[BtS][Graphic Mod] Ethnic Artstyles

[Aeven]

I think you misunderstand me. It's perfectly possible to have Renaissance buildings with the proper graphics in the Industrial Era. That's a case of indicating a "primary" texture with the iBatchGroup modifier (putting a "0" in this codeline), and a "secondary" texture (putting a "1" in the codeline).
What the problem would be is to have 3 or more citysets linked to the same artstyle.
Someday I have to test this a bit more, but the workload is getting full again.

No no, I understood what you meant. Chamadrys had allowed both the Renaissance and the Meso-American style to display at the same age, for the same civs, by simply adding the ARTSTYLE_MESO_AMERICAN (or something like that) to the Renaissance style.

 

[GeoModder]

You have to enable Modular Loading in your Civilization4.ini file in your My Games folder.

't Was the first thing I've done, Aeven.
Guess I need to study Kael's thread and the only module tutorial a bit more.

Modules folder was created, the 3 schema files I needed were included and the three xml files of my mod I can convert to module form were adapted and had a new name for them which was the same as my mods folder.

Now, what did I forget?

 

[NikNaks]

Did you re-name the schema files?

 

[avain]

Hi GeoModder,

after a bit of trial and error, I could (at least partially) convert your mod to modular format.
I left CIV4CityLSystem.xml and CIV4PlotLSystem.xml as they were (and were they were).
Also, you need 5 schemas:
CIV4ArtDefinesSchema.xml
CIV4CivilizationsSchema.xml
Civ4FormationSchema.xml
CIV4UnitSchema.xml
CIV4GlobalTypesSchema.xml

some of these are not updated in BtS so use the Vanilla ones.
I hope I helped.

 

[GeoModder]

Did you re-name the schema files?

Nope. Shouldn't according to the tutorial.

 

[avain]

Also, if you want to do a clean(er) job, and you move the Art folder in Modules, then you need to update every path definition that points to these Arts. (use search - replace)

 

[NikNaks]

Nope. Shouldn't according to the tutorial.

Actually you should. It says so in Appendix A of the modding guide. It does, I swear!

 

[avain]

What I did was of course just a quick'n'dirty job, so I didn't check the actual differences to the original files...
But even without those, it easier to integrate to other mods...

 

[GeoModder]

Also, if you want to do a clean(er) job, and you move the Art folder in Modules, then you need to update every path definition that points to these Arts. (use search - replace)

Well, that's the main thing that holds me from going full-out in module form: literally dozens of path definitions would need re-pointing, while the city -and unit art basically is what other people would need as a base.

So in my opinion the CIV4ArtDefines_Building, CIV4CivilizationInfos -and GlobalTypes xml files are the only ones that need be modular.

I just tried with these three, but they don't work (sofar).

 

[GeoModder]

Actually you should. It says so in Appendix A of the modding guide. It does, I swear!

Oh? Okay, second try then after this modification.

 

[avain]

Renaming schemas isn't necessary. It will find the schemas; the only criterion is that they should be in the same directory with the xml. Actually, if you DO rename them, you need to update the xml file headers.(this is the recommendation thou, since shemas can change after a while...)

 

[avain]

Strange, GeoModder, it's working for me, and I didn't do anything fancy

 

[GeoModder]

avain, could you give a step-for-step explanation on what you did?

I have a Modules folder, I've put 3 xml files in it, I gave those 3 xml files the "EthnicArtstyles_" prefex. I've put the 3 schemafiles those xml files need in the Modules folder and that's all to it I suppose.
Oh, and I did enable ModularLoading in the config and removed the space character between "Ethnic Artstyles" in my mod's folder structure and the .ini.

 

[GeoModder]

Well, can't work any further on it tonight. It is the middle of a workweek.

 

[avain]

Sure.
First, I left the Art folder where it was.
I created a Modules folder, then an Ethnic Artstyles folder under Modules and moved each xml there except CIV4CityLSystem.xml and CIV4PlotLSystem.xml.
I added a prefix (EA_) to every xml. I copied CIV4ArtDefinesSchema.xml
CIV4CivilizationsSchema.xml
Civ4FormationSchema.xml
CIV4UnitSchema.xml
CIV4GlobalTypesSchema.xml there, too.
Just to note, I left the directory structure under Modules/Ethnic Artstyles intact, but I don't think it's relevant.

 

[avain]

Just one last thingy:
did you create your Modules folder under [civ4BtSdir]/Mods/Ethnic Artstyles/Assets ?

 

[Aeven]

The use of the EA_ prefix makes it sound like some kind of evil mod

 

[Aeven]

You should create the Modules folder under the Assets folder in the BTS directory.

 

[avain]

Evil like Electronic Arts?
Or the Evil Alliance?

 

[avain]

or ... the Effervescent Aardvark???