Custom Leaderhead Development Thread

[lemmy101]

Could everyone discussing the material tool please go here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=392705

and continue the discussions there?

only I worry this thread is starting to go off the point, which is leaderheads after all.

 

[lemmy101]

NEW TOOL! Gives you much better and simpler to use material editing support:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=392705

 

[lemmy101]

BIG PROGRESS HERE:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=392985

NEW UNITS ARE A GO GO! WEEE!

 

[CaptainBinky]

"OH MY GOD" UPDATE OF THE WEEK!​

Yes okay, the mesh has some missing bits and alright, so we pilfered Askia's backdrop... but LOOK! A custom leader model in the game, pretty much working perfectly! Also, the animations play perfectly too!

Combined effort this, by me and Lemmy (and obv our Nexus Buddy tool)

Alfred the Great, in-game!​

(By the way, those checkerboard patterns are because of missing normal maps, etc, which I haven't outputed yet)

 

[Putmalk]

Amazing! Cannot wait till he is fully functional!

Do the animations have the guy speak, or just move around?

 

[Louis XXIV]

Very cool!

 

[Supercheese]

Spoiler :

Goodness Catherine, you certainly look different than when I saw you last...!

 

[CaptainBinky]

Do the animations have the guy speak, or just move around?

Well, he's currently only got placeholder animations so neither just yet

But eventually, I'll definitely be doing facial expressions but speaking... well it depends on what can be done with the audio since it'd be a bit naff him moving his lips around and no sound coming out

 

[Justicex]

Well, he's currently only got placeholder animations so neither just yet

But eventually, I'll definitely be doing facial expressions but speaking... well it depends on what can be done with the audio since it'd be a bit naff him moving his lips around and no sound coming out

Well, wouldn't it be possible to link an in-game voice you like either through NexusBuddy or ModBuddy XML tags? Or am I thinking too simplistically?

 

[CaptainBinky]

More Progress!

Getting there now... still not got the normal maps working, and there's one or two niggly mesh issues but... well, quite happy with that progress so far

 

[lemmy101]

Yaaaaaaaaaay! We're sooo close though. Damn normal maps!

Well, wouldn't it be possible to link an in-game voice you like either through NexusBuddy or ModBuddy XML tags? Or am I thinking too simplistically?

Well he's meant to be English, so it'd have to be Washington (urgh American accent on a Brit? ) or Elizabeth...



In fact we've not got the sound on, but I'm guessing he's speaking like a Russian lady at the mo. ;D

 

[Justicex]

Yaaaaaaaaaay! We're sooo close though. Damn normal maps!



Well he's meant to be English, so it'd have to be Washington (urgh American accent on a Brit? ) or Elizabeth...



In fact we've not got the sound on, but I'm guessing he's speaking like a Russian lady at the mo. ;D

HAHAHAHA! I bet! I only mentioned it since all the leaders say the exact same words just with different accents or whatever. I figured that as a starting point for mouthing the words, that's pretty good. Or with a little luck, you can avoid it alltogether and use the in-game animations.

I remember reading somewhere that someone was able to cuztomize their soundtrack by naming their sound files the exact same as the ones he wanted to replace. Maybe try recording your own voice and using this technique/trick?

 

[Triver]

Is LH only state mesh without animation? How many bons does has LH on his face?

 

[Deliverator]

Eurogamer: I guess what I'm asking is, will I be able to make a sitcom where Gandhi lives with Washington?

Jon Shafer: We're still finalising the plans about what we'll be releasing. But the art stuff is a little tricky, because of the complexity of what goes on there.

Dennis Shirk: People will be able to retexture the leaders, because that kind of thing is a lot easier, but when it comes to creating new animations, that's a little trickier.

Tricky and complex, but not impossible as you guys have proved.

In fact we've not got the sound on, but I'm guessing he's speaking like a Russian lady at the mo. ;D

I'm sure we can just record some voice and make some mp3s easily enough. I'd have a go myself but I think my voice lacks the necessary regal gravitas...

Any trained act-ors around?

Also, I know you guys are aiming at two leaders for each civ, but I wondered if you might consider making a 3D Shaka next. Here's my reasoning. I'm trying to anticipate future Firaxis DLC civs for my unit making. Prioritising based on previous appearances in the civ series I have the following table:

Spoiler :

Civs not in Civ 5 and free DLC
(Previous Civ versions in brackets)

Babylon (1234) (Paid DLC)
Zulu (1234)
Spain (234)
Vikings / Scandinavia (234)
Sioux / Native Americans / Iroquois (234) (Iroquois are in Civ 5)
Carthage (234)
Celts (234)
Byzantium (34)
Dutch (34)
Inca (34)
Maya (34)
Portugal (34)
Sumeria (34)
Korea (34)
Hittites (3)
Ethiopia (4)
Holy Roman Empire (4)
Khmer (4) (Siam similarish)
Mali (4) (Songhai similarish)

I'd like to make a good quality community Babylonian civ, but Archers are tough to make right now (a clever decision on Firaxis' part?). I'd much rather mod Babylon than pay for Babylon (is that a reggae song?). Could choose a different unique unit for them I suppose, but Bowman suits best.

So next most likely in my simplistic analysis are the Zulus which have been in all four previous Civs. I'm actually working on Spanish Conquistadors and Zulu Impis for UUs which should both be done soon. If we had a 3D Shaka we could make a really decent Zulu civ and preempt a possible paid DLC Zulu civ.

 

[jaldaen]

Wow! Awesome stuff! Keep up the great work CaptainBinky and Lemmy!

 

[CaptainBinky]

If we had a 3D Shaka we could make a really decent Zulu civ and preempt a possible paid DLC Zulu civ.

To be honest, when I was trying to think of potential leaders to make I came from pretty much the opposite position Who can I build who's interesting and extremely unlikely to be covered by future Firaxis DLC?

Firstly, I didn't want to get halfway through a model only to find that Firaxis have released something immeasurably superior and secondly, modding a replacement to something Firaxis are trying to sell seems a bit... well, off to me. Not really a way of thanking them for their modding tools using them to kill off a income stream

 

[LoneGamer]

To be honest, when I was trying to think of potential leaders to make I came from pretty much the opposite position Who can I build who's interesting and extremely unlikely to be covered by future Firaxis DLC?

William Wallace for Scotland?

 

[lemmy101]

modding a replacement to something Firaxis are trying to sell seems a bit... well, off to me. Not really a way of thanking them for their modding tools using them to kill off a income stream

Yeah, I can imagine the publishers are a little less bothered about modding capabilities than Firaxis are and although this is 100% speculation I could well imagine that having all this modding support is probably down to Firaxis' insistence as it is completely at odds with DLC business models. We don't want to make 2K think twice about modding support in Civ 6 by purposefully trying to close off their DLC opportunities do we?

 

[Deliverator]

Firstly, I didn't want to get halfway through a model only to find that Firaxis have released something immeasurably superior and secondly, modding a replacement to something Firaxis are trying to sell seems a bit... well, off to me. Not really a way of thanking them for their modding tools using them to kill off a income stream

Yeah, I can imagine the publishers are a little less bothered about modding capabilities than Firaxis are and although this is 100% speculation I could well imagine that having all this modding support is probably down to Firaxis' insistence as it is completely at odds with DLC business models. We don't want to make 2K think twice about modding support in Civ 6 by purposefully trying to close off their DLC opportunities do we?

I suppose you guys do have a point. Still, making Zulus is fun anyway...

 

[Putmalk]

Actually, about leaderheads speaking:

In my opinion, Don't make them speak!, even if you can! The reason I say this is that if the leaderhead speaks, then we're forced to use that (or remove the sound, and then he's just mouthing to the air). Many different modders probably want many different uses for each leaderhead, and making them speak English would defeat that purpose (Example: Hi! I'm King Arthur from England) but...I'm using you as a leaderhead for my...uh...German civilization.