Hey there!
Im new to modding, and ive been playing around with modbuddy trying to create my first custom civ. Im pretty sure by now how I want the logical side of things in my mod to go, however ive been strugling a bit with making the art files work. Im using maconnollys' modbuudy template which is great and really helped me understand the fundmentals, but there is not a whole lot of info there about the art files (talking about the leader screens, the icons etc.), so I have a few questions:
1. BLP files - how do I create them, and are they mandatory? From my understanding, these are "cooked" from the XLP files - im not an artist so I assumed "cooked" meant that they will be created after compiling my mod, however the finished mod does not seem to have a BLP's folder. Do I have to take any specific actions in the Asset Editor to make sure BLP's are created?
2. In modBuddy, do I REALLY have to add every single .dds and .tex file to the "import files" action? modBuddy does not seem to allow adding multiple files in one go, or even copy-pasting the action from the front end to the in game section, and it's just a tad soulcrashing to add every single file one after the other twice like that. I looked at some .modinfo files in other existing mods - in some they did upload every file from the textures folder, while in others they only uploaded the BLP files - so what is the right choice here?
3. Less important question, but is it possible to organize the textures folder into subfolders (i.e. a folder for leaders, units, buildings) ive tried doing so, and while it seems to work ok in game, modBuddy screamed a bunch of scary errors at me for attempting this. Im asking to make sure that during the compiling process modBuddy doesnt look for something specific inside the textures folder.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Im new to modding, and ive been playing around with modbuddy trying to create my first custom civ. Im pretty sure by now how I want the logical side of things in my mod to go, however ive been strugling a bit with making the art files work. Im using maconnollys' modbuudy template which is great and really helped me understand the fundmentals, but there is not a whole lot of info there about the art files (talking about the leader screens, the icons etc.), so I have a few questions:
1. BLP files - how do I create them, and are they mandatory? From my understanding, these are "cooked" from the XLP files - im not an artist so I assumed "cooked" meant that they will be created after compiling my mod, however the finished mod does not seem to have a BLP's folder. Do I have to take any specific actions in the Asset Editor to make sure BLP's are created?
2. In modBuddy, do I REALLY have to add every single .dds and .tex file to the "import files" action? modBuddy does not seem to allow adding multiple files in one go, or even copy-pasting the action from the front end to the in game section, and it's just a tad soulcrashing to add every single file one after the other twice like that. I looked at some .modinfo files in other existing mods - in some they did upload every file from the textures folder, while in others they only uploaded the BLP files - so what is the right choice here?
3. Less important question, but is it possible to organize the textures folder into subfolders (i.e. a folder for leaders, units, buildings) ive tried doing so, and while it seems to work ok in game, modBuddy screamed a bunch of scary errors at me for attempting this. Im asking to make sure that during the compiling process modBuddy doesnt look for something specific inside the textures folder.
Thanks a lot in advance!