New improvement art! You don't need to replace civ5artdefines_landmarks.xml

Ok, I can see the windmill.gr2 in granny viewer so I know that part is right. And I did my best to map the windmill dds files. But Nexus buddy 0.5a only allows for units so there may be an issue. I did my best gues on the fxsxml file too. But I'm hoping you know how to handle that stuff better. NO animations, my short term goal here is just to see if a nif converted to an fbx convert to a gr2 will appear in game. Good Luck!
 

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@Ekmek, no luck with your windmill there. I added it in place of a graphic that was showing (stonehenge). So I can tell that the improvement is "there".

This is the same thing that I saw when I tried this. But I have not been able to convert a unit either, so I don't count my failure as informative.
 
Yep. Invisible. Nexus is clearly not functional. Nexus buddy only implemented units (though the structure is basically the same, which is why I thought it might work). Looks pretty bleak unless lemmy101 returns...
 
I foggily recall that landmark graphics are handled differently than unit graphics. Something about the game loading them first and saving it. So that leads me to the question were you trying to reload a game where the switch was in place or did you start a new game each time?

I ask because I *think* landmark graphics are some how saved with the game an you can't change them on the fly like xml values and unit graphics.
 
What I meant above was that I tried to use Nexus Buddy in unit mode (the only mode that was built) to make art assets for improvement. That may or may not be a useful idea. Since I can't do a standard unit conversion, there is no reason to think that I will be more successful with an improvement conversion.

I don't think xml/DB is the problem here. Clearly it works differently for units and improvements, but we've sort of worked out both situations. I suspect that Civ5 doesn't like the gr2 file that was produced, for whatever reason.
 
I really think it is in Wonder_DecisionTree.ddtxml, but I can't make heads or tails of these "decision tree" files. I think this is what communicates construction states to the bones. But altering these in total ignorance has not worked for me yet.

It may be easier in the end to take apart the graphics and put it back together as two separate "under construction" and "finished" asset sets. The landmarks DB has examples of both all-together assets and separate assets.

It would probably be wiser to utterly ignore the wonder decision tree and instead start with a trading post or mine decision tree, and copy over file names.
 
It would probably be wiser to utterly ignore the wonder decision tree and instead start with a trading post or mine decision tree, and copy over file names.

There is an "improvement decision tree" that is used by improvements that only call one fxsxml for all states (under construction, complete, pillaged). Other improvements that have separate art assets for each state do not use any decision tree.

I tried this one, as well as all others (6 or 7 altogether). I always see the "blink" as the worker build completes, but then no update. The problem is that the improvement decision tree tells the "improvement engine" how to use improvement art assets. The wonder decision tree tells the "wonder engine" how to use wonder art assets. What I need is for the "improvement engine" to get what it needs from existing wonder art assets. That may or may not be possible (though my partial success so far makes me hopeful).
 
There is an "improvement decision tree" that is used by improvements that only call one fxsxml for all states (under construction, complete, pillaged). Other improvements that have separate art assets for each state do not use any decision tree.

I tried this one, as well as all others (6 or 7 altogether). I always see the "blink" as the worker build completes, but then no update. The problem is that the improvement decision tree tells the "improvement engine" how to use improvement art assets. The wonder decision tree tells the "wonder engine" how to use wonder art assets. What I need is for the "improvement engine" to get what it needs from existing wonder art assets. That may or may not be possible (though my partial success so far makes me hopeful).

I notice that TIs have different gr2s for each stage. I thought wonders did to - I'll check again.
 
I notice that TIs have different gr2s for each stage. I thought wonders did to - I'll check again.

Not all TIs. Some do, other don't. In fact, camps have zero because it is embedded with the camp-associated resources. All of the wonders have one gr2 file.
 
I'm now wondering if it has something to with generic gr2 and firaxis-proprietary gr2s.

mots of gr2 cant be seen with granny viewer but lemmy created a "converter" that makes units into standard gr2s (and leaderheads too). But I wonder if the game is only setup to read generic gr2s for units. I did see that aluminum is a resource that can be viewed in grannyviewer.

If you have time can you see if my gr2 can replace a resource (like alumnium)?
 
I'm now wondering if it has something to with generic gr2 and firaxis-proprietary gr2s.

mots of gr2 cant be seen with granny viewer but lemmy created a "converter" that makes units into standard gr2s

I'm pretty sure the converter works on all of the firaxis gr2s. Just open the gr2 file from lemmy's old nexus buddy, save it again as a gr2 and that new file should be openable with grannyviewer.

I'm not on my home machine right now, but I'm pretty sure I did this a while back for some improvements and that it worked. And I didn't have to add a Unit_Shadder
 
Has anyone made any progress with this and is somebody still working on this?

From what I gathered it is not possible to make a new improvement with custom graphics.
That is quite disappointing. To the people who experimented with it, did the "invisible" improvement provide any bonuses assigned to it? Basically I'm asking is it there but invisible, or is it as it wasn't even there. Is there any hope the problem will be solved in the future?
 
Has anyone made any progress with this and is somebody still working on this?

From what I gathered it is not possible to make a new improvement with custom graphics.
That is quite disappointing. To the people who experimented with it, did the "invisible" improvement provide any bonuses assigned to it? Basically I'm asking is it there but invisible, or is it as it wasn't even there. Is there any hope the problem will be solved in the future?

Yes, you can certainly add an improvement or resource that "works" for game rules. The only issue is graphics.

For graphics, we can add an existing art resource as an improvement (even if the art resource wasn't originally an improvement). The main limit seems to be in actually making an art resource (specifically the gr2 file, I think) that the game engine likes. But I can't even do that for units, so I don't take my failure as informative.
 
Yes, you can certainly add an improvement or resource that "works" for game rules. The only issue is graphics.

I see, thanks for clearing that out. The problem seems to be caused by the .gr2 files as you say. They are not exactly easy to export or import either, making the whole process even harder.

@Ekmek
Does your bigger windmill appear correctly in the GrannyViewer, because it seems it doesn't for me - the top is distorted. I'm no expert at this, but my guess is the models do not get converted correctly, or at least not to the game engine liking. Maybe the bones in the model are not assigned properly, maybe. Is it possible to make a model without bones?
 
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