Mixed-up citystyle textures - help! Possibly related to iBatchGroup settings?

[Julians]

I'm quite new to XML modding, and this is my first time posting a question here, so please forgive me if I sound a bit confusing to you.

My problem is that I tried having 3 different citystyles in a single city by adding both the south_pacific and the med_SouthEastAsia nif files and placing both in the same era as the default mod_eu artwork for the Khmer civilisation. It ended up mixing around and looking horrible - the textures for each artstyle was also being used for the other citystyles.

To have a greater scope of my problem, you may need to know this in order to help me:

1) I'm modding on BtS only (and I have not upgraded this version in any way)

2) I simply took the two custom citystyles from the Cultural Citystyles mod folder (version 0.98, courtesy of GeoModder - I pray to you, o mighty modder, to help this poor mortal that is me in my time of need )

3) I tried solving this by messing around with the iBatchGroup settings for the modules of all 3 different citystyles and set them to 0 - but it still didn't work. Previously I tested this value and left the iBatchGroup setting for just one of each as 1, and consequently that art style will retain its own texture, but the other two citystyles will mix around

Once again I will be very grateful for any hints and tips from you forum-goers on this problem of mine.

 

[topsecret]

Attach your file

 

[Julians]

Wait . . . what exactly do you mean by attaching my file? I'm a little confused here . . .

 

[topsecret]

CLICK THIS
Read first heading.Attach your XML art file and we will look at it

 

[GeoModder]

I'm quite new to XML modding, and this is my first time posting a question here, so please forgive me if I sound a bit confusing to you.

My problem is that I tried having 3 different citystyles in a single city by adding both the south_pacific and the med_SouthEastAsia nif files and placing both in the same era as the default mod_eu artwork for the Khmer civilisation. It ended up mixing around and looking horrible - the textures for each artstyle was also being used for the other citystyles.

Next time you 'invoke' my help, you're better of dropping a link in the CC thread. Pure luck I bothered to browse this section of the forum.
To give a quick answer to your problem, the game only allows the use of 2 different textures for a cityset in any given era.
But since the Pacific cityset already combines a set of houses with a small set of palmtrees, and you put the south east asian set on top of that there will always be texture mixing.
So I recommend to get rid of the palmtrees references.
iBatchGroup is indeed the parameter that's causing you troubles. You must use iBatchGroup:0 for one cityset file, and iBatchGroup:1 for the other.

 

[Julians]

Oh bless you almighty Lunar Resident!

But when I used the NIF Viewer to view the South Pacific cityset, I did not see any palmtrees at all . . . or are you not talking about literal palm trees (that sounded so weird)? Where can I see the palmtree references anyways, and how do I remove them?

As an easier suggestion for myself (and for you as well) however, is it possible for me to actually create an entirely new single cityset using a select few buildings from the South Pacific and the South East Asian citystyles? How do I go about doing this?

And being a Malaysian myself, I really wanted to make this citystyle to show accurately how contemporary Malaysia (or at least a South-East Asian civ such as the Khmer) looks like in the 21st century - an eclectic mix of thatched huts, the occasional stupa and sleek skyscrapers. Is this too much to ask for?

 

[Julians]

Thanks for the quick tip btw, topsecret.

I won't worship you as overzealously as I do unto GeoModder, but any help and hints will be greatly appreciated.

 

[topsecret]

I won't worship you as overzealously as I do unto GeoModder, but any help and hints will be greatly appreciated.

You don't need to

 

[GeoModder]

But when I used the NIF Viewer to view the South Pacific cityset, I did not see any palmtrees at all . . . or are you not talking about literal palm trees (that sounded so weird)? Where can I see the palmtree references anyways, and how do I remove them?

That's because those palm trees are on another nif file. That's why you already have 3 nifs combined (palmtrees.nif, south_pacific.nif and med_SouthEastAsia.nif iirc).
The xml palm tree references are of course in the CC CityLSystem, just like the other cityset references.

As an easier suggestion for myself (and for you as well) however, is it possible for me to actually create an entirely new single cityset using a select few buildings from the South Pacific and the South East Asian citystyles? How do I go about doing this?

It's of course possible in nifskope, but you need to create a new texture (.dds) file too then. And since I'm not adept at textures, I never attempted to. Can't help you further on that point.

And being a Malaysian myself, I really wanted to make this citystyle to show accurately how contemporary Malaysia (or at least a South-East Asian civ such as the Khmer) looks like in the 21st century - an eclectic mix of thatched huts, the occasional stupa and sleek skyscrapers. Is this too much to ask for?

Yeah, I see what you mean. Check the mod_india.nif file. That file combines some buildings from the med_SouthEastAsia.nif with some buildings from the mod_eu.nif. If you tinker a bit with the mod_india_diffuse.dds you can have more "glassy" fronts on the modern models in mod_india.nif. When you manage that, you can use the south_pacific.nif in combination with the mod_india.nif (that's only 2 cityset nifs) and refer one of the nifs to iBatchGroup:0, and the other to iBatchGroup:1.