[GRAPHICS] Civilization IV Remaster 1.7.3

[<Nexus>]

That's ... interesting; like some color-shifted NASA photo of the moon's surface.

Yeah
I wish there was a solution for that. If shaders wouldn't need to go to BtS folder I wouldn't mind tinkering the appropriate files myself.

 

[keldath]

I spotted an odd thing,
On late late game,
Everything on thecterran is not visible.
Maybe sometging with global warming causes some terrain issue?

Running auto ai playes.

 

[tomekum]

I've found the problem I think: The DLL checks GRAPHICOPTION_CITY_DETAIL before inserting the countdowns. That's the "Detailed City Info" option on the Graphics tab of the Ctrl+O screen. I didn't have that option enabled. Should arguably not be optional now that the progress bars are gone.

Good call on the Grassland and Plains textures; looking less like Humankind now. Having taken another look at my Carthage screenshot, I also agree that the pavement looked odd on the mod's terrain.
That's ... interesting; like some color-shifted NASA photo of the moon's surface.

That's a nice find. Thank you for investigating it. I'll try to fix it so the GRAPHICOPTION_CITY_DETAIL is ignored by the game in DLL.

Yep, the grassland was too bright and plains too similar to grassland. Although I am still not happy with the result. Also I removed pavement in the city cause it indeed made the city look too busy. They did that in Civ6 and it actually look better now.

I spotted an odd thing,
On late late game,
Everything on thecterran is not visible.
Maybe sometging with global warming causes some terrain issue?

Running auto ai playes.

I also noticed that everything but terrain disappears when I ALT+TAB to desktop and go back to the game. But when I load the save again everything is normal again. I am suspecting that it could be caused by Taurus's bubble size change feature. As I know f1rpo is cleverly changing the EXE file memory on fly to make that possible, but maybe it's also causing this artifact to happen.

Maybe disable it for water units, if possible?

Unfortunately I only changed the selection_ground.nif file to change the selection cursor to god rays. So, there is no code involved. Besides it's weird issue because when I select land unit then there is no distortion on water tiles. I will investigate it today.

 

[keldath]

I also noticed that everything but terrain disappears when I ALT+TAB to desktop and go back to the game. But when I load the save again everything is normal again. I am suspecting that it could be caused by Taurus's bubble size change feature. As I know f1rpo is cleverly changing the EXE file memory on fly to make that possible, but maybe it's also causing this artifact to happen.

yes its odd,
though i dont use Taurus directly, but advciv.
not sure why this occuers.
@f1rpo
any ideas?

 

[tomekum]

tomekum updated Civilization IV Remaster with a new update entry:

Added God Rays

- God Rays selection cursor - when you select unit the god rays appears from the clouds Also the cursor around unit has been changed to circle with smaller circle rotating around it
- bugfix: fixed unvisible number of turns left for production and population on city bar (thanks to f1rpo)
- bugfix: fixed water shader reflections


Link to video.

View attachment 651025

Read the rest of this update entry...


I did it. The issue with distorted water shaders was because I didn't add NiZBufferProperty to god ray nif object. Also I added some texture animation to the god rays and fixed the water shader reflections So if you want updated water reflections you need to again override the FXO shaders in BTS folder with the shaders from the mod.


Link to video.

 

[novakato]

Hello. I like the mod, but stuff like mines and windmills are so damn tiny, it's hilarious... You cant even see them if something stands on them... Same goes to the small units. How can I return all this to normal scale? thx

 

[tomekum]

Hello. I like the mod, but stuff like mines and windmills are so damn tiny, it's hilarious... You cant even see them if something stands on them... Same goes to the small units. How can I return all this to normal scale? thx

Hi,

yes you are right, the units are probably too little. I will increase their size in next update. But you can go back to vanilla sized units by simply deleting the CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml file inside C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Civ IV Remaster\Assets\XML\Art folder (you may change the root path to match your Civ4 installation).

 

[novakato]

Hi,

yes you are right, the units are probably too little. I will increase their size in next update. But you can go back to vanilla sized units by simply deleting the CIV4ArtDefines_Unit.xml file inside C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Civ IV Remaster\Assets\XML\Art folder (you may change the root path to match your Civ4 installation).View attachment 651044

Its worked, thx. I also managed to fix my personal issues with windmills - just deleted windmills files from the mod folder and now they look like the original. Anyway, keep up with the mod, liked pretty much. Pardon my english.

 

[tomekum]

tomekum updated Civilization IV Remaster with a new update entry:

Larger units

- made units a bit larger (80% of the vanilla size)

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[keldath]

wow the go rays is superb

 

[f1rpo]

I also noticed that everything but terrain disappears when I ALT+TAB to desktop and go back to the game. But when I load the save again everything is normal again. I am suspecting that it could be caused by Taurus's bubble size change feature. As I know f1rpo is cleverly changing the EXE file memory on fly to make that possible, but maybe it's also causing this artifact to happen.

I can only reproduce this issue if I run the Remaster with the modified shaders in fullscreen mode. It could still be that only the combination of Taurus and the shaders brings that about, but it sounds rather farfetched to me. For a test, the runtime modifications to the EXE could be disabled through DISABLE_EXE_RUNTIME_MODS in GlobalDefinesAlt.xml. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I ever tested that XML setting (I might have), so this test won't bring full assurance. One could also check if the problem already occurs in pre-Taurus versions of the Remaster. (If the shader changes alone are responsible, then trying older versions could also help narrow down the specific cause.)

A somewhat unrelated observation: In a quick test, removing the folder with the modified shaders seemed to do no harm once the mod had been loaded. So it might be possible to write a launcher script for the mod that renames the original shader folder, moves the modified folder from the mod's dir to the BtS dir, launches BtS with the mod=... command, waits for a few seconds and then swaps the original shaders back in. I assume that the shaders actually get loaded before the mod, so, even if the mod's graphics take a little longer to load, that might be of no concern.

It would also be possible, I reckon, to distribute the mod as a standalone program – basically dumping the modified files into a copy of the BtS dir. An installer could create that copy from the user's local BtS installation to avoid copyright issues. But this is probably too laborious.
(And I don't mean to say that the current approach – shaders to be restored manually – is unworkable.)

 

[keldath]

hey,
saw a small issue:

 

[tomekum]

hey,
saw a small issue:

Hey. Yes, that's a known issue. It was either that cloud artifact or pretty desert waves. I am so attached to the desert waves that I left it as it is. You could fix it yourself if you want by using one of the other detail texture as desert. So just delete the desertdetail.dds file in \Civ IV Remaster\Assets\Art\Terrain\Textures folder. Then copy for instance grasslanddetail.dds file and rename it to desertdetail.dds

I can only reproduce this issue if I run the Remaster with the modified shaders in fullscreen mode. It could still be that only the combination of Taurus and the shaders brings that about, but it sounds rather farfetched to me. For a test, the runtime modifications to the EXE could be disabled through DISABLE_EXE_RUNTIME_MODS in GlobalDefinesAlt.xml. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I ever tested that XML setting (I might have), so this test won't bring full assurance. One could also check if the problem already occurs in pre-Taurus versions of the Remaster. (If the shader changes alone are responsible, then trying older versions could also help narrow down the specific cause.)

A somewhat unrelated observation: In a quick test, removing the folder with the modified shaders seemed to do no harm once the mod had been loaded. So it might be possible to write a launcher script for the mod that renames the original shader folder, moves the modified folder from the mod's dir to the BtS dir, launches BtS with the mod=... command, waits for a few seconds and then swaps the original shaders back in. I assume that the shaders actually get loaded before the mod, so, even if the mod's graphics take a little longer to load, that might be of no concern.

It would also be possible, I reckon, to distribute the mod as a standalone program – basically dumping the modified files into a copy of the BtS dir. An installer could create that copy from the user's local BtS installation to avoid copyright issues. But this is probably too laborious.
(And I don't mean to say that the current approach – shaders to be restored manually – is unworkable.)

Ok, I checked one of the pre Taurus versions and the issue still occurs. So it could be one of the shaders that are causing it. The bug doesn't occurs in window mode though.

That's a really good idea with swapping the shader folders when starting the mod. If you are willing to take up such challenge then I would be grateful

 

[keldath]

ahh a known issue, np.
it doesn't bother me, is marvelous as it is.

i do hope you wiil mark the sdk changes
i spotted the changes you made in the gametext through the git commit.
could help in the future

 

[novakato]

Hello again. I have another question. Modern lumber mills doesn't look like lumber mills to me... Are they supposed to look like that? thx

 

[keldath]

from the pic above - i see the ui buttons are with vanilla color and not as blue .
that like how it is on my end.
maybe there are missing parts in the resource folder?

 

[novakato]

from the pic above - i see the ui buttons are with vanilla color and not as blue .
that like how it is on my end.
maybe there are missing parts in the resource folder?

I have no idea . This is the first time I installing the mod for the Civ game. I just played a new game entirely with this mod and I didnt notice any problems... everything else on its place, I guess

 

[keldath]

Hi novakato,

Sorry i refered to your pic as an issue i saw on my end.
The post is for tomekum mostly

by the way,
for capital , a switched the colors, so it will be distinctive from all other cities .

 

[f1rpo]

That's a really good idea with swapping the shader folders when starting the mod. If you are willing to take up such challenge then I would be grateful

I have little exprience with scripting these kinds of administrative tasks. I assume that a batch script could do the job (which should work out of the box on all versions of Windows), but I'd have to look up about every command, and I'd feel anxious about deleting someone's files by accident. But it's a good thought to outsource this to ... someone. If I can easily help with anything, it'll probably be something in the DLL.

 

[keldath]

hey,
in your screen shots the background is blue->
perhaps you forgot something?