantasy models completed! So here's a few more models for those who are interested!

Spirit Cage, Necromancer's Tomb, Necromancer's Tower, Unholy Temple, Soul Foundry



Credit has to go to Vehem for converting the Spirit Cage for Civ 4, and Walter Hawkwood for converting the other buildings.

The Spirit Cage and Soul Foundry have Civ 5 effects -- the Spirit Cage produces the same light as a Holy Site, while the Soul Foundry has a volcanic effect from Krakatoa in the foundry. I've included alternate .fxsxml files for those who may not want the effects, for whatever reason.

I also threw in some spooky undead units for effect, although they aren't included in the modpack. X3

Art and improvement files are available here.
 
That's exactly what I need for my fantasy mod.
Wow! Great work! Thank you!
 
Nice! Wasn't the Soul Foundry some kind of Dwarf forge before, though? I seem to recall a very similar Civ4 building that didn't smoke, but it had the small cascade of lava...

It's possible it was used in one of the Civ IV mods -- I haven't really played any of those, so I couldn't say. I found it in the Undead buildings pack that Walter Hawkwood posted in the Downloads section, though, and figured it looked cool enough to convert.

That's exactly what I need for my fantasy mod.
Wow! Great work! Thank you!

You're welcome! I'll have to check my files -- I may have to make a quick fix on the "under construction" graphic that I included, as it may not be oriented properly to match up with the buildings. Maybe I can include a couple more building models I converted in a quick update, too.

I am alive!

..Err, I mean, nice work!
These look REALLY familiar, though...

Welcome back!

Familiar in the sense that I was showing you them last night, or that you'd seen them somewhere else? (As mentioned above, I converted them from a set of Civ IV graphics...)
 
Looks very nice:goodjob:

Cant wait for the sci-fi improvements.

Maybe we can use this nice improvements in CCTP, i need to think about it.;)
 
Looks very nice:goodjob:

Cant wait for the sci-fi improvements.

Maybe we can use this nice improvements in CCTP, i need to think about it.;)

Given that I've got quite a few fantasy improvements now, I'll take another look at the sci fi ones I was working on. Now that I've been able to incorporate some basic effects I may do a couple of Lord Tirian's more futuristic ones and see how they work out, as well as the solar farm and wind trap.

At some point I'll have to take a look at the BE improvements, since I think most people are focusing on converting the units right now. But I haven't updated to Deliverator's new Nexus Buddy and Blender scripts, so I may wait until I'm finished the current set of Civ 4 conversions.
 
You're doing a really nice job with these new improvement graphics... it makes me want to think of a civilization idea which could make use of them!
 
You're doing a really nice job with these new improvement graphics... it makes me want to think of a civilization idea which could make use of them!

Thanks! I'm not entirely sure what sorts of civs could make use of them, although there's undoubtably plenty of fantasy civs I hadn't thought of that could potentially do it. Hopefully someone will find a way to use the Soul Forge... I'm quite pleased with how the volcano effect works in the forge. Perhaps someday I'll try to make some kind of dwarven civ that uses it, since there are some nice dwarven units now.

As for sci fi things, I've been making some progress. I've been having the most success with converting Lord Tirian's subspace beacon and psi gateway, as well the "alien skyscraper" made by dacubz145 that seems like it could make an interesting arcology or something. I've been dabbling with some of the textures used, but these should be ready soon:



In terms of more near-future/realistic sci-fi improvements, I've been making some progress with the Wind Traps and Solar Farm, although I've run into issues with the solar collector texture. It has a reflection of the sun which looks nice at a large scale, but once the model is shrunk down it tends to wash out the blue texture of the panel leaving them looking all silver/white. I'll have to play with the texture to see if I can tone it down, unless people are satisfied with the current appearance. I'm also experimenting with some "industrial site" models, and possibly some models for things like fortifications or watchposts, although that'll likely take longer as some of them will need to be put together in Blender. (And I don't have anything suitable for walls, yet... XD) There's also the issue in that I haven't figured out how to make something like the industrial site conform to the terrain, so it has the tendency to "float" a bit, which is annoying. (I think many of the Civ 4 models had 'foundations' underneath the model to avoid this issue, but some of the models I'm using for the industrial site don't have those so they 'float'...)



Any feedback on these models would be appreciated! :D
 
:woohoo:

Amazing:D this is a really great progress, and for sure we will use it in CCTP.

This will fit the lack of future improvements in our two future eras.

:goodjob:
 
Okay! So after working on them some more, I've got my first set of sci-fi improvement models ready!

Futuristic/Alien Arcology, Subspace Beacon/Alien Subspace Beacon, Psi Gateway, Wind Traps, Solar Farm



The "arcology" model was originally done for Civ 4 by dacubz
The Subspace Beacon, Psi Gateway, Solar Collectors, and Wind Traps were originally done for Civ 4 by Lord Tirian

I was playing around with some of the textures, which is why there's alternative versions of some of the models -- the Alien Skyscraper model from Civ 4 has nice and big flat surfaces, so it was fun trying out some of the other textures with it. The black 'alien' texture was the original one, but I liked how the one I used for the "Futuristic Arcology" gave it a kind of Star Trek starbase look. With the Subspace Beacon, I didn't really like the original yellow/green look so recolored it to appear more silver/blue, but I've left the files for the original subspace beacon in for those who might like it. I also tried the "alien" texture, and found it gave it an amusing Necron-like look, so included that one as well.

There's also an issue with the Wind Traps -- for some reason, the internal plate isn't appearing in the final model, although it shows up in Blender and Granny, so you can end up seeing through the model. I've been trying to fix it, but haven't made any progress, so I figured I'd just include it as-is for now until I can find a solution to the issue.

On the other hand, I'm pretty pleased with the Psi Gateway. I attached the gemstone sparkle effect to it, so while the gate is "active" it sparkles. On the other hand, when pillaged the energy field in the gate shuts down as well. :p

I've still got some more ideas for sci-fi improvements -- communications relays, research facilities, and industrial sites -- but it's going to take some more work to see if I can turn them into reality. Hopefully these ones will be useful for now!

EDIT: Art and improvement files are available here.
 
Just a little thread bump to let people know I've got some cool stuff under construction...!



I'm trying to go all-out with these models, so I'm hoping people will be excited to see them! XD
 
There's also an issue with the Wind Traps -- for some reason, the internal plate isn't appearing in the final model, although it shows up in Blender and Granny, so you can end up seeing through the model. I've been trying to fix it, but haven't made any progress, so I figured I'd just include it as-is for now until I can find a solution to the issue.
I'm pretty sure it's because of how Civ5 handles the alpha channel. In Civ4, you could set the type of alpha blending by editing the nif files, while Civ5 seems to use alpha blending that makes everything behind the texture transparent (and that's also why there's an internal plate in the first place: it had an animation using a scrolling texture).

While I don't know how to re-add animations, I'm happy to fix the model issue and re-add the internal plate properly if you send me the blend file you use (that'd save me the re-import from the nif-file since the original files are somewhere on an old PC). :)
 
I'm pretty sure it's because of how Civ5 handles the alpha channel. In Civ4, you could set the type of alpha blending by editing the nif files, while Civ5 seems to use alpha blending that makes everything behind the texture transparent (and that's also why there's an internal plate in the first place: it had an animation using a scrolling texture).

While I don't know how to re-add animations, I'm happy to fix the model issue and re-add the internal plate properly if you send me the blend file you use (that'd save me the re-import from the nif-file since the original files are somewhere on an old PC). :)

Interesting! I still feel like such a novice working with these graphics... I still don't fully understand what an alpha layer is, and how to access it in various programs. Fortunately, I've been able to find ways to sidestep the issue when working with icons and such.

It's also a shame that this graphics engine is apparently a lot harder to work with than Civ IV's. A lot of the Civ IV models have interesting animations and such, but there's currently no way to effectively import them that I know of. Perhaps we'll find a way in time...

In the meantime, here's the .blend file for the Wind Traps. Thanks for your assistance with them!

I also wanted to thank you for all of your help with the "how to make Civ V action icons in Blender" tutorial. It's been extremely helpful for this project! :D

 
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