Civ4: No custom units or buildings=Crap game. Everyone go back to Civ3

The chances of poser units even working on high end machines are about nil.

you may be able to get 1000 or 2000 poly models in civ, (even though it would be the equivilent of 5-10 units on the map at once).

But poser models... It just won't happen. One poser model would be the equivelant of up to 1000 units on the board at once. Poser is not a modelling suite, it is an animation product.

Weasel Op said:

They were made low-poly so you can play it without a supercomputer. That's why textures are important- they add detail without having a complex model.

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The animations I have seen are from high poly or subsurfaced meshes.

They may have low poly cages, but they really are high poly models, if you want to even have a chance of converting to .NIF.

I really hate to break it to you, but I just do not see anyone ever writing an export script from poser to .NIF. Poser just would be a poor choice for modelling low poly models.

Blender has an .NIF exporter script... I am thinking of contacting them and offerign a large sum of cash to beef it up. So does Milkshape, I believe it is only mesh at this time.

Blender's says it's animation part is "in progress".

If there is a python guru, here, they could take a look at the current script, and add on to it, until a true unit exporter were built, since Blender uses python.... of course they would need ot know Blender pretty good as well.

There may be a way for the arbiters to reduce the poly count in 3dmax. I just want to create for this game, you understand right Neo?

Sword_Of_Geddon said:

There may be a way for the arbiters to reduce the poly count in 3dmax. I just want to create for this game, you understand right Neo?

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Of course, we all do. But reducing poly count on Poser models... I dunno, poly count reduction can greatly distort models, and it messes with the UV mapping pretty bad.

What about creating a new low-poly module for poser? A new Civ4 version of the paper doll?

I wonder if we could request a billboard unit from Firaxis...

Sword_Of_Geddon said:

What about creating a new low-poly module for poser? A new Civ4 version of the paper doll?

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Right now there are already many civ IV "paper dolls"

The nice thing about 3d graphic, is you can "re-skin" the unit with a 2d photoshop program and a .dds convertor, as emntioned in a couple of other threads.

So any of the current units could be a base for a paper doll.

I understand that. But that still leaves us out of the loop when it comes to units that couldn't be created using the existing units. For example, units with new weapons, like lasers for example, or mechs. Or units with outfits too different to exist as reskinned for example.

Weasel Op said:

I wonder if we could request a billboard unit from Firaxis...

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I thought the map would be more dynamic as far as camer views are concerned. Instead, there is no rotation, and a strange zoom, (wierd setup, but works ok)

so I think billboards would be workable... in all reality, like Sim City, there are only a set number of views it seems.... so a "billboard" could be done correctly... if rerendered six more times for the six different views. (i think it is six views) (that would be 8 times 6 = 48 animations per unit action) . This would mean a lot of disk space, but other than that, very little performance difference... maybe... I don't know, (or care) for the gamebryo engine much.... because it is built to be functional on low end computers.

Sword_Of_Geddon said:

I understand that. But that still leaves us out of the loop when it comes to units that couldn't be created using the existing units. For example, units with new weapons, like lasers for example, or mechs. Or units with outfits too different to exist as reskinned for example.

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In which case, paper dolls would be quite useless, and the creator would need to make a new model, or add their own super-low poly accesories... (for example, I could imagine a laser rifle being only an extra 24 triangles).

Neomega said:

I thought the map would be more dynamic as far as camer views are concerned. Instead, there is no rotation, and a strange zoom, (wierd setup, but works ok)

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There is rotation, but it's pointless. All you can do is twist the camera around 45 degrees, and then it snaps back.
But sometimes the camera rotates during combat. That could be a problem for billboards.

Weasel Op said:

There is rotation, but it's pointless. All you can do is twist the camera around 45 degrees, and then it snaps back.
But sometimes the camera rotates during combat. That could be a problem for billboards.

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It would look dumb... I forgot about that auto-zoom thing during battles that does rotate 45 degrees.

I don't suppose it would be possible to use a Python script to make the billboard always face the camera?

2500 posts... I'm done for the night.

Weasel Op said:

I don't suppose it would be possible to use a Python script to make the billboard always face the camera?

2500 posts... I'm done for the night.

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The point of a billboard IS to always face the camera, by definition.

Then what would be the problem with the camera rotating? (yeah I'm back already)

Sword_Of_Geddon said:

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what your talking about.

My entire point is that people are trading in Civ3, with everything it has, for a new game. 3-D graphics do not make a good game, lots of content does, and that is what the modding community provided for Civ3. Without new units you cannot have a mod, so I'm not even sure why this Creation and Customization board is here.

Honestly it goes to show you how far society has fallen when people insult others and tell them to shut up if they don't agree with them. That isn't argueing or discussing intelligently. And curses are only used by those who lack conversation skills.

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You sir, are a deleted.

Moderator Action: Warned for flaming.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

a. That was totally unecssary. He was being quite polite. You, sir, are in the wrong here.
b. He seems to have switched from complaining to trying to find a way to solve the problem. Dragging up this old post does nothing but stir up trouble.

I'm a new user in the forums i just bought Civ IV 3 days ago, been playing it xD well got addicted of course, i just went in here to check some stuff and i saw this thread which made me really said, to the Topic Starter: Just because you don't know how to make Units in Civ4 nor how to make 3d Units OR takes too long to make it ? doesn't mean the game is Crap. Hello? for example Blizzard's "Warcraft II" game and "Warcraft III" game a lot of people complained and suggested to make a 3D version of Warcraft II! which is now Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. Which everyone enjoyed and was able to make there own 3d Units. Games like Quake III you can make your own skins and units if your not lazy lol, Warhammer 40k i made my own Marine Starcraft Unit which took me 2 days with a help of my friend and it looked cool and i was happy about it and i didn't even have 3d max studio at that time, if i did it would have taken me less than a day for sure lol. If you don't like Civilization being 3D i don't see how you can play new games that are coming out.. Sooner or later Old Games will become extinct and players will move on to the new ones. Look at Starcraft (blizzard game) everyone wants a 3D version of starcraft lol.

Could any moderator rename the thread to something more approriate because you can make units, and buildings just need more information on how to make them.. meaning = time. and the game is not Crap.

This thread does need to be renamed, because SoG has since changed his mind but people still keep responding to the first few posts. It's more like Civ3 vs Civ4 modding now.

I think most of the problem is linked to the fact Civilization IV is sold as a 'customisable' game...

On my box I can read it... I was hoping something like the editor in civilization III, and I am very disapointed...

I think they should not have added this mention and make that as a commercial argument to sell it... cause atm the game is sold with less tools than Civilization III had...

Btw I have looked to the texts... yes it seems to allow a lot of things, but a lot to write... I don't know if there's a debug program included but I hope there's one...
I am familiar of the DDS files, using notepad (= editplus ) to mod a game (it is the way to mod the Total war games serie), so I think I would be able to manage all this... we will see, but what is sure, I don't hope a lot of mods with these excellents tools... I was hoping something else than notepad to mod