Convert Civ 4 units to Civ 5 (Temp)

[Nomad or What]

Wolfdog, this is a tutorial that I use over and over again. The strange part is that I use only whenever I need to join meshes and bake UV's into a single texture (which is often!). So please, please do not ever remove the references to the "old" method of converting to single-mesh if that were to ever cross your mind - because I for one am very grateful that it is still part of the tutorial!

 

[Wolfdog]

Wolfdog, this is a tutorial that I use over and over again. The strange part is that I use only whenever I need to join meshes and bake UV's into a single texture (which is often!). So please, please do not ever remove the references to the "old" method of converting to single-mesh if that were to ever cross your mind - because I for one am very grateful that it is still part of the tutorial!

Yeah no problems I will leave it in here and thank you to Deliverator who wrote the tutorial. Congrats on the goblins it is good to see more unit modders on the scene especially the fantasy units which have been lacking until recently.

 

[zwei833]

Hello everyone! Please Help!
According to this tutorial, I have almost done a unit model -- I have already converted a civ4 unit model to a .BR2 file. however, since the NexusBuddy 2.0 seems dosen't work on my computer, I can't continune the progress, can someone please continune to convert this .BR2 file to .GR2 file?


Not needed anymore, I converted it by myself!

 

[Ekmek]

I guess you solved this?

 

[Civitar]

Yeah he did, it came out really well too.

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

I am attempting to convert this model, and am having little luck. I'm continuing to get black textures for the clothing and rifle, despite following the instructions and deleting the Vertex Color. I've only worked with Blender once, and that was over a year ago, so I will say that I am pretty much at complete novice level. Can anyone take a look?

 

[Nomad or What]

I am attempting to convert this model, and am having little luck. I'm continuing to get black textures for the clothing and rifle, despite following the instructions and deleting the Vertex Color. I've only worked with Blender once, and that was over a year ago, so I will say that I am pretty much at complete novice level. Can anyone take a look?

This is what I see in Blender:

Which part seems to come in black to you? I notice that the model uses team color (the transparent voids in the image) and they certainly will come in black in CiV unless you follow Nutty's team color tutorial. If you aren't worried about using team color then just leave it black or color over the areas in the .dds to your desired color.

My .blend file is attached (version 2.49b).

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

Hmm. Not sure what the issue was, but now that I've loaded that one, it works.

So now I've done some ugly retexturing and such, and I'm on the step to start renaming vertex groups, but, uh...

Spoiler :

...nothing shows up in the Outliner even when I have the model selected. Is there something wrong with the model?

 

[bouncymischa]

I suspect I'm struggling even worse than VV with this. I've decided to try and convert the T800 model TIHON made, because I'd like to have a robotic combat unit for my near-future mod, but while I can get the model to open up in NifSkope and export it as an .obj file into Blender, I don't get any of the elements I see when I open up Nomad or What's FRRifleman file...

EDIT: I decided to try and import it as a .nif instead of as an .obj, and have something with a bunch of bones. Now have to figure out the next step...

 

[Nomad or What]

I suspect I'm struggling even worse than VV with this. I've decided to try and convert the T800 model TIHON made, because I'd like to have a robotic combat unit for my near-future mod, but while I can get the model to open up in NifSkope and export it as an .obj file into Blender, I don't get any of the elements I see when I open up Nomad or What's FRRifleman file...

EDIT: I decided to try and import it as a .nif instead of as an .obj, and have something with a bunch of bones. Now have to figure out the next step...

Spoiler :

Anytime you export/import as an .obj you will only get mesh data. To get bone and animation data you have to import as another format. I use .obj often because I rig to existing bones but if you are doing full conversions and need bone/animation info then .obj is a poor choice. The advantage of .obj is that it is raw mesh data - perfect for rigging.

Send me your .blend and I will look at it.

 

[Nomad or What]

Hmm. Not sure what the issue was, but now that I've loaded that one, it works.

So now I've done some ugly retexturing and such, and I'm on the step to start renaming vertex groups, but, uh...

Spoiler :

...nothing shows up in the Outliner even when I have the model selected. Is there something wrong with the model?

VV, please send me your latest .blend file if you are still having issues.

 

[bouncymischa]

Anytime you export/import as an .obj you will only get mesh data. To get bone and animation data you have to import as another format. I use .obj often because I rig to existing bones but if you are doing full conversions and need bone/animation info then .obj is a poor choice. The advantage of .obj is that it is raw mesh data - perfect for rigging.

Send me your .blend and I will look at it.

My current plan is to try and convert some of the models using Civ 4 Marine and Tank templates, hopefully using the Marine and Tank animations from Civ 5. Would simply exporting the mesh and rigging it to the existing Marine and Tank models be best?

I suppose part of the problem is that at this point there's a few different methods to use for conversions, using a couple of different versions of Blender and NB2. I'm still working with Blender v249, as I've gotten familiar with it while working on my improvement models. I do probably need to reinstall Nexus Buddy, though, because I've never been able to figure out how to use it to export .gr2 models into Blender.

These are my current .blend files -- I've done little more than import the model as a .obj in one, and as a .nif in the other.

 

[Ekmek]

My current plan is to try and convert some of the models using Civ 4 Marine and Tank templates, hopefully using the Marine and Tank animations from Civ 5. Would simply exporting the mesh and rigging it to the existing Marine and Tank models be best?

I suppose part of the problem is that at this point there's a few different methods to use for conversions, using a couple of different versions of Blender and NB2. I'm still working with Blender v249, as I've gotten familiar with it while working on my improvement models. I do probably need to reinstall Nexus Buddy, though, because I've never been able to figure out how to use it to export .gr2 models into Blender.

These are my current .blend files -- I've done little more than import the model as a .obj in one, and as a .nif in the other.

I use 249 and did leaders on it (until I found the current scripts seem to be messing them up). Try an older version of nexus (7 maybe?) and the corresponding scripts to be safe. i haven't found where the bug is.

but to answer you first question, yes it easier especially if you are use to rigging and use the bone weight copy script.

 

[Vicevirtuoso]

Well, I've set aside the Outliner issue for now and am trying to get the Civ5 Rifleman model imported as my template. After some work, I finally got NB2.1 to load, and I exported rifleman.gr2 to rifleman.nb2. However, importing it in Blender 2.49 with Deliverator's v8 scripts causes nothing to appear in the Blender scene. I have tried with all four combinations of the import options to no avail. Viewing the .gr2 in Nexus Buddy shows no problems with the model. Blender said this:

1 Meshes Detected
processing mesh name:Rifleman...
Number of vertices in mesh: 1068
Number of normals in mesh: 1068
Number of triangles in mesh: 790
numBones:

I'll attach the .nb2, is the same issue occurring for anyone else?

 

[Nomad or What]

My current plan is to try and convert some of the models using Civ 4 Marine and Tank templates, hopefully using the Marine and Tank animations from Civ 5. Would simply exporting the mesh and rigging it to the existing Marine and Tank models be best?

I suppose part of the problem is that at this point there's a few different methods to use for conversions, using a couple of different versions of Blender and NB2. I'm still working with Blender v249, as I've gotten familiar with it while working on my improvement models. I do probably need to reinstall Nexus Buddy, though, because I've never been able to figure out how to use it to export .gr2 models into Blender.

These are my current .blend files -- I've done little more than import the model as a .obj in one, and as a .nif in the other.

Well, I've set aside the Outliner issue for now and am trying to get the Civ5 Rifleman model imported as my template. After some work, I finally got NB2.1 to load, and I exported rifleman.gr2 to rifleman.nb2. However, importing it in Blender 2.49 with Deliverator's v8 scripts causes nothing to appear in the Blender scene. I have tried with all four combinations of the import options to no avail. Viewing the .gr2 in Nexus Buddy shows no problems with the model. Blender said this:

1 Meshes Detected
processing mesh name:Rifleman...
Number of vertices in mesh: 1068
Number of normals in mesh: 1068
Number of triangles in mesh: 790
numBones:

I'll attach the .nb2, is the same issue occurring for anyone else?

I have been having problems with the latest scripts myself and have heard others with similar issues, so you are not alone.

So, the question is: are you planning to rig most units to existing CiV animations (=easiest) or import animations from Civ IV (=pain in the arse)? If you can find a CiV unit that closely matches the animations you want (and it sounds like you both do, using the Marine & Tank and Riflemen animations) then this would be my advice:

1) Install Blender 2.7+ and the NexusBuddy scripts for it here (I use 2.74 AND 2.49b but for rigging existing units 2.7+ is best because of THIS)

2) If NexusBuddy 2.1 doesn't work for you (I am having problems with it) then use NexusBuddy 2.0 beta 9 (There is a re-compiled version here that seems to work best for me in Windows 8.1)

3) Follow Wolfdog's tutorial, skipping B, C, and D since single mesh is no longer necessary and use Ekmek's bone weight copy tutorial for step E (usually works fabulously but check each mesh group for strays if your unit is deforming in Nexus - particularly if you have multiple meshes)

Since the tutorials are in Blender 2.49b, you can do what I do if you are uncomfortable in 2.7+: Export the CiV .gr2 file you will be using as your rig into .nb2 using NexusBuddy and then import it into Blender 2.7+. That will ensure you don't get a scrambled skeleton. Then, save as a legacy mesh format .blend file (there is a checkbox for this) and open it in your 2.49b version, acknowledging the "You have opened a 270 file...." error. You can finish your unit completely from this point using v2.49b.

This is just an option; I prefer to work in 2.49b because I am so familiar with it, but 2.7+ is far more powerful for doing many things and you will have no problems building your unit in 2.7+.

 

[Ekmek]

Nomad,

If you switch between 2.7 and 2.49 don't you need different import and export scripts for br2 and nb2? Also note that 2.49 is the only way to import civ4 nifs I don't think they updated the nifscript for 2.7

 

[Nomad or What]

Nomad,

If you switch between 2.7 and 2.49 don't you need different import and export scripts for br2 and nb2? Also note that 2.49 is the only way to import civ4 nifs I don't think they updated the nifscript for 2.7

You do. Good news is that they are located in different filepaths; 2.49b is in

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts\

and 2.74 is in

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.74\scripts\addons\

I set 2.49b as the version to open by default (i.e., when I double-click); I have to open into 2.74 .blend files through the application. The NexusBuddy version for the initial .nb2 extract and final import to .gr2 is the same regardless of which version you are using, though - or at least I haven't had any problems. Only the import/export scripts for the respective versions of Blender are different.

Using custom .nif animations from Civ IV and Atlantica Online is the primary reason why I still extensively use v2.49b; I take advantage of 2.7+'s import/export capabilities importing mesh from other formats and then save it down to 2.49b once they have been converted into Blender.

 

[bouncymischa]

Okay, I've decided to try and start by seeing if I can get a .gr2 file into Blender first. I'm having trouble getting the marine to open up in Nexus Buddy, so I'm going with the Paratrooper for now, hoping the animations are similar enough.

My first problem that I ran into was that in installing Blender 2.7, I accidentally overwrote 2.49b... so I had to reinstall that. I've already noticed that 2.7 exports things to .fbx different than 2.49b did, so I'm going to have to try and stick with 2.49b for my improvement models for now... <.<

Since the tutorials are in Blender 2.49b, you can do what I do if you are uncomfortable in 2.7+: Export the CiV .gr2 file you will be using as your rig into .nb2 using NexusBuddy and then import it into Blender 2.7+. That will ensure you don't get a scrambled skeleton. Then, save as a legacy mesh format .blend file (there is a checkbox for this) and open it in your 2.49b version, acknowledging the "You have opened a 270 file...." error. You can finish your unit completely from this point using v2.49b.

Okay, my first snag. I've got a copy of NexusBuddy 2.0 beta 9 (it's the version I've always used), but I've never been able to figure out how to export to .nb2 with it. I opened up my paratrooper .gr2 file, and went to the additional actions tab, and hit "Export to NB2 (Current Model)"... but while the message box says "EXPORT TO NB2 COMPLETE" I have no idea where the .nb2 file has ended up. It certainly didn't give me a directory to export it into...?

I'm not sure which tutorial might have step-by-step instructions for exporting to .nb2...

 

[Nomad or What]

Okay, I've decided to try and start by seeing if I can get a .gr2 file into Blender first. I'm having trouble getting the marine to open up in Nexus Buddy, so I'm going with the Paratrooper for now, hoping the animations are similar enough.

My first problem that I ran into was that in installing Blender 2.7, I accidentally overwrote 2.49b... so I had to reinstall that. I've already noticed that 2.7 exports things to .fbx different than 2.49b did, so I'm going to have to try and stick with 2.49b for my improvement models for now... <.<



Okay, my first snag. I've got a copy of NexusBuddy 2.0 beta 9 (it's the version I've always used), but I've never been able to figure out how to export to .nb2 with it. I opened up my paratrooper .gr2 file, and went to the additional actions tab, and hit "Export to NB2 (Current Model)"... but while the message box says "EXPORT TO NB2 COMPLETE" I have no idea where the .nb2 file has ended up. It certainly didn't give me a directory to export it into...?

I'm not sure which tutorial might have step-by-step instructions for exporting to .nb2...

Are you sure that it overwrote 2.49b? they should install to different directories. What oftentimes happens is that .blend files now open into 2.7+ instead of 2.49b by default. You can change this back by right-clicking on a .blend file and select Open With | Choose Default Program... and selecting the 2.49b Blender.exe file. If for some reason it did overwrite it you can ensure that it doesn't by changing the default install path before installing (this shouldn't be necessary, though). Sounds like you are already past this, but I am detailing it for reference.

.nb2 files have always exported (for me anyway) into the same directory where you opened the .gr2.

You can certainly use 2.49b - I always have until recently. However, I know that some bone imports to Blender from .nb2s extracted from CiV .gr2 files will not import correctly into 2.49b; I have had problems with the Pictish Warrior for certain and likely with a couple of others as well. That is why I recommended using 2.7+ for the initial import of the skeleton - it is far more stable (I use 2.7+ for the final export as well but I don't think it is necessary).

There will certainly snags - It is not a perfect process and takes a few weeks to nail down. It can be frustrating at first, but fortunately it is much easier now than it used to be thanks to the collective minds that have streamlined it over the years.

 

[bouncymischa]

You can certainly use 2.49b - I always have until recently. However, I know that some bone imports to Blender from .nb2s extracted from CiV .gr2 files will not import correctly into 2.49b; I have had problems with the Pictish Warrior for certain and likely with a couple of others as well. That is why I recommended using 2.7+ for the initial import of the skeleton - it is far more stable (I use 2.7+ for the final export as well but I don't think it is necessary).

There will certainly snags - It is not a perfect process and takes a few weeks to nail down. It can be frustrating at first, but fortunately it is much easier now than it used to be thanks to the collective minds that have streamlined it over the years.

Heh, I ran into several snags along the way of learning how to convert improvement models, and still don't think I've got the process perfectly understood... so I know it happens. It's just so helpful when someone can at least say "Oh, you did this wrong" so I can learn from it. X3

That said... I've found the .nb2 file now, but can't figure out how to import it into Blender 2.7. I know where the script window is in 2.49, but the interface seems completely different. I managed to figure out from the manual how to add the scripts -- I think -- by going through User Preferences -> Add-Ons and Install from File. But even if the script is activated, I'm not sure how to import the .nb2, since it doesn't show up as a valid choice for the Import function...

I have to admit, I think this is the step that's always been the big hurdle for me. Even opening up 2.49 and checking the scripts window, I can't find the .nb2 import. (I may have had it before, but then when I messed up and overwrote my old copy of 2.49 I probably screwed it up.) I'm pretty sure I must not be installing the scripts correctly, although most of the tutorials I've read simply say "open the scripts folder and put the .py files in". I may have messed something up in the filepaths?