Ethnic Citystyles

[Wolfshanze]

Probably a typo on cutting and pasting... I changed them correctly on my end.

Yes he did, Colosseum art, Courthouse art, PlotL and CityL are what you need to take care of

I asked earlier what I needed to change from v1.0 to v1.01 and was told only the "LSystem" files and artwork needed to be updated... didn't know the building scales were changed in TWO different files (why was the scale changed in two files? [PlotL and modules/ethnicartbuilding.xml I was not told to change the latter in the above quote] One was increased, the other decreased!)

Was the base scale changed on anything besides the courthouse and/or colosseums? As previously instructed, I only changed the "LSystem" files and artwork... did not know I also needed to change more files.

I updated the art files and LSystem files... do I need to do more? What else was changed that wasn't included?

 

[mamba]

I asked earlier what I needed to change from v1.0 to v1.01 and was told only the "LSystem" files and artwork needed to be updated...

when I wrote Courthouse art and Colosseum art I meant 'art definition', I only wrote what xml changes there were, not what graphics actually changed. Sorry for that confusion.

So if you took those two for art, you might have missed some real art file changes. If you corrected the art definitions for the two now, you do not miss any more xml changes.

All art file changes were in the Structures dir, as I have no structures of my own, I simply deleted the old dir and copied in the new one instead of taking a closer look.

Use a tool like WinMerge to compare the 1.00 and 1.01 content if you need to find the exact changes (its what I do)

 

[GeoModder]

Thing is, I discovered that the scale parameter used in the Civ4Artdefines_Building file (the basicart info for the class so to speak) determines the basic size of the graphic ingame, whatever new graphic I link to that particular building class. So I tested this with the Colosseum and Courthouse for sure, perhaps some other building classes too. You can tell by checking if the scale is put to size 1.0 in Civ4artdefines_building as I thought it would be best if I have a base scale from which all graphics derive from.
I might have overlooked some sizes. There simply too much changed graphics in the mod these days to check it all on my own.

The thing you need to do for sure if you're incorporating Ethnic Citystyles is to delete the earlier art folder, and put the art folder from the new version in its place.
Reason is that I sometimes switch graphics from one building class to another. The Current middle east courthouse for instance was the earlier middle east academy.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Thing is, I discovered that the scale parameter used in the Civ4Artdefines_Building file (the basicart info for the class so to speak) determines the basic size of the graphic ingame, whatever new graphic I link to that particular building class. So I tested this with the Colosseum and Courthouse for sure, perhaps some other building classes too. You can tell by checking if the scale is put to size 1.0 in Civ4artdefines_building as I thought it would be best if I have a base scale from which all graphics derive from.
I might have overlooked some sizes. There simply too much changed graphics in the mod these days to check it all on my own.

The thing you need to do for sure if you're incorporating Ethnic Citystyles is to delete the earlier art folder, and put the art folder from the new version in its place.
Reason is that I sometimes switch graphics from one building class to another. The Current middle east courthouse for instance was the earlier middle east academy.

I swapped-out the Art Folder already... and I hadn't realized you changed the basic art defines xml until after I made the changes to the PlotLsystem.xml. So, I went ahead and went-back and made it like in your xml (reverted to the original PlotL xml and changed the courthouse and colosseum fscale to 1.0).

I did not look at other fscales in the buildingartdefines though... were any other scales changed in there besides the courthouse and colosseum?

P.S.
When you drastically change the fscale in the artdefines, you need to change the interface scale too... otherwise the civilopedia image will be either tiny or huge... I went ahead and changed the interface scale of the Colosseum and Courthouse xml on my end so they don't appear tiny in the civilopedia. You might want to do the same.

 

[mamba]

I did not look at other fscales in the buildingartdefines though... were any other scales changed in there besides the courthouse and colosseum?

No, otherwise I would have mentioned them

When you drastically change the fscale in the artdefines, you need to change the interface scale too... otherwise the civilopedia image will be either tiny or huge... I went ahead and changed the interface scale of the Colosseum and Courthouse xml on my end so they don't appear tiny in the civilopedia. You might want to do the same.

what values are reasonable ? do I simply multiply them by the factor the fscale shrank (i.e. current scale * old fscale) ?

EDIT: yes, that works out nicely, so courthouse is now at 1.1 and colosseum at 1.37

 

[Ekmek]

Geomodder,

i modified the ren_eu.nif to have red brick buildings mostly based off the german plant and a modification oft he custom house I did (i did it for the confederate cotton exchange). Maybe you could use it for US or native american renaissance/industrial era graphics? Of course your better at this than I so you may want to clean them up too.

 

[GeoModder]

Looking beautiful, Ekmek.
I'll be sure to include most of these buildings for use in the industrial era for the Native and north-west eurobased civs (the American civ is among them). I think they will blend in well with the more reddish bricked industrial era buildings.

I noticed you changed the 'park' building color to blue. I assume you meant it as a sort of pond in the middle of cities. I wonder if this particular building wouldn't look better with a sort of fountain in it (properly textured of course). Perhaps the 'well' building in the ancient era cityset would do?
If you don't know how to merge buildings from different citysets, I think I might manage that. But I don't know squat about texture applying.

 

[Osetjka]

Hi GeoModder,

I was wondering if it's possible to use this in multiplayer against people not using Ethnic Cities (vanilla BTS)? If I remember correctly, I should extract the mod directly to the BTS root? I apologize if this question's been brought up before. Thank you.

 

[Ekmek]

I noticed you changed the 'park' building color to blue. I assume you meant it as a sort of pond in the middle of cities. I wonder if this particular building wouldn't look better with a sort of fountain in it (properly textured of course). Perhaps the 'well' building in the ancient era cityset would do?
If you don't know how to merge buildings from different citysets, I think I might manage that. But I don't know squat about texture applying.

I have no idea how to merge. I assume its like adding parts of leaderheads. the texture applying might be hard in buildings. I know leadeheads let you use many textures but I think buildings require you to only use 1 material. I can mess around with it but it may take awhile (this was a quicky job ). II do know its a blender job and CRoland's tutorial on adding a custom object says how you can make and asign materials.

Also I'm still trying to figure out how to do log cabin buildings for US ancient/medieval cities. But that too may be awhile.

 

[GeoModder]

I have no idea how to merge. I assume its like adding parts of leaderheads. the texture applying might be hard in buildings. I know leadeheads let you use many textures but I think buildings require you to only use 1 material. I can mess around with it but it may take awhile (this was a quicky job ). II do know its a blender job and CRoland's tutorial on adding a custom object says how you can make and asign materials.

Also I'm still trying to figure out how to do log cabin buildings for US ancient/medieval cities. But that too may be awhile.

Well, Refar did a splendid job merging textures from the Khmer and modern cityset. I recently learned how to combine models from different files and a stopgap measure could be to repaint the blue in the texture file on the proper spot to let it look a bit more like a fountain.

Talking about log cabins, haven't you seen the screenshots from citysets from the upcoming Colonisation game from Firaxis?

 

[GeoModder]

Hi GeoModder,

I was wondering if it's possible to use this in multiplayer against people not using Ethnic Cities (vanilla BTS)? If I remember correctly, I should extract the mod directly to the BTS root? I apologize if this question's been brought up before. Thank you.

In multiplayer participants ALWAYS need the same 'version' of a game otherwise version warnings will pop up and opening a turn/game will probably be impossible.

Furthermore, I can't recommend extracting ANY mod to the root of your game. It overwrites it if you allow that.

 

[mamba]

Talking about log cabins, haven't you seen the screenshots from citysets from the upcoming Colonisation game from Firaxis?

Hadn't seen them, given that this has a Civ 4 core, chances are we could incorporate the graphics (technically speaking, not sure Firaxis would allow this from a legal point of view).

I for one would like to incorporate some of that stuff I guess

 

[Psycadelic_Magi]

Not to mention the water graphics

 

[GeoModder]

Ekmek, here's a first draft for your cityset mixed with the regular industrial cityset .
Infact, I like it so much I'm going to give your cityset to the Renaissance natives too, perhaps mixed with a few longhouses (or at least for the hamlets and stuff).

 

[Ekmek]

My texturing cameout way better than I thought! but youre right the blue is too blue. I wonder if pasting the terrain's water/coast/ocean texture into the dark blue spot in my texture will make it match better

 

[Ekmek]

instead of being lazy i just pasted in some water from your screen shot into the dark blue patch of my federal style.dds. Attached! Hope it blends better!

 

[Wolfshanze]

Geo or Mamba... this is a question, maybe one of you might know... I'm not sure if it's related to the Ethnic Citystyles or another change I did in my mod... but since it's a definate CTD bug that definately happens with a change to the Industrial Age, I thought I should pursue all possible changes that have been made... I did not have this crash in v2.69, but have been having it since v2.70... it might be related to the addition of this citystyle, or it might be something else I did... I'm having a bit of a time tracking down the problem (certainly not accusing, just looking for input... at this point, I'm not sure what is causing the problem, but I definately know there's a repeatable problem occuring).

Check this out and let me know if you have any input on the problem. It might be related to this new cityset... it might not be.

 

[GeoModder]

I'd be surprised if its anything from this mod. The Byzantine cityart is the same as the one Rome, Greece and Carthage uses, and they share the same artstyle tag. And the colosseum art switch (hippodrome is the colosseum UB for Byzantine IIRC) doens't happen until the modern era knocks on the door.
And for all I know you merged most Ethnic Citystyles xml manually in your mod, except of course the content of the xml/buildings folder.

@Ekmek: thanks, will give this new texture a try.

 

[Wolfshanze]

I'd be surprised if its anything from this mod. The Byzantine cityart is the same as the one Rome, Greece and Carthage uses, and they share the same artstyle tag. And the colosseum art switch (hippodrome is the colosseum UB for Byzantine IIRC) doens't happen until the modern era knocks on the door.
And for all I know you merged most Ethnic Citystyles xml manually in your mod, except of course the content of the xml/buildings folder.

Yeah... I'm not sure what the problem is at all... I'm trying to track it down and I have no idea of the source, just trying to cover all angles.

The only thing I do know is that the last time I had a problem similar to this (a CTD problem when reaching an age) it was unit-specific... ie: an infantry or tank or cavalry or something had a bad XML line... but that problem, while very specific, was easy to recreate in the WB... I'm having a devil of a time recreating this CTD in WB. I've never not been able to complete a game using my mod, and now I've just had two in a row (since going to v2.7) that give the unstoppable CTD... this one I know EXACTLY what is causing the problem, but I'm having a hard time solving it.

One of the common denominators since v2.7 was the addition of the ethnic citysets... not blaming anyone, just trying to run-down all the changes since the problem occured... it's ticking me off I can't recreate the problem or find a solution.

Thanks for the help... just trying to chase this bug down.

 

[GeoModder]

Ethnic Citystyles is updated to version 1.02

Main features are the inclusion of Ekmek's industrial-based texturing of the renaissance cityset, dedicated graphics for renaissance/industrial fortresses for European/Mediterranean based civs (you'll be surprised to see what I pulled out of my hat ) and the inevitable debugging.