cool3a2s optimized hungarian leaderheads

[AbsintheRed]

Looks awesome, I think I might have to make an exception to my "no more than three leaders" for a modular civ rule.

That's because Hungary should be a "base" civ, not a modular one

 

[cool3a2]

Thanks for your kind words! At the moment, I'm in Hungary and don't have access to my files and only irregularily internet. I will be back this weekend, but may have some things to solve, so no clue when I can continue modding. Maybe in a week or so? This will also affect Nagy v2's release of course.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Don't forget to grab a couple turo rudis

 

[cool3a2]

Don't forget to grab a couple turo rudis

Sure! I already ate 5 in Hungary and brought 10 more with me back to Germany. Actually 15, but 5 of them are meant to be presents. Well, not sure if they will survive that long

As soon as I have time, I will try to nifswap Bismarcks lights to Nagy v2 to create a more sunny scene. Hope that works. Also, I might tried to edit on the skins colour a little depending on how this will look with the new lights.

 

[cool3a2]

I just found a Vlad III with long hair that seemed to be buggy. Took some time to fix it:

DOWNLOAD

Unfortunately, I had some trouble when unpacking my own archive... I didn't have permission to the unpacked folder, no clue why. Will check that later.

EDIT: Seems like the file is working. Have move it elsewhere extracting it again and it worked fine.
EDIT2: Couldn't solve the bright area problem at Vlads neck. Well, I won't continue working on this as I won't use it anyways. If someone wants to give this a shot, feel free to. I'm pretty sure that it is not the texture as the same texture is used for the nonshadered version. SPEC and ENVMASK map doesn't seem to be the reason either. Maybe it is the nrml map, which I couldn't fix anyways...

Have worked on Nagy v2, Álmos and Rákóczi making some progress.

 

[cool3a2]

Attached are two previews. This is the best I can get out of Rákóczi, I think. Also, I have swapped Bismarcks lights to Nagy and I think he's fine now.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Both looks better, but can you show us Rakoczi without that cape?
IMO getting rid of it would be a serious improvement...
We can always find a good looking sash if something is really needed there

 

[cool3a2]

Both looks better, but can you show us Rakoczi without that cape?
IMO getting rid of it would be a serious improvement...
We can always find a good looking sash if something is really needed there

I can and will ASAP. I think that he won't look well, but rather boring. Don't think that a sash would look well. Hmmm... maybe I'll take a look at some pictures.
I'm planning to upload a couple of LHs today, so stay tuned. Rákóczi and Álmos won't be amongst them though.

 

[cool3a2]

I've just uploaded a bunch of lhs I was working on. Take a look at post 1 for downloadlinks and previews. I will have to work on credits and sort of that, but don't have time right now.

Also, I think I won't be able to set up Rákóczi the way you suggested within the next days as I will be quite busy. It's likely that I can do that next weekend only.

 

[Leoreth]

Great! Which changes did you make on Lajos, aside of removing his sword?

 

[cool3a2]

Puh, it's mean a while since I've worked on him. There were definately animation glitches like cropping that I tweaked at least and I changed the background. If I remeber correctly, nitrams version had no sky at all, shwoing the endless space behind the background plane... Anyways. I guess I fixed / improved a little on the shader settings as I did that for most of nitrams leaderheads. The latter usually did not cause bigger differences. Finally, some cleanup could be mentioned - nitram usually provides a couple of files that aren't used at all by the nif. Oh, and I think that nitram didn't provide buttons. Hmmm... I think that I also made all the noshader nifs that I provide with my packages. Well, all in all, I made a couple of minor things, while nitram made the basic work. I will add some short text soon that will make clear that the leaders in question are approx. 80% nitrams work, I certainly don't claim to be the creator of these leaderheads.

EDIT: I have now edited on the first post. Some more credits, better style, two pieces of texts dedicated to ekmek and nitram and some general information about what I have done.

 

[cool3a2]

I worked a tiny bit on the shadered Trudeau someone requested a while back. I've just reuploaded its latest version, see post 1 for link and preview.

Next things I'll do are certainly Rákóczi and Álmos. Then I will write the missing civilopedia texts for the optional hungarian leaders. Another thing I might do, is a better background. When I worked on Trudeau today, I noticed that the clouds in his background are moving. Sure, there is the same effect for a couple of LHs coming with civ4, but I never noticed that before. I think moving clouds would be really cool, I just don't know how to create that effect. I think I start with Nagy v1 as this is a descendent of Trudeau actually, so it should be easy for that one. For the rest of the leaderheads, I will try to copy and rename a background kf that creates such clouds.

Another leaderhead project I am thinking about, but is currently rather theoretic, is a third hunnic leader. I think it would be cool to take that Ancestor leaderhead someone made and on which The Capos based his Hiawatha, sculpt his head so that it matches the Huns skull enlongation and give him Koppány beard. I actually already did the head trick which looks interesting and also took a quick try at the beard which also was fine. I would keep the skinhead though, no hair at all. Not sure about the body. A naked one might do it, but it should be sweaty and / or hairy. Alternatively, Something with fur could work, too. I could then add some weapon, a bow or a sword. The sword should not be such a massive weapon like Árpáds sword or the one nitrams original Lajos used. There is few material around that makes use of fur, though, and I certainly don't want to make that leader armored. As background, I would go with some yurt interiour and I would try to use hannibals animation. I'm pretty sure that I would need help with the texture, though.

 

[The_J]

Too much time lately ?

Another thing I might do, is a better background. When I worked on Trudeau today, I noticed that the clouds in his background are moving. Sure, there is the same effect for a couple of LHs coming with civ4, but I never noticed that before. I think moving clouds would be really cool, I just don't know how to create that effect. I think I start with Nagy v1 as this is a descendent of Trudeau actually, so it should be easy for that one. For the rest of the leaderheads, I will try to copy and rename a background kf that creates such clouds.

AFAIK that's just a texture which gets endlessly moved over the background (done by the bg.kf).

 

[cool3a2]

Too much time lately ?

Nah, I already had most of these LHs done since a few weeks. I just collected them a bit and released them all together. But yeah, it was kind of a marathon to all upload them one after another.

AFAIK that's just a texture which gets endlessly moved over the background (done by the bg.kf).

Yeah, I think so, too. Problem is, that lot's of backgrounds I used are based on in-door backgrounds like fdrs that I used for Nagy v2, so there is no sky animation in the corresponding kf. I already have a separate sky plane, though, so I thought I might copy and rename a working kf. Also, I could use the background nif of another LH and 're-add' my background textures. Question is, what is faster and works better. A problem I could see, is, that it might become visible when the animation 'resets' as the sky should change a lot from one moment to another. Well, I'll start with easy backgrounds, that means backgrounds already based on other outdoor backgrounds, just to collect some experiences.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Nice collection of all the hungarian leaderheads
You should also add the old version of Kossuth and Den's new Bela IV to your list!

 

[cool3a2]

Thanks, Absinthe! I was thinking about adding the twos, too. The issue with Béla is, that I didn't do much changes, nothing that would be obvious. Thus, Den might be unhappy about that as it might look like I claim I did it.
Things are different with the old Kossuth. I made changes to the shader maps and added a different background, so there are obvious changes. Also, I think it would be fine for ekmek as well. Problem is, that I don't know if I still have the files... Could be as I am sort of a digital messy, but I'll need to search.

 

[cool3a2]

Attached is a preview of Rákóczi without cape. I think it is obvious that we need something to cover the shoulders with, but even if we wouldn't need to, it would look kinda boring. I think this...

... is what nitram based the LH on. Seems to me that the cape is okay. Atleast better then the others that are more massive. I might try to give the colour a shot if you want me to. Also, feel free to make suggestions.

 

[AbsintheRed]

IMO it looks much better, that cape was so annoying for me.
But of course I haven't seen him animated, so I don't know anything about the clipping issues on the shoulders...

 

[AbsintheRed]

Thanks, Absinthe! I was thinking about adding the twos, too. The issue with Béla is, that I didn't do much changes, nothing that would be obvious. Thus, Den might be unhappy about that as it might look like I claim I did it.

Den usually leaves many unused files or huge texture files in his downloads, maybe you can make an optimized version.
On the other hand you are right that he might be unhappy about this, he seems to be rather sensitive about LH making...

Things are different with the old Kossuth. I made changes to the shader maps and added a different background, so there are obvious changes. Also, I think it would be fine for ekmek as well. Problem is, that I don't know if I still have the files... Could be as I am sort of a digital messy, but I'll need to search.

I have that Kossuth somewhere in my computer, but I'm not sure if it was the latest version of that LH or not :/

 

[cool3a2]

I have that Kossuth somewhere in my computer, but I'm not sure if it was the latest version of that LH or not :/

Don't mind it, I found it.

IMO it looks much better, that cape was so annoying for me.
But of course I haven't seen him animated, so I don't know anything about the clipping issues on the shoulders...

Might be a matter of taste, but I definately don't like Rákóczi capeless. Despite of that he looks boring this ways, glitches (dark spots and shape problems) are too obvious. I'd think it would be better to use a different cape or alter the existing one. In any case, I won't use the already-a-thousand-times-used-cape-of-Charlemagne. Nevertheless, I'm curious to hear more opinions on this subject.