RFC Europe -Art and Flags Thread

[merijn_v1]

Ok. I'll start today.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Ok. I'll start today.

Great, thanks!
Just saw you already posted something in the SVN
Will look into it, and get back to you with some feedback

EDIT: I like all 4 new icons you uploaded so far, especially the Star Fort

 

[merijn_v1]

Thanks. I also searched around in some mods. For the Star Fort, I first wanted to give it the polygonal fort button, but I saw this button in Realism Invictus and I thought: "This one is the one we need!"

I included more than 4 buttons, but I didn't add them in the 3rd atlas. I replaced the old ones in the other atlas', so the amount of buttons in those are the same.

I think now the new buildings and wonders have a good button, with the possible exception of the Folwark.

I'm planning to organize the buttons, seperating all into more atlas', like SoI. (a building-atlas, unit atlas, tech-atlas etc.) This gives them more structure and buttons easier to find.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Thanks. I also searched around in some mods. For the Star Fort, I first wanted to give it the polygonal fort button, but I saw this button in Realism Invictus and I thought: "This one is the one we need!"

I included more than 4 buttons, but I didn't add them in the 3rd atlas. I replaced the old ones in the other atlas', so the amount of buttons in those are the same.

Ohh, okay
I saw them since, and I like them

I think now the new buildings and wonders have a good button, with the possible exception of the Folwark.

There is no rush, you can further update them whenever you feel something would be more fitting another way
But other than the Folwark, I would like to have updated buttons for the religious buildings.
The catholic and orthodox buildings have the old buttons, most of them are out of the place or confusing. Also the Jewish Quarter and the Islamic House of Wisdom
IMO the best would be to keep the original style: a pic from the civilopedia from the most recognizeable view of the building, adding the religion's icon to the top left corner, than making a button from it in gimp/photoshop. DXT3 compression is enough

I'm planning to organize the buttons, seperating all into more atlas', like SoI. (a building-atlas, unit atlas, tech-atlas etc.) This gives them more structure and buttons easier to find.

Sounds good
I already made a separate civ button atlas a couple months ago

 

[merijn_v1]

There is no rush, you can further update them whenever you feel something would be more fitting another way
But other than the Folwark, I would like to have updated buttons for the religious buildings.
The catholic and orthodox buildings have the old buttons, most of them are out of the place or confusing. Also the Jewish Quarter and the Islamic House of Wisdom
IMO the best would be to keep the original style: a pic from the civilopedia from the most recognizeable view of the building, adding the religion's icon to the top left corner, than making a button from it in gimp/photoshop. DXT3 compression is enough.

Don't worry. I'm not rushing. I'm just having a lot of free time now.

I don't know if changing the religious buildings buttons is a good idea. The ones we use now are easily recognizible. You know what building it is only by looking at the buttons. If we change the buttons, I think many people can't anymore. Maybe the specialized religious buildings (Jewish Quarter and House of Wisdom) can use a better one.

IMO, the ones that we currently use are the original style. Maybe swap some, because some of the buildings swapped art, but I think the buttons themselves are good.
And I don't really like the civilopedia screenshot based buttons. I think they are ugly and it can be quite hard to recognize the building it resembles.

I always use the DXT3 compression. (with the exception of the Bank of St. George Corp button, because that gives some problems) No problem with that.

 

[AbsintheRed]

I don't know if changing the religious buildings buttons is a good idea. The ones we use now are easily recognizible. You know what building it is only by looking at the buttons. If we change the buttons, I think many people can't anymore. Maybe the specialized religious buildings (Jewish Quarter and House of Wisdom) can use a better one.

Actually I find that it's way more confusing this way.
I know that most long time players got used to the old buttons.
But if you have a building, and the button showing the exactly same building represents another building that's the most confusing thing IMO

Maybe swap some, because some of the buildings swapped art, but I think the buttons themselves are good.
And I don't really like the civilopedia screenshot based buttons. I think they are ugly and it can be quite hard to recognize the building it resembles.

Ugly? Many of the previous buttons were made this way, for example all the religious buildings
They can look quite cool IMO

 

[merijn_v1]

Actually I find that it's way more confusing this way.
I know that most long time players got used to the old buttons.
But if you have a building, and the button showing the exactly same building represents another building that's the most confusing thing IMO

Sorry, I forgot that the church now has the art of the cathedral. (and some other changes too) Then I indeed think it should get the button of the old cathedral. Otherwise a button has a the art of a different building on it.
However, I'm afraid many will think that the churchs has the button of the cathedral, even though it resembles the good art. But I'll change them.

Ugly? Many of the previous buttons were made this way, for example all the religious buildings
They can look quite cool IMO

Really? The catholic and islamic ones are from the vanilla game and the protestant ones are from colonization. They are definitely not made from screenshots.
The orthodox ones may be from screenshots, but I don't think so, because the screenshot-buttons I know look really different. Take a look at the tannery button, that one is a screenshot-button. I don't think it's really nice. (I couldn't find any better)
Maybe the creator of the orthodox buttons used a different technique than I do, but I don't know that, so the button I can make will not look that good. So I prefer not to have screenshot-buttons.

Ofcourse, some can be quite good, but the majority aren't IMO.

 

[merijn_v1]

@ Absinthered

You know how to change nif files, right? Can you take a look at the mainmenu. Right now, we just a simple text with an ugly "box" around it.

When you unpack the FPK and you to the mainmenu files (interface --> main menu), you'll see the art files we already use. (these files weren't in the FPK upto rev. 984) I also add a .dds file called "banner.dds". Can you replace the text ("title.dds") with the banner?

I tried to make the changes myself, but that gives something very ugly.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Really? The catholic and islamic ones are from the vanilla game and the protestant ones are from colonization. They are definitely not made from screenshots.
The orthodox ones may be from screenshots, but I don't think so, because the screenshot-buttons I know look really different. Take a look at the tannery button, that one is a screenshot-button. I don't think it's really nice. (I couldn't find any better)
Maybe the creator of the orthodox buttons used a different technique than I do, but I don't know that, so the button I can make will not look that good. So I prefer not to have screenshot-buttons.

Ofcourse, some can be quite good, but the majority aren't IMO.

I made some quick tests, and IMO the results look good
Pls check the buttons I added as examples, just uploaded them to the SVN a couple minutes ago
Tannery, Smokehouse, Folwark, Jewish Quarter, Islamic House of Wisdom, Kiev Veche

@ Absinthered

You know how to change nif files, right? Can you take a look at the mainmenu. Right now, we just a simple text with an ugly "box" around it.

When you unpack the FPK and you to the mainmenu files (interface --> main menu), you'll see the art files we already use. (these files weren't in the FPK upto rev. 984) I also add a .dds file called "banner.dds". Can you replace the text ("title.dds") with the banner?

I tried to make the changes myself, but that gives something very ugly.

Okay, I will look into it

 

[AbsintheRed]

Oh, just saw you also updated a couple buttons
They are starting to look really good

Btw, try not to make too many saves to the dds files, especially in the Atlases
Each time you save a dds in gimp/photoshop, there can be a small quality loss

 

[merijn_v1]

Oh, just saw you also updated a couple buttons
They are starting to look really good

Btw, try not to make too many saves to the dds files, especially in the Atlases
Each time you save a dds in gimp/photoshop, there can be a small quality loss

Ok. I wasn't aware of that.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Merijn, a couple things:

Please don't delete any of the recently added art files from the pfk, and revert them back to the original Civ IV files, even if seemingly I didn't do any changes
If they were put there that means I made some smaller changes, or plan to do something with them

The civilizations dds atlas was intentionally uncompressed. I spent a couple hours on improving them, as they are the only buttons that show up on a much bigger scale (in the civilopedia)
From the previous page of this thread:

Btw, as the civ section of the civilopedia shows a very big sized version of the civilization buttons, there is serious quality loss when using compression
Those buttons are only 64*64 after all, like all the other buttons, but shown in a much bigger size
So I decided to have an exception for them, and use uncompressed version
Otherwise all dds files should use DXT3 or DXT1 in the mod

I noticed you didn't put the grimaldi.dds (corporation st. george) into the atlas
Was this intentional, or should I put it near the other corp buttons into the wonder atlas?

 

[merijn_v1]

Merijn, a couple things:

Please don't delete any of the recently added art files from the pfk, and revert them back to the original Civ IV files, even if seemingly I didn't do any changes
If they were put there that means I made some smaller changes, or plan to do something with them

Oh, ok. Sorry for that. I thought they were just "sitting" there without a good reason. It made it even more suspicious to me because they were (almost) all UB.

The civilizations dds atlas was intentionally uncompressed. I spent a couple hours on improving them, as they are the only buttons that show up on a much bigger scale (in the civilopedia)
From the previous page of this thread:

Again sorry for that. I hope I didn't spoil your time too much.

I noticed you didn't put the grimaldi.dds (corporation st. george) into the atlas
Was this intentional, or should I put it near the other corp buttons into the wonder atlas?

Yes, this is intentional. When I compressed it, some red parts changed color to another, more bordeaux red. Which made it very ugly. grimaldi.dds is the only image that has this problem.
(You can try it yourself. Save the file in DXT3, close the image and reload it again.)

 

[AbsintheRed]

Oh, ok. Sorry for that. I thought they were just "sitting" there without a good reason. It made it even more suspicious to me because they were (almost) all UB.

Again sorry for that. I hope I didn't spoil your time too much.

Don't worry, there was no harm done
I simply reverted your changes, and readded the buttons and your other changes to the atlases to the pak file

Yes, this is intentional. When I compressed it, some red parts changed color to another, more bordeaux red. Which made it very ugly. grimaldi.dds is the only image that has this problem.
(You can try it yourself. Save the file in DXT3, close the image and reload it again.)

Oh, okay
Will try to fix it

 

[merijn_v1]

There nothing really to fix. It's just that the colors will change when the image is compressed. When it's not it works fine.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Maybe you could upload the todo list, so I can take a look at it and maybe take over some things.

Last time I noticed in the civilopedia that the art for Tea, Slaves, Honey and Barley are not perfect
Could you look around in some other mods? Maybe we can use some more suited graphics for them

 

[merijn_v1]

No problem.

 

[AbsintheRed]

No problem.

Great, thanks!
AFAIK there is good art for some of them in some of the bigger mods, for example Honey in SoI
Didn't check it though, so I may be wrong about this

PS: there is also a debug error in the log:
RESMGR: Texture Wheat2.dds failed to load
Probably one of the resources nifs (maybe barley?) links to a wrong texture file
Could you check this one too?

PS2: A couple other texture related mistakes, but I didn't check them yet:
RESMGR: Texture FlagDECAL.dds failed to load
RESMGR: Texture PlayerColor01.tga failed to load
RESMGR: Texture PlayerColor02.tga failed to load

 

[merijn_v1]

I have no experience with nif files.


An idea for the Slave art.
What about giving it the art of the Zulu Ikhanda or a Goody Hut. These will represent the african villages the slaves came from. As it is only aviable by colonies, you can't put a improvement on it, so the won't mess up because the art of the resource and the improvement don't "match".
(I'm not sure if this is possible) EDIT: It is possible
AFAIK, there is no slave resource on the forums.

I can't find a good art for Barley (yet).
EDIT: After a quick search it seems that this is the only available barley art.

 

[AbsintheRed]

I like all of them
Ikhandas also look good