HOWTO: New Unit Creation

[CaptainBinky]

Blaze, your model that spooned up in Granny Viewer - was that with or without animation?

I exported the FBX file you sent me with Nexus and loaded it up in Granny and it looked fine.

 

[blazekid87]

it had no actual animation. Mine shows up in granny and nexus fine also....the problem is when it finally gets to the game, their halfway inside the ground.

 

[CaptainBinky]

Have you tried exporting the file I sent you?

 

[blazekid87]

yea just tried...same issue, they animate fine tho(there was an animation)...did u actually get them in the game itself or just throught nexus?

 

[CaptainBinky]

I'm pretty sure you don't want "bake animation" or "turbosmooth" checked.

Also, I didn't use "curve filters".

edit: oops, I sent you the file from before I put the root bone in - try the version I just mailed you

edit2: Actually, bake animation is irrelevant since I'm pretty sure that Nexus does its own animation compression during export.

 

[blazekid87]

great it worked!!!! your the best man!
wat exactly did you have to do to make it work?
And thanks a million for your help!

 

[CaptainBinky]

No probs Blaze - I'm guessing what fixed it was the root bone. If you notice, in that file I gave you there's a Dummy object at the origin (0,0,0) which is the parent of the biped skeleton. I added this bone to the skin modifier as well.

 

[JeBuS27]

So, if I read correctly, the reason the model was halfway inside the ground was because, without a root bone at the model's "feet", the game took the average point of the model (its center) as a default root bone location.

 

[lemmy101]

Update on the next version, which will probably be tomorrow at some point...

Mod Buddy support!

You can export your model to any mod buddy project, and it will automatically copy and add the files to the project. Select the project, click 'export to mod buddy' and...

It will automatically merge art define xml into the mod's files, so you can update your unitmember art define entries etc without it overwriting other units. The upshot of this is you can simply export multiple units / buildings etc to the same project, one after another, and they will then all be active in-game at the same time with no merging of files or messing about. Nexus Buddy takes care of all the combining / updating of multiple entries into the files.

Oh, it also takes care of the Mod actions stuff too.

As such I can get the Captain into the game with default unit stats and one animation, from an FBX and texture, without typing anything except the Mod Buddy new project details and probably less than 20 clicks of the mouse.

All this is optional of course, you can still export the data to your export directory and do what you want with it from there.

 

[CaptainBinky]

So, if I read correctly, the reason the model was halfway inside the ground was because, without a root bone at the model's "feet", the game took the average point of the model (its center) as a default root bone location.

Biped in 3DSMax is a bit funny like that. There's a "footsteps" object which is at the origin which makes your skeleton appear like it's in the correct place. But in actual fact, the parent bone object (normally "Bip01") is actually at the pelvis and so when Civ places the object's root on the ground, it's placing the character's pelvis on the ground.

So yes, make a proper root bone at the origin, link it up, export, job's a good 'un.

 

[lemmy101]

In other news it doesn't look like wonders / buildings are possible, period.

The game isn't picking up the civ5artdefines_wonders.xml in the mod at all.

 

[Deliverator]

In other news it doesn't look like wonders / buildings aren't possible, period.

I take it the double negative isn't intentional. I haven't tried it myself, but I presume you are setting "Reload Landmark System" in the modinfo? I'm guessing this is equivalent to "Reload Unit System" but for buildings, etc.

 

[lemmy101]

Yeah I did that.

I had a nose through the .exe in notepad++ and there was an ominous list at one point of all the art define .xmls EXCEPT wonders.xml.

Blergh...

On the plus side, it looks like landmarks (improvements etc) are fine, as well as resources and terrain.

 

[blazekid87]

No probs Blaze - I'm guessing what fixed it was the root bone. If you notice, in that file I gave you there's a Dummy object at the origin (0,0,0) which is the parent of the biped skeleton. I added this bone to the skin modifier as well.

I had done that before with no lcuk....maybe the mix of option changes fixed it....im gonna try with thee one I already used a root bones on.

EDIT: I forgot to put the rootbone to the skin modifier :Facepalm:

 

[Jaythekiller]

@ Lemmy : How can you work so fast?
Really impressive work!

 

[lemmy101]

+ Tits. Can't get the landmark xml to read in a mod either... That means improvements, terrain, natural wonders, resources and pretty much everything else ruled out too...

A great help would be for people to experiment and try to get a mod to pick up any kind of change from the artdefines_wonder / landmark files in a mod...

I've tried removing EVERYTHING from it, which with the unit/unitmember ones if I did that all the units would be invisible.

 

[blazekid87]

+ Tits. Can't get the landmark xml to read in a mod either... That means improvements, terrain, natural wonders, resources and pretty much everything else ruled out too...

A great help would be for people to experiment and try to get a mod to pick up any kind of change from the artdefines_wonder / landmark files in a mod...

I've tried removing EVERYTHING from it, which with the unit/unitmember ones if I did that all the units would be invisible.

Wasnt that what everyone was saying just a few days ago about the units?
We believe in you! lol

 

[Justicex]

I know you've probably already tried this a hundred times, but how about reverse-engineering from an in-game wonder?

 

[lemmy101]

I know you've probably already tried this a hundred times, but how about reverse-engineering from an in-game wonder?

The point is that you can only tell the wonders to use art definitions of existing wonders. We've made a perfectly functioning model with materials and everything, the game exe's just not recognizing changes to the xml file that points at model files. Could feasibly overwrite an existing wonder I suppose, but no new ones.

 

[lemmy101]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Nexus Buddy's Leaderhead support is coming along:

Me and CaptainBinky finally managed to get Alfred the Great into the game. A few issues to resolve yet, such as no normal maps working, grrrr....

we'll probably put release of the new tool back a day or two to get this lot sorted.