impressive! So, anybody working on the topic?
[Request] UI Mod for Great People Screen
- Thread starter CivLuvah
- Start date
CivLuvah
Deity
Supposedly it's Nutty, who said he's willing when the SDK tools will be released. No reply from him on this thread yet.
CivLuvah
Deity
Nice
The Great General is a bit problematic though if the face is facing right. Actually many of the icons would be covered by the symbol if the face is facing right
Last edited:
Sun Ce of Wu
Warlord
I was working on this issue, creating a mod with all the great prophets, but i managed to screw it up or the patches broke it and now, trying to make it work, i only get empty spaces. I stopped since i have to graduate March 31st so i switched to studying.
I like your approach better than mine, it looks more uniform. I'd suggest to eliminate the class icons on the portraits, if possible, or to move them.
CivLuvah
Deity
Or to make the icons smaller but visible.
Yeah, the best results are with face facing left and moved little to left and up, like ~15 points. It's also related to the issue of huge class icons. If they were smaller it should be almost ok.
I think that's what was originally planned - stylized icons, with unified color and no background. It really looks neat this way.
Class icons could be smaller. But then again - if not created by devs, would need to rescale them by ourselves.
Anyway - I have a skeleton mod with all icons defined and assigned properly. We just need .dds files with icons which is quite time-consuming in some cases. But I cannot do 178 icons by myself, it's simply too much. I did above with paint.net and it took me 20-40 minutes per icon on average. Beethoven was difficult due to his crazy hair... With Photoshop probably could be faster, but still each picture requires individual treatment as they come in various sizes, colors, etc.
CivLuvah
Deity
Sun Ce of Wu
Warlord
I MIGHT help with those, just after March 31st.
@Sun Ce of Wu Great! No hurry, I don't think we'll create all icons by then 
Nutty
Deity
Wow, well done @Infixo, those icons are gorgeous and match Firaxis' art style beautifully.
However, let me quote myself from earlier in the thread:
In the interest of getting the mod out the door, I'd suggest that maintaining a consistent art style take a backseat, and at least start with a simpler system. I had a group of artists helping with making CSL2 have somewhat Firaxis-like icons, but it was still a huuuuge pain even though there were "only" about 70 icons, and for many of them we were able to reuse existing icons... and in the end half of them are still half-arsed "placeholders." Admittedly, the process would be a tad easier here since you don't have to deal with color, but... there's still a lot of detail work needed 178 times over.
However, let me quote myself from earlier in the thread:
This seems to me to be a lot like my City States Leaders II mod for Civ5 (read: a complete pain in the ass to make all the art, especially if you're trying to keep a consistent art style).
In the interest of getting the mod out the door, I'd suggest that maintaining a consistent art style take a backseat, and at least start with a simpler system. I had a group of artists helping with making CSL2 have somewhat Firaxis-like icons, but it was still a huuuuge pain even though there were "only" about 70 icons, and for many of them we were able to reuse existing icons... and in the end half of them are still half-arsed "placeholders." Admittedly, the process would be a tad easier here since you don't have to deal with color, but... there's still a lot of detail work needed 178 times over.
CivLuvah
Deity
Just to ask, what kind of work? The .dds files thing?
Maybe we can start more simple by just copy-paste the pictures into the placeholders for the great people screen? Or will there be a copyright issue with regards to that?
@Nutty I'm not a fan of half-measures because they tend to last too long on the other hand, I'm a big a fan of high quality work. I don't believe we can create all icons at once, but we also don't need to. They can be added in batches and since they don't affect save files and updates are automatic when using steam - whenever a new icons will be added they will simply start appearing in your games. For non-released items a current generic icon will be used just like now.
on the other hand, I'm a big a fan of high quality work. I don't believe we can create all icons at once, but we also don't need to. They can be added in batches and since they don't affect save files and updates are automatic when using steam - whenever a new icons will be added they will simply start appearing in your games. For non-released items a current generic icon will be used just like now.As you probably know, CQUI has integrated a mod with a much better looking Great People Popup - there's no need to scroll them. But at the same time they switched off completely Individual Icons. So, I did some tweaking myself and I managed to create a window that has enhancements from CQUI but also displays individual icons and class-icons are smaller and moved, so they will not cover portraits. The final effect is really awsome - everything fits beautifully on the screen
Sun Ce of Wu
Warlord
I finally graduated so now i can help with the mod, so i wanted to know which great people need the portrait so we can split the work and how you obtained this effect, so that my portraits will blend with the others.
Great! As for now I don't have many icons. Just the ones on the picture and a few musicians (Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mozart). I've chosen Musicians as first category to go with. I think you should choose a category of GP and work on it.
Effect - short version. Icons are pictures with background removed and "circled" to remove also lower parts of neck/torso. One effect applied - sepia. 160x160 pixels, .dds A8R8G8B8.
Effect - step by step instruction.
0. I use paint.net.
1. Find a good picture on the internet. Good means having a background that can be easily removed. If you see that background and head/hair
are of the same color/shade - don't use it. Also, find a picture that you can extract a head of the size of at least 150x150 pixels, the more the better.
2. Open it in paint.net, resize if necessary and cut the square with head centrally placed. This is very important step - the relative sizeof the head and
its placement will stay until the final icon! I use "Image/Crop to selection" option. Also flip horizontal if necessary to make head facing to the left.
3. Now resize it to approx. 1000x1000. It will be easier to get rid of the background.
4. Remove background. This is very important step - whatever is left around the head/hair will be later visible. Some manual work here is
usually required for best results. I use Magic Wand and then Eraser manually.
5. Now you can do some brightness/contrast adjustments, if necessary. Just make sure that the picture isn't too dark.
6. Apply the Sepia effect.
7. Resize to 718x720.
8. Copy the entire circle (from attached .zip) into the picture using "Edit/Paste into New Layer".
9. Merge the layers with circle above the picture.
10. Using Magic Wand remove black surroundings. Set Tolerance to 10% so you will not remove a part of a picture.
11. There are usually some pixels remaining, must be removed manually.
12. Resize to 160x160 and save as .dds with file name in format RGP_Great_Person_Name.dds. Must use underscores. DDS format A8R8G8B8 (default in paint.net).
Icon's ready
Let me know which group are going to work on. If you start - send me 1-2 first icons asap to make sure you got the process right.
Effect - short version. Icons are pictures with background removed and "circled" to remove also lower parts of neck/torso. One effect applied - sepia. 160x160 pixels, .dds A8R8G8B8.
Effect - step by step instruction.
0. I use paint.net.
1. Find a good picture on the internet. Good means having a background that can be easily removed. If you see that background and head/hair
are of the same color/shade - don't use it. Also, find a picture that you can extract a head of the size of at least 150x150 pixels, the more the better.
2. Open it in paint.net, resize if necessary and cut the square with head centrally placed. This is very important step - the relative sizeof the head and
its placement will stay until the final icon! I use "Image/Crop to selection" option. Also flip horizontal if necessary to make head facing to the left.
3. Now resize it to approx. 1000x1000. It will be easier to get rid of the background.
4. Remove background. This is very important step - whatever is left around the head/hair will be later visible. Some manual work here is
usually required for best results. I use Magic Wand and then Eraser manually.
5. Now you can do some brightness/contrast adjustments, if necessary. Just make sure that the picture isn't too dark.
6. Apply the Sepia effect.
7. Resize to 718x720.
8. Copy the entire circle (from attached .zip) into the picture using "Edit/Paste into New Layer".
9. Merge the layers with circle above the picture.
10. Using Magic Wand remove black surroundings. Set Tolerance to 10% so you will not remove a part of a picture.
11. There are usually some pixels remaining, must be removed manually.
12. Resize to 160x160 and save as .dds with file name in format RGP_Great_Person_Name.dds. Must use underscores. DDS format A8R8G8B8 (default in paint.net).
Icon's ready
Let me know which group are going to work on. If you start - send me 1-2 first icons asap to make sure you got the process right.
CivLuvah
Deity
If ever you guys can't find a proper picture for a GP just use the photos I've researched.
Sun Ce of Wu
Warlord
Great! As for now I don't have many icons. Just the ones on the picture and a few musicians (Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mozart). I've chosen Musicians as first category to go with. I think you should choose a category of GP and work on it.
Effect - short version. Icons are pictures with background removed and "circled" to remove also lower parts of neck/torso. One effect applied - sepia. 160x160 pixels, .dds A8R8G8B8.
Effect - step by step instruction.
0. I use paint.net.
1. Find a good picture on the internet. Good means having a background that can be easily removed. If you see that background and head/hair
are of the same color/shade - don't use it. Also, find a picture that you can extract a head of the size of at least 150x150 pixels, the more the better.
2. Open it in paint.net, resize if necessary and cut the square with head centrally placed. This is very important step - the relative sizeof the head and
its placement will stay until the final icon! I use "Image/Crop to selection" option. Also flip horizontal if necessary to make head facing to the left.
3. Now resize it to approx. 1000x1000. It will be easier to get rid of the background.
4. Remove background. This is very important step - whatever is left around the head/hair will be later visible. Some manual work here is
usually required for best results. I use Magic Wand and then Eraser manually.
5. Now you can do some brightness/contrast adjustments, if necessary. Just make sure that the picture isn't too dark.
6. Apply the Sepia effect.
7. Resize to 718x720.
8. Copy the entire circle (from attached .zip) into the picture using "Edit/Paste into New Layer".
9. Merge the layers with circle above the picture.
10. Using Magic Wand remove black surroundings. Set Tolerance to 10% so you will not remove a part of a picture.
11. There are usually some pixels remaining, must be removed manually.
12. Resize to 160x160 and save as .dds with file name in format RGP_Great_Person_Name.dds. Must use underscores. DDS format A8R8G8B8 (default in paint.net).
Icon's ready
Let me know which group are going to work on. If you start - send me 1-2 first icons asap to make sure you got the process right.
I think I'll start from great prophets since they were the ones i already made for my (now broken) mod. Obviously I will remake them in the new style, as soon as I have a couple ready i will send them to check ;D
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