Poor Shaka lost his Crown

[Gressulf]

*Maybe this should be in the BUG Report Forum*

Hi guys!

So recently Shaka seems to have dropped his crown.
Has anyone else ever experienced this matter?

I have BUG+BULL installed manually (Custom Assets folder), Blue Marble (Not installed Leaderheads portion, and also Installed/Uninstalled many times to check if this is the issue), and I run the game through Steam.
I have run this set up on a different computer for years, and never had this issue.

Recently I have installed the 'BETA' version on Steam, and run it from the .exe file, but this issue has been going on from before that, so this should not be the issue.

In any case, have a look at the screen and see if you can help poor Shaka retrieve his lost crown.

Spoiler Poor Shaka :

 

[lymond]

Not see this issue before. Obviously some graphical file is corrupted. Not sure if this custom or vanilla files.

My suggestion is to rename the Custom Asset folder to disable it. (Like Custom Assets - BUG) BM is installed there too by the way. Disable the BULL DLL as well and enable the vanilla DLL.
(To be clear here, no Custom Asset folder will be enabled before you run the game again). If you want you can just delete the Custom Asset Folder entirely. You'd just have to reinstall BUG/BULL again and BM, but that is not really a big deal...and you likely may have to do that anyway.

Run the game and check the Civopedia again.

If Shaka is happy again, then that was your problem. You will now have a new fresh Custom Asset folder that you can reinstall everything into.

If the problem exists, then that means regular Assets were corrupted. I have no answer on how that happened other than somehow a files were jacked with at some point. Anyway, if this is the case and you are intent on fixing the issue, I suggest a complete reinstall of Civ IV.

Uninstall the game via Steam. However, once uninstalled, delete any BTS folders that may remain in Steam/Common/Steamapps and under My Games. (If you have saves you want to keep them copy them off somewhere)
In addition, make sure the BTS folder is deleted in a location which looks like so:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\My Games\Beyond The Sword

The game cache is located there.

This is all ensures a fresh install. Of course, once installed, revert to the BETA version.

Run the game once. Check the Civopedia at that point to see if Shaka is as he should be. Reinstall your mods.

 

[Louis the XIV]

Something worse is happening in BUG mod with Shaka in my Sevopedia. His "Crown" is glitching. It is appearing for a second and then suddenly disappearing for one second, appearing again then disappearing again. So and so on.
By the way I haven't actually noticed this before! I just check now.

 

[Gressulf]

Not see this issue before....

lymond, as always, thank you very much for all your help and insight.
The problem is not really that big, instead of the crown it is just a darker shade of skin color around his head.

If I ever go through the trouble of fixing the issue I will let you know

Again, thank you very much!

 

[lymond]

If I ever go through the trouble of fixing the issue I will let you know

!

Renaming the CA folder and running the game will take 2 seconds,

 

[Gressulf]

Renaming the CA folder and running the game will take 2 seconds,

That it did indeed. Renamed CA Folder and ran the game... Shaka is still naked, so it looks like I will be looking to do a fresh install then.

 

[Gressulf]

So... I just reinstalled CIV4 three times... Only the last time did I delete the 'C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\My Games\Beyond The Sword', and Shaka is still very much naked... How can this be?

And mind you, he wasn't always naked.

 

[lymond]

So... I just reinstalled CIV4 three times... Only the last time did I delete the 'C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\My Games\Beyond The Sword', and Shaka is still very much naked... How can this be?

And mind you, he wasn't always naked.

I'm at a loss at this point. Did you install the mods? Did you install Blue Marble? The only thing you mentioned out of the ordinary to me is that you don't install BM leaderheads...or uninstall..not sure which. Anyway, assuming a clean install, that is the only possible issue I can come up with it. I've never jacked with the normal BM install so I don't know what happens otherwise.

 

[6K Man]

He should embrace it, like Sir Patrick Stewart, the late Sean Connery, and others. Bald is beautiful!

Disclaimer: I am 52 and have a full head of hair.

 

[Gressulf]

@lymond I opened the game before installing any mods, and the issue was there. I got the intro videos and everything, so it should have been a completely clean install. Then I installed the mods. BUG+BULL like a Custom Asset install, and Blue Marble through the installer, deselecting everything but Terrain.
The reason I do not use the BM leaderheads is because some of them did not install properly, so I ended up with a mix of normal backgrounds and some with the 'clear' backgrounds (in the small avatar on for instance the diplomacy screen). I also did not like this touch at all, so I reverted back to normal leaderheads. I do think this is when the problem occurred.

@6K Man Yes he should

 

[lymond]

It's possible. Again, what you are describing is something I have never experienced before with any iteration of IV ( I own several versions including Steam)

I'm curious on the uninstall. I'd recommended after the uninstall to make sure that all game folders are deleted. Are you sure you did that step? I mean everything. No BTS folder should exist under steamapps/common. It could be that BM does touch some vanilla files as well. Same with nothing under My Games.

Shaka was introduced in Warlords expansion, so his leaderhead is defined in the warlord assets, which are found in the higher level BTS folder/Warlords. If that folder is not deleted then it may not be reinstalled correctly.

Basically, this is the deal with the Steam version. Old Civ IV (disk version and most non-Steam versions) install IV as it was originally. That is, IV was released and then the expansion Warlords and BTS which were installed over IV. You needed IV vanilla to run either Warlords or BTS expansion (BTS was not dependent on Warlords, although BTS contained some Warlord assets like leaders and wonders,etc., like Shaka). In other words, IV vanilla contained the core game assets, and the expansions added additional assets. You did not install BTS and run it by itself or "standalone".

The Steam version does something different. Warlords and BTS are both standalone. In order to achieve this, the Steam version installs the core vanilla assets with either the Warlords or BTS installations. That is why there is a BTS folder and BTS subfolder. The higher level folder contains core IV vanilla assets, and the subfolder the BTS assets. (Notice that in the high level BTS folder you will see a "warlords" folder as well. That is part of the "core" assets and Shaka is in there, as he was introduced with the Warlords expansion)

So if that folder is not deleted as well, and any of those assets have been altered they might not be uninstalled/reinstalled.

 

[lymond]

Ok..I did a little digging and found the files BM changes. BM does not mess with Shaka. BM only changes a few select leaders. Most all BM changes are placed in the CA folder. (It does touch just a few normal assets but they are UI related)

What this tells me is that possibly at some point vanilla assets were messed with somehow. It could be the Shaka DDS file, or possibly some other related file like an XML file which is causing some disconnect somewhere. Who really knows.

It is odd though that you were having issues with the BM leaderheads in the first place. I'm not making accusations, but I will highly recommend to never mess with normal asset files.

I would suggest again the uninstall/reinstall as I described before. Again, make sure that the BTS folder (and all subfolders) under the Common folder is deleted entirely. Though there should be no connection at all, but to be sure, I would uninstall the Steam versions of Vanilla and Warlords if you have them installed.

If all that again does not work, I've zipped up my Shaka leaderhead folder and uploaded here. Download and extract which should give you a Shaka folder (with assets inside). Go to something like:

D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization IV Beyond the Sword\Warlords\Assets\Art\Leaderheads (this is the high level BTS folder)

Delete the Shaka folder and replace with the new folder.

===

A note on BM. Though BM should have nothing to do with the Shaka problem you are having, I just recalled that installing BM to Steam BTS requires a special workaround. Maybe you were aware of this already, but if not I'm not sure how you even got BM to run much less install.

BM was developed many years ago and stopped around 2008 - 09. The developer did not adjust BM to accommodate the Steam version. BM keys off the civilization4.exe (that is the vanilla game). The Steam version of BTS, though it contains the vanilla assets, does not have the civilization4.exe present. As such, when you run BM you should get an error message accordingly.

Easy workaround is to place a copy of civilization4.exe into the main BTS folder (there's no harm having the file there). It must be copied over from the vanilla game if you have it installed, but if you don't want to bother with that I uploaded my copy here (had to zip it as the forum won't allow upload of programs directly) I also recommend copying the BM program to the BTS folder and run from there. When you run BM there first thing it should tell you is that it cannot find that file and would you like to search for it. Simply click on the BTS folder in the navigation and the civilization4.exe should appear. Click on that and BM is now ready to roll. BM should install fine....leaderheads and all.

 

[Gressulf]

@lymond Thank you again for all the information.

As for the thing with BM Leaderheads, I just did not like the way the background was removed on their avatars, so I uninstalled the Leaderhead bit. BM lets you install just the parts you want, so I only run terrain. The way I manage to get BM installed on BTS Steam is just to copy the BTS.exe file and rename it Civilization4.exe.

Since I did the uninstall/reinstall thing three times yesterday, I thought I would try the easy route today. I deleted (or renamed and moved) the Shaka folder in the Warlords Assets folder and replaced it with yours. Then I also deleted everything in the cache (C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\My Games\Beyond The Sword) aaaaaaaand.... Shaka is STILL naked.

Not really sure what to make of it? Could it be some graphical issues with my computer? I just bought a new laptop this summer, which is the one I am running it on now. My old PC, built when Diablo III released runs it just fine with no issues. I also cannot be certain, but I am quite sure that when I started playing CIV4 on this computer, Shaka was wearing his head gear.

 

[lymond]

Could be. What are your specs? I'm gonna assume it is a Win10 machine.

You could try a few things that you may or may not have done yet on your new machine:

1) Update your graphic drivers to the latest version, which can be found on either the nVidia or AMD sites, depending on the brand. Find the model of your graphics card.
2) Run Windows Update to make sure the OS is up to date (actually do that first)
3) Right click on the BTS executable>Properties>Compatibility tab> check "run as administrator" checkbox.
4) In the Compatibility tab as well, set the Compatibility Mode to "Windows 7". Check the checkbox in that section and then choose Win7 from the dropdown list.
5) Lastly, right click on the main BTS folder (high level one). On the first tab called General you will see a check box called "Read Only". Uncheck it and click Apply. Keep "Apply to All Subfolders". It may take a few minutes to finish. (You can do the same thing to the BTS folder under "My Games")

 

[Gressulf]

@lymond

Thank you very much for all your help. I have done it all, but Shaka remains naked. Maybe some of the other leaders stole it? I have no idea.
I think I might have ran out of options here?

 

[topsecret]

You are not completely out of options.

Remember that Shaka is a Warlords leader.

Go to 2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Warlords\Assets\Art\Leaderheads and find the Shaka folder. Please ZIP that and put it here. (Obviously don't delete the file) We can see if his crown is still on his head.

Also, does the game behave this way with no mods being run OR installed? Check it without adding ANY mods.

 

[topsecret]

Also, please attach the XML file for Leaderhead Art from whatever mods you are installing:

Mods/MOD NAME/Assets/XML/Art/CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead.XML

OR

My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets\xml\art\CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead.XML

 

[Gressulf]

@topsecret
Thank you very much for replying.
See the Shaka folder attached.

The game is acting like this with and without MODS. I did a completely fresh install (at least I think so), and he was still missing his... wreath I think I should call it.
I do not have any MODS installed, only BUG+BULL by using the Custom Assets manual install. In any case, find the 'CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead' for my BTS here.
There is also no 'CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead' in the ''My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets\xml\art\'' directory.

Thank you very much for all the help.

 

[Gressulf]

@lymond Actually, running the game in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode made the game crash while doing alt+tab, also game would crash when trying to switch resolution, so I disabled this function.
Just did another clean install. Everything CIV4 related was cleared off my computer. I reinstalled the game and before starting the game, I switched the Shaka folder in the Warlords Leaderhead folder with the one you provided me.

Shaka is still balding...

 

[topsecret]

@lymond Actually, running the game in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode made the game crash while doing alt+tab, also game would crash when trying to switch resolution, so I disabled this function.
Just did another clean install. Everything CIV4 related was cleared off my computer. I reinstalled the game and before starting the game, I switched the Shaka folder in the Warlords Leaderhead folder with the one you provided me.

Shaka is still balding...

No mods installed that time?
Looking at your files now.