The Capo's LH Gallery and Self-Help Thread!

[achilleszero]

Personally I don't think anything is wrong with it, but AchillesZero says it is sub-par in the texturing department.

The only part I dont like is the face. For some reason it looks very plastic to me. Looking at other LHs, I see that the face and beards seem to be where people have the most trouble. So I guess its to be expected. The rest of it actually looks very good.

 

[The Capo]

Capo,

Try this out and let me know how it goes on one of your leaderheads. maybe salaminissa (sp?)

this is how you give shaders to LHs with the new blender. Or atleast I think so, but I want you try it so i can give good instructions in my guide.

1) import a shaded firaxis nif.
2) do your stuff then export it as usual.
3) now the exported nif should have all the stuff like EnvironmentalIntensityIndex and the four texture files.
4)Click on the NiStrips parent of all those things (highlight in blue on screenshot)
5) Scroll to the bottom of the block details until you see the part I boxed in red, the HasShader
6)Set the values to what I have in the 2nd screenshot box circled in red (Only three lines)
thats it you have shaders but you may have to mess with the lighting (the light bulb stuff) to get the coloring you want - it works like material properties.


I also found a way to add these files to a nonshaded LH (like our old stuff). but doing it through nifskope doesnt seem to always work so I copy the shaded one over to my old one and then import it into blender. then I join the two objects and delete the old materials in object mode and that seems to do it. then re-export and nifswap.

I'll keep all of this in mind. I'm actually taking a hiatus from LH-making until I get to the new leaders part of my mod. Then I'll be making like twelve or so at once. The reason is because I have to tweak a few units here and there, and put together all of these flavored sets so its easier just to do one thing at a time rather than try to multi-task. Plus I'm a lot busier at work now than I was previously, so my time is limited. But in a matter of weeks I'll be back to making LHs again.

 

[The Capo]

The only part I dont like is the face. For some reason it looks very plastic to me. Looking at other LHs, I see that the face and beards seem to be where people have the most trouble. So I guess its to be expected. The rest of it actually looks very good.

Honestly the face is actually from CFK's Rocky and Bullwinkle LH, fearless leader or whatever. I didn't make it myself.

 

[IgorS]

Honestly the face is actually from CFK's Rocky and Bullwinkle LH, fearless leader or whatever. I didn't make it myself.

I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise I'll succeed.

 

[cfkane]

The only part I dont like is the face. For some reason it looks very plastic to me. Looking at other LHs, I see that the face and beards seem to be where people have the most trouble. So I guess its to be expected. The rest of it actually looks very good.

My bad. It's probably because the mesh on which it's based isn't shaded, so it's clashing with the other materials.

Oh, and I've hit a small snag in my next LH. I'm trying to add a custom object with a reflective surface to the nif. I've set the texture up fine enough, and the object is registering the base texture, gold_Env, and a custom ESMK texture I made. The problem is that in addition to my own ESMK, it's registering the ESMK file that the rest of the mesh uses, resulting in an unwanted reflective texture. Any idea how to work around this?

 

[Ekmek]

you cant rename it in nifskope?

 

[The Capo]

you cant rename it in nifskope?

I would certainly try this first. If that doesn't work perhaps you could try removing it.

 

[cfkane]

If you mean rename the EMSK texture, I'm already using separate textures with different names.

But I've fiddled with it some more, and it looks like this texture is appearing on the object even without my custom EMSK file attached.

 

[IgorS]

Capo, I remember you had a problem with Yaroslav's cape? Could you tell me what it was? I think I have the same problem with Vercingetorix, but I'm not sure.

 

[achilleszero]

@TheCapo: I was looking at your Solomon and Mongkut and weeding out extraneous files and optimizing the textures to cut down on total file size and noticed a curiousity with the two LHs. The NRML textures do not seemed to be assigned to either LH. Are these not needed with Solomon and Mongkut? What are the NRML textures for anyways?

And by the way both of these LHs look slightly better in sceneviewer and in-game than they do in your screenshots in the OP. Did you redo them since then or is it just the screenshot?

 

[The Capo]

@TheCapo: I was looking at your Solomon and Mongkut and weeding out extraneous files and optimizing the textures to cut down on total file size and noticed a curiousity with the two LHs. The NRML textures do not seemed to be assigned to either LH. Are these not needed with Solomon and Mongkut? What are the NRML textures for anyways?

And by the way both of these LHs look slightly better in sceneviewer and in-game than they do in your screenshots in the OP. Did you redo them since then or is it just the screenshot?

I have no idea if the NRML textures do anything.

And also thanks, but I did not alter them at all. I am redoing Solomon though for my new mod.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Was the how-to-add a leaderhead guide you were talking about just the link to wolfshanze guide?

 

[The Capo]

@ TheLastOne36; I believe so. I don't see what the problem with it is. I used that to learn and I add leaderheads with no problems all the time. You have to make sure that first you have added the LH to the LeaderHeadInfos file, then you have to make sure that you add it to the ArtDefinesLeaderhead file, then you have to make sure you add it to the leaders for whatever civ you are adding it to, then you should write up the game text, the civilopedia, and the diplomacy entries. As far as I know that is all that is required.

@ IgorS; there wasn't really a problem with the cape so much. The real problem was that what was underneath the cape would clip with the cape whenever I put the cape on "snugly." At the time I wasn't able to really fix it, but now I have a lot more skills in this area and Yaroslav will be one of the many LHs I will update once I finish my mod and get to the Ukrainian module.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Your a little bit late.

I've spent most of the day ironing out the errors. I now know how to add in leaders no problem.

Still that does not help the fact that Wolfshanze's tut is fairly unclear and very easy for xml noobs to get lost and/or stuck. I have a little talent at providing clear step-by-step guides, so i'm actually thinking of making a new tut on adding in leaderheads.

The only problem i'm having is with my one civilization that keeps on starting with 8000+ settlers each game. I guess I will redo the civ from scratch as nobody seems to know the answer to how to fix it.

 

[IgorS]

@ IgorS; there wasn't really a problem with the cape so much. The real problem was that what was underneath the cape would clip with the cape whenever I put the cape on "snugly." At the time I wasn't able to really fix it, but now I have a lot more skills in this area and Yaroslav will be one of the many LHs I will update once I finish my mod and get to the Ukrainian module.

I also have a way of fixing this clipping issue. I got the idea from looking at the Charlemagne LH. This is very simple- you just delete everything underneath the cape and you have no clipping problems!

 

[IgorS]

Still that does not help the fact that Wolfshanze's tut is fairly unclear and very easy for xml noobs to get lost and/or stuck. I have a little talent at providing clear step-by-step guides, so i'm actually thinking of making a new tut on adding in leaderheads.

I disagree. This tutorial is very clear if you just follow the steps carefully. I installed my first leaderheads with this tutorial and I didn't have any problems.

 

[cfkane]

I'm trying to export a LH I made in blender and I'm getting the error message, "list index out of range". I did a quick Google search of the phrase and some people have linked it to having objects without materials. But I've checked and I don't think I have any objects without it.

Is there another interpretation of this message?

 

[The Capo]

I'm trying to export a LH I made in blender and I'm getting the error message, "list index out of range". I did a quick Google search of the phrase and some people have linked it to having objects without materials. But I've checked and I don't think I have any objects without it.

Is there another interpretation of this message?

Hmm, I don't know of any other interpretations, and honestly haven't come across this issue myself. You might want to make sure that you didn't accidentally forget a small portion of something while editing.

Maybe Ekmek may know of an alternate reason for this message.

 

[Ekmek]

did you check your materials? i dont think i've seen this error before but i usually mess with materials a lot. in edit mode you highlight something then go to uv mode what happens. What abou the materials button?

maybe post your blend.

 

[cfkane]

I'll just post it.

Here ya go