[BtS] Hungary mod for Varietas Delectat

[cool3a2]

Okay, I have finished my work. Download: Zrínyi tank. The additional part doesn't look so well, especially in the civilopedia. However, I used the wheels from the tank which I have transformed and shrunked and retextured. However, this part is a bit too edgy. If you find something that looks similar to the part of the Zrínyi, then I could use that part instead. This part can be from another unit.
I renamed the nif, because I encountered problems in the past if the nif has a different name then the kfm. I also made a copy of the nif and called it xyz_fx.nif for similar reasons.

BTW: Thank you for the battleship. I am using it as destroyer. The new Zrínyi texture is also much better!

 

[avain]

Excellent, cool3a2!
Thanks for all the corrections, now we have a real Zrinyi!

 

[cool3a2]

Hey avain. As there is no unique unit graphic for cuirassiers I am thinking about making the current early Huszár unit using the animaton of the cuirassier and giving him a long gun. I am able to do this in general, but some units are buggy or something and make Sceneviwer crashing. I'd have to try that out.
I guess that would be adequate somehow. Cuirassiers seem to be the french version of Huszárs: there were already cuirassier in the middleages that have been developed over a long time. Seems like there still have been cuirassiers in the 19th century. This is also why I think the cuirassier graphic should have been the unique graphic for french cavalry. In my opinion the cuirassier is also the most senseless unit since... I can't remember. I can't remember that I have ever built a cuirassier. Maybe I have a strange research tactic, but usually I am simply not able to build that unit. Once I have sufficient techs, I can start build Huszárs instead. That's the reason why I haven't decided if I will make that unit or not.
Anyways, I'd say the armory of the current early Huszár wouldn't be too heavy for a cuirassier, so that could work and as the standard cuirassier looks quite french, it would make sense to make a unique graphic for that unit. However, I'd first wait whether Bakuel makes a new version of the early Huszár and then decide on which unit the cuirassier will be based on. So, are you generally interested in a unit like that?

 

[avain]

Hey avain. As there is no unique unit graphic for cuirassiers I am thinking about making the current early Huszár unit using the animaton of the cuirassier and giving him a long gun. I am able to do this in general, but some units are buggy or something and make Sceneviwer crashing. I'd have to try that out.
I guess that would be adequate somehow. Cuirassiers seem to be the french version of Huszárs: there were already cuirassier in the middleages that have been developed over a long time. Seems like there still have been cuirassiers in the 19th century. This is also why I think the cuirassier graphic should have been the unique graphic for french cavalry. In my opinion the cuirassier is also the most senseless unit since... I can't remember. I can't remember that I have ever built a cuirassier. Maybe I have a strange research tactic, but usually I am simply not able to build that unit. Once I have sufficient techs, I can start build Huszárs instead. That's the reason why I haven't decided if I will make that unit or not.
Anyways, I'd say the armory of the current early Huszár wouldn't be too heavy for a cuirassier, so that could work and as the standard cuirassier looks quite french, it would make sense to make a unique graphic for that unit. However, I'd first wait whether Bakuel makes a new version of the early Huszár and then decide on which unit the cuirassier will be based on. So, are you generally interested in a unit like that?

I think I'd be using an early hussar as a cuirassier, but who knows! I'm eager to see what you'll come up with.

 

[avain]

This is what I was working on today:
I reskinned the Hungarian Rifleman (Honvéd), 1848 style (a bit ceremonial, but I still like it):

 

[cool3a2]

Hmmm... they look very good, but I'd need them in brown instead of green and with blue trowsers. I think this would be historically more accurate, but I am no expert. At least in the game 1848 they are brown... If they are green my UU would get lost amongst them as it is green as well. Last time I turned it into brown it was a damn tiring work... And the red-white-green stripe didn't turn out too perfect (too edgy). Well, I'll have to think about whether I turn it into brown or use my old unit set. At least the colours (the sort of brown and blue) were quite okay there... I don't like texturing

I'll send you a screeny once the unit is finished (of course if sceneviewer allows me to do what I want to). I guess I'll turn the current early Huszár into a curassier today, but before I decide to use it for my mod I'll wait for Bakuels version and compare it with that...

 

[avain]

Yes, it's ceremonial I admit.
Greyish brown would be historically best I'd presume (or?).
I'll most probably do a color swap for the Grenadier which uses the same texture, so I could provide you that one, if you are interested.

(anyway, if you are only doing color changes, your best friend is the Hue/Saturation/Lightness/Contrast sliders in the painter programs. It's really easy to do)

 

[cool3a2]

Yes, please provide me that alternative texture. If you want, I can have a look for pictures as I am not sure if we are speaking about the same brown... I think I had some good pictures when I did that colour swap last time.

My problem is not adjusting the colour. I'd say finding the colour is only a question of time, in most cases at least. My problem is to select the area thats colour I'd like to change. Especially in this case were there is a fency decoration (yellow parts). I can remember this was the biggest problem last time...

The curaissier is making progress. It works with gun and cuirassiers animation now, but I have still to do some fine-tuning, because some parts have been moved (feather etc.).

 

[cool3a2]

That's the cuirassier:

download unit

I've done a little picture search:

(I hope the uniforms on this picture are from 1848, at least it is not much different from those)

(same as above)
several pictures (the pictures on this page are all a bit too light IMHO)

There were 3 more pictures, but they show some "foot-Huszárs" and they loaded very slowly. Finally there is another picture I used as base when I swapped the colours last time, but I am not sure if it is okay with rights (found a dead link among my favorites that wrote something like "removed because of copyright issues"), so I send it to you via pm in a minute.

Don't know if this is what you meant by saying grey-brown. At least it is what I was thinking about.


BTW: I saw in Bakuels thread that you aren't satisfied with the new knights horse and you might be right. Generally said it is possible to replace the new knights horse with your knights. If they use the same animation (does your knight use HeavyCavalries animation?) you could simply copy the mesh. If not, then you have to use the same technique I used for the cuirassier - I think they call it bone transplantation. There should be a tutorial somewhere on civfanatics. There they use the BIP node as initial node, which is true if it is about foot units. For horse-based units you should start with HorseBIP and in your special case you don't need to continue with the BIP (without "horse"), which is inside the HorseBIP. Once you finished the transplantation you should also remove the riders mesh if it is inside the BIP (which is not necessarily the case) and copy the horses mesh if needed. For the cuirassier I needed about an hour for the transplantation, but I had to do some steps with nifskope as sceneviewer crashed. If you have luck this is not necessary in the case of the knight. You could also do it vice versa by transplantating the new rider onto the old horse. Then you'd have to transplant the BIP only, not the HorseBIP. The very first method would be very simple, the second would need less time then the third I think (and may reduce the risk of crashes) and the third method would generate a cleaner nif as there would be less / no unnecessary nodes.
I'd say that could look well as Bakuels new units also use red and green and your horse is also very well done, I'd say. If you want me to I could do that for you. I could finish that within two days (depending on when I have enough time and when I feel attracted to do it).

 

[avain]

Yes, if you could do that, that would be swell!
Actually, I think it's a retextured knight's horse.

I'll get back to you about the Honvéd.

 

[cool3a2]

I'll do the knight for you. I already took a look at your (old) files and recognized that your old knight uses the knights animation. That means that method A won't work. Whether I use method B or C, depends on which animation should be used. I have not checked how the animations look, but I think I wouldn't bother anyways. So, do you prefer any animation (the knights or the heavycavalry)?

EDIT: You don't seem to have a carrier, right? At least I couldn't find a screenshot. Shall I ask Walter for making one? As you have seen he already made some. I don't think it would be a great deal for him to add a hungarian coat of arms to it. Russians also seem to like Hungarians (think of Zerver and Deon), although I don't know exactly why... However, I am optimistic he would do that.

 

[avain]

I'd prefer HeavyCavalry since it uses a lance.

As for the carrier, I could modify the texture. Also, we Hungarians like Russians too!

 

[cool3a2]

Also, we Hungarians like Russians too!

Sure, if they create units for our mods...

So, I have almost finished my work:
version 1:

version 2:

Both versions seem to work well, except of the shield. For the lance version it should be okay as it is just like in Bakuels original version. For the sword version it would look better if it would be moved a bit forward and slightly rotated. I'll fix that tomorrow. I am optimistic, that this won't need me much time. It should work if I asign the shield to the node that handled the shield of the original knight. After that I'll upload both versions.

Don't know which and how many of Bakuels units you plan to use, avain. I decided to use them all, except of the pikeman. I'll keep the old pikeman that is based on your old heavy swordsman. I like that very much. I'd have to replace the shield (I am using a different one then you). Besides of that I am thinking about reskinning the metallic parts, they need to be a bit more detailed. I thought of reuseing parts of for example Bakuels longbowman, then it should fit to the other units. Don't know what your plans and thought about the medieval and ancient units are.

EDIT: The enlightment is also different between both version. I'll see if I can fix that.

 

[avain]

Excellent work!
If you cannot solve the gloss problem for the sword version, I might give it a shot.
Also, I thought about using all of Bakuel's units, they make a nice set and I though mixing in some of my creations would just break the art style. Besides, I think they are pretty historically accurate. But I'm still in the phase when I'm switching around units and checking what works and what not...

Ok, I'm uploading the Honvéd for you (the rifleman, and a modified texture grenadier(it's not really finished yet)). Also, I'm attaching 2 psd files which I hope could help you in your coloring work!

 

[cool3a2]

Thank you for the package. I took a look at it and I think you've done a great job with the texture so far! It's more detailed then mine. You don't plan to add a red-white-green stripe like on the picture I sent you, right? Well, no problem. I guess they didn't wear it at the field anyways.

I continued the work on the sword verion of the knight and believe that I was able to fix the gloss:

However, I had to redo the whole job. I haven't done any transplantation since a while, so I forgot a certain step (copy the whole scene root which obviously contains the environment settings). The truth is, that I also forgot it when I transplanted the cuirassier and the lance-based knight. To be sure that they will work without any bugs, I'd have to redo them. The cuirassier can wait, I'd say. The current one I've transplanted is enought to be a preview and to make it possible that I can compare it with Bakuels early Huszár after I transplanted it. So I'll wait with that. If you still prefer the lance version of the knight, I'll do it for you. No problem. I don't think it will look much different then now (in this case the environment of the horse hasn't been transplanted correctly, but I can't see differences to the sword version), but as mentioned it is better to redo it to be sure it won't cause bugs.
I also have to work on that shield. Currently it looks like it is assigned to the upper arm (that means the upper arm is the orientation point for movements and rotations), but it needs to be assigned to the forearm or even the hand. In general that should be no problems to fix, but I think it will require me some work till I ge the correct settings... However, I think I can finish the sword version in the evening. The lance version would be ready either tonight or tomorow.

BTW: The sword is not glossy at the moment. It is part of a different scene root then the environment light of the knight and thus I think it is not possible to affect it by that light. But I am not experienced enough with that to be sure. I guess I'll have a look at that problem at the evening. Otherwise you may try your luck after I have handed it over (of course if you are interested in the sword version at all - I think I'll use the sword version). Even if you have no luck either, it is not a big problem for me. The difference is not so obvious.

 

[avain]

I like both the sword and the lance versions!
Also, the sword looks better with gloss, but I know it can be tricky, I don't remember if I managed to correct it or not...

Will be waiting for the results from you!

 

[avain]

BTW, I just found a good source for 1848 material!
http://www.tavaszihadjarat.hu/

 

[cool3a2]

Okay, I finished my work. I also managed to get the sword glossy. There are three nifs in the package:
- HeavyCavalry.nif, lance version (redone, should be bug-save now), uses the HeavyCavalry.kfm
- Knight.nif, the sword version, the sword is not glossy here, uses knight.kfm
- Knight_sword.nif, sword version with glossy sword and shield (I had to assign the shield to another not inside another scene root which caused the shield become unglossy; this has been fixed in this version), uses Knight.kfm

I think the third nif with glossy sword looks okay, therefore there is actually no need for the second version, but I thought I upload it anyways.

I tried some animations, for example by slaughtering some barbarians, and didn't encounter any problems. If there should be any problem, please report.

BTW: thank you for the link. I took a short look and found it interesting. I'll check it more detailed later

BTW2: I took a closer look at the textures of your honvéd units. I recognized that the red of the red-white-green stripe at the trouser is a bit dark. It's okay for me, but I thought that the colour may be unwanted this way. I can remember that I had similar problems with the stripe when I swapped the colour long time ago. Someone explained it to me, but I already forgot the reason for this. However, there is a workaround for this. With AMDs "The compressonator" you can also save dds files. So, if you really wanted the red lighter, save the file as bmp and then load the bmp in "The Compressonator" and save it as dds. I think there was a certain setting or a sort of dds you have to save it as, but I can't remember what it was exactly. So you need to try around, but you won't have much choices anyways. I tried to get the same result with the Photoshop plugin and DXTBMP and DDS converter, but none worked for me. All have corrupted the colour. "The compressonator" was the only one that worked for me. The dds will be a bit larger, but if you use this technique only where it is necessary, that shouldn't be a problem.
Just for the case you really had similar problems like me.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Personally, I prefer version 2 of the knight. All the past units have been completely awesome.

 

[avain]

@cool3a2: excellent work on both knights! Now it's really hard to choose the better one!
About the stripes: yes, they are badly visible... it didn't appear as a problem to me, but the ideas you posted are certainly beneficial! If you go for it and try a fix, please do share the result!

You mentioned about the Leaders being fixed/improved by you... Could you perhaps send me your updated versions? Thanks in advance!

@Huayna Capac357: thanks!