[TUT] Using NIF Viewer to edit units (long)

[Bahmo]

EDIT: In accordance with Rabbit's request, I took the whole quote out of my post.

I hate to sound like a total idiot, but since I can use Max, I should reap the benefits of this tutorial, hence these two basic questions:

1) "if you have 3ds max 6 or 7+ then download the appropriate version and unzip directly into max’s root directory." Could you please explain what a root directory is? I did what I thought I should have, but I can't seem to get this to work (As in, I don't knoiw where to open the NIF viewer.)

2) Where do I find these "NIF" files (only answer in case it won't be obvious, once I get the plugin properly installed.

 

[Nolan]

There are nif files in the unit animation folders.
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art is where some of mine are.

If you need others, I might be able to help you. Message me with your request and email and I will send you some files.

 

[Bahmo]

There are nif files in the unit animation folders.
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art is where some of mine are.

If you need others, I might be able to help you. Message me with your request and email and I will send you some files.

Now I've found some NIF files, but I still don't understand exactly how I'm supposed to view them with that plugin I downloaded. Also, the library is incomplete; I can only find a few fragments of the game there. I'll do what you said if it comes to that, but right now I must ask, where are those files if I can see them in the game, but not in my directory?

 

[Rabbit, White]

Bahmo, the plugin zip should be unzipped into your 3dsmax installation directory, something like C:/Program Files/3dsmax/ and let it overwrite anything it wants. The nif viewer is unzipped together with the plugin, the executable for it is called SceneViewer.exe and should be in the 3dsmax directory after you unzip the plugin.

As for the NIF files, you might have to unpack Civ4 art resources. To do that you need to download an unpacking tool available from firaxis' civ4 website, they also have all the unstructions for it there.

 

[khmerballa]

hey help why is my whole swordsman pink. I open up scene viewer and open the swordsman.nif, and the sworsman is all pink. I put the boundshape.nif and boundshape.tga into the swordsman folder in the civ 4 directory.Some other units like the pikeman has some pink, the musketman had only the legs and arms pink please help. Appreciate it.

 

[Rabbit, White]

hey help why is my whole swordsman pink. I open up scene viewer and open the swordsman.nif, and the sworsman is all pink. I put the boundshape.nif and boundshape.tga into the swordsman folder in the civ 4 directory.Some other units like the pikeman has some pink, the musketman had only the legs and arms pink please help. Appreciate it.

If something is completely pink (as oppose to a pink shader over the texture) then it means that the texture is missing. You probably haven't unpacked all the resources and are missing some textures, make sure you unpacked all four artpack files.

 

[King Flevance]

quick question, just clarify. Is this software 35 bucks or 3500 bucks?

 

[Rabbit, White]

quick question, just clarify. Is this software 35 bucks or 3500 bucks?

NIF viewer is free, 3ds max is probably $3500, definitely not $35. Although there is a student version I think that comes at a significant discount.

 

[Padmewan]

Let me ask what seems like an obvious question but isn't clear to me after reading this entire thread: Do you need 3DSMax to use NIF viewer?

(And what kinds of jobs do you ppl have that you can afford $3500 software???)

 

[Rabbit, White]

Let me ask what seems like an obvious question but isn't clear to me after reading this entire thread: Do you need 3DSMax to use NIF viewer?

(And what kinds of jobs do you ppl have that you can afford $3500 software???)

Preparation

Download the 3ds max plugins, if you have 3ds max 6 or 7+ then download the appropriate version and unzip directly into max’s root directory. If you don’t have 3ds max then download any version and unzip wherever.

While it's not stated in so many words, the fact that I say download it (and thus use it) without having 3ds max, implies that you do not need 3ds max to use the NIF viewer.

As for the second question, there is a 30-day trial version of 3ds max on its website.

 

[Padmewan]

While it's not stated in so many words, the fact that I say download it (and thus use it) without having 3ds max, implies that you do not need 3ds max to use the NIF viewer.

Yup, that's the clarification I wanted. Thanks

The tough thing about the game industry is that Firaxis could have made the game cutting-edge or made it accessible to modders, but probably not both, unless technology stands still for quite a while. I wish I had gotten into modding back in its 2D heyday. By the time they invent some kind of Minority Report interface for 3D modeling, we'll be on to Smellogaming or something.

 

[esnaz]

i can't find "swordsman.nif"...

when I go to Assets->Art->Units it only has a couple of folders...help!

 

[Rabbit, White]

i can't find "swordsman.nif"...

when I go to Assets->Art->Units it only has a couple of folders...help!

You need to unpack the resource files, here's a thread on it.

 

[esnaz]

thanks

(i've been puzzled by that for a while now)

 

[Bahmo]

Bahmo, the plugin zip should be unzipped into your 3dsmax installation directory, something like C:/Program Files/3dsmax/ and let it overwrite anything it wants. The nif viewer is unzipped together with the plugin, the executable for it is called SceneViewer.exe and should be in the 3dsmax directory after you unzip the plugin.

As for the NIF files, you might have to unpack Civ4 art resources. To do that you need to download an unpacking tool available from firaxis' civ4 website, they also have all the unstructions for it there.

OK, I got that Sceneviewer thingy to work, although the only thing I can view is mobile artillery, but when I visited the Civ4 site, I couldn't find anything that resembled the unpacker download. Here's a link to the whole downloads page, last I checked:

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/downloads.htm

 

[Rabbit, White]

Yeah I'm sorry I gave wrong directions here's a link to a thread where you can download the unpacking utility.

 

[Bahmo]

Yeah I'm sorry I gave wrong directions here's a link to a thread where you can download the unpacking utility.

Already got that. ANy help on using it?

 

[Rabbit, White]

It's fairly easy, select Unpack from the PAK menu, select the file, select the destination and hit OK. Only thing of note is that you'll want to unpack all four files (if you have four, you might have one, which is just the four grouped into one if I understand correctly) right away, because the files are spread out between them pretty much randomly, i.e. each might contain part of the files belonging to one unit, so if you unpack only one you might have a unit folder with only the nif files and no textures.

I'm sure there's a lot of other info on it, or possible problems and solutions in the thread itself.

 

[esnaz]

when i open scene viewer, it says "Renderer Creation Failed, please restart application"...how do i fix it?

 

[Rabbit, White]

when i open scene viewer, it says "Renderer Creation Failed, please restart application"...how do i fix it?

I'm sorry I never encountered an error like that so I can't help you. However, it sounds like it might be a graphics card error - check that you're using latest drivers.