[BTS] Need assistance creating some new flags for Civ4 leaders. [Solved]

[SuperXANA]

Hello everyone,

I am having some difficulty with creating new / different flags for some civilizations (for a downloaded mod that I am trying to update to current character standards).

I don't know what I am doing wrong when the flags in-game only show up as white or another color without the desired image that I wanted to put on them.

I have attached the not-working flags to this post so you can see if I did anything wrong (edit @ 12/11/2017: deleted since the issue's fixed).
Let me know if you need anything else, such as the flag XML files!

I was looking through some years-old topics on this forum (since the game itself is like a decade old, amazing how time flies!) and none of them tell me that I should be seeing just a color when I put my new flags into the correct folders & XML files.

One of my flags, a simple equal sign, works just fine in-game (it is also in the archive). The others, like I said, simply show up as a color without the actual image that should be there.

The civlopedia civilization flag buttons show up just fine, though, and they're pretty much the exact same image as the non-working interface flags.

I put the correct alpha channel on my custom files by taking it from a working flag, but I just don't know what I am doing wrong here because of my inexperience.

I'm hoping you can help me, and if so I would really appreciate it please!

 

[<Nexus>]

Well, working with flags was a major pain in the back for me. Not impossible but I found it a bit frustrating at first.
There's a tutorial: How to create flags for civ4 - for dummys it helped me a lot. Hope it will help you too

 

[SuperXANA]

Hello!

Thanks for the help, and sorry for the wait to respond. My computer had to be repaired.

I still don't know what is wrong with my flags, because I used DXTBmp to make a Black Alpha Channel for the new flags and it shows up in-game as white without any images. I haven't figured out how to remove an alpha channel yet with the tools I have, but I also tried with a White Alpha Channel and it still did not work. (To me, it sounded like a white alpha channel was closest to having no alpha channel.)

Is it a problem with my images that I've chosen to be on the flags, that they're too complex to be displayed, or am I missing something easy due to my inexperience?

I hope to hear from you soon, and thanks for the assistance!

 

[<Nexus>]

it sounded like a white alpha channel was closest to having no alpha channel

That is certainly not the same. Follow closely the tutorial. That helped even me

Is it a problem with my images that I've chosen to be on the flags, that they're too complex to be displayed,

Surely not.

 

[SuperXANA]

Hello once again!

I just wanted to let you know that the tutorial really helped me to get my new flags working. Originally I was working with paint.net since that's always done the job before (when making the new leader diplomacy displays), but I guess this time it just couldn't work with the game requirements. I thought I could hack it with another tool and get the same result, but apparently not. GIMP worked great!

I found out what kind of flag images my computer requires with the new civilizations I created for my personal game, which is noted below.

If I made an image in GIMP with no alpha channel and saved it as DDS DXT3, it wouldn't work and it would cause the white flag issue I was reporting.
If I made an image in GIMP with the alpha channel set to 255 and saved it as DDS DXT3, it would work perfectly and there wouldn't be any white flags.

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate the pointers.

 

[<Nexus>]

when making the new leader diplomacy displays

Are you making leaderheads too?

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate the pointers.

Oh, I did nothing, just... remembered

 

[SuperXANA]

Are you making leaderheads too?


Oh, I did nothing, just... remembered

Yes, you got it right. I like making the leaderheads a lot, because I get to find the cool matching music & pictures!

I made the leaderheads a couple days ago, and I was just stuck on getting the new civ flags working.

Even if you feel like you didn't do a thing, your remembering this stuff helped me anyway.
I mean, this is all new to me - so really, you helped at least to find a guide that would teach me how to make the flags!

I hope you have a good holiday / new year!

 

[<Nexus>]

I made the leaderheads a couple days ago, and I was just stuck on getting the new civ flags working.

Are you taking requests?
I'd love to have a Kane and a Yuri LH from C&C universe.

Spoiler :

 

[SuperXANA]

Hello Zeta Nexus, thanks for responding and asking your question.

Unfortunately, I'm simply making a couple leaderheads (and flags, XML, etc.) only for my personal game at the moment. I may work up the nerve to upload my additions here eventually, but not at the current time.

I'm quite sorry to inform you that I'm not taking requests at present, since I'm basically just a novice CIV IV player (and first-time modder, I suppose).

I hope that you have a nice day/weekend!

 

[<Nexus>]

I'm quite sorry to inform you that I'm not taking requests at present,

It's okay. I don't need them right now, just asking.
BTW, what kind of mod are you working on?

 

[SuperXANA]

Hello Zeta Nexus!

Yeah, I'm not really experienced in working with the leaderheads just yet (at least I think so, having started last month). That's why I was quite surprised to see your request.
Hopefully, I'll be more comfortable in working with image editing in the future (this being my first time I ever did anything like this!).

I'm not actually working on any mod of my own, to answer your question. I'm just updating an older one I downloaded, so that I'll have more character choices for my games and some variety in leaders.

Thanks for reading this, have a nice day/night!