About Units Assets and using them in Mods

[Gedemon]

Moderator Action: Discussion moved from this thread

Also it is taking a lot longer to make units in Civ 6 than Civ 5 mainly due to all the files that need to be generated to go along with the art files just to get a unit in the game.

Any idea how we could help with that ?

I miss SQL from civ5 for art files, and I've no idea on how to merge your units in one mod... I suppose one need to merge the projects first to cook the required files in one ?

Do you think a community project could be possible ?

One large mod (or a few thematic mods) with only the units/artdef, but no xml/sql, and then other mods could use it/them as a dependency and define the units they need, referencing the artdef name ?

 

[Wolfdog]

Any idea how we could help with that ?

I miss SQL from civ5 for art files, and I've no idea on how to merge your units in one mod... I suppose one need to merge the projects first to cook the required files in one ?

Do you think a community project could be possible ?

One large mod (or a few thematic mods) with only the units/artdef, but no xml/sql, and then other mods could use it/them as a dependency and define the units they need, referencing the artdef name ?

I think a community approach would be the best imo. One large mod (or a few thematic mods) that we all add into and then modders can use or not use which ever art assets they like. That way they would not need to cook any unit art into their mods they would just reference the art mod.

 

[Deliverator]

A community art project would be one way to go, but you *can* just cook each unit into a separate .blp and then you just need the SHARED_DATA files, the ANIMATION_* and TEXTURE_* for the unit. I think we can just put together single test mods per unit as we did with Civ V. I think it's better to share the pre-Asset-Cooker Modbuddy project rather than the post-Asset-Cooker Mod because then people can tweak the source assets and learn how simple it is to do reskins, rerigs to different animation etc.

Also it is taking a lot longer to make units in Civ 6 than Civ 5 mainly due to all the files that need to be generated to go along with the art files just to get a unit in the game.

I'm personally the extra files complexity is offset by the fact you can view and test stuff out in the Asset Preview. Starting up the Asset Editor is much quicker than rebooting the game and because the engine is the same I be pretty confident how the model is going to appear in game when I try it there. I want to do a "things you can do with the Asset Preview" tutorial when I get the chance.

The Asset Editor itself is a nice idea but in practice it is pretty clunky to work with. I just use XMLMarker to copy existing entry blocks from the vanilla .artdefs and then edit the raw XML as I find this approach much quicker. I only use the Asset Editor for processing Textures.

I think everything up to the Asset .ast level is pretty nice to work with but the ArtDefs are a bit of pain. I could see someone making a better tool for editing/generating the .artdef files which might help.

Also @Gedemon @Wolfdog I think these Assets should be uploaded to the relevant Downloads section so that people can find and use them.

 

[Deliverator]

I miss SQL from civ5 for art files, and I've no idea on how to merge your units in one mod... I suppose one need to merge the projects first to cook the required files in one ?

You can merge art assets from post-cooked Mods. What you need are:

All the cooked asset files in the Platforms directory (.blp, ANIMATION_ and TEXTURE_ files).
The relevant .artdef entries.
The relevant .dep entries.
Relevant references in .modinfo.

It might actually be easier to assemble from post-cook Mods rather than pre-cook Modbuddy projects if you just want to use the art without caring how it was made because fewer filetypes = less confusion.

 

[Gedemon]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

I've not tried to cook anything except icons, and then I was under the impression that the .blp name should respect the game's naming convention (ie Icons.blp, LeaderFallbackImages.blp, etc), but from Moar Units it seems it's not needed for units, right ?

So, in the mods released by Wolfdog for example, I could cook them, rename all units.blp to individual names, then edit the .dep files to reflect the renaming and point to the correct .blp and lastly merge the .dep and .artdef file ?

What about the content of the SHARED_DATA folder ?

In Moar Units for example, you have "ANIMATION_Archer_BraceA", which is identical to the file with the same name in the civ6 folder, does that means it's not really needed in the mod (used as reference), and that when merging the SHARED_DATA folder files of the same name can safely be replaced, or is there a risk that a modified animation was saved with an already existing name ?

 

[Deliverator]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

I've not tried to cook anything except icons, and then I was under the impression that the .blp name should respect the game's naming convention (ie Icons.blp, LeaderFallbackImages.blp, etc), but from Moar Units it seems it's not needed for units, right ?

So, in the mods released by Wolfdog for example, I could cook them, rename all units.blp to individual names, then edit the .dep files to reflect the renaming and point to the correct .blp and lastly merge the .dep and .artdef file ?

You set the target name of the .blp files in the .xlp files - the .xlp is just the XML spec for a binary .blp library file. If you look at the MoreAustraliaCooker project in this pack of Modbuddy projects you'll see I've set up aborigine.blp and modernInfantry.blp. I'm not sure you can just rename them, maybe, but if you do you'll definitely need to update the blp entries in Unit_Bins.artdef to point to the correct .blp library and update your .dep file

In Moar Units for example, you have "ANIMATION_Archer_BraceA", which is identical to the file with the same name in the civ6 folder, does that means it's not really needed in the mod (used as reference), and that when merging the SHARED_DATA folder files of the same name can safely be replaced, or is there a risk that a modified animation was saved with an already existing name ?

It's a good question. If using purely vanilla animations these might not be necessary. I haven't tested it though. In practice I would never name new Animations or Textures with the exact same name as existing ones - I'm not sure that the Asset Cooker would even cope with that. So if there's a ANIMATION_ or TEXTURE_ file that already exists in the base game it could be OK to just remove it from the Platforms directory.

 

[Gedemon]

Thanks again, I'll try to test this during the week end.

(Edit: and I've moved the discussion to its own thread)