How to do simple editing of buildings (eg change roof color)

[pokiehl]

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone's generous help (LeeS, thecrazyscotsman, Deliverator, etc.) I've been able to figure out creating units from existing assets, adding in icons, and a ton of other stuff.

My next project is to create simple buildings. For instance, I'd like to create a new Meeting House, but with a blue roof instead of red. From reading all the asset threads, I know @Firebug created a military building with a different roof color (I think). Can someone get me on the right path?

What I've done so far is copy and paste the Meeting House ast file into my project, opened up Asset Editor and...I'm stuck.

Do I need an external program to change the color or is it editable in text files? No clue what I'm doing . I can't even find the right DDS files for any buildings to edit.

 

[ChimpanG]

Hi Pok! It really depends on the asset you are planning to use because some buildings have tint-maps and some don't. The ones that do are usually the clutter you see in districts, your standard house looking buildings and such and these are coloured via way of tint in the landmarks/buildings artdef (I think, can't remember right now). However, if you wanted to take an existing asset that does not have a tint map (quite likely) then you'll need to export the texture file and create a new asset using that building. Deliverator posted a retexturing guide I threw together (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/tutorial-re-texturing-3d-assets.622243/) which should help you retexture stuff, but it does require a new asset in the first place.

Staying with your Meeting House example, I don't think that has a tintmap on it, so you'll want to grab a copy of the meeting house asset (.ast) from the pantry/assets directory and put it somewhere to play with. Next you want to open it in a text editor (notepad++ or ModBuddy), scroll right to the bottom where it says "m_name_text" or something like that (it'll be the same name as the asset usually) and you just want to change that to something unique otherwise it will conflict with the base game asset. Now you can drop your new asset into your ModBuddy solution and open it in the asset editor. It'll be a straight copy of the meeting house. However, follow that guide I just linked to, and it should help you retexture that roof, which you can then import and apply to your new asset.

I hope that helps!

All the best,
Chimp

 

[pokiehl]

Thank you SO much ChimpanG!! I really appreciate your response man. That guide was so helpful and between that and your response I have a much better idea of what to do now.

 

[Foulweather]

Will this also work if I wanted to resize an existing asset (such as the Stupa) to take up the entire tile? Is that doable in Asset Editor, or will I need to learn Blender?

Thanks

 

[Deliverator]

Will this also work if I wanted to resize an existing asset (such as the Stupa) to take up the entire tile? Is that doable in Asset Editor, or will I need to learn Blender?

Thanks

Rescaling and moving things can generally be done through Asset Editor and the .artdefs.

 

[Foulweather]

I thought I couldn't get it to stay resized when I saved it, but now that I think about it, it's probably because I was just working with it in Asset Previewer.

Thanks.

Alright, relaunch Asset Editor and see what I can do...

 

[Foulweather]

Alright, I can't seem to figure it out. Finding the Position X,Y,Z and Scale fields on the Transform tab of the Asset Previewer is easy, so I know how much I want to move and rescale it, but I can't figure out how to change these for real. There is a spot for moving and rescaling the attachments (such as the stupa ropes), but not the tile base itself. Do you know if it's in the asset or the artdef?

(basically I'm looking to co-opt the Stupa asset and enlarge it to instead use as a National Wonder)

Thanks

 

[Deliverator]

The Attachment Points are in the Asset .ast file.

 

[Foulweather]

Mmm. Perhaps I am misunderstanding how this works. Because when I move the position of the attachment points, it certainly moves the attachments (in this case DIS_REL_Stupa_Rope) around but how does one rescale and move the main body of the stupa as well?