[gfx+script]Questions on modding

[bruizar]

Hello, I've a few questions on the modding capabilities on civ 4. I've only just played it yesterday and i've yet to get my own copy of the game so I cannot delve into it as much as I would like. I have however explored the forums well but I still have some remaining questions.

Here goes:
1:Is it possible to add new leader traits ?

2: Is it possible to add a new system like culture points, gold and great person points?
Let's say I want airmiles for every 1 square I fly with a flying unit is it possible to A: Create a new counter that shows the amount of airmiles. B: Make certain buildings, religions or traits give a bonus or a set number of airmiles each turn

That sums up my main questions on modding.
If anyone would be kind enough to answer these questions I would be very pleased.

Are leaders represented as realtime 3d objects or does civ 4 only show short looping movies of the leader, eachtime pasting a different movie file after a movement. For example: When your leader casually talks to you and you insult him, is the frown he makes a different animation or is it a different clip? In other words, is it realtime or static.


Thanks in advance

 

[Civrules]

Moderator Action: Moved to main C&C Forum.
Welcome to the forums, BTW.

 

[bruizar]

Thanks, now if anyone could answer my questions it would make my day.

Also, does CIV4 support normal maps?

 

[Chieftess]

1 - Yes it is. I believe they're in the leaderheadinfos.xml file.
2 - Yes, with some exceptions. You could use some things for python, but right now, the SDK hasn't been released. Wait for the SDK to add new features. But, you can use XML to add something like "air miles". (You'll need to investigate which XML files need to be edited -- there's a lot of them!)

Leaderheads - I'm not sure about 3D art, but I think it's different files (or several animations in 1 file).

Also, does CIV4 support normal maps?

Not sure what you mean by this.

EDIT: Ok, I see what you mean after talking to you in the chatroom. I thought you mean "normal maps" like the earth map or something.

 

[The Great Apple]

1:Is it possible to add new leader traits ?

Yes - can do this in xml

2: Is it possible to add a new system like culture points, gold and great person points?
Let's say I want airmiles for every 1 square I fly with a flying unit is it possible to A: Create a new counter that shows the amount of airmiles.

While you could add the counter using python, I'm not sure you could program in another "points" system without the SDK.

B: Make certain buildings, religions or traits give a bonus or a set number of airmiles each turn

Yes, I think you could do this with python.

4: Are leaders represented as realtime 3d objects or does civ 4 only show short looping movies of the leader, eachtime pasting a different movie file after a movement. For example: When your leader casually talks to you and you insult him, is the frown he makes a different animation or is it a different clip? In other words, is it realtime or static.

I'm not sure about this one. I don't see any reason for them not to be a series of clips (and in fact, I think it would be more versitile to do it like this)

 

[bruizar]

"EDIT: Ok, I see what you mean after talking to you in the chatroom. I thought you mean "normal maps" like the earth map or something."

For those who do not know what this technique is, Normal Mapping is a way to capture light information on a texture map. This way you can make a high polygon model that would never be able to run real time, convert its normal map to an image and use that on your low polygon (which can run real time) so you have nearly the same object as the high polygon, but in real time.

Heres an example from one of the talented guys over at cgtalk.com:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=258217
^
This thread clearly shows what is capable with normal maps.



http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=290927

For a more basic use of normal maps, take a look at this. (Would be so cool to redo the buildings in civ4 so that they make good use of normal maps, especially since you zoom in on the map and all..)

This is just a box and a cilinder, the rest is all done through texturing and normal mapping.