Adding Custom Art?

[takkyon]

I am trying to figure out how to add custom art into the game. I would like to make new terrain/features, but I'm starting out trying to get custom unit art to work. I have looked through the forums and found a ton of tutorials on how to do this. Unfortunately, they all involve some custom gr2 editing program that always has a broken link, so I can't download it. Is editing the gr2 necessary? If so, is there some other way to edit them? Or does someone have a working link to one of the gr2 editors people have posted up here before?

 

[Nutty]

Unfortunately, they all involve some custom gr2 editing program that always has a broken link, so I can't download it. Is editing the gr2 necessary? If so, is there some other way to edit them? Or does someone have a working link to one of the gr2 editors people have posted up here before?

The "Granny 3D" gr2 format is proprietary and protected. You're not going to be able to edit it directly. Nexus Buddy will strip the protection to tweak textures and animations, and it also allows you to convert from fbx format to gr2.

Here's an old version of IndieStone Nexus Buddy:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=16433

Read the comments Deliverator includes with the file:

This is an earlier version of NexusBuddy that I still find the most useful. This can be used for a number of things.

1. Remove the propriety protection from any .gr2 file. Just open and save the .gr2 in NexusBuddy and you will be able to view the vanilla asset in GrannyViewer. *

2. Reskin vanilla units. Just open the gr2, switch the textures in NexusBuddy to your new ones (use a different name) and re-save the gr2.

3. Convert custom made FBX files to Civilization 5 gr2 format.

4. Can also be used for its original purpose of making animation gr2 files for units.

* - If you do this for unit animation gr2s as well as the unit mesh itself you can load vanilla animations in GrannyViewer as well.

To install just drop the exe into your Nexus root directory e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v sdk\Nexus\x86

He mentions Granny Viewer, which you can download here, though it doesn't display textures, unlike the Nexus Asset Viewer included in the CiV SDK.

 

[takkyon]

I can get this to work for unit graphics. However, I would like to make custom terrain/feature graphics, which don't seem to work properly with it. Is there anyway to do this, or is it just impossible at this point for someone like me who doesn't know what he's doing?

 

[Nutty]

However, I would like to make custom terrain/feature graphics, which don't seem to work properly with it. Is there anyway to do this, or is it just impossible at this point for someone like me who doesn't know what he's doing?

I don't know what I'm doing either, but, no, you can't, not as a mod, not even if you did know what you were doing. You can do some manual replacing, e.g., the texture tweaks available in the Graphics modpacks section (poncratias' Tradingposts - ReDesigned ! V1, bernie14's roads & rails, and Darker Fog Clouds in Zyxpsilon's Z-UI Recoloring Assets).