[GRAPHICS] Custom Civ5 Icon - World Congress Problem [Please Help!]

[vemerce]

I've managed to create a fantasy version of Ireland as my first "from scratch" Civ. However, I'm experiencing a small problem that is driving me nuts and I can't figure out what's wrong or how to fix it.

Everywhere else in normal gameplay, the custom icon that I created for the Civ is displaying just fine. Shows up perfectly as the flag and the icon for the leader, etc..

Then, once the game gets to the point of the World Congress / United Nations, the tiny version of the icon has a weird black mesh (it appears) that is low and to the right of the icon, making it unrecognizable. I have checked, doubled checked, and triple checked that my icon .dds files match from the largest to the smallest.

The above image shows what I'm dealing with here. The original two graphics (taken right from the .dds file) are pictured above the leader for reference.

If someone knows what is wrong here and how I can fix this, I'd certainly appreciate the help. I'm reluctant to attempt future Civs until I can make this one work correctly.

Thank you.

 

[Troller0001]

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the World Congress Civ Icon is taken from the Icon alpha. That means that the game auto-fills the colours of the icon with the foreground and background colours for the civ.
If you simply define the normal icon as this alpha icon you get the meatball-result as you are getting here.

Now that I think of it it's pretty logical that the alpha is used in the world congress, as multiple copies of the same civ need to have a different icon for them in such a place. (The same applies to the religion overview screen!)

This is an example of an icon alpha (used in my collab 'The Demak Sultanate' mod):

Spoiler :

The game will fill the white parts with the foreground colour, and the black parts (or transparent parts in this case) with the background colour

EDIT: You seemed to have posted in the wrong subforum. Next time post any questions in the main Creation&Customization forum. This one is only for complete tutorials

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Moderator Action: The Modding Tutorials and Reference sub-forum is for completed modding tutorials and reference guides. All queries and requests for help go in the main Creation and Customisation forum. I've moved this thread to there.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[vemerce]

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the World Congress Civ Icon is taken from the Icon alpha. That means that the game auto-fills the colours of the icon with the foreground and background colours for the civ.
If you simply define the normal icon as this alpha icon you get the meatball-result as you are getting here.

Now that I think of it it's pretty logical that the alpha is used in the world congress, as multiple copies of the same civ need to have a different icon for them in such a place. (The same applies to the religion overview screen!)

This is an example of an icon alpha (used in my collab 'The Demak Sultanate' mod):

Spoiler :

The game will fill the white parts with the foreground colour, and the black parts (or transparent parts in this case) with the background colour

EDIT: You seemed to have posted in the wrong subforum. Next time post any questions in the main Creation&Customization forum. This one is only for complete tutorials

Thanks for the response. (And sorry about posting to the wrong forum, I tried looking where this should go and was confused by the posts around at the time.)

I tried making the fix that you suggested, by adding a new AlphaIcon Atlas. I don't know why, but I did have my Alpha icons set to the same Atlas as the main icon. Sadly, even after I made this change, there is no difference to the in-game texture. Upon zooming in, I noticed that it *seems* like America's icon is the black texture going over the Ireland one? That looks like the flag to me.

Is there something else that might be the problem I should look at?

    <Civilizations>
        <Row>
            <Type>CIVILIZATION_IRELAND</Type>
            <Description>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRELAND_DESC</Description>
            <ShortDescription>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRELAND_SHORT_DESC</ShortDescription>
            <Adjective>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRELAND_ADJECTIVE</Adjective>
            <Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_CIV_IRELAND_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
            <CivilopediaTag>TXT_KEY_CIV5_IRELAND</CivilopediaTag>
            <AIPlayable>false</AIPlayable>
            <DefaultPlayerColor>PLAYERCOLOR_IRELAND</DefaultPlayerColor>
            <ArtDefineTag>ART_DEF_CIVILIZATION_ENGLAND</ArtDefineTag>
            <ArtStyleType>ARTSTYLE_EUROPEAN</ArtStyleType>
            <ArtStyleSuffix>_EURO</ArtStyleSuffix>
            <ArtStylePrefix>EUROPEAN </ArtStylePrefix>
            <PortraitIndex>0</PortraitIndex>
            <IconAtlas>3ICON_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
            <AlphaIconAtlas>3ALPHA_ICON_ATLAS</AlphaIconAtlas>
            <MapImage>MapIreland512.dds</MapImage>
            <DawnOfManQuote>TXT_KEY_DOM_MEGHAN</DawnOfManQuote>
            <DawnOfManImage>DOM_Ireland.dds</DawnOfManImage>
            <DawnOfManAudio>AS2D_SCENARIO_SPEECH_CONQUEST_OF_THE_NEW_WORLD</DawnOfManAudio>
        </Row>
    </Civilizations>

Above is what my code currently looks like. The new Alpha layer is entirely black and white (as you specified) but there is literally zero difference in the Word Congress screen.

Edit: I should add, this is driving me nuts. I've remade this icon several times and each time this problem persists.

 

[Troller0001]

You need to have a separate icon-file for the alpha, as you can only have one portraitindex for both the icon alpha and the normal icon itself, which is in this case 0.
IIRC, America has a portraitindex of 0 in the base game, but I'm not entirely sure how that specifically relates to the current issue.

Also, could you post all the 256px icon sheets you have here? or even better, attach the mod. It makes it less of a guessing game.

 

[LeeS]

America's Icon being #0 in the standard atlas of civilizations, it is the default the game goes to when something is not right with a civilization icon or alpha you are trying to add into the game. So you are probably getting America's alpha being used along with your civ's Icon if you are seeing a "shadow america" in places. Also be sure to check Database.log for any errors related to incorrect XML/SQL code in defining the icon atlas and the images to use for the various sizes of icons.

But so far as determining what the actual problem with the image is ? These are enigma mysteries I have never been able to unravel. I usually just beg for someone to do an icon for me.