Improved Graphics for CIV

I don't think forests spread that often anyway, perhaps you could just make the preponderance of grass lower than what you had previously.

Good idea (at one stage I had the grass filling up every available tile - it looked nice). :lol:

Another solution is to put the grass feature on another terrain type. Floodplains for instance. Or let the grass feature only appear on grassland/plains terrain adjacent to rivers if no forest is on it. That kind of spot is usually the quickest improved so new forests don't have a chance growing on it during a game.

That's a good idea (I was going to reserve that spot for a kind of riverbank+reeds type of terrain, but perhaps that's unnecessary).

One thing that annoys me is that there's a lot of grassland tiles away from rivers which don't have forests on them - these will be empty, void of flavour. :(
 
Well, another addition could be to that grass features can appear on grass/plains plots if no forest is adjacent. Since forest expands only on neighbouring plots it's less likely to have an effect on those. Just for those endless prairies which a map might generate. ;)
 
That would be perfect, but there's no XML tag for the features to spawn anywhere but not adjacent to forests.

I'm thinking that I'll keep working on it, and lower the amount of features, but I'll include a guide for people to completely remove the features from Improved Graphics if they're worried that it might effect their game.
 
Honestly, I wouldn't go overboard on this really. I wouldn't get too deep into python and XML on this project, it was really good before.
 
I believe that it will be really good when it's finished, it just needs a bit of polish - and you can always simply delete the XML files and you have Improved Graphics without the extra features.

I could keep this mod the same as it was before, and release the extra features as an optional update for it? It might be easier that way, depending on how many people want the features.
 
I could keep this mod the same as it was before, and release the extra features as an optional update for it? It might be easier that way, depending on how many people want the features.
Much easier. AFAIK, the extra features are going beyond graphics overrides via custom assets and will hence break multiplayer.

Having a graphics override via custom assets plus an extra mod makes it a lot easier to use for those who play multiplayer.

Cheers, LT.
 
Chuggi -

Love the graphics replacer. Been using it since you released it. I also happen to be a big fan of the direction you're taking it now with the new features update. It definitely brings a lot of flavor to the terrain.

Since you seem to be so open to user feedback and suggestions and you're taking it just past the limits of a basic replacer anyway, I thought I'd put an idea out there for a feature I personally have wanted to see since Civ3 -- coral reef for sea tiles. Ideally I'd like to see them spread similar to forests and maybe be limited to certain latitudes, but some of that is probably beyond the scope of this mod. Anyway, if any of this strikes your fancy I'd love to see you run with it, and if not I'll be more than happy with whatever you put out. Keep up the good work and thanks for everything.
 
Onet thing i'm sure now. Old Civ4 with your upgrade of graphics will win another test of time
Agree. Good job :goodjob:. How does it effect the minimum requirements for your systems. I'm sure not every PC could handle this much graphical wonders, especially if combined with VD (which in it next release hopefully could include your CD 2)
 
Chuggi, sorry if I wrote this elsewhere, but I don't remember where...

What program did you use for converting the water to dds? As you probably know, for most people custom water doesn't work in-game.

Also, I'm curious, why not also use Colon. plains etc.? They look pretty awesome
My biggest request would be to find away to bring over Light Forest from colonization, it's a nice light forest for more arid places, like savannah, especially for places like spain. Other that the water, this is the only graphical item proving difficult to import from colon.

But most of all, what did you to get your custom water to work in game? What program did you use to convert?

EDIT: if you do the coral request, i'm guessing you'd use a flat texture?

Kevin
 
Chuggi -

Love the graphics replacer. Been using it since you released it. I also happen to be a big fan of the direction you're taking it now with the new features update. It definitely brings a lot of flavor to the terrain.

Since you seem to be so open to user feedback and suggestions and you're taking it just past the limits of a basic replacer anyway, I thought I'd put an idea out there for a feature I personally have wanted to see since Civ3 -- coral reef for sea tiles. Ideally I'd like to see them spread similar to forests and maybe be limited to certain latitudes, but some of that is probably beyond the scope of this mod. Anyway, if any of this strikes your fancy I'd love to see you run with it, and if not I'll be more than happy with whatever you put out. Keep up the good work and thanks for everything.


Thanks, glad you like it. :) I remember someone posting about reefs in another thread but I didn't think it was possible to do via XML at the time. But I'm definitely going to make it now. It's also quite simple to get it to spread, and I can limit it to coastal tropical waters.



How does it effect the minimum requirements for your systems. I'm sure not every PC could handle this much graphical wonders, especially if combined with VD (which in it next release hopefully could include your CD 2)

Without the extra features, it shouldn't be any more demanding than default CIV - although most of the textures are a larger size, so this could make a difference. In general, you should always have a bit over the minimum specs anyway.

The features might make a bit more difference, and it could take a little longer to generate maps (I haven't noticed anything yet, though).

Now VD, that's a different story - it adds hundreds of new units. :p You will definitely want to have something better than the minimum specs for civ. Also, the next version of VD will include mostly everything that I had planned for CDM 2.1. ;)

Chuggi, sorry if I wrote this elsewhere, but I don't remember where...

What program did you use for converting the water to dds? As you probably know, for most people custom water doesn't work in-game.

Also, I'm curious, why not also use Colon. plains etc.? They look pretty awesome
My biggest request would be to find away to bring over Light Forest from colonization, it's a nice light forest for more arid places, like savannah, especially for places like spain. Other that the water, this is the only graphical item proving difficult to import from colon.

But most of all, what did you to get your custom water to work in game? What program did you use to convert?

EDIT: if you do the coral request, i'm guessing you'd use a flat texture?

Kevin

I use Photoshop, with a .dds plugin which doesn't require converting the file. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by the custom water doesn't work in game. :confused: Can you post a screenshot?

The next version has some beautiful plains in it by seZereth. ;) They were originally created for the Fury Road mod.



I can probably bring over the light forest, it doesn't appear to be too hard. It could probably be done entirely in nifskope. :p However, it could prove difficult to code. But I'll try and include it as a variation for the forests found in temperate areas.

With the coral reefs I was thinking either using the same model I used for grass (very performance friendly, the grass was based off the wheat resource itself and consists of a few planes using the alpha channel to give it a 3D illusion) or I could make some new low poly models.
 
You realize that coral reefs are a very fauna-friendly environment, don't you? ;)
So I expect dolphins frolicking with that shrimp resource winddelay created some time ago among the reefs! :old:
 
An update on the light forest from col - I tried merging it with the evergreen trees so it wouldn't require any extra coding, but I can't get the graphics to show up. :( I've tried resetting the materials and everything but no luck yet.
 
For some reason the coast doesn't show up when I use these graphics. Although I am also using THIS WATER, but in both of these the coastal waters show up. But when I use the other water graphics (which I think look better) the coast tiles don't show up at all, or there is no difference in color or whatever the issue is. Here are some screenshots of my game using your IG mod and the water from the aforementioned link...
 
You mean when you highlight what should be a coastal plot, it isn't marked as a coast in the plot description bottom right of the GUI?
 
Sorry, I edited my post because I realized it wasn't very clear. No it is recognized as a coastal square but there is no difference in color between a coast tile and an ocean tile.

It probably has something to do with the fact that I used a different water.dds file, but the thing is they both appear to have differences in color between the two water-types, and they apear to be the same color even in that situation. So I'm not exactly sure why this is happening, although it really isn't a huge deal.
 
Well, its the same on my end. There's no color or shade difference between coast and ocean.
 
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