I don't know what went wrong as it all looked good to me and I could not get it to export either. But I was able to export it to .fbx and re-import the .fbx into blender and then after a bit of tidying up I was finally able to get it to export to .br2 (attached).
Getting Civ4 Units Into Civ5 Using Blender 2.72
- Thread starter Wolfdog
- Start date
I don't know what went wrong as it all looked good to me and I could not get it to export either. But I was able to export it to .fbx and re-import the .fbx into blender and then after a bit of tidying up I was finally able to get it to export to .br2 (attached).
Yes, as close as possible.
Vicevirtuoso
The Modetta Man
Well, it's at least good to know that I followed the directions properly then, so I'll just chalk this up to some odd fluke. Thanks for your help!
Edit: Had to triangulate the head mesh and re-export, but it's in the game! Thanks again!
Spoiler :
Vicevirtuoso
The Modetta Man
Sorry for the double post. I seem to have run into yet another problem with another model...thought I was getting the hang of things, but it seems not. I've got another model which looks fine when viewed in Granny Viewer (must export to .fbx, then to .nb2 again, though). In game, the character's body looks fine, but the weapon becomes this mess of textures which flickers about all over the screen. Not sure what the issue is here. Rigging, vertex groups, and parenting seem to be okay.
Looking at the blend file I see you have only one vertex group for your weapon mesh. An unfortunate limitation and one that really irritates me is you can not have just one vertex group in a mesh you need a minimum of 2 or it shows in granny as a rigid not a skinned mesh. The only way I have been able to fix this is by baking a new texture and merging the meshes.
The only thing stopping it from working is that the eye ball in the outliner view was deselected for the skeleton (hidden) as soon as I clicked on the eye ball it worked. Just another annoying blenderism.
Also you only have one vertex group in your second mesh which will cause issues. You should have a minimum of 2 for granny or granny won't use it properly.
Deliverator
Graphical Hackificator
For the min two vertex groups per bone thing: Can you not just create a extra dummy bone and rig to that or even more simply just rig to the root bone?
JFD
Kathigitarkh
The only thing stopping it from working is that the eye ball in the outliner view was deselected for the skeleton (hidden) as soon as I clicked on the eye ball it worked. Just another annoying blenderism.
Also you only have one vertex group in your second mesh which will cause issues. You should have a minimum of 2 for granny or granny won't use it properly.
Thanks for taking a look. Was hoping it was something simple like that
Granny seems to load it fine, but yeah; its invisible in-game. Any thoughts on how to set it up properly then - I can create a second vertex group, but what do I do with it then?
All in all, I'm just looking for this specific graphic to be useable; I don't think I'll be able to convert more complex beasts
Yes rigging it to the root bone should work. In the past I tried rigging it to another bone and it would not let me export it if there was the same vertex group in two separate meshes. But as you say (I just looked in blender) there is nothing rigged to the root bone so it should work. Although how will that affect animations if it was a human head for example?
EDIT: Just had a look into this and it still creates a rigid mesh unless you rig to the root bone. So a dummy bone and a hidden dummy vertex like a cube or something is the only thing that would work for something that is animated. Thanks Deliverator this will save a heap of time.
In the case of a ship Delivertors suggestion of rigging it to the root bone should work just fine. Leave your sail as one vertex group and add the remaining vertexes to the root bone group that you will need to make.
I've spent 8+ hours this weekend trying to figure out how to convert a unit via this tutorial. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. First time using blender. I need help.
I extracted the .gr for the Swordsman, converted it to .nb2 via NexusBuddy 2.2, and imported it into blender 2.72 as a template.
After converting from .nif to .obj, I imported a civ 4 unit into the same instance of blender as the template and manipulated limbs into what I think is adequate positioning (bulk of my time there--I imagine Deliverator's tutorial had tips that could've helped me).
Three meshes for the civ 4 unit: axe, shield, body. This is where trouble starts. I can't figure out how to bake the textures for those if I merge them--or if it's even necessary. I skipped that step.
Rigging is what's getting me the most. I've selected the template and then the new unit as stipulated, but when I try to transfer weights/vertice groups, either nothing happens or only one vertice group (sword) is transferred. Thats after merging the 3 varangian meshes into one.
I've attached my project file. Could anyone take a look at it for me please? Thanks for the tutorial--couldn't have even gotten this far without it.
I extracted the .gr for the Swordsman, converted it to .nb2 via NexusBuddy 2.2, and imported it into blender 2.72 as a template.
After converting from .nif to .obj, I imported a civ 4 unit into the same instance of blender as the template and manipulated limbs into what I think is adequate positioning (bulk of my time there--I imagine Deliverator's tutorial had tips that could've helped me).
Three meshes for the civ 4 unit: axe, shield, body. This is where trouble starts. I can't figure out how to bake the textures for those if I merge them--or if it's even necessary. I skipped that step.
Rigging is what's getting me the most. I've selected the template and then the new unit as stipulated, but when I try to transfer weights/vertice groups, either nothing happens or only one vertice group (sword) is transferred. Thats after merging the 3 varangian meshes into one.
I've attached my project file. Could anyone take a look at it for me please? Thanks for the tutorial--couldn't have even gotten this far without it.
Ekmek
on steam: ekmek_e
I think you missed the join objects part because it looks like your mesh isn't assigned to a skeleton
I took a look at the swordsman template in the downloads section, and it's very different than the .gr file I extracted for the swordsman. It has a skeleton. You're probably right--I'll retry with that, thanks!
EDIT: Nope, still can't transfer vertice groups from one thingy to the other.
EDIT: Nope, still can't transfer vertice groups from one thingy to the other.
Its just because your swordsman mesh is hidden. Un-hide the swordsman mesh and try again. I just tried it and copied it them over ok.
Its just because your swordsman mesh is hidden. Un-hide the swordsman mesh and try again. I just tried it and copied it them over ok.
That was both encouraging to know that it could be done and discouraging that I couldn't do it--until I realized I was on 2.74 instead of 2.72! That was holding me back from rigging properly. Thanks for the patience.
Now I'm stumbling over reproducing steps 4(E)-(J) after I combine axe+shield+unit meshes. I may have questions tomorrow. And Nexusbuddy -> .gr2 file step is giving me trouble, crashing on saving, but I'm hoping that's relating to not having my textures in order.
Deliverator
Graphical Hackificator
Always use Save As.. rather than Save in Nexus Buddy 2 especially when changing Materials/Textures. Save is really unstable unfortunately.
Deliverator
Graphical Hackificator
Also there is really no need to bake textures. BR2 overwrite supports multiple meshes with multiple textures. Just make sure that every mesh is rigged to at least two bones. Rig any weapons to the root bone as a second bone if you need.
I had no idea about this and use Save all the time. It must only be an issues with certain systems.
Ekmek
on steam: ekmek_e
This is a great tutorial. I need to start working leaders in blender 2.7
