How to create flags for civ4 - for dummys :)

[cool3a2]

Thanks for sharing your experiences here. I'll add a notice in my tutorial refering to your post. This ways, other users that have the same problem as you, can find the solution faster.

BTW: This tutorial wasn't meant to be about buttons. Only about flags. Your post shows me, that I should make this more clear. Well, you got it to work and in-deed flags and buttons can be made similarly. Just a few hints:
- don't use mipmaps for buttons; mipmaps can cause the button appear small or blurry
- if you'd like to add a border to your buttons, use the packages for gimp and photoshop from the utility section of the filedb

Thanks for pointing out that the link to the plugin doesn't work anymore. I wasn't aware of that. Would you please provide a link to the plugin that you use? No need to reupload it, just post the complete link that you've used to load it. Don't know if you got the same plugin from elsewhere, but it obviously works. So the link in the tutorial could be updated with the one you used.

And thanks for your kind words about my tutorial! The fact that makes me sure that it was worth the work, is, that the count of questions about flags dropped significantly. So I'm glad this is of use.

 

[Horem]

The DDS Plugin I found is HERE

Its the Link on the 5th Post named :- gimp-dds-win32-2.0.7.zip

Install instructions are in the Zip, quite simple extract to Plugins folder in Gimp.

 

[cool3a2]

Thanks. As it's an attachment from a user, it can easily happen that it won't be available soon. I'll reupload it later to civfanatics and provide a link.

 

[Taffy]

I seem to be having some trouble with the DDS plug in. When I open the zip file, I get the message

the program can't start becaise libgimp-2.0-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Any known fixes for this?

 

[cool3a2]

I suppose you are refering to the plugin recommended by Horem. I googled your error message (haven't given the plugin a go yet and GIMP isn't installed on the system I am currently working on) and I found two hints:
- Do what it says and reinstall GIMP.
- You are trying to execute the exe in the zip as you believe this is an installer, but it may be not. Instead, copy the content of the zip to the plugin folder of your GIMP, then run GIMP as always (using the normal exe, not the one you've just copied). From within the program, you should be able to use the plugin now. Try to save a picture in dds format, just as you would save it in any other format.

 

[Taffy]

Thanks cool, I will give GIMP a go and if that doesn't work will try the re-install.

 

[cool3a2]

Does it work now?

 

[Taffy]

It does indeed, thanks for your help

 

[cool3a2]

No prob!

 

[The_J]

The DDS Plugin I found is HERE

Its the Link on the 5th Post named :- gimp-dds-win32-2.0.7.zip

Install instructions are in the Zip, quite simple extract to Plugins folder in Gimp.

Thanks. As it's an attachment from a user, it can easily happen that it won't be available soon. I'll reupload it later to civfanatics and provide a link.

*bump* Still has to be done .
(because of here)

 

[cool3a2]

Thanks for the hint, The_J. I have reuploaded said plugin and inserted a second link to a plugin that seems to be different from the one suggested earlier. Also, I updated the first post a little bit, although I don't plan to update the tutorial itself. At this point, I mention that the plugin has changed since I wrote the tutorial and thus things look a bit different when saving and loading. Nevertheless, all the important settings should still be mentioned at some point, so the tutorial basically remains valid. If there should be any trouble, let me know and I'll take a closer look at the plugins / issue.

 

[Cybah]

Is there a way to create a flagdecal out of a button?

 

[cool3a2]

You mean a flag without teamcolours? Hmmm... You could enlarge the picture to 128x128 pixels and then proceed as usual. I mean, a flag and a button are both images and are both saved as dds, so you can do that. Still, this would have some disadvantages:
- The flags quality might suffer as there are actually not enough image information for a 128x128 image (as the source was 64x64). The flag might look blurry. You might be able to improve on that with some tricks (ensharpen for example), not sure if this will result in an adequate quality.
- Buttons usually have a grey border. You'd either have to live with the border on the flag or you remove it manually (using the brush)

All in all, I'm quite sure it possible from the technical point of view, yet I do not recommend to do it. Quality should be better if you use a 128x128 pixels large (or larger) image as base.

 

[Cybah]

For example this one I have attached. It's just perfect. Flagbutton and flagdecal have amazing details (flagdecal is greycolored)... I would love to know, how this was done.

 

[cool3a2]

Well, I'm not sure whether the flag was made out of the button, I'd rather say both use the same base. Yet you could simply open the buttons dds in GIMP (depending on whether the plugins have improved since I tried last time, you might need to remove the alpha channel via dds converter or DXTBMP as my experience was that GIMP fails if there is an alpha in the file; well, there's actually no need to have a button with alpha, so you should definately try to use GIMP solely), then rescale the image and save it as dds again (this time, you might need an alpha channel - depends on your machine). Still, the border remains and the flag will loose details.

 

[Cybah]

Why? I just want to know how to make good looking buttons like this one.

 

[cool3a2]

So you want to make a button? Well, there are templates for buttons where you place your buttons image in and have the border placed on to it by a different layer. There's at least one such thing in psd format that you can use via Photoshop and I think with GIMP, too.

Besides of this, I can't tell you much more than I already did. I'm quite sure that the maker of your flag / button had a common source for his work. For example, it could be he had a greyscaled image that's black parts he made invisible (Quite simple, he could have reused the actual greyscaled image as alpha channel making the parts invisible similar like teamcolour is applied to flags in civ4 [see my tutorial]). Then, he placed the partially invisible image onto a blue background. The result of this was combine with the button template and voilà, the button is done. For the flag, he used the original image.

If you want to turn a flag into a button, you would need to rescale the flag to 64x64 pixels, then combine it with the button template. As the flags image is in-deed 128x128 (squaric), but shown rectangular in the game, the flag is actually saved stretched within the dds. If you simply scale that down just like that, the button will look stretched in the game.

In conclusion, I have to say, this thread is about flags, not buttons...

 

[Cybah]

In conclusion, I have to say, this thread is about flags, not buttons...

You always need both for new civs: Flagbutton and flagdecal. But thanks anyway.

 

[Lplate]

Thanks cool3a2 for this thread. I had flag and button creation permanently on the long finger as I'd assumed the GIMP dds plug-in was an installer that wasn't working properly. Finally I can get around to doing the flag and button work.

 

[cool3a2]

Thank, Lplate! Glad to see this was useful!