Nexus Buddy 2 - Granny Editor for Civ 5 2.5.3

Deliverator, with the new NB2 I've been able to get two units from BE into Nexus and animating propery (assuming the Kraken was supposed to look like a rock). I don't however, have the foggiest idea of how to get the effects to work in Civ5, especially not through a mod. Do you have any suggestions?
(I only have the demo, but I seem to have all the files. Not that I'd know.)

Civitar said:

Deliverator, with the new NB2 I've been able to get two units from BE into Nexus and animating propery (assuming the Kraken was supposed to look like a rock). I don't however, have the foggiest idea of how to get the effects to work in Civ5, especially not through a mod. Do you have any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Yeah, the main pioneers for attaching effects to stuff are hugojackson18 -check out his Mac Truck unit mod. Some posts with some information from this post onwards in that thread.

Also Nomad has clearly also done some cool stuff with effects looking at this post. I don't if these units are in the current Ea mod but that might be worth looking at too.

As far as I understand it is effects are controlled by the ftsxml file in conjunction with extra art defines and .gr2s for the fx themselves. I'm pretty sure that the Civ BE effects will work in the Civ V engine and vice versa but I have tried anything myself.

So basically nothing new has been learned since Nomad's tutorial.
I've checked out hugojackson18's truck, but it doesn't really do anything that my Dragon unit doesn't. Practically all the units in Éa are his and my work, I've been helping out with Éa beyond just unit making.
The trouble is that just modding Civ5 I can attach any Civ5 effects to any Civ5 model, but I have no idea how to insert new effects via a mod. There are some weird .psb files in both Civ5 and CivBE that hunting through all effects-related file leads to eventually. So I guess I just try and copy the XML that led to the psb then import it into VFS. I'll try it and report on what works/really doesn't/might work.

The .psb files are the particle effects I think. hugojackson18 said they were created using Fork Particle Studio. Might have a go at working out how to mod in additional effects via XML myself at some point.

They are definitely done with Fork Particle Studio: the website of FPS's banner shows off a screenshot of Rocket Artillery and a quote from Todd Bilger.
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be free, but there's almost certainly stuff up on the internet on how to deal with its effects.
Also Skajaquada's old WH40K project had a lot of custom effects in it, though it wasn't modular IIRC.

Deliverator said:

The key point is that you need to load the relevant string database first before loading the Civ BE .gr2 file.

Click to expand...

That did the trick. Simple as pie. Thanks!

Hi,

I'm having some trouble getting Nexus Buddy 2 to work. When I try to launch the NexusBuddy2.1.exe it crashes instantly.

I've tried following the different fixes people have reported throughout the thread, but I'm probably doing something wrong.

I have extracted the content of the nexusbuddy2 zip file to the \Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V SDK\Nexus\x86 folder.
I do have .NET Framework 4 installed (also tried re-installing of course).

I think that maybe my problem is with the Nexus tool. Whenever I open it, I get an error saying "Error establishing asset paths.". I read that this happens if "asset path" given the first time Nexus is opened, is wrong. This should be solved by changing the Value Data of the AssetPath Key located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Fireaxis\Nexus\Viewer from the incorrect path (in my case "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\") to the correct one "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V".
But I'm still getting the error when I open the Nexus tool.
However, I can choose to ignore the error, and then the program opens. In doing so, I will constantly be prompted with a windows error message saying that Civ5 has stopped working, asking if I want to restart the application.
All the menus in the Nexus tool are clickable, but whenever something is clicked, I get a new error message (within the Nexus tool) and the programs shuts down.

Could someone please help me figuring out what to do to fix this. Re-install the SDK software?

It's probably not of importance, but what I'm trying to do is creating a improvement based upon a civ4 building. I've exported the model in blender as a BN2 file using Ekmek's guide here

Danmacsch said:

This should be solved by changing the Value Data of the AssetPath Key located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Fireaxis\Nexus\Viewer from the incorrect path (in my case "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\") to the correct one "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V".

Click to expand...

Make sure you have also the correct path for:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Firaxis\Tools
ToolAssetPath="E:\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\Sid Meier's Civilization V"
As this one is actually used.

Artisanix said:

Make sure you have also the correct path for:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Firaxis\Tools
ToolAssetPath="E:\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\Sid Meier's Civilization V"
As this one is actually used.

Click to expand...

Okay, changed. Now the Nexus tool doesn't give error messages all the time. Still can't open the Nexus Buddy 2 though. Should certain settings be set in Nexus before one can use NB2?
Also, the gr2_viewer works fine.

Still getting nowhere unfortunately

I have the standard SDK installed in one folder (\Sid Meier's Civilization V SDK\Nexus\x86) and the old version of the SDK in another (\Sid Meier's Civilization V SDK old version\Nexus\x86).

First I thought that the NexusBuddy2 files should be extracted to the standard SDK nexus/x86/ folder, but apparently this is incorrect, right?. So instead I've extracted the files to the \Sid Meier's Civilization V SDK old version\Nexus\x86 folder, but I'm still getting a "NexusBuddy2.exe has stopped working" prompt when launching the program.

I'm not sure if I should change the regedit key for the Viewer to be pointing at the old version viewer path. I tried it, but no changed.

I don't know if it is even necessary to do, but I've run the "Extract PAK (*.fpk) files" script in both the standard and the old version nexus.

It seems there may be some vital (basic) thing I've missed?

EDIT: I got it working. Had to use the recompiled version from this post.

EDIT2: I've just learned that the re-compiled version (linked above) is a version of an early NB2 patch (patch 2 I think). In that patch the over-write meshes with BR2 action wasn't incorporated. Can this be achieved another way in the patch I've got working?, Or is it necessary to get a newer version working (which is of course preferable)? I've tried with the patches 5-9 found in the downloads section here on civfanatics.
Help will be much appreciated

@Danmacsch, for what it's worth I've just tried all this and got the same outcome.... can get the 2.0 patched version to work but not the latest version.

abob101 said:

@Danmacsch, for what it's worth I've just tried all this and got the same outcome.... can get the 2.0 patched version to work but not the latest version.

Click to expand...

Further to this, I downloaded the source (patch 9) and recompiled... and I *think* it works ok. Danmacsch (or anyone with the same problem) would be great if you could try this version and let me know if it works for you:

Download here

Thanks abob101. Will try it when I get home and let you know.

Danmacsch said:

First I thought that the NexusBuddy2 files should be extracted to the standard SDK nexus/x86/ folder, but apparently this is incorrect, right?. So instead I've extracted the files to the \Sid Meier's Civilization V SDK old version\Nexus\x86 folder, but I'm still getting a "NexusBuddy2.exe has stopped working" prompt when launching the program.

Click to expand...

I have newest Nexus Buddy (2.1) extracted to default path of new SDK (Nexus\x86).
I tested this on two systems Win 8.1 and Win7 on VM.

To run NB 2.1 you need:
- .NET Framework (I installed 4.5.2 version)
- set proper paths to assets folders in registry
- put NB to default location of Nexus folder (...SDK\Nexus\x86)

That's what I did, and it starts without any problems on both W8.1 and W7 machines.

Artisanix said:

I have newest Nexus Buddy (2.1) extracted to default path of new SDK (Nexus\x86).
I tested this on two systems Win 8.1 and Win7 on VM.

To run NB 2.1 you need:
- .NET Framework (I installed 4.5.2 version)
- set proper paths to assets folders in registry
- put NB to default location of Nexus folder (...SDK\Nexus\x86)

That's what I did, and it starts without any problems on both W8.1 and W7 machines.

Click to expand...

Hmm looks like this might be working for me too, I was putting NB in the old SDK folder... if I put it to the new folder it seems ok now, though I was fairly sure I tried that previously also. Looking good in any case.

Thanks.

I've managed to import a unit into the game, still fiddling with things but it seems to be working ok.


I just want to say that this utility and the scripts etc are absolutely amazing, kudos to everyone involved.

@abob101

your re-compiled version works for me too. Thanks man

Still can't get the old version SDK viewer to work though, so I can't see the model with textures. I'll try importing it into the game.

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the place to ask but.....

I have successfully managed to reskin a unit. I can also take an existing Civ5 unit, load it into NB2 then across to Blender, then back to NB2 via the import/export scripts and into the game. So all good.

The next thing I would like to try is to take a custom mesh and apply that to an existing Civ 5 model/skeleton. So lets say I want to take the Civ 5 Warrior and just change the mesh to a custom mesh. I can load my custom mesh into Blender. I can load the Civ 5 Warrior into Blender (using NB2 importer).

That's about where i'm at. I don't really know Blender (have used Maya previously for other stuff).

Do I have to rig/bind (not sure the terminology) my new mesh to the warrior skeleton in Blender, then export as BR2 then into Nexus Buddy? I think that's the way forward...?

Thanks.

Yes, but you need to rig the vertex groups as well.
See this tutorial.
Rigging a custom mesh to a Civ5 skeleton is how most units are made. That's why you'll see in the unit downloads that they use "Archer animations" or "Swordsman animations".

Thanks Civitar.

I think i'm getting there slowly, managed to frankenstein the warrior with the head from the barbarian axe thrower as a multimesh, and seems to work ok... yay!