Find the hidden Firaxis logo

[fy00sh]

Matthew Kean liked my question about the appearance of the logo on EVERY leader: https://twitter.com/moistcroc/status/1292988581921914880; I guess the search is on then.

The phrasing in his tweet you responded to is interesting... "You're not gonna find them all if you look for them just in the game" in response to a reddit post where they look at the game-load images of the leaders. So yeah, I think that lends more credibility to textures and models being primarily where the logos are to be found. Makes me wanna mess around with the models, like @Giskler was doing back on page 4, but I have no idea how to do that. Can someone tell me what program to use to open them and look around at them?

The letters on Qin are actually partially visible on the bottom of his gown most of the time, there seems to be two of them and the lower of them seems to be 天 (tian - which i think means sky). I don't know much about Chinese, so I'll leave deciphering the rest of it to you.

That's actually the character 秦, meaning Qin as in Qin Shi Huang or as in Qin Dynasty. Tho it is written pretty tall on his clothes, it looked like 2 characters at first to me too.

There's a little logo somewhere on Philip II, as his normal map indicates:

Spoiler :

View attachment 566212

I checked the other textures, and the logo would be on a rectangle of the same color, glossiness, and metalness as Philip II's breastplate.
Interestingly, on Matthew Kean's ArtStation account (https://www.artstation.com/framedworld) doesn't show Civ leaders from the back, whereas David Jones (https://www.artstation.com/dmjstudios) and Stephanie Gitlin (https://www.artstation.com/scootdapoot) do show back-views. Going back to Matthew Kean's tweet, he did say "Still to this day they look for my logos" (emphasis mine). At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, might Matthew Kean be deliberately making it harder to get a look behind Phillip II (and Cleo too) because that's where the logo is???

Civ VI SDK Assets deserve their own thread.

Agreed!



Also, possible deconfirmation of a previously suspected logo - Tomyris's golden bead things don't actually have an exact Firaxis logo on them, it's some other design as can be seen on the normal map, but it does have a swirl in it. They could still be it, but I doubt it at this point.

Spoiler Tomyris normal map :

And finally, not a logo, but I found something interesting on Matthias's textures - the flower design on the bottom-back part of his blue tunic(?) is for some reason censored on the metalness and normal maps. Is this a cryptic hint at the Raven King's logo location, or was his booty just too much for our mortal eyes to handle even thru cloth and chain-mail?????????

Spoiler Matthias's tunic (CENSORED) :

Oh yeah, and the texture maps for Matthias all start with "LEAD_HUNG_" soooooo

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I addition to the last texture from my last post, does anybody have any idea whose textures may these be?

Spoiler kiran_test_pete_skin_BASE :

View attachment 566229

It's an old guy, based on the wrinkles. I think the only old caucasian dude we have right now is Pericles. Unless it's for a leader they aborted development for. Or one we haven't seen yet.

 

[Potworny]

Makes me wanna mess around with the models, like @Giskler was doing back on page 4, but I have no idea how to do that. Can someone tell me what program to use to open them and look around at them?

The thing that they used was actually Asset Previewer, part of the Asset Editor, which is a tool available when one works on a project in Civ VI ModBuddy, one of the SDK tools. You have to have your system language set to English to use it, because why shouldn't you be forced to do so. I have no idea how to make it display anything other than the base game models and assets. It should be good enough to check Cleo and Philip though.
The ideal solution would be an in-game freecam for leader screens, but no no such thing exist AFAIK. Modders, halp plox.

Also, Matthias butt (covered by the tunic) is shown on David Jones' ArtStation. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0XArzy

It's an old guy, based on the wrinkles. I think the only old caucasian dude we have right now is Pericles. Unless it's for a leader they aborted development for. Or one we haven't seen yet.

Only one leader I can think of that we know of (kind of) and fits the bill (sort of - the clothes in the files don't really match?) is this one guy that appeared in a concept art by Sang Han (Washington?):

Spoiler :

The 'test' in the filename possibly indicates that the texture could be the very first that was made for any Civ VI leader model, and therefore it could be unrelated to our final roster. It may have been made for a potential DLC leader, which would fit my theory from the 2016, when I thought that the colors of duplicate civs that would appear in the game were related to DLC civs. There's a post I've made on the topic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/5vq8y2/ive_made_a_little_investigation_into_the_topic_of/
Before the first DLC releases there were four color schemes that would appear consistently: the first two ones exactly matched what would become Poland and Australia's colors (from their First Look videos), the other two didn't end up matching Persia and Macedon, however the purple-orange one almost exactly matches Cyrus' gown:

Spoiler :

This green texture of our unknown test leader may actually corespond with the last duplicate jersey that appeared in the game back in 2016. The dev assets indicate that there were some shuffles with the roster, and all this evidence may point to the most radical change that occured during the development process. Perhaps it may even explain why the Viking DLC was the only one not to contain an additional civ? remember the wooden leaderheads? could our guy be Charlie the Great? It may all depend on who this guy is. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he really does seem familiar to me.

I think the Assets/unreleased content that there is to be found must have a separate thread dedicated to it. I may set it up tomorrow when I wake up. Unless any one of you wants do it for me. I'll happily give up the burden of writing the introductory post :v

 

[Potworny]

I can now confirm that there's a logo related to Saladin, not on him, but in front of him. It seems to be hidden in his Environment:

Spoiler :

I suspect the case is the same with Suleiman and Mansa Musa.

 

[Potworny]

Got bored, compiled a list of definitive and potential logos, used some of the pictures in this thread:
1. Leaders that have something that definitely is a Firaxis logo - https://imgur.com/a/ZQNCpCb

Spoiler :

Cyrus - bracers
Eleanor of Aquitaine - wine
Frederick Barbarossa - cloak-holder-thingy
Gilgamesh - oversized necklace
Gitarja - armlet
Gorgo - shoulderpad
Jayavarman VII - bracers
Kristina - book texture (doesn't appear in-game, apparently)
Kupe - necklace
Montezuma - shoulder decoration
Philip II - a something beneath his chin
Robert the Bruce - pommel of the sword
Wilfrid Laurier - pattern on the cravat
Wilhelmina - umbrella

Additionally, Pericles and Pedro II have 'FIRAXIS' written out somehere on them. Pericles also has a swirl which leads us to our next tier...

2. Leaders that have a swirl or something else that may be a representation of a Firaxis logo, or not - https://imgur.com/a/cDOyeg7
(pictures included only for instances not already discussed in this thread, I couldn't fit them all)

Spoiler :

Ambiorix - woad
Alexander - armor
Catherine de Medici - jewelry
Cleopatra - square swirl around neck
Hojo Tokimune - gown pattern
Lautaro - swirl in bandana
Matthias Corvinus - floral pattern
Poundmaker - an abstract tri-swirl
Qin Shi Huang - swirls on gown
Seondeok - swirl-like pattern around neck
Tamar - swirl (rough) in the floral decorations
Tomyris - armlets
Trajan - sleeve
Victoria - swirls below the crown jewels

3. Leaders who apparently have a logo in their environment (as indicated by the EnvLight files); this seems to be the case only for Muslim leaders, and for all of them...

Spoiler :

Mansa Musa
Saladin
Suleiman

4. Leaders who have something swirly in the background, very unconvincing, but may be something:

Spoiler :

Peter

Mvemba a Nzinga

5. Leaders who don't have anything remotely Firaxislogoish on them, as far as I could see:

Spoiler :

Genghis Khan
Gandhi (but he has his clock and his scarf doesn't make sense)
Teddy
Simon
Lady Six Sky
Menelik
Basil
Jadwiga
John Curtin
Harald Hardrada
Dido (she has a pair of very nice flip-flops though)
Amanitore
Shaka
Chandragupta
Pachacuti (even though he doesn't seem to bear a Firaxis logo, he does at least have a nicely modelled feet and butt; seriously)

6. Some people in the files who have a Firaxis logo on them, but their model doesn't appear in the game:

Spoiler :

The Advisor:

The Father, kinda:

kiran_cloth_test:

I've used some images and discoveries posted in this thread. That's probably all I can find, at least until there perhaps is an in-game leader screen free cam mod. Looking at the textures, a lot of time I felt like I saw a faint logo there and there in the visual noise. Perhaps the artists put minuscule logos on very low opacity around the leader clothing, or I was just seeing things. For now, this might be all:

 

[bite]

Firaxis continuing to be coy

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

So... anyone have any guesses on where Bà Triệu or Kublai Khan's logo are? Looking at their designs I don't know where they would fit them.

 

[Potworny]

After some more deliberate research I do not think that there are Firaxis logos on NFP leaders, at least not on their textures. They do however share a potentially problematic peculiarity, that Firaxis maybe, possibly, doesn't want here to be. Just in case, I won't disclose the matter before I invent a way to contact them, I guess.

 

[fy00sh]

They do however share a potentially problematic peculiarity, that Firaxis maybe, possibly, doesn't want here to be. Just in case, I won't disclose the matter before I invent a way to contact them, I guess.

Well that sounds... ominous. Hoping it's more on the level of "some frustrated artist put harmless vent art on the bottom of the leaders' feet" and less on the level of "someone fully modeled their internal organs to a disturbing level of accuracy" or "they left watermarks that prove they plagiarized parts of the textures"

 

[Potworny]

Well that sounds... ominous. Hoping it's more on the level of "some frustrated artist put harmless vent art on the bottom of the leaders' feet" and less on the level of "someone fully modeled their internal organs to a disturbing level of accuracy" or "they left watermarks that prove they plagiarized parts of the textures"

The issue is a bit silly and it shooould be harmless, probably stems from a different workflow in this DLC pack, but I can imagine things like that causing a little bit of a mess if its an unnoticed slip up. So, I'm in the process of considering my choices as to how should I approach this

 

[fy00sh]

Encountered a visual bug related to leaders' hair, and I think I might've stumbled upon Victoria's logo????? It's on the left side of the bigger red gem on her chest, under the necklace. You gotta take my word that in-game I can see the individual arms of the spiral in-game, it doesn't come out well in the screenshot. I'm hoping I did find the logo, and this isn't just another product of the same visual bug.

Spoiler Victoria's logo at long last??? :

I also got some pictures of what the logo in the reflections of Saladin's environment look like in-game. It's on the bottom-left part of the large middle gem on his turban.

Spoiler Saladin turban gem reflection logo :

I've switched laptops since the last time I delved into the logos, so I'm redownloading the development assets and tools off steam right now to see if I can check up on the potential Victoria logo. Also, since I now have a much more powerful laptop, I might try to make a more concerted effort this time around to look at the 3D models more carefully. Might as well do it now if ever, since it's looking like there might not be more Civ 6 DLC coming, and once I get a c*vid vaccine soon I'll be getting a new job so I'll have less time to work on this.

Also, @Potworny, any share-able news on what you found on the NFP leaders?

 

[Potworny]

Regarding Saladin, I can confirm, his logo is visible in-game, at least 7 times!

Regarding Victoria, I dunno, it may be there, I did my best to "enhance" the in-game footage.

I haven't really found nothing of interest in the NFP, except for the LSS necklace I posted somewhere else on this forum.

 

[Josephias]

The way to show the logo in Saladin is great!

Victoria is difficult to confirm, but I'm ready to concede it is there, under several translucent/reflective layers, so quite hard to see. Left down corner, ¿correct?

 

[fy00sh]

The way to show the logo in Saladin is great!

Victoria is difficult to confirm, but I'm ready to concede it is there, under several translucent/reflective layers, so quite hard to see. Left down corner, ¿correct?

The way I'm seeing the logo on Victoria, it's taking up the entire left half of the big gemstone, from top to bottom. When the gem catches the most light in the video, the hole in the middle of the logo disappears due to reflecting the light too much; and when it catches the least light, the top half of the logo is barely visible. But I suppose it could also be just the smaller part that stays consistently bright.

Actually, now that I think of it, are we sure Victoria's logo isn't hidden the exact same way as Saladin's? Maybe the logo's not on the gem itself, but rather it's the light the gem's reflecting?

 

[fy00sh]

Ok, update on the Victoria logo: I've started looking thru the files again, and can't find any evidence of that logo on Victoria from just the textures, so if that is it, the logo's probably in the light that the gem's reflecting, and not the gem itself. Will see about checking out the 3D models later to see if I can verify.

In the meantime, since it's technically not off-topic from the thread title, and since that Civ 6 SDK Assets thread never got madeedit: wait no it must've been made, I remember posting a picture of Gandhi from the side showing his pocketwatch, I'm just having a hard time refinding that thread, I'll drop the texture for the wind farm here, since I accidentally scrolled past the leaders' textures and happened to notice the texture contains the word "Firaxis". Anyone know where on the in-game model it corresponds to? And anyone know what "AMFO" stands for?

Spoiler wind farm texture :

 

[Zyxpsilon]

@AriaLyric -- Yup.. right behind the Spinner Rotors;

AMFO? No directly obvious hints anywhere after a quick Google search. Must be some rare corporate "manufacturing" reference.

PS; Technically.. there are a few pre-defined Material-Reflection files that produce 3d Model light effects which surely contain a pseudo Firaxis Logo layer for what you've been detecting onto those object surfaces, btw. (( Ooopppsss.. coincidental post by @PhoenicianGold ))

 

[PhoenicianGold]

Ok, update on the Victoria logo: I've started looking thru the files again, and can't find any evidence of that logo on Victoria from just the textures, so if that is it, the logo's probably in the light that the gem's reflecting, and not the gem itself. Will see about checking out the 3D models later to see if I can verify.

In the meantime, since it's technically not off-topic from the thread title, and since that Civ 6 SDK Assets thread never got madeedit: wait no it must've been made, I remember posting a picture of Gandhi from the side showing his pocketwatch, I'm just having a hard time refinding that thread, I'll drop the texture for the wind farm here, since I accidentally scrolled past the leaders' textures and happened to notice the texture contains the word "Firaxis". Anyone know where on the in-game model it corresponds to? And anyone know what "AMFO" stands for?

Spoiler wind farm texture :

View attachment 593912

If it's the light they are reflecting, i.e. nothing contained in their assets but coming from a separate light source object, does that mean technically all of the leaders have a Firaxis logo shining on them? Is that how Firaxis fudged "putting the logo" on all the other leaders?

 

[Zaarin]

If it's the light they are reflecting, i.e. nothing contained in their assets but coming from a separate light source object, does that mean technically all of the leaders have a Firaxis logo shining on them? Is that how Firaxis fudged "putting the logo" on all the other leaders?

I don't think all the Civ6 leaders are in the same lighting. The color, intensity, and direction is subtly different for various leaders.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

I've just scanned through the SDK pantry GFX+DDS resources and there are plenty of tiny Firaxis logo assets in there.
But what we should be looking for is another trick. From what i could detect in the Video of "Jewels" reflections.. it seems the glowing layers always have the "Firaxis" word underneath the Logo themselves.
Soooooo -- the required (potentially embedded) Texture/Material must be built around that principle too.

 

[Potworny]

I've just scanned through the SDK pantry GFX+DDS resources and there are plenty of tiny Firaxis logo assets in there.
But what we should be looking for is another trick. From what i could detect in the Video of "Jewels" reflections.. it seems the glowing layers always have the "Firaxis" word underneath the Logo themselves.
Soooooo -- the required (potentially embedded) Texture/Material must be built around that principle too.

The Saladin logo has actually been found quite a while ago, and just lately discovered in-game:

There's also something I don't know whether to classify as a Firaxis logo or not. Looking through EnvironmentLights folder for Gatrhering Storm, all the leaders have a corresponding file with a graphic looking like this:

Spoiler :

View attachment 566203

Two leaders, Suleiman and Mansa Musa have a different graphic though, looking like this:

Spoiler :

View attachment 566205

I think these may be related to simulating light on leader models, but I dont know. There's also something for Grand Canyon in the folder, so yeah, I have no idea.

This logo (or rather 3 logos, same should apply to Suleiman and Mansa Musa but we haven't yet found their logos) is part of Saladin's EnvLight files, which, as I understand it, corresponds to the environment around the leaders as long as reflections are concerned. I don't think that Victoria has her logo hidden in the same way.