Converting Civ5 models to Civ6

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Not every Civ5 unit assets has already converted to Civ6.
In addition to Blender and CN6 tools. What else do I need? For instand I want HMS DREADNOUGH for my Civ6 mod project and i've found that there's Civ5 unit model.

What are the other tools needed to transfer this unit or extract Civ5 Dreadnough?

This is the Dread i've got. (actually it comes as unit pack)

 

[Laurana Kanan]

Tutorial: Converting 3D Art from Civ 5/Civ BE to Civ 6

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

This Civ5 -> Civ6 model convesion project is done by converting mod unit pieces rather than original. (There were so many different factions mod for Civ5 that have some cool units, like HMS Dreadnough, IJN Mikasa and so on.)

this is stage i've already reach

I'm at this stage

5) In Blender create and name Material(s) and assign all vertices to them. (This saves having to create and name Materials in CivNexus6 later).

So
1. Can I skip this step yet?
2. 'Create and name materials' command. What is this and how could it be done? This model also comes with textures as well
3. And about Height Map to make 'Normal' textures. what is it and how to create Height Map to convert to Normal Map later on?

 

[Deliverator]

This Civ5 -> Civ6 model convesion project is done by converting mod unit pieces rather than original. (There were so many different factions mod for Civ5 that have some cool units, like HMS Dreadnough, IJN Mikasa and so on.)

The process will work for modded units but you don't need to convert animations unless they have been customized. The vanilla animations used by most modded units can be taken from here.

1. Can I skip this step yet?

You can but then you'll need to create and attach Materials using CivNexus6. It's easier to use Blender.

2. 'Create and name materials' command. What is this and how could it be done?

Create and Assign Materials as described:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/assigning_a_material.html

3. And about Height Map to make 'Normal' textures. what is it and how to create Height Map to convert to Normal Map later on?

Just use a plain Normal map initially. Create a square texture 4x4 pixels that is filled with the colour R127, G127, B255 to give a completely flat normal texture and import that as your Generic_Normal. You can see this used a lot in the above Civ 5 conversion pack of units.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

And in Civ V, unit model textures came in this unit pack in two layers. one is Base color, the other is SREF one (Black and white)
What is SREF and equivalency in Civ6 layer system?

^ Base color layer

^ SREF (In DDS as made, the pitch black surface is actually transparent, as viewed with Photoshop, it becomes black)

 

[Deliverator]

SREF is the specular map in Civ 5. The closest comparison in the PBR system used in Civ VI is the Gloss layer but for best effect you probably will want to play around with Gloss/Metalness to get the effect you want.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Thanks.

But this is not a default game unit, instead it is Civ5 community made custom unit nor comes with animation files of any kind. if it is gonna use existing in game animations what's next? no *.AST file was made even after i've save the working *.cn6 file.

This is what I've got now. Making tint mask is.. however, not so easy to make.
I don't understand why the original mesh name is called 'Battleship'? beyond that it was made for Civ5 Animations.

IS it possible to add Submarine animations with no submerging? well I don't really know much about this T-boat or the original animation it uses. Where can I get the original animations?

 

[Deliverator]

But this is not a default game unit, instead it is Civ5 community made custom unit nor comes with animation files of any kind. if it is gonna use existing in game animations what's next? no *.AST file was made even after i've save the working *.cn6 file.

I appreciate that. Almost all custom units use vanilla animations so that why I have linked the converted vanilla animation set. The reason the model is called Battleship is because it used the vanilla Civ 5 Battleship animations. This means you can use the converted Battleship animations from the pack I linked above. You can use my converted Battleship as a base then copy the GeometrySet xml generated using CivNexus6 into the copy.

This is what I've got now. Making tint mask is.. however, not so easy to make.

The Tint Mask is an image that is white in the areas that you want to be tintable and black in the areas you don't want to be tintable. You can open the base game Tint Masks in Gimp 2 to view example.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Insert animations and adjusting. this is what happens

Torpedo tube lodged out of its rear turret!!! and the boat tilts vertically!!

but a boat did shakes with the wave.
What did I do wrong here??

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Pe5lM-fVaI_eFTuk6GxBXOfMK7pUkPMS

Could you please check it out why boat tilts when running animations.

 

[Deliverator]

Insert animations and adjusting. this is what happens
View attachment 548884

Torpedo tube lodged out of its rear turret!!! and the boat tilts vertically!!

but a boat did shakes with the wave.
What did I do wrong here??

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Pe5lM-fVaI_eFTuk6GxBXOfMK7pUkPMS

Could you please check it out why boat tilts when running animations.

OK, it depends what the source of the model is.

Some old Civ 5 modded models by for example Danrell used armatures (skeletons) that were hand-made before it was possible to extract the armatures and meshes directly into Blender. These models uses customised animations as well as skeletons. In this case the simplest way is probably to re-rig them to the actual GR2 exported Battleship skeleton to fix the rotation issues.

If it is only the overall rotation that is an issue you can fix using the "Insert Adjustment Bone and Save" feature of Nexus Buddy 2 to insert bones that fix the Rotation. If you do this backup your work in progress .gr2 model first as it is permanent effect. However it sounds like you have more issues than that since you mention the torpedo tubes being off so re-rigging to the correct skeleton from the base game Battleship model might be the best way.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

^ That means uses Civ6 BB instead?

PS: Just found out that the actual SMS Elster which this T-Boat in question is based on has torpedo tubes at front and the turreted gun is actually a quick firing cannon / AA. When rigging where do I need to drag one end of armature/bone at a turret mesh??? since AA in Subs are located in front, while ones mounted on T-Boat is located to the rear. (I'm working on BOTH options, actually adjusting bone is very new to me and in the same Civ5 unit pack there's evenmore complicated unit init. the HMS Dreadnought itself!

 

[Deliverator]

^ That means uses Civ6 BB instead?

No, I meant re-rig this custom unit to the Civ 5 Battleship animations as part of the conversion. But rigging to the Civ 6 Battleship could also be an option.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

OK, it depends what the source of the model is.

Some old Civ 5 modded models by for example Danrell used armatures (skeletons) that were hand-made before it was possible to extract the armatures and meshes directly into Blender. These models uses customised animations as well as skeletons. In this case the simplest way is probably to re-rig them to the actual GR2 exported Battleship skeleton to fix the rotation issues.

If it is only the overall rotation that is an issue you can fix using the "Insert Adjustment Bone and Save" feature of Nexus Buddy 2 to insert bones that fix the Rotation. If you do this backup your work in progress .gr2 model first as it is permanent effect. However it sounds like you have more issues than that since you mention the torpedo tubes being off so re-rigging to the correct skeleton from the base game Battleship model might be the best way.

So to insert adjustiment bone. so I have to do this before exporting right?

Re-rigging Civ5 BB (aforemented unit cooker) this is what i've got now. what's next since it has been a long time since i've rigged cannons

This one comes with CN6 Adjustment bone. what's next? just delete this BB mesh and keep armatues and modifiers?

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

This is what i've got now.

Turret hasn't move. yet.
well the rest is to put torpedo and AAMG gun flashes and SFX to work.
How??

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tFrX8_9GN-RCz8FenFlOue2KEjGFEOiG

Do I need to make an attachment point for it?

 

[Deliverator]

This is what i've got now.

View attachment 549359

Turret hasn't move. yet.
well the rest is to put torpedo and AAMG gun flashes and SFX to work.
How??

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tFrX8_9GN-RCz8FenFlOue2KEjGFEOiG

Do I need to make an attachment point for it?

All VFX are attached to attachment points, so you’ll need to create them yes.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Here got it! Torpedo boat shooting torpedo out (Gato class Whitehead torpedo)

But with rather unusual rigging

Actually I use ModernEmark bone n armatures to rig this model instead of BB and leave a rea turret a dummy Next level. HMS Dreadnought

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Now comes Level Two. HMS Dreadnough itself (came in the same pack as Torpedo Boat)

It comes with TWO Armatures with one mesh called Battleship. and in real life it is. Just like Minas Gerais in Civ6 (Which it too! historically, Brazillian Dreadnough made in England.), side turrets are dummies!

Turret arrangement of this one however was not so usual. the actual movable turrets as shown here are one frontal and two rear. the original BB (civ5) has two front and two rear turrets, the Civ6 BB however has TWO fronts and ONE rear.

What's next? is it usable yet (It has its own material sets but i haven't assing ones yet too bad), in addition to assigning materials and link texture files to it. Do I still need to bring in BB Armatures hosted in this Civ65 unit packs for Civ6 and rig the whole pieces again? https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/civilization-v-units-for-civilization-vi.27135/ is it possible to rig it with either Minas Gerales or Civ6 BB?

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

What I want to do rightnow.
Is it possible to align (and gives animation sequences of) Civ5 Carthaginian Quinqueremes into the same 'Civ Six Axis' and animate them as Civ6 Units and not Civ5?