P_L's Guild of Architects

[Psychic_Llamas]

Hmmm, ok, well tht explains the ridiculously large files. i was wondering about that.
how do you save as a dds from photoshop? where can you get the plugin?

 

[Ploeperpengel]

thats on nvidea site. Just google dds plugins for photoshop.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Ok, found it. but the dds thing says that the "image width and height must be a multiple of four" when i go to save it. but they need to be multiples of 2 for civ! What the!
Also, do you want mip maps or not?

 

[Ploeperpengel]

dds files need to be multibles of 4 and no mipmaps needed. civ images are usually anything from 16x16 to 512x512 or even 1024x1024 also 256x128 or 64x128 are possible in example. For buildings a max of 256x256 should suffice.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

ok, good. i checked all the dimentsions, and the ones i had trouble with were one or 2 numbers out of multiples of 2 so i fixed those.
all my textures are 512x512, because thats the recomended dimesions i read in one ofthe tutorials. i think it was Dukes or something. can remember.
these should be ready by tomorry afternoon. i have a History exam tomorrow at lunch which i have been studying for. then i have a maths exam on wdnesday and a biology and geography exam on thursday, so i wont get too much done this week. we'll see though

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Ok, well thats the easy part done
---Woodelf and Highelf Modles are now complete
---All modles now use .dds files (that dont lose detail )
---no modles have mipmaps
---All nif files are complete.

Now for the hard part, the uploading:
---option 1: i can email you sepparate files, 4 file for each city art; Photoshop testures, dds textures, 3DS max modles, and nif files. this will be very time consuming.
---Option 2: i can try sending you only 2 big files, (1 for woodelves and 1 for high elves) this could work, if i babysit my computer while its uploading
---Option 3: i can try sending the lot all at once as one huge file. i dont think this will work however, but i can try

 

[Ploeperpengel]

use option 1 this really is no problem just make sure not to forget anything

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Ok im starting now. you might get half nowand half later though.

EDIT: im sending them all via Yousendit.com. its only going to take 20 Minutes though, so you should get them soon!

EDIT 2:
Ok ploe, the 3 important ones have sent. ill send the photoshop textures this afternoon.
incase you didnt get the emails here are the links for download. they are only up there for 7 days though so you might want to hurry.

THERE IS A LIMIT TO THE AMMOUNT OF TIME THESE CAN BE DOWNLOADED. IF YOU WANT TO DL THEM TOO, PLEASE WAIT FOR PLOE TO SAY HE HAS FIRST.

Chamaedrys, if you want to DL them too you can, just wait for ploe please

Here are the links;
-The nifs
-The dds textures
-The Max modles

EDIT 3:
Photoshop textures

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

I made a proper attempt at a Dwarf Hold for a palace, its turned out better than i expected, so i just thought id show off

here it is:

 

[neener]

That's cool, I like it. You could SO shave off half the polygons, too The wings on their helmets don't need to be that smooth at all. The design is snazzy, though

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Im glad you like it
yeh, i was thinking that too, but thats a project for another day i think

I was trying to find some kind of dwarven architecture whichi could adapt to make the basic houses, and do you think i can find any? No! bloody dwarves, having to build their citys underground... *walks off grumbling*

 

[Chamaedrys]

I was trying to find some kind of dwarven architecture whichi could adapt to make the basic houses, and do you think i can find any? No! bloody dwarves, having to build their citys underground... *walks off grumbling*

What about this:

The dwarfs don't get any city art! No normal house will show of in their city, but they get a free building "mine entrance" in every city. That mine entrance would mark the city on the map. Such a building would also give the opportunity to make the dwarfen economy more unique.

 

[Arexack_heretic]

And some railroads exiting from them (mine exits) leading to slagheaps,
some low chimneys exuding fumes from the underground forges.
Large bellows or windmills or some other mechanical means of getting fresh air below.

It could resemble a 18th century mining town, save the advanced machinery.

Exception to this generic industrial look should obviously be civics buildings and the capitol.
So that only 'production' cities look awfully dreary and industrial. The more civilised cities could look more pretentious with big statues and fortress-like buildings

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Hmmm, those all sound like good ideas. lets see what i can come up with. thanks guys

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

@ Chamaedrys: i think you can just go ahead and DL my city art if you like. im sure Ploe will be able to DL them again. and im pretty sure he got the emails

 

[Chamaedrys]

@P_L: I have downloaded your art and took a look at the woodelfs: many of your buildings have a size about 15 kb this is fine. But some have a size about 171 kb or more! The most wonders have only a quarter of that!! Some nif's are using another nif as texture

*being confused*

EDIT: I just put the highelf palace in the nifviewer and make it use its dds directly. Maybe this works for the other models, too

btw: 512 x 512 is okay for a city set, but a bit much for single buildings. I think 256 x 256 is good for high-detailed buildings. Simple buildings ore objects can have 128 x 128 and some very simple ones even 64 x 64.

anyway: GOOD WORK!!!

 

[Chamaedrys]

Unfortuneately, it doesn't work for all the buildings

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

Are you talking about the modle nifs or the textures? because the biggest modle is 85Kb and the next biggest is 61, but those are the palaces. but the only one that has 171 Kb is the textures.

does it really matter if the textures are in nif format? they work dont they?

Would you suggest changing all the textures again? *sigh* i hope not, textures are my least favourite part of this. ill make sure to use smaller textures from now on though.

 

[Chamaedrys]

They work, but this makes it very big. Some of your texture nifs have a size of 1.3 MB, while the complete medieval European set has a size of only 277 KB (106kb nif + 171 kb dds)

I'm pretty sure that it will work, it's just a question of size.

 

[Arexack_heretic]

Just did a quick game of woodelves yesterday night. (I need sleep!)
I have several small remarks, which fit here, but also in the elves dev-thread.

- need extra vanilla trees to replace city buildings, the cities are so barren.
(same for forest hamlets, they denude the forest too much)

- cities need forest defence terrain feature or not cut forest in first place.

- the (forest)hamlets may be a bit overpowered.
(It could be only this game, as I found myself in an extended forest/jungle, but I found that with BARTER and the correct techs, I ended up building hamlets everywhere I could, even to the exclusion of the few farms I could have built. conclusion: elves need extra forest improvements.)

-Elves need ability to gain bonus resources even when in a forest, without clearing it. (perhaps against a small penalty)


-offtopic: I found that hamlets appeared as fullfledged towns sometimes, when built, they still counted as new-built-hamlet. Myabe the game remembered how many turns a tile had been cultified before the hamlet was builkt?