WildWeazel
Going Dutch
Before Civ4 was released there was discussion of using billboard units as stand-ins until better models are made. The idea behind a billboard unit is to use an animated texture instead of a high-poly model to increase the detail of the graphics. Ideally, some of the better Civ3 units could be converted into an animated texture, stuck on a transparent plane model, and used in the game. The only drawback would be a fixed camera location, because 2D models don't work well with zoom and rotation.
That all sounds good, but is it possible after all? The models in Civ4 use static dds textures, which from what I can tell cannot be animated. I believe it was warpstorm who said it was easy to use billboards with the Gamebryo engine. I hope I just don't understand the graphics as well I thought (as usual). Does anyone know how to create a billboard unit for Civ4?
Also, since the model itself is a static primitive, could we implement them now, without a NIF converter? Gaias has demonstrated that non-animated models can be added to the game already, using utiltities such as MilkShape. If someone can create a billboard, we can start converting and importing Civ3 units.
That all sounds good, but is it possible after all? The models in Civ4 use static dds textures, which from what I can tell cannot be animated. I believe it was warpstorm who said it was easy to use billboards with the Gamebryo engine. I hope I just don't understand the graphics as well I thought (as usual). Does anyone know how to create a billboard unit for Civ4?
Also, since the model itself is a static primitive, could we implement them now, without a NIF converter? Gaias has demonstrated that non-animated models can be added to the game already, using utiltities such as MilkShape. If someone can create a billboard, we can start converting and importing Civ3 units.
