Request: Can anyone make a simple 'square counter' unit?

[ww2commander]

As the title asks, can any unit makers spare some time from their busy schedule to make a square shaped counter unit that simply applies an image over the top via the DDS file.

I am looking for something that looks like the old paper-based wargame counters.

The reasoning for this is:
1. Reduce graphical overhead with animations etc
2. Allow any type of unit to be represented where 3D version may not exist
3. I assume the 'less graphic savvy' modders out their could use such a resource

Huge upfront thank you to anyone who assists.

EDIT: Here is an example of what I am describing: http://www.jrcooper.com/wargameart.htm

 

[Pazyryk]

This would be very useful to me as "placeholder" units, before specific art assets are made or added.

 

[ww2commander]

I did recall seeing something like this in Civ4 and did a search of my posting history.

Turns out there is Civ4 version of such units so maybe the expert porters out there might find it easier to grab these counter type units in Civ 4 format and export them to Civ 5 format.

Here are the links:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=162610
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184559

Preference would be to have something that looks like a three dimension counter as opposed to flat image.

 

[ww2commander]

As there were no takers, I tried to learn how to do this myself based on the old Civ 4 counter.

I got as far as making a gr2 file after a whole days worth of time wasting on installing different versions of python, blender etc to actually convert a Civ 4 unit.

Making even the simplest unit in Civ 5 is a pain in the butt. Anyhow, the counter did convert but I seem to have some kind of issue with the texture showing up in the game.

Will play around with it a bit longer then throw it to someone who might know how to fix it.

Just a side note, modding in Civ 5 seems to be wearing me thin of late as their seems to be absolutely no support amongst forum dwellers and its a every man for himself feeling right now.

I have painfully worked on a huge Eastern Front scenario that is mostly complete (minus coding) yet I feel like dumping the whole thing as I sense it really is not worth it.

 

[Nutty]

Making even the simplest unit in Civ 5 is a pain in the butt. Anyhow, the counter did convert but I seem to have some kind of issue with the texture showing up in the game.

I'd be happy to take a look if you post the files.

As far as the rest of your rant/legitimate complaints, I don't have much of a basis of comparison, but it seems like there just may be fewer active modders than in Civ4's heyday.

 

[ww2commander]

Here is what I managed to come up with following the tutorial provided in these forums.

As for my rant, I am not complaining about lack of content or the level of assistance people are giving....it just seems that the 'team' spirit I used to find in the Civ 4 forums is lacking.

Is it really a case of people not taking up Civ5 modding? There is so much potential for good mods, but the learning curve is massive...even when compared to Civ 4.

 

[Kafelek]

Is it really a case of people not taking up Civ5 modding? There is so much potential for good mods, but the learning curve is massive...even when compared to Civ 4.

I get the same feeling. At some point I reached a conclusion that Civ5 is just not that moddable as the previous installment in the series was. People are still modding, it is just that they are either people who make simpler additions/stats tweaks or the more stubborn (very persistent people) who try to make great changes involving coding (but without dll it's pretty hard).

There aren't many doing the latter so the modding community seems less lively. Which is not to say there are less people that wouldn't want to make more ambitious changes. But again as you said most of them will get discouraged by the learning curve and the lack of 'team spirit', and were are all back to persistence

 

[Nutty]

Here is what I managed to come up with following the tutorial provided in these forums.

When you said "some kind of issue with the texture showing up in the game" did you mean to say that the unit was invisible, or that the unit was visible but the texture was wrong? I'm not seeing it at all.

I've only been able to make units convert if I've been playing with a pre-rigged blend file. So when I tried to recreate the wheel from the civ4 nif, I didn't get any further than you did. Did you do anything with this one besides convert the nif to a gr2?

 

[ww2commander]

When you said "some kind of issue with the texture showing up in the game" did you mean to say that the unit was invisible, or that the unit was visible but the texture was wrong? I'm not seeing it at all.

I've only been able to make units convert if I've been playing with a pre-rigged blend file. So when I tried to recreate the wheel from the civ4 nif, I didn't get any further than you did. Did you do anything with this one besides convert the nif to a gr2?

The unit texture is not showing up at all. The unit is there but invisible...no crash or issues.

I convert from nif to gr2 and also did the whole new texture creation as per the tutorial just to be on the safe side. I think I did something wrong during the NexusBuddy steps. Also note that I copied the xml file from another unit and simply redirected the gr2 reference in it (maybe this is the wrong approach).

Truth be told, I am surprised I managed to get a working gr2 file as I was mostly dazed and confused during the whole tutorial!

 

[ww2commander]

Is it possible for anyone to convert the following zip file from Civ4 to Civ5 in the following link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3798368&postcount=1

It's a single object with one texture, but no matter how many times I try to follow the civ4>civ5 unit tutorial (I have tried 7 times now ), I cant seem to get proper results.

My poor result is in the file I have attached in this thread.

Nutty took a look, but I never heard anything back if he got it to work.

At this point I am begging someone for help to get this simple unit counter into civ 5

 

[ww2commander]

Sigh.....lots of pedestrians, but no one knows how to do this

All the unit makers must be taking a break until the expansion comes out.

 

[Nutty]

Oh! Sorry I never got back to you. I guess I didn't have anything helpful to add. It originally sounded like you were having a texture problem. This is a problem with the model.

I gave it a go, too, though I've had inconsistent results with this process in the past. I was frustrated by this model also, though I tried several techniques, including rigging it to a tank.

It seems like it should be simplicity itself. I dunno...

 

[ww2commander]

Thank you for getting back to me Nutty. Appreciate your help

Looking at the tutorial, I figured this would be dead easy as there is one object and one simple texture file. Yet, its turning into a nightmare to get this unit in the game.

Even when following the tutorial carefully I seem to get an object with no image associated correctly in the fbx file or something along those lines.

I must admit that the tutorial is a tad bit confusing as a lot of it deals with multiple objects and textures and using the bake method which (even though tried) does not seem to relate to my situation.

 

[ww2commander]

I don't like to resurrect old threads but I am kinda pulling my hair out over this unit conversion.

I have tried so many ways in blender to convert this simple counter from Civ 4 to 5, yet every attempt has failed and its really frustrating me.

I do not know what can possibly be the issue and the more I stare at blender, the less confident I become!

The unit seems to work in the game, but the texture is not showing, i.e it appears invisible but can be selected.

Can anyone (and I am on my hands and knees here) please tell me what could possibly be the problem or get it to work.

Much gratitude to anyone who helps me.

Thanks.

 

[Nutty]

The unit seems to work in the game, but the texture is not showing, i.e it appears invisible but can be selected.

I wish I could help more, but I know this much at least: The problem is not the texture, it's the model.

 

[ww2commander]

I tried the guide on how to convert civ 4 to 5 units again and again but I can not figure it out. When I import and export it out to NIF format again (as the guide suggests) I can preview it fine in Nifscope, but when I do the gr2 conversion via the Nexus tool it does not work in the game.

This is really starting to become a lost cause.