[TUTORIAL] Skinning for Beginners

[dutchking]

You have to unzip the assets, look at the first post.

No need to apologize.

 

[Bob III]

Would you happen to know how to remove Roosevelt's glasses? Is it possible to just skin over them?

 

[Ekmek]

you can remove the glasses with nifskope IIRC

butthere are a lot of leaderheads out there with them already removed..see Civ Gold

 

[dutchking]

What the hell is the point of looking for one?

You do:
Right Click>Remove Branch.

Wow that was difficult.

 

[Bob III]

Uhhh... Not to be annoying, but does anyone know specificly which branches need to be removed to get rid of the glasses?

 

[dutchking]

The Glasses...

 

[Ekmek]

he means if you click on the glasses in nifskope the trishape will show and you just remmove that one. do it for the lenses too.

 

[Bob III]

Oh. Thanks.

 

[Jules.lt]

Just one thing I'd add: I eventually found out that I needed to set the texture search path as per http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Setting_the_Texture_Search_Path before I could actually see skins on my units.
I spent 30 minutes finding that out, so it could be nice to put that info in the first post so the next noob doesn't have to spend that time on it too.

 

[Flintlock1415]

I don't think the OP is still around; his last activity was in 2007...

 

[dutchking]

We could get a moderator to edit it in at the bottom of the post perhaps.

 

[Jules.lt]

could be helpful
just saying...

 

[cool3a2]

Hope some users still read this. The first post says...

The "spec".dds files are for specularity, which basically means shininess. The brighter it is in this file, the shinier it is in-game.

I always thought this is what the env_mask does... I recently had an LH in work, or better said it's still not finished, where someone changed the env_mask exactly the way it is described in the first post here. And it actually work, besides of the little thing that the metall object look a bit like sheet metal. So please, could anyone explain my the differences between those files?

 

[cool3a2]

Okay, I think I have finally found out what the difference is. As described the spec file touches the glossiness. The env_mask seems to create a crystal or billard ball. This effect is good for eyes, I think, maybe also sweat. Both effects, specularity / glossiness and environment mask, are increased the brighter the map at the corresponding point is and decreased by a darker value.

Another question: I created a nrml map with an nvidia plugin, but things still looks flat. Are there some important properties of a nrml map that I should switch on or give a certain value? So far I set MinZ to around 10. This time I even set it to some higher value (20 or even 30, I don't know anymore... It's some time ago that I did it). Suggestions?

 

[chaos0987654321]

yo does all this apply to BtS as well?

 

[fractalfeline]

So I have BTS and was trying to skin copper to make a new resource for a mod I'm trying to build. Um... what's "vanilla" and um... I don't have the file that needs unpacking in my assets folder. Help?

 

[fractalfeline]

Bump.

 

[The_J]

Vanilla is Civ4 without any addon (sometimes unmodified BtS is meant).

What you need is Pakbuild (download here).

 

[WIbigdog]

OK, so I wanted to edit the basic roads, and downloaded http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=13619 by ambrox62 and then edited it to look like the attachment. Just took off the borders(They make weird overlaps during the game) and put a bit of a smudge on it. When I got into the game though, most of each road isn't that texture, but an odd looking white one with a stripe down the center, and each tile with a road has only about one piece of that texture. What did I do wrong with it or what do I need to add? Thanks in advance!

Edit: For a bit more info I'm adding in a screen shot of what I mean, the one tile is just to the right of the two mines, between the mill there. Could really use some help on this one guys, I'm stumped!

Edit: I've moved the files into the main post on the modding section

 

[PizzaPlatypus]

how can I change or create a new flag?