LuvToBuild
Prince
First, let me say that I am well aware that this was done before by Pazyryk. It is not my intent to denigrate the fine work he did previously, but to be honest, his tutorial is somewhat outdated and confusing. So, I have taken it upon myself to create a new one that is more to the point and up to date for those of us who are complete noobs to Civ5 modding. This tutorial assumes you are using G&K with the latest patches installed. The old thread may still be relevant if you are not. I wouldn't know as I am using G&K with the latest patches and I've only been modding for about a month.
Now to the reason you came here.
Download the attached TestMod file for a hands on example of how to accomplish this task. If you build, install, and test this mod using Alexander as one of your opponents, you should see my fancy stick figure artwork for Alex when you first meet him. All other civs will still be using their 3D animated leaderheads, so don't buy the bull about not being able to use 2D and 3D leaderheads together. I've proven you can as long as you are using G&K with the latest patches. That information may have been true otherwise, but it wasn't for me.
Now to the reason you came here.
- Create the 2D leader scene artwork as a DDS file 1600x900 with no compression. I'm not sure if the compression really matters much, but when in doubt, follow what Firaxis did with their 2D leader scenes. For a specific example, look at alexander.dds located in ...Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\resource\DX9. If you don't have that file and/or folder, it is probably because you haven't unpacked the games artwork using Nexus. Go Here. If you open the alexander.dds using a DDS viewer like WTV, you will notice that it shows the Format:, i.e. compression type (in this case, 32bit-A8R8G8B8 or in other words none), and pixel Size: at the bottom. This is very useful for making sure your new artwork matches what Civ5 was intended to read. Again, I don't know if compression and size matters a whole lot, but some people seem to think so
. You should probably also read through whoward69's [TUTORIAL] DDS Texture (Image File) Creation and Usage for Beginners if you haven't already done so. - Now that you have your artwork, you need to add it to your Mod Buddy project. What's Mod Buddy you say? Oh good lord,
. First, go here. Second, you need Kael's Modders Guide to Civilization V. Once you've read that, go back and look at Page 34 where he covers how to drag and drop your art files into your project's Art folder. - Now that you've created your art and added it to your project, you are almost there. Before you go any further, select each one of the custom artwork files that you added, and change the "Import into VFS" property to True. If you have no idea what I am talking about (it wasn't covered in Kael's guide because VFS hadn't been invented yet,
). then read this. Basically, almost all of your artwork needs to have this property set to true, or you will be pulling your hair out wondering why it doesn't work. - Okay, you have the artwork included in the project and VFS set to true. Now you need to create a new XML file called LeaderName_Scene.xml where LeaderName is the umm ... do I really need to spell that out for you? . This file can be pretty much anywhere in your file structure that you want, but it should probably be in the same folder as your LeaderName.xml file that you created for your new leader, assuming you are creating a new leader for a new civilization. If you are just replacing the 3D leader scene with a 2D scene, then you only need to create the LeaderName_Scene.xml file. If you are creating a new civilization, with a new leader, then I assume you already did everything in whoward69's XML data files for Standard Civilizations (inc DLC). If not, go read that, create your civilization and leader, then come back here for specific instruction on adding your new leader scene.
- In your new LeaderName_Scene.xml file, add the following piece of code, and only this code, nothing else.
where LeaderName obviously represents the filename of your DDS file created in Step #1 above.Code:
<LeaderScene FallbackImage="LeaderName.dds"></LeaderScene> - Save LeaderName_Scene.xml file and set it's VFS property to True.
- If this is for a new leader you created, you need to set the following in your LeaderName.xml file.
If this mod is just replacing an existing leader's 3D scene with a new 2D scene, you can skip this step as it isn't necessary. The existing LeaderName.xml file already contains this reference assuming you named your new LeaderName_Scene.xml file the same as the one used in the existing LeaderName.xml <ArtDefineTag>. By setting the VFS property to True, we are just replacing the old LeaderName_Scene.xml file with this new one that points to a 2D scene instead of a 3D scene.Code:
<ArtDefineTag>LeaderName_Scene.xml</ArtDefineTag> - Build your mod in Mod Buddy.
- Start Civ5, go to Mods, enable your new mod, let it install, then load the mod. There are probably better ways to test your mod using FireTuner, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I basically create a new game setup on a Duel map with my civ as one of the default civs and the other civ(s) being the ones that I want to test. When you meet each civ for the first time, you will automatically get the first contact diplo screen which "should" show your new leader scene if everything is right.
Download the attached TestMod file for a hands on example of how to accomplish this task. If you build, install, and test this mod using Alexander as one of your opponents, you should see my fancy stick figure artwork for Alex when you first meet him. All other civs will still be using their 3D animated leaderheads, so don't buy the bull about not being able to use 2D and 3D leaderheads together. I've proven you can as long as you are using G&K with the latest patches. That information may have been true otherwise, but it wasn't for me.
