Can you help me with Col graphics in BtS?

[Leoreth]

A while ago I had the following problem with using Col art in BtS (from the Civ4 C&C forum):

I have a small unit art problem: I'm currently trying to include melcher_kürzer's Noblewoman art, but it shows up kind of distorted in the game:

Spoiler :

Here are my art defines:

		<UnitArtInfo>
			<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_FEMALE_STATESMAN</Type>
			<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/Units/Noble_Woman.dds</Button>
			<fScale>0.44</fScale>
			<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
			<bActAsLand>0</bActAsLand>
			<bActAsAir>0</bActAsAir>
			<NIF>Art/Units/Noble_Woman/Expert_Sugar_Planter.nif</NIF>
			<KFM>Art/Units/Noble_Woman/Expert_Sugar_Planter.kfm</KFM>
			<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Noble_Woman/Expert_Sugar_Planter.nif</SHADERNIF>
			<ShadowDef>
				<ShadowNIF>Art/Units/01_UnitShadows/UnitShadow.nif</ShadowNIF>
				<ShadowAttachNode>Bip01 Pelvis</ShadowAttachNode>
				<fShadowScale>0.9</fShadowScale>
			</ShadowDef>
			<fBattleDistance>0.35</fBattleDistance>
			<fRangedDeathTime>0.31</fRangedDeathTime>
			<bActAsRanged>0</bActAsRanged>
			<TrainSound>AS2D_UNIT_BUILD_UNIT</TrainSound>
			<AudioRunSounds>
				<AudioRunTypeLoop/>
				<AudioRunTypeEnd/>
			</AudioRunSounds>
		</UnitArtInfo>

And the art files as downloaded:

Spoiler :

Where's my mistake?

I was never able to find out, but people suggested that I should ask around Colonization modders. Do you have any idea why art working in Colonization wouldn't work in BtS, and what I can do to get it to work?

Any help would be appreciated.

Rest of the discussion in the other thread in spoilers:

Spoiler :

Okay, the art works within Colonization.

I've always assumed that since both games run on the same engine, art could be freely shared among them. Is there a reason why Colonization art wouldn't work in BtS, and maybe a way to get around this?

I have units coming from Colonization. No problems with them.

I'm not an expert in art and I can only vaguely remember what I did. But this is what I notice: there is no _FX.nif file for the <SHADERNIF> tag in Colonization. This tag does not even exist in Colonization. I think it's all in the .nif file, that's why you have to make a copy of the .nif file, rename it _FX.nif and reference it in the <SHADERNIF> tag.

Something like that...

It might not sound very logical but that's how my Colonization units work. Maybe this is not valid for every unit though.

EDIT: from youflancy, 15/11/2008: "The xxx_fx.nif means an NIF file with a shader(which can show more realistic scenes with shadows), and xxx.nif means the identical unit without a shader.
Civ4 program can take both types of NIF, and choose one of them to use, according to the performance of the computer.
But Colonization only use _fx files, simply because they look better."

Here is the link to the thread but it's a Colonization one, meaning that they were trying to use Civ4 units in Col.

Oh, that's interesting. Thanks for your help, I'll try it soon.

Okay, I couldn't solve the problem but I think I gained some additional understanding.

The problem was indeed the SHADERNIF tag. I have used the same .nif file there as in the normal NIF tag (since only one is provided). Copying, renaming and referencing it as ***_fx.nif didn't help (and it would've surprised me if it did).

That is still confusing to me because the shadered nif, to my understanding, is the "higher quality" one. And colonization only uses shadered nifs. So why does a nif file that works in Colonization (presumably because it is of the higher quality) not work as a shadered nif in Civ4?

Is there a way to convert between those types, or get the game to properly accept and display the lower quality version as both the shadered and nonshadered graphics?

 

[Leoreth]

Okay never mind, someone with better research skills was kind enough to track down the problem:

I got them to work.

Here they are. (Including buttons)

I looked in the thread where I got the art from if someone has experienced the same problem. I found this:

i would guess that the SkinPartition causes the trouble - it´s honestly a small surprise for me that the unit work in Civ4Col - and still don´t know for sure why only the body doesn´t work. All parts of the unit have the same kind of SkinPartition - but perhaps the reason is the number of bones of the body mesh and therefore the real partition of this mesh.

For Civ4Bts try to remove the SkinPartion (open the nif with nifskope, go to the NiTriShape [you could try only to do this only for the body - if there are still problems afterwards, try to do it for every riggged mesh in the model], expand the NiSkinInstance of the mesh, select the NiSkinPartition, delete [ctrl + del]) - the model should work after this procedure.

Another option would be to make a bts shader model - for this you must create new shader SkinPartition for the mesh and add the other sader information to the NiTriShape

 

[Kailric]

I am glad you figured this out and posted the results. It is super nice when the community is able to help you out. Nice mod by the way. We are planning a World History Mod for Col and perhaps we will find some ideas in your mod.