Ekmek
on steam: ekmek_e
this need to be stickied. we always get questions in the graphic forum because no one goes digging tutorial section.
Installing Leaderhead Tutorial (BtS)
- Thread starter Wolfshanze
- Start date
dutchking
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2007
- Messages
- 3,317
I don't think it should be stickied. To be completely honest, and no offense to wolf, he doesn't give in-detailed instructions on how to do what he says at all. If someone is completely new to modding Civ, what makes you think that they know where the files, or even what the files you're talking about are? That's just one example. It is understandable if you know what you're doing, but to a new modder it doesn't make any sense.
TheLastOne36
Deity
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 14,045
Will installing a leaderhead prevent me from going on multiplayer?
RavenKing
Warlord
If I could add support to Ekmek's idea to sticky this. It was this thread, with its back and forth between Wolfshanze and Dutchking and input from Mamba that finally allowed me to crack the mystery of getting animated leaderheads to work. This is actually a very useful collaborative effort! Don't bury it. Thanks.
RavenKing
Warlord
If I could add support to Ekmek's idea to sticky this. It was this thread, with its back and forth between Wolfshanze and Dutchking and input from Mamba that finally allowed me to crack the mystery of getting animated leaderheads to work. This is actually a very useful collaborative effort! Don't bury it.
Wolfshanze
CFC Historian
Yeah, I guess it's useless... I should probably just delete it.
Homade Biskit
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2008
- Messages
- 43
this is way to complicated for me is there a simpler way to do all this. i just want to use some custom leader heads in my civ 4 warlords game thats all... sorry but i don't understand this stuff i'm very new to all this
Homade Biskit
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2008
- Messages
- 43
well is there a way to say change the leaderheads like change washington to jefferson davis and roosevelt to robert e lee or bismark to hitler? that would be cool if i could you knopw change them not add new ones
Ekmek
on steam: ekmek_e
just type over the name in the <description> line
Homade Biskit
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2008
- Messages
- 43
sorry if i seem ignorant here but how do i find that this mod stuff is all new to me so i'm trying to learn all i can
Onagan
The Dutch
I can't find the Civ4CivilizationInfos.xml file, where should it be?
I found it, I removed it last year to replace it within the CustomAssets folder. my mistake.
I found it, I removed it last year to replace it within the CustomAssets folder. my mistake.
Lord Civius
Emperor
I am up against a brickwall. I am learning this xml stuff and it's coming to me pretty easy. Then I try to install a 3D LeaderHead and I am stumped. I download the file and extract it to desktop. Then I move it to my PattonMod/Assets/Art/LeaderHeads folder. I went back and looked through the original game files and this is the same method used. I don't know what to do in the Pattonmod/Assets/XML/Art/Civ4ArtDefines_ Leaderheads/Patton folder. I copied an original file (Asoka) and replaced all Asoka with Patton like instructed here. When I fire up the mod it crashes when the Patton image should come up while choosing a Civ/LH. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
RavenKing
Warlord
You may have a discrepancy in description. You have the art in a file called "PattonMod/Assets/Art/LeaderHeads" so your XML lines need to direct you to "Art/LeaderHeads/Patton...etc
This is how my description for Patton looks in the ArtDefinesLeaderhead file:
<Type>ART_DEF_LEADER_PATTON</Type>
<Button>Art/interface/LeaderHeads/Patton.dds</Button>
<NIF>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill.nif</NIF>
<KFM>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill.kfm</KFM>
<NoShaderNIF>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill_noshader.nif</NoShaderNIF>
<BackgroundKFM>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill_BG.kfm</BackgroundKFM>
I have Patton in Amra's modpack, and this is how Amra did the XML work and the leaderhead seems to work fine.
This is how my description for Patton looks in the ArtDefinesLeaderhead file:
<Type>ART_DEF_LEADER_PATTON</Type>
<Button>Art/interface/LeaderHeads/Patton.dds</Button>
<NIF>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill.nif</NIF>
<KFM>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill.kfm</KFM>
<NoShaderNIF>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill_noshader.nif</NoShaderNIF>
<BackgroundKFM>art/LeaderHeads/Patton/winston_churchill_BG.kfm</BackgroundKFM>
I have Patton in Amra's modpack, and this is how Amra did the XML work and the leaderhead seems to work fine.
Lord Civius
Emperor
Thanks for the reply. I will try this since the files you mention are in the unpacked LH. It is just hard for me to imagine that anyone who downloads the LeaderHead should have to go through all of the files and guess which ones to use. There are dozens of dds and nif files to choose from. So what happens to all of the files not used? Why do we d/l 8.5 MBs of files only to use a few?
Lord Civius
Emperor
OK I tried it and it worked with the exception of the button, but I'm not worried about that right now. I still don't know why these files and none of the rest? This is my learn as I go mod and it does me no good to get it in if I have no idea how it was done. I am even more confused now 
.
Here is a look at everything on my end:
"PattonMod/Assets/XML/Art/Civ4ArtDefines_Leaderheads" -
Blue- I added the button dds file on page 5 to the "Assets/Art/Leaderhead" folder.
.Here is a look at everything on my end:
"PattonMod/Assets/XML/Art/Civ4ArtDefines_Leaderheads" -
Blue- I added the button dds file on page 5 to the "Assets/Art/Leaderhead" folder.
RavenKing
Warlord
Well, I'm not an expert in understanding how this works, but through trial and error here's what I have figured out:
NIF - is usually named 'Nif' in the tag, so that helps. Looking at the art that came with Patton, most of the art seems to be based on churchill, so in the absence of a tile named 'nif' I would take an educated guess that winston churchill was used for the nif.
KFM - this one often isn't labelled 'KFM' in the art folder, but again it is always one of those boundshape files (with the 3 shapes) and usually has the simplest title, not a specialized action like 'action_01 negative' but just plain old winston_churchill
NoShader - a boundshape file usually labeled 'noshader' , and in fact, that's what we've got
Background - usually labelled 'BG' or 'bg' or something and again, that's what we've got in the art file.
NIF - is usually named 'Nif' in the tag, so that helps. Looking at the art that came with Patton, most of the art seems to be based on churchill, so in the absence of a tile named 'nif' I would take an educated guess that winston churchill was used for the nif.
KFM - this one often isn't labelled 'KFM' in the art folder, but again it is always one of those boundshape files (with the 3 shapes) and usually has the simplest title, not a specialized action like 'action_01 negative' but just plain old winston_churchill
NoShader - a boundshape file usually labeled 'noshader' , and in fact, that's what we've got
Background - usually labelled 'BG' or 'bg' or something and again, that's what we've got in the art file.
zenspiderz
Just some bloke..
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2006
- Messages
- 1,496
That is quite simple, instead of adding the definitions to the existing files, you create new files. So e.g. you would have a
Caligula_CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml
Caligula_CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead.xml
Caligula_CIV4GameText.xml (with all game texts for Caligula which Wolf spread across two text files)
All these files would then contain only the Caligula definition, none of the regular ones. So instead of copying them from the original xml and pasting them to a new entry in the original files, you copy them to a new file which then only contains that particular entry.
You would need to keep the beginning and end of each file as well (the enclosing tags of the definition), so e.g. the art would look as follows :
Spoiler :
The only thing which will not be truly modular is adding the leaderhead to the civ. You can copy the Rome definition of CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml and call it e.g. Rome_CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml and add the leaderhead there the way Wolf described, but it will not be entirely modular.
If you wanted to add a second leaderhead (e.g. Nero), you could not do the same for Nero, the two would need to share the Rome_CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml which then needs to include both leaderheads. For anything else, you could create Nero_... files, just like you did for Caligula.
You should use modular loading, it is superior to regular loading, even though the Wolf fears changeIf e.g. there is a new patch which changes some xml, you would only need the changes which affect your modular definitions (i.e. which truly affected the Rome civ in this example). With Non-Modular loading, you would need to take care of all changes, so if they changed a regular leaderhead or a civ other than Rome, you would need to include those changes in your version of the definition (which is included in your copy of the original file).
With modular loading, these changes would not affect you, as you inherit the regular (updated) definitions for anything you do not explicitly add to your mod (in this case anything but Rome).
If you use the modular way, you create a dir in which you store the Caligula files, make sure to copy the appropriate schemas used by your files to that dir as well. Each xml file (except for the text ones) contains a line like "<Civ4CivilizationInfos xmlns="x-schema:CIV4CivilizationsSchema.xml">" whatever schema file is mentioned there is needed to load the file.
I have some questions regarding modular leaderheads.
1. what should the dir you mentioned be called and where should it go?
2. does the folder structure need to me preserved in the dir?
3 Shouldn't the prefix to your modular files be in captial letters? In your example .. CALIGULA_Civ(whatever).xml rather than Caligula_Civ...
4. Is there a tutorial on modular leaderheads?
5. Where can i see a working example of a modular leaderhead?
thanks.
The name and location really does not matter, as long as it is underneath the 'Modules' dir
a common strcture is Modules/Custom Civs/<Civ>/<Leadername> but you might just as well go with Modules/Leaders/<Leadername> or any other structure
not really sure what you mean here, folder and dir structure are two terms for the same thing. In any case, no structure needs to be preserved, the art and xml dir structures can be very different if you wanted to (I assume that is what you were asking).
doesn't matter, it's just text, so whatever you prefer (could be anything, XYZ_CIV... is just as good as Caligula_CIV...., but of course if you were to use XYZ_ noone would know it actually is Caligula
)none that I am aware of
in any modular civ or some mods (is CivGold modular ? not sure. In any case, my mod is, so you could see some examples there)
zenspiderz
Just some bloke..
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2006
- Messages
- 1,496
The name and location really does not matter, as long as it is underneath the 'Modules' dir
a common strcture is Modules/Custom Civs/<Civ>/<Leadername> but you might just as well go with Modules/Leaders/<Leadername> or any other structure
not really sure what you mean here, folder and dir structure are two terms for the same thing. In any case, no structure needs to be preserved, the art and xml dir structures can be very different if you wanted to (I assume that is what you were asking).
doesn't matter, it's just text, so whatever you prefer (could be anything, XYZ_CIV... is just as good as Caligula_CIV...., but of course if you were to use XYZ_ noone would know it actually is Caligula
none that I am aware of
in any modular civ or some mods (is CivGold modular ? not sure. In any case, my mod is, so you could see some examples there)
Thanks for your answers. I did as you directed but the new leaderhead doesn't show up. I am thinking there is a problem with the way i am linking the leader to the civ. So may i ask some more questions to help resolve my problem?
1. Does the Rome_CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml file go in the modules dir or somewhere else?
2. In the Rome_CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml file do the original leaders (augustus and julius) need to be included or should they be ommitted?
3. Does the original CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml file need to changed at all?
4. Does the modules dir sit in the mod's assests folder or does it need to go somewhere else?
thanks again.
BTW i am downloading your diversica mod to see how you have done it.
