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

[The Capo]

I'm here until friday morning. staying in crystal city. why are the roads all confusing? symbolic I'd say.

Confusing? They aren't confusing. In general they are pretty straight-forward, and they are all numbered. You are probably confused by the alternating one way streets. But that's all it is, one way, both ways, the other way, both ways, one way, both ways, the other way, etc. That is how it usually operates downtown.

 

[The Almighty dF]

Confusing? They aren't confusing. In general they are pretty straight-forward, and they are all numbered. You are probably confused by the alternating one way streets. But that's all it is, one way, both ways, the other way, both ways, one way, both ways, the other way, etc. That is how it usually operates downtown.

Just reading that was confusing.

However, I'm from Atlanta originally, so none of you can call anything road related confusing. Whatever you've seen, I've seen worse. Highways stretching -above-neighborhoods like a concrete jungle with so many twists and turns it looks like the world's greatest Hot Wheels playset.

 

[cool3a2]

There are a few things you could try to work on shininess. There are three shader maps involved with this effects:
- env.dds
- env_mask.dds
- spec.dds
The last two are similar. They are both greyscaled - the brighter something is, the stronger is the effect the shader maps creates on that part. One of the two files gives a rather metallic effect, the other one gives a look like a billard ball. I don't have in mind which of the two files controls which effect though. Thus, increase brightness of the parts you'd like to have more shiny.
The env map is basically seems to represent the sort of light that gets reflected. This is about the reflected lights colour, but also about its strength. Normally, the premade env.dds files that show a silver dot, are very well for eyes, but not too good for metallic effects. Ekmeks Attila contains a pretty good env map for metallic effects. Try the map Attilas helmet uses. If you don't like the colouring, turn it greyscaled. This can massively affect the brightness, too.

Alternatively, you could work on the lights. Sceneviewer was useful for that. Start Sceneviewer from where it is installed to - that means either make a shortcut to there and use that or via explorer, browse to there and execute it. Do not double click on the nif file or right click at it and then choose open with as then, Sceneviewer doesn't handle the shader effects correctly. Now, browse the tree on the right to find some lights. Right click at them and from there on, you'll find your way on you own. Some lights have a strong influence, other only a weak one, so you'll need to play with them a little. However, Sceneviewer will give you a pretty good preview IMO (and is therefor also valuable when you work on the shader maps). As you might know, sceneviewer adds another node on top of the nif everytime you save it. If you ask me, you should nifswap the lights at the end, otherwise you'll soon add a bunch of needless and annoying nodes. Some users, btw, don't get sceneviewer to work. Nitram for example. I bet this was due to his ATI graphics card.

EDIT: Maybe The Capo is related to Al Capone?

 

[Triver]

Capo (or ekmek), one question, how do you edit the shinyness of an object? I really want the gold objects on Hayam to shine maybe a little bit more.

I know. Ekmek's guide page 41-Adding shaders.
How to add ENV? Remove branch NiTexturingProperty and paste branch NiTexturingProperty from original.

 

[The Capo]

Edit: And another question, why did you choose the name The Capo?

When I signed up for Apolyton in 2000 I was doing a report in High School about the Italian-American Mafia. I couldn't come up with a nickname and had a chart of the heirarchy of the mafia, and saw "Capo" as one of the ranks, so I just used that name. It is a short version of the Caporegime and is also present in the term Capo di tutti capi. And no, I am not Italian, my great grandfather was Italian but that is about all the Italian blood I know of.

 

[cybrxkhan]

^Off topic, but recently I watched an anime called Da Capo (has nothing to do with Italy or the mafia), so everytime I see you here on CFC it pops into my head. Which is a bit disturbing.

 

[NotSoGood]

^Off topic, but recently I watched an anime called Da Capo (has nothing to do with Italy or the mafia), so everytime I see you here on CFC it pops into my head. Which is a bit disturbing.

more off topic...
We have a Da Capo chocolate bar here in Finland.

 

[smeagolheart]

more off topic...
We have a Da Capo chocolate bar here in Finland.

A Capo is a clamp-like device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the strings, hence raising the pitch.

 

[The Almighty dF]

A Capo is a clamp-like device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the strings, hence raising the pitch.

Mafia... clamps...

 

[The Capo]

And yet again, the way is paved for yet another futurama reference in my LH gallery.

 

[cool3a2]

And just for note, for some wierd reason, Scenewiever have never worked for me. Simply will not run right on my computer.

Yeah, nitram wasn't able to get it running either. There's probably nothing you could do.

Think I found the problem. Don't think there are any light to reflect the metal effect. But that leads us to a new question, how do we add the light?

I would try to copy it (nifswap) from another leaderhead, probably the one you have based your LH on. Alternatively, do it vice-versa and nifswap your LH into the original leaderheads nif. Use the base LHs shadered version of course (I believe the lights of the shadered and the unshadered version of the same leaderhead can differ). Even if this might be no option for some reason, I would give it a shot just to see, if the shadering basically works.
Also, try to make your spec and env_mask temporarily as bright as possible, so that you'll notice it when the shaders start work in any case. Also, try the env file Ekmeks Attilas helmet uses - this will also increase the effect. Once you are sure that the shaders work, you can use own files of course, so make backups of your current files.

 

[cool3a2]

Try to copy lights from another shadered leaderhead coming with civ4 or one of its addons.

I don't think the shadering gets affected by the BG.nif or its lights, I'm actually pretty sure that only the lights that are in the same nif play a role.

 

[smeagolheart]

So anybody able to put the turban from theCapo's Gupta to make harun al-rashid?

Doesn't look too tough, the turban is already made that has to be the hard part. A little color here, a dash of beard there a suit swap and you'll have him.

 

[The Capo]

I already said I was going to make a Harun al-Rashid LH. I just need to finish my mod before I get back to LHs. The mod is not very far from completion.

 

[AntiGoblin]

Hi!

To start with, I must say you have a most astonishingly great leaderhead gallery! Fantastic work! That's why I'm wondering if you could find the time and will to create a little leaderhead for my humble request.

I'd like to make an Illyrian Civ, but since I don't have the skill nor knowledge to create a leaderhead myself, I was wondering if you'd be interested of creating a queen Teuta for the greater good?

http://www.illyrians.org/images/queen Teuta 3rd Century BC.jpg - is the only reasonable interpretation of her that I could find right away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Teuta - and the obligatory link aswell.

If you could find the time, I would greatly appreciate your help.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Unfortunately, a lot of us people who can make leaderheads are busy with our own work (and our lives, more often than not), and frankly I'm not sure if any of the leaderhead makers still around can take any requests, so I will say that I do think that you should take veBear's suggestion and try to learn to make a leaderhead yourself. It isn't that daunting, it's just time consuming (though not that time consuming).

 

[Triver]

another LH maker who might have the time

I have the time.

 

[Triver]

Greek Queen by me and Charle as a base.

Maybe.

 

[Ekmek]

lol those were the days

 

[Ekmek]

Yeah, I guess the Golden Age of LH making is over as there are no more anyone pumping out LH's at a high speed.

all those high speed ones were of mediocre quality. I think our best ones were over the last year when we figured out shaders and animations.