[R&F] [SOLVED] Help with historic moment art

[Zobtzler]

Hello. I've been trying to implement some textures for 2 new historic moments regarding unique units for a civ I'm creating, and I have the SQL for it and both the .dds file and the .tex file are in the texture folder.

Unsurprisingly they don't work as I suspect I need an XLP and an ArtDef for them too, however I don't know how to make these for historic moments.

Does anyone else know?

 

[Deliverator]

You don't need to have an ArtDef for Historic Moment images - you just need to add the image as a User Interface texture as you would an Icon and then add it to an XLP then it will be available.

 

[Zobtzler]

Thanks, that seems to have fixed it

 

[ambelgra]

Like Zobtzler, I've figured out how to get the moments into the game. They appear, per se. But they don't appear correctly. It seems like they are OVER the timeline screen and not being filtered right. How do I get my two moments (the ones on the left and right) to look like the Firaxis one in the middle?



As you can see, the images are both off center and seemingly opaque. How do I get them to blend into the timeline screen basically?

 

[Deliverator]

You need to use an alpha channel in your Historic Moment .dds texture for transparent. The image should be roughly 100% opaque towards the centre and completely transparent around the edges.

 

[ambelgra]

You need to use an alpha channel in your Historic Moment .dds texture for transparent. The image should be roughly 100% opaque towards the centre and completely transparent around the edges.

Played around with it, seems like the dds already had an alpha channel, I just never manipulated it. The other question I have is: what size should the moment be? My images keep coming in too large and uncentered. Like the image on the left, it's an overhead shot of a football stadium. I gotta get the center of the stadium in the middle of the shot.

Thank you though, for all the help.

 

[ambelgra]

Figured it out. So basically through trial and error, I started making the width of my photos 350 pixels and the height varies because of the photos I was using. But sticking to widths under 400 seemed good enough for the game to size the photo properly.

As for getting the right "look", using Photoshop, I would use an oil painting filter, to soften the photo. Then desaturate, invert it, then copy the visual layer INTO the alpha layer. Then fill the visual layer with a brown shade. This is how I created these Moment images:



You'll also have to play around with your brushes so that you can erase the edges and corners. Use the hardness and opacity sliders. Also use the blurring functions, to blend hard edges. If your new to Photoshop or GIMP, it can be frustrating to get the right look but once you figure it out, it'll make more sense.

 

[Foulweather]

May I ask what SQL/XML you used? I've added images as UI textures and added them to my XLP, but they still don't show up.

 

[Zobtzler]

Sure. This is what I used

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS MomentIllustrations (MomentIllustrationType TEXT, MomentDataType TEXT, GameDataType TEXT, Texture TEXT);
INSERT INTO MomentIllustrations
        (MomentIllustrationType,               MomentDataType,        GameDataType,                        Texture)
VALUES  ('MOMENT_ILLUSTRATION_UNIQUE_UNIT',    'MOMENT_DATA_UNIT',    'UNIT_ZOB_SWEDEN_CAROLEAN',          'HM_ZOB_SWEDEN_CAROLEAN.dds'),
        ('MOMENT_ILLUSTRATION_UNIQUE_UNIT',    'MOMENT_DATA_UNIT',    'UNIT_ZOB_SWEDEN_HAKKAPELIITTA',     'HM_ZOB_SWEDEN_HAKKAPELIITTA.dds');

 

[Deliverator]

May I ask what SQL/XML you used? I've added images as UI textures and added them to my XLP, but they still don't show up.

Have you updated Mod.Art.xml? The easiest way to generate it is to use thecrazyscotsman's Mod Art Generator.

 

[Foulweather]

That SQL fixed it, thanks! I think I was trying to insert my values into a table that didn't exist. Now my images appear.

Now off to make the images match the Firaxis style, which should take a while...