CivNexus6 (CN6) export tool not working with blender 2.79

[AzraelZephyrian]

EDIT: Decided not to import to Civ 6, and just to make a model for 5 instead. I also decided to modify an existing modded model (lots of the "mod" prefix). It's...iffy...but I got it in game. Turns out the export script is fantastically sensitive to poly shape, vertex weights, armature parenting, whether a material is assigned to all meshes, and whether the UV has been unwrapped, as well as a few other things; if anyone else is having trouble getting a model to export, check that these things are in order.

Error on CN6 export

• AzraelZephyrian
• Apr 20, 2019

I have uploaded this so I can add it to a post discussing the matter with Deliverator.

I have come to beg the Deliverator for deliverance. What am I doing wrong here?

 

[Shirotora Kenshin]

You have not parented your object to a armature (skeleton) it seems.

i would recommend you to check one of the tutorials (Tutorials section), for example my guide „import a 3d model as a new unit“ explains this and all the other steps. There are also Guides from Deliverator of course.

link to my guide: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/tutorial-integrate-a-3d-model-as-a-new-unit.635814/

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

Ah...woops. Sorry for being an idiot.

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

You have not parented your object to a armature (skeleton) it seems.

i would recommend you to check one of the tutorials (Tutorials section), for example my guide „import a 3d model as a new unit“ explains this and all the other steps. There are also Guides from Deliverator of course.

link to my guide: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/tutorial-integrate-a-3d-model-as-a-new-unit.635814/

Hmm. I parented all the meshes to the root (named "point_WORLD") as instructed, and added an armature modifier with "point_WORLD" as the parent. I'm still get the the armature error though.

 

[Shirotora Kenshin]

try to set the parent from „Object“ to „Armature“, as explained in the tutorial.

also have you set a Material and assigned all the vertices to it?
and have you done the Weight Transfer?

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

try to set the parent from „Object“ to „Armature“, as explained in the tutorial.

also have you set a Material and assigned all the vertices to it?
and have you done the Weight Transfer?

I did set the parent to armature, yes.

And no, I didn't realize those were necessary steps for Civ V. I thought that might have been civ-vi specific, as I didn't see anything about it in Deliverator's Civ V tutorials. I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

Edit: I was horribly unclear. I gave up on Civ VI mods for the moment because 1) I've discovered I have a very strong dislike for the stock UI and art and 2) I can't even figure out how to get the steam assets to download/open the asset editor, and without templates to work off of...it'd take a lot of searching to find, for instance, the requisite rows for an improvement.

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

Ah I found the issue I think: the model from which I drew the mesh and skeleton identifies itself as "point_WORLD index(0)". Now how to fix it...I do not know.

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

I got it to export. Shows up in granny and all. But the models are not showing up in-game.

 

[Wolfdog]

I got it to export. Shows up in granny and all. But the models are not showing up in-game.

There are quite a lot of steps from exporting to the point it is in the game. You may nee to be a little more specific on the steps you took. Like did you rig it to a existing Civ 6 skeleton or are you importing a Civ 5 skeleton along with its animations. Probably the latter given you mentioned point_WORLD. Does it show up in Asset Viewer OK and all the animations work before you even try it in the game?

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

There are quite a lot of steps from exporting to the point it is in the game. You may nee to be a little more specific on the steps you took. Like did you rig it to a existing Civ 6 skeleton or are you importing a Civ 5 skeleton along with its animations. Probably the latter given you mentioned point_WORLD. Does it show up in Asset Viewer OK and all the animations work before you even try it in the game?

Modified T95

• AzraelZephyrian
• Apr 22, 2019

Custom barrel mesh. The model and animations need a fair bit of work...but hey, I finally...

Yeah sorry for the vagueness. I decided to simply modify a Civ 5 model and re-import it into Civ 5, for simplicity's sake; I need to figure out a lot of basic things about how civ 6 is written before I have a snowball's chance in hell of making a good mod for it.

It turns out I didn't have a material selected in the .gr2. I managed to get it working. The textures are horrendous (on the barrel, the part I modified), the animations are...iffy, because I need to re-render them for a shorter barrel, and somehow the normals on the track-covers came out backwards (even though they looked fine in viewer), but I think I can fix most of that. I finally did it though. I got a model in game

 

[Wolfdog]

Well done. Yes I have noticed that Civ 5 texture look very ordinary in Civ 6. I think mainly because they are low res and a lot of work needs to be done to make them PBR textures.

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

Well done. Yes I have noticed that Civ 5 texture look very ordinary in Civ 6. I think mainly because they are low res and a lot of work needs to be done to make them PBR textures.

Ah, no, this is still in Civ 5. I gave up on 6 for now. I agree though, civ 5 models--mostly textures--would look very out of place in civ 6.

Would you, by any chance, have experience with this funky invisible mesh phenomenon? Seemingly at random, certain pieces of mesh appear totally invisible; I checked the normals, and they looked fine in blender and granny viewer.

 

[Wolfdog]

Ah, no, this is still in Civ 5. I gave up on 6 for now. I agree though, civ 5 models--mostly textures--would look very out of place in civ 6.

Would you, by any chance, have experience with this funky invisible mesh phenomenon? Seemingly at random, certain pieces of mesh appear totally invisible; I checked the normals, and they looked fine in blender and granny viewer.

OK this is Civ 6 forum so that may be part of your issues. CivNexus6 is designed for Civ 6. Civ 5 has its own tool ModBuddy which is what you should be using.

 

[AzraelZephyrian]

OK this is Civ 6 forum so that may be part of your issues. CivNexus6 is designed for Civ 6. Civ 5 has its own tool ModBuddy which is what you should be using.

Yeah, I really should make a new post over back in the 5 forum. I am indeed using modbuddy and NB2: I have the appropriate tools for both games.

 

[Deliverator]

OK this is Civ 6 forum so that may be part of your issues. CivNexus6 is designed for Civ 6. Civ 5 has its own tool ModBuddy which is what you should be using.

Correction! The tool for Civ 5 is Nexus Buddy 2.

 

[Deliverator]

Turns out the export script is fantastically sensitive to poly shape, vertex weights, armature parenting, whether a material is assigned to all meshes, and whether the UV has been unwrapped, as well as a few other things; if anyone else is having trouble getting a model to export, check that these things are in order.

When you say "fantastically sensitive"... all the script is doing is enforcing things that need to be the case for your model to work in game. These rules are the same for both Civ 5 (.br2 export) and Civ 6 (.cn6 export). I will look at improving some of the error messages to give more guidance.

 

[JimmyMcGill]

Hi ShiroToraRyu, did you write that guide? It's very helpful. Buuut~ I'm exporting corrupt .CN6 files. I couldn't find one of the steps on Blender 2.92, I think, so I will have another hard go then if I get stuck again or my .CN6 isn't opening in the Nexus, I'll ask someone here. I'm also looking for Rifleman animations. I suppose I can test it with the CivV animations from Deliverator's pack. Kinda painful doing this stuff without the pantry. Still, I'm learning loads and I will have something decent to contribute, one day.

 

[Shirotora Kenshin]

Hi ShiroToraRyu, did you write that guide? It's very helpful. Buuut~ I'm exporting corrupt .CN6 files. I couldn't find one of the steps on Blender 2.92, I think, so I will have another hard go then if I get stuck again or my .CN6 isn't opening in the Nexus, I'll ask someone here. I'm also looking for Rifleman animations. I suppose I can test it with the CivV animations from Deliverator's pack. Kinda painful doing this stuff without the pantry. Still, I'm learning loads and I will have something decent to contribute, one day.

Hi JimmyMcGill, if you mean that Integrating Units Guide, then yep, i wrote that guide. I am actually unsure whether the scripts work with Blender 2.92, i simply do not know that. The Guide is written to follow using Blender 2.79. A lot have changed from 2.79 to 2.92. Anyways, At Which step you are having trouble? Maybe i can help

 

[Deliverator]

Hi JimmyMcGill, if you mean that Integrating Units Guide, then yep, i wrote that guide. I am actually unsure whether the scripts work with Blender 2.92, i simply do not know that. The Guide is written to follow using Blender 2.79. A lot have changed from 2.79 to 2.92. Anyways, At Which step you are having trouble? Maybe i can help

The Blender 2.8 script updates were done by @sukritact. I'm not sure whether the 2.8 scripts work with 2.9* versions as well.

 

[sukritact]

They do work with 2.9* I use those versions.