HOW TO: Import/modify/export LH

[Saketh]

If you can get that to work in-game, that would be great!

If you want to copy branch between 2 window you have to "open your 2nd window" like I did in the tutorial. (File/New Window). You cant copy and paste branch if you open your 2 nif seperatly.

It was saying that it can't map the NiNode|Hannibal.00, so that's not the problem.

 

[Prestidigitator]

If you can get that to work in-game, that would be great!

It worked flawlessly! with the animations and all . Maybe I'll have to write a follow-up for Roland's tutorial on how to re-add the gloss and shader maps .

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

GREAT NEWS!! I seem to have found a way to add multiple shaders to the nif! I can't explain now, but I will be later ,

EDIT EDIT EDIT!!! -
Yup, my good friends, I have cracked it!!! I added the four correct shaders to my crownless Cyrus, and it worked! Here are some screenshots!
View attachment 136714

And no, I'm NOT JOKING! I'm using the cyrus_diff.dds file, so from now on, you'll expect to see an evolution in LH creation.

This all seems fantastic!!

...er...so, are you uploading your crownless Cyrus then ?

 

[Prestidigitator]

...er...so, are you uploading your crownless Cyrus then ?

Well, I'm reworking my Hammurabi, I'm remodeling him now that it is more extensively possible. But don't worry, just like the Sumerian saying goes, "He who has the knowledge, why does he keep it for himself?", I will be writing a tutorial soon .

 

[Prestidigitator]

Now before we all get too ambitious, there seems to be a problem...
Here is goes: When I load the leaderhead (in the civilopedia ofcourse), it shows up excellently! however when I open another leaderhead in the civilopedia and then reopen cyrus, his leaderhead crashes the game to desktop .

Maybe there is still more to be investigated...

 

[Saketh]

Prestidigitator, did you just copy the attributes from the shader model to the modified one in NifSkope? I tried that, but the hierarchy keeps getting messed up, and I keep getting infinite recursion. Still, it's good to hear that someone got it to work.

Now before we all get too ambitious, there seems to be a problem...
Here is goes: When I load the leaderhead (in the civilopedia ofcourse), it shows up excellently! however when I open another leaderhead in the civilopedia and then reopen cyrus, his leaderhead crashes the game to desktop .

Maybe there is still more to be investigated...

That's a strange problem. But if you got it to work once, you should be able to get it to work again. It used to crash all of the time.

 

[Prestidigitator]

Prestidigitator, did you just copy the attributes from the shader model to the modified one in NifSkope? I tried that, but the hierarchy keeps getting messed up, and I keep getting infinite recursion. Still, it's good to hear that someone got it to work.

That's a strange problem. But if you got it to work once, you should be able to get it to work again. It used to crash all of the time.

Saketh, no, I created the new attributes, 4 shader textures that is.
The problem with the LH is that it works once, but then it crashes. The thing that I can't understand is that the exported object (the LH) does not work with the default LH shader, NifView crashes , I can't seem to understand why...

 

[Prestidigitator]

Okay, my greatest fear came to reality! I have returned to point zero, the point we have all heard before, "Blender cannot handle bones correctly (for civ4)", what is causing the game to crash when using the shader is the bones, I have even tried with units, the shader crashes if the bones are used, when they aren't linked to bones (the armature) the shader works correctly .

So until they release a new plug-in for Blender nifs, shaded LHs are just a dream...
Thanks for the time guys.

EDIT- Maybe though, just maybe, it would work with 3Ds Max, which I certianly don't have and won't buy.

 

[the_jp]

You could download the 30-day trial version of 3ds max 8 and see if it looks promising. Alternatively, you could have someone with 3ds give your project a shot. I have 7, but I know next to nothing about modeling.

I've been following this thread closely, and I wish I could be of more help, because I'd really like to see someone perfect this process. To everyone that's working on this, thanks and good luck.

 

[Prestidigitator]

You could download the 30-day trial version of 3ds max 8 and see if it looks promising. Alternatively, you could have someone with 3ds give your project a shot. I have 7, but I know next to nothing about modeling.

I've been following this thread closely, and I wish I could be of more help, because I'd really like to see someone perfect this process. To everyone that's working on this, thanks and good luck.

Yeah, 'cause 3Ds Max is too expensive if one is just using it to mod a game, even if it's Civ4 .

Does the 3Ds Max 7 plugins work for version 8? if so I will try now.

 

[the_jp]

I haven't attempted it myself, but at least one other person has said that the plugins for 7 do work for 8.

 

[Prestidigitator]

I haven't attempted it myself, but at least one other person has said that the plugins for 7 do work for 8.

... Downloading 3Ds Max 8 trial now !

Thanks for reloading my hope and enthusiasm the_jp!


I will report if it works...

 

[the_jp]

You're more than welcome.

I've been thinking about your previous, semi-successful attempt at exporting a modified leaderhead. As I understood it, your export worked until the game loaded a default leaderhead and then attempted to reload your modified one. It makes me wonder what would happen if there were no original leaderheads for the game to load. What I'm getting at is this: if you imported and exported (even without actually modifiying) all of the orginal leaderheads, using blender, would you bypass the problem that the default leaderheads create when they are loaded? Just thinking out loud here.

 

[Prestidigitator]

jp, the problem is with the bones, not the actual model, if max can export the bones correctly, I'm done!

I can't get the plug-ins to work for max 8 though. I hope someone can help me . Do you know who got the plugins for 7 to work for 8?

 

[Prestidigitator]

I just can't stand this anymore, this time the game can't read the exported bones from max.... I'm giving up on this, who cares about gloss maps anyway? until NifTools publish a new plugin for Blender, I ain't doing anything.

Enjoy your day!

 

[Saketh]

I just can't stand this anymore, this time the game can't read the exported bones from max.... I'm giving up on this, who cares about gloss maps anyway? until NifTools publish a new plugin for Blender, I ain't doing anything.

Enjoy your day!

Max exports the bones correctly. However, the whole method of fixing modded LH models to work in-game hinges on replacing just the NiTriShape, not the bones. So even if you can't export the bones, the gloss maps should still work. The bones aren't directly attached to the mesh - when the model is rendered, the game checks whether the mesh is near a bone, and if it is, then it deforms the mesh.

It's not our fault that the exported NIF format that NifTools uses is biased towards Morrowind-ish games.

But there is something we can do - since many of us are Python coders, we can fix the NifTools scripts (which are Python scripts) to export properly. Basically, they should preserve the hierarchies of the Firaxis NIFs. NifSkope makes it extremely difficult to manipulate NIF hierarchies, and, from my experience with Niflib, it's hard to write node manipulation scripts.

I'm up for waiting.

 

[Prestidigitator]

Saketh, I'm waiting too, but it has been a month since NifTools released their last plugin. I know very little about python, so there's not really much that I can do in terms of manipulating the code, can you? Anyway, let's hope NifTools would fix the bone thing in the near future.
Maybe if one of us can write to them or post there, if this bone problem is fixed, it'll literally open up a world of possibilities.

 

[Saketh]

Saketh, I'm waiting too, but it has been a month since NifTools released their last plugin. I know very little about python, so there's not really much that I can do in terms of manipulating the code, can you? Anyway, let's hope NifTools would fix the bone thing in the near future.
Maybe if one of us can write to them or post there, if this bone problem is fixed, it'll literally open up a world of possibilities.

I still don't think it's the bones. The lack of bone export just makes it impossible to create new LHs from scratch.

Our problem is that Blender exports in a completely different NIF style than Civ uses, which is why C.Roland's tutorial makes you reorganize it manually.

 

[Prestidigitator]

I still don't think it's the bones. The lack of bone export just makes it impossible to create new LHs from scratch.

Our problem is that Blender exports in a completely different NIF style than Civ uses, which is why C.Roland's tutorial makes you reorganize it manually.

I didn't believe it was back then, but I tried and exported a LH without his bones, obviously it didn't animate, but it accepted the civ4 shaders without crashing. The same worked with the units, with the bones, the shader crashed, without, it worked, but ofcourse without animation .

 

[Prestidigitator]

Saketh, I have found something that I believe is causing all the trouble, it's not bones, it's not anything, it is the 'Number of Skin Partitions'!

I discovered that all the civ4 graphics have a number in there, except for our custom made ones, which says N/A. In the max documentation I read that it said this handles how the shader works, so maybe that's why the shader wasn't working when there is no partitions!!!

Maybe that should solve the case! but the issue is how to create the Skin Partitions values, I'll see if I can keep them in the exported file from Blender.

I'd like to hear what you think Saketh, could that be the problem???


EDIT EDIT-
Yes everyone! now it's accepting shaders without crashing! I'll just need to learn how to add the skin partition thing without deforming the model!

EDIT EDIT 2-
So the guy didn't crash the game this time, but he was so badly deformed and was twisted beyond recognition! , but like I said, it all has to do with the skin partitions... I will update if my tries succeed.

Here is what happened..