City Set customization in Civilization 5

[Bangra 7]

Question: I am a 3d artist who has a LOT of low poly buildings ready for new city sets for Civilization 5. Is there any way to MOD the artwork of a city set, say Europe, or Greco-Roman, and create a whole new category entirely?

In other words, can I create a new culture group with a unique city artwork all its own?

 

[ldvhl]

Oh man, I hope so. We could definitely use a Middle East/Africa split, and some more diverse First Nations city graphics.

Also, the link in your sig appears to go somewhere other than your DA account.

 

[JFD]

Sadly, creating custom city sets is the Holy Grail of Civ V modding - one which I would prize dearly for Cultural Diversity

You can find more info here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=521799
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=544651

 

[Bangra 7]

Well, since no one else has done it yet, or could do it; guess I'll give it a shot. I make 3D cities as a hobby, and have many older buildings I could reuse. XD

 

[JFD]

I make 3D cities as a hobby

You must be some kind of God

Well, since no one else has done it yet, or could do it; guess I'll give it a shot. I make 3D cities as a hobby, and have many older buildings I could reuse. XD

The reason no one else has done it, however, is because it appears impossible to actually implement. Whilst you could make the graphics, you couldn't actually get them in-game, to be used by a civilization. Unless someone knows any different, I believe what we would need is access to the graphics DLL - and that we have not nor are we likely to get.

 

[Bangra 7]

Oh man, I hope so. We could definitely use a Middle East/Africa split, and some more diverse First Nations city graphics.

Also, the link in your sig appears to go somewhere other than your DA account.

I know. My idea was to use it for a MOD I'm working on. I wanted one Civ, which already has its own leader graphics, to use a different city set separate from other civs.

Also, the link has been fixed. It was targeting my ACID planet site for my music at the time I set up the sig. Why? No idea. I'm embarrassed now.

 

[Bangra 7]

You must be some kind of God



The reason no one else has done it, however, is because it appears impossible to actually implement. Whilst you could make the graphics, you couldn't actually get them in-game, to be used by a civilization. Unless someone knows any different, I believe what we would need is access to the graphics DLL - and that we have not nor are we likely to get.

Oh, well the DLL is a different story. I might make 3D cities for fun, but I'm not much of a programmer.

Thanks for that update.

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

The way it would have to be done would take a lot of work, mostly involving setting every Civilization to have a ArtStyleTag which makes their cities invisible, then using Lua code to add dummy Improvements to city tiles to provide the customized city graphics.

This could involve hundreds, if not thousands, of dummy Improvements. It's, sadly, going to be a serious chore to implement.

 

[Nutty]

That's a good idea, however it's not as hard as that, since models can stretch beyond the hex, so you only need to have as many Improvements as city sizes you want to accommodate per style.

 

[JFD]

However, you'd then run into the problem of obscuring buildings with an on-map model, such as the Colosseum, as well as potentially obscuring wonders.

 

[Bangra 7]

Yeah, I noticed a file in one of the FPKs I unpacked with Nexus, and that file was an XML that had all of the GR2 city art linked. I tried to add the file with my own artwork, simply replacing the Mediterranean cities, and it didn't work. Bummer, I worked very hard on those models. I'm gonna put the city idea on the shelf for now, and focus on getting my 3D leader into the game. Anyone have any tutorials on doing that? He already works in Granny Viewer with Ethiopia's animations.

 

[Bangra 7]

View attachment 397907

He is using a dummy background, but his actual background is Spain's Isabella's background.

 

[Nutty]

City styles: If you share what you have so far, I'd be happy to help. A few easy pitfalls: Did you check Reload Landmark System in the mod's properties and set VFS=True for your art files? If that doesn't work (or if you're trying to do this without a mod, you'll have to copy the art files to your Assets folder and either make a fake DLC or just set LooseFilesOverridePak to 1 in your config.ini.

Leaders: Ekmek and Deliverator are the only people that have done successful leader work AFAIK. If it's working in Granny Viewer you're most of the way there. Just check out one of the mods that do it successfully. Again, I'd be happy to help if you give me what you have so far.

 

[Bangra 7]

I am happy to send the city files. Do you need the GR2, FBX or BLEND files?

 

[Nutty]

The actual 3D part isn't my forte, so let's assume the .gr2's are OK until proven otherwise.

 

[Bangra 7]

Okay, so what will you need?

 

[Nutty]

You were unclear on what you actually tried. If you were trying to use a mod, then the built copy of that. If not, then just the files you were trying to replace.

 

[Bangra 7]

Oh, okay. Let me upload the file.