Low Graphics Mod development thread

[sharick]

The problem with trees is that as soon as I modify them they loose information about underlying terrain. This means that they always stay at the same level regardless if it's plain or mountain. It's not such a big deal but if you know why let me know.

Are there any aspects other than feedback that a Mac user could contribute with?

Sure there are. I have an OK computer so I have no means of testing. Could you run a few tests in World Builder and tell me what's slowing the machine the most.

 

[Darth_Kettch]

Will do! I'll see if I can spare some time next week

 

[Darth_Kettch]

I got bored, sue me...

Okay. All work done on a Mac Powerbook G4, 1.33 GHz, 768 MB DDR SDRAM, OSX 10.3.9. Civ4 Mac v1.61

(first time using WB, w00t!)

Starting off by testing landscape types, everything seems to work fine using a duel-sized map, maybe slightly less fluid when covered in mountains. Don't think this needs tinkering.

All grassland + jungle seems fine...

All grasslands + trees = HUGE PERFORMANCE HIT, just as suspected. You've already created low-poly pine trees, I suspect low-poly snow-covered pine trees aren't a big leap? And I'm thinking that if low-poly "normal" trees look like ass, how about using the pine template, but change the colours to match the default? As in lighter shades of green, some brown/yellow thrown in...?

Nuclear waste = no good, dare I suggest the return of Civ2's death's head?

Rivers = slight hit, removing their "running" animation should help

Resources seem to be okay for the most part, but of course it couldn't hurt to reduce the number of polys on horses, sheep and the like (or maybe use small tiles here as well, like with the units?)

Will look at landscape improvements some other time (although I believe they represent the biggest resource drain in the late game, together with the cities and units). Suggested priority list thus far:

1. Units (turned into tiles)
2. Trees (low poly models, using your current pines as template)
3. Landscape improvements
4. Sprawling cities
5. Resources (could either be tiled, or low-poly'd)
6. Rivers
7. Nuclear Waste (Death's Head tiles!)
8. Mountains (low-poly'd)

 

[sharick]

@Darth Kettch - Thanks for the work. The pine trees I made are with and without snow. I hope I can finish normal trees and tiled units by tomorrow. After that I will do jungle and then resources. Somebody mentioned that windmills take a lot of resources. I don't think I can do anything about mountains because they are generated differently and I don't know how.

 

[zooropa86]

ok, so i tried this out and it worked great. i look forward to more changes. if/when you modify units, could u offer a separate mod with only terrain and improvement alterations? ill probably try it anyways, but i dont think i would be as into the game without units.

good work man, keep it up.

 

[Darth_Kettch]

Terrain is probably the least taxing factor, so I don't think it's anything to worry about
Looking very much forward to trying out a new beta mod!

Regarding the units, maybe it could be possible (down the road) to create tiles more akin to the civ2 sprites? Problem being that they'd only look good from a single (default) angle, with the perspective being skewed otherwise. This is possibly a task anyone with an image editing program could do (knowing what modifications need to be made for the tile-model to look okay at an angle)

Edit:
Hm... Looking at the pics in the OP again, it doesn't seem like the perspective matters much. Could it be possible to put sprite units on a transparent tile? Thus getting non-square units and at the same time show underlying terrain (still thinking civ2 terms ).

 

[sharick]

I finally managed to create normal trees that I'm more or less satisfied with. I added it to 1st post.

@zooropa86 - no problem, I'll make separate downloads.
@Darth_Kettch - when you move units they change direction so they must be made all-round or flat.

 

[Darth_Kettch]

Well, can't blame a guy for hoping Downloading new mod now!

Edit:

Izza good! Loaded a standard map for the very first time, and while I couldn't scroll completely without lag (after revealing the map at turn 1), I noticed no performance problems after filling an all-grass standard map with the new trees

 

[Darth_Kettch]

Development shut down?

 

[ww2commander]

Does anyone know what I need to do to make the trees conform to the height of hills.

Presently when I place any forest on hills, the trees are sunk into the hills because they are being placed at the same level as flat terrain

What do I need to adjust to get the trees to look like they are on top of the hills?

 

[windmilltilter]

Hey,

I'd like to try this mod, but it crashes when I try to run it under Warlords v2.13.

Would it be hard to make it work for that version ?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[dh_epic]

This is a fantastic idea! Although I'd support replacing the "face-squares" into something more iconic, with the full body visible, along with the weapon. Just like Civ 1-3.

 

[windmilltilter]

Hey,

I'd like to try this mod, but it crashes when I try to run it under Warlords v2.13.

Would it be hard to make it work for that version ?

Thanks,

Jeff

I got it to work under BtS v3.13 (with the unofficial patch) by copying the delivered "CIV4FeatureInfos.xml" from BtS into the mods spot where the "CIV4FeatureInfos.xml" from the mod zip was put.

First, I think these "cookie-cutter" trees are great! I don't play Civ4 for the photo-realistic terrain, and in the late game on huge maps with 18 civs I keep running out of video memory (makes the last 100 turns or so not very playable, but before that it's fine).

A wee bit of a problem. When you go into the city screen, at first you get a nearly isometric view of the city, and so you can see the trees okay, but then it very quickly (less than 1.5 seconds on my machine) goes to a full overhead view of the city, and the trees disappear. This is because they are basically an infinitely thin "X" or "+" when viewed from the top, and the edges have no thickness from above. See the screenshots:

Start of city screen displaying (trees are barely visible, because it's still an isometric view briefly):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=173241&stc=1&d=1207277853

City screen final display (trees are gone, because it's an overhead view):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=173242&stc=1&d=1207277853

If the trees were slanted (perhaps away from the south/normal viewer direction) by 10 deg or 15 deg, they would probably still look fine both in and out of the city no matter what any the viewer zoomed into, and also in the city screen. Could this be done ?

Thanks! This is the sort of thing I was requesting in:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=171898&page=22

Jeff