ModModding Guide to Wildmana

[Pazyryk]

Ah, thanks.

Your offer is too good to pass up tesb. I'm looking for buttons for all 17 unique features. Don't worry if that's too much trouble though, I probably should learn to deal with the .fpk files.

 

[tesb]

here are the files:

the path is art/interface/buttons/improvements

 

[Pazyryk]

In Orbis promotions XML you could use the tag <bAutoAcquire>1</bAutoAcquire> which would make the promotion appear automatically if other conditions were met (level, unit type, etc.). I don't see this in any WildMana promotions. Does it exist (by this or some other name), or do I need to code this kind of function in Python?

 

[Valkrionn]

Needs to be done in Python; Sephi has said he won't merge that.

 

[Pazyryk]

That's too bad. It's a very powerful function for XML modmoding.

 

[Pazyryk]

@Selphi,

I want to make a small modular mod that adds a few unique features and makes them permanent (as in Orbis). Do you mind if I name it "Unique Features+", or is this kind of name proprietary?

 

[Sephi]

@Selphi,

I want to make a small modular mod that adds a few unique features and makes them permanent (as in Orbis). Do you mind if I name it "Unique Features+", or is this kind of name proprietary?

If it is name proprietary you would have to ask Valkrionn as he started it back at FF

give it whatever name you want

 

[Valkrionn]

I was actually tempted to point that out, but decided not to.

In any case, Malakim+ was started by Deon, I just... took over... when he vanished for a while. And I had nothing to do with his vanishing, honest.

Also: Permanent UF's were from Marnok's mod first, then FF, then Orbis.

 

[Pazyryk]

Added some new promotions with button art in a new Art folder. The promotion looks correct in the unit window (so I know the path is correct), but it's a big pink square in the mouse-over view. I think there was a similar situation in a recent WM patch. Any idea how to fix this?

 

[tesb]

can you upload the button? i did not encounter such a bug

edit: i read a thread some time ago about people having problems when creating buttons with photoshop, you might want to look at this thread, i try to find it.

edit 2: there it is: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=268684&highlight=button+photoshop

 

[Pazyryk]

These are just the .dds files that you posted for me (which I dropped into an Art folder in my mod). Here's an example from a promotion line:

<Button>Modules/NormalModules/Elohim Keepers/Art/broken sepulcher.dds</Button>

It's not just that one. All of the different "improvement" art gives the same exact problem (appears correctly in "unit window" but an over-sized pink box in mouse-over.

 

[tesb]

@Pazyryk
i will take a look at those buttons. you should try to access the original buttons though, in this case:
<Button>art/interface/buttons/improvements/broken sepulcher.dds</Button>

(just to minimize file size and reduce the change of out of memory)

edit: this is strange indeed the buttons seem to be ok, sorry i can't help you in this case. maybe sephi can since he encountered similar bugs when he made all the atlas textures?

 

[Sephi]

These are just the .dds files that you posted for me (which I dropped into an Art folder in my mod). Here's an example from a promotion line:

<Button>Modules/NormalModules/Elohim Keepers/Art/broken sepulcher.dds</Button>

It's not just that one. All of the different "improvement" art gives the same exact problem (appears correctly in "unit window" but an over-sized pink box in mouse-over.

Does tomb of sucellus or yggdrasil work?

 

[Pazyryk]

No, same thing for those two. I just checked and all 17 UF icons used as promotion buttons do this.

Edit: these are .dds files that tesb got for me out of the fpk in post 82 above (I intend to link to art in the fpk, but haven't taken the time to learn how yet, and I found by trial and error that not all are at Art/Interface/Buttons/Improvements/).

 

[tesb]

@Pazyryk
the folder i uploaded is the actual Art/Interface/Buttons/Improvements/ folder i just took the unpacked files and uploaded them. any files that you find in this folder are in the wildmana80.fpk in exactly the same way. maybe you misspelled them?

 

[Pazyryk]

Could be. I'll try again.

What is the big pink square problem anyway? I know you get this when the art is missing. But why would it be there in the unit window but not in mouse-over?

 

[Sephi]

on the mouseover the promotion is shown in a smaller size and the buttons are probably missing mipmaps which are necessary for this.

the correct format for promotion buttons is 64x64, DX3 Compression, Mipmaps. If you have GIMP and the DDS plugin for it (both you can get for free) you can open the buttons and save them with mipmaps.

 

[Valkrionn]

Can do the same thing with paint.net, handles DDS files innately. Also free, and a bit easier to pick up than Gimp.

 

[Pazyryk]

Thanks Valkrionn, tesb and Selphi for the help so far. Two things still:

1. I grabbed a couple unique features from Orbis, including the .nif art. Both have display problems on the map. One has a pink "floor" (the feature itself is fine), the other is totally pink (can still see the outline of the feature, but it is all pink). Do you have any suggestions for how to fix this? (and what program to use?)

2. I'm using paint.net to open and re-save the unique feature icons as promotion buttons. I still have big pink squares on the mouse-over. I followed Selphi's instructions but there are additional settings which may be wrong. The full set I used was:
DXT3 (Explicit Alpha)
Compressor Type: Cluster fit (Slow/HQ) ...the other 2 options are Range fit and Iterative fit
Error Metric: Perceptual ...other option is Uniform
Weight Color By Alpha (unchecked)
Generate Mip Maps (checked)
Super Sampling (this is resizing method; shouldn't matter)

The images are 64x64. Are any of my additional settings wrong? (I guess I could try every possible combination, but it's easier to ask.)

 

[tesb]

1) if something is pink then there is a texture missing, make sure that in the *.nif file all textures are properly assigned (if you don't know how do that you may upload the file and i take a look at it)

2) i can't help you with paint.net i use gimp for image manipulation and DXT1Bitmap Manipulator for the creation of the actual buttons and did not have any problems so far.