Unit creation

Wow, so are you saying that we can actually make units already? Can the exporter do animatoins?

If so, then this is really quite cool.
 
woah! do they actually work as a unit? able to animate? why are they solid red?! please ellaborate more on your testings :)
 
What's the actual process though? You export the file as a .nif, but then where do you put it? And what, if any other steps are required?

I did a lot of stuff in 3D graphics for Civ3, but obviously, this is new to me since I'm not rendering still images...

Also, how would we make the skins or export skins to be edited for particular units?
 
Gaias, those spheres look goooood! What stats are you giving that unit? <g>

Hey, its a start! How did you get it in the game? And what other scenarios are in the game, I see you put the spheres in the Revolutionary war scenario.

Thanks.
 
Whoa... hey...now... not all at once there! :p I was just doing it for fun to see if I could do it. All it is is a basic geosphere primitive replacing the .nif file for the militia unit in the American Revolutionary war senario. All I really wanted to see was if I was right about the 3d applications needing an exteral exporter plugin to make the .nif files.

Now what I know about .nif is very basic (mostly gleaned from the Morrowind Modding Community), and I don't really know enough to be of any use to anyone. What I do know is that no units are going to be made until either the exporter is shipped with the SDK or some ingenious programmer/modeller makes a plugin that can export .nif files for one of the freeware based 3d applications.

Then again it wouldn't be hard for a modeller to make a unit in a freeware 3d application and export it as a .3ds format and then have someone with 3ds max to export it to a .nif file. I say 3ds max because that is the only program (other than Maya) that can export to the .nif format.


From what I understand of the .nif format it is what holds the base model and texture map coordinates (also I think other stuff like world coordinates, alpha channel, etc.). I think animation is held in seperate keyframe file, the .kf (I think Poser can also export keyframe animation files, so it could be feasible to make units in that program), yet the I think all the .kf files are organized by the .kfm. If I remember correctly that is the master file that controls all the animation or at least their xzy coordinates. The textures I believe are stored either in .dds or .tga formats, usually 128x128 or 256x256 in dimension.

Remember I think this is what some of it is I cannot be sure. I am just making some educated guesses here. I know not very helpful... :sad:
 
Ekmek said:
can anyone post a texture file yet, just to see the format. (not sure if firaxis would get upset yet, it is for a good cause
Click to expand...

Putting a watermark on the texture ought to prevent anybody from Firaxis getting too worked up about it.



As for exporting from 3DS Max, I have that, so I can export 3DS files as .nif files...

I guess the only way I'm going to figure out how to do this is to sit down tonight and fiddle with it until I finally get it.
 
NIF (NetImmerse file Format)
This is the native file format of the 3D engine used by SSI for PG3DA and PG3SE. The engine is the NetImmerse 3D engine, which is made by Numerical Design Ltd.

All *.NIF file for PG3DA and SE, that means all 3D object such as Maps, units, Shadows etc.. is made in 3D Studio Max then converted to NIF format. The *.NIF is actual a somewhat "secret" format, its somewhat impossible to find specifications on it, unless you go a buy the complete 3D engine. All NIF file of PG3DA and PG3SE is version 2.3 of the NetImmerse File Format

Making new maps or units is not going be a slam dunk that is for sure. As I understand it the companies that license or buy this engine does not have the right to release its code.

Well you can download a free utility at Numerical Design Ltd, called MAXI Immerse that can actual convert 3D studio Max format to *.NIF. I don't know if *.NIF is a lose-less format, meaning if its actual possible to convert back to 3D Studio Max format. Anyhow there is not such an utility available for free anywhere, - unless you buy the NetImmerse engine. So for now its not even possible to actual view any of the NIF files found in the Panzer3 games, not to speaks of making you own.
Click to expand...

from:
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22521&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

They have made a .NIF importer for Blender, but no exporter as of yet.

I intend to look at all the file types before I even play a game. :D

I did, however, notice how incredibly mum Firaxis has been on graphic modifications. If it is true .NIF does not allow conversion, we could be one sad group of modders.
 
I've got Pirates! a few months ago and the only graphics mods I saw were new textures :-/
 
People have been adding models to Morrowind, which uses the .NIF format. The hard part will be figuring out how to animate the models.

Maybe the SDK will have conversion utilities and/or tutorials. If not, I'm sure someone will figure it out.
 
...

If we can't export original 3D models and stuff into Civ 4, I'm not sure I'll get it at all, and that would make for a very sad day. :(

I'm not so concerned about using only freeware prgorams, I'm going to get one of the major programs (either Studio Max or Maya) anyways, eventually, but as I said, if there's no way to make new models, no Orthanc contributions to Civ 4!

Yeah, only modding textures in Pirates! was a bit of a let down, I would have loved to pack that thing with dozens more ship types.
 
Firaxis denying us the ability to add our own 3D models, would be a slap in the face to us unit makers. So far, I'm hoping for the abiltity to add my own 3D units in addition to being able to tweak the combat abilties in CivIV (give warships the ability for strike warfare, ie-bombarding units outside of a city). Those are the only reasons I'm not taking the game back right now. But, perhaps I should, and buy it when I know for sure about the 3D model details when the SDK comes out.
 
vingrjoe said:
Firaxis denying us the ability to add our own 3D models, would be a slap in the face to us unit makers. So far, I'm hoping for the abiltity to add my own 3D units in addition to being able to tweak the combat abilties in CivIV (give warships the ability for strike warfare, ie-bombarding units outside of a city). Those are the only reasons I'm not taking the game back right now. But, perhaps I should, and buy it when I know for sure about the 3D model details when the SDK comes out.
Click to expand...

Well VingRJoe, if your talents can't be used in Civ IV, that will be a true waste.
I think you and I know of one scenario that won't be ported over to Civ IV, if the above posts are accurate.
 
The problem is WeaselOp is that is not to export all the information (animation, textures, mesh, etc) with the current group of NIF Exporters. Most of the open source plugins for the freeware/professional applications are either in alpha (can export Mesh/Texture) or beta (can export most, but may screw something up along the way). The big concern here is most of the NIF Exporter plugins are being made for current games that use the GameBryo engine. They may not be compatible depending on how the plugin exports information. For all we know as of yet there can be a huge difference as to be no compatibility with preexistiing open source plugins.

True I was able to export a very simple object into Civ4, but I don't know if it was the correct information in the export, for the game to use.
 
OK, ATI users, sorry, I don't know how well ATI supports developers, I only knwo a bit about NVidia, and they put out excellent tools. If you have an NVidia card, you can try to modify these files, but of course, be warened, and back up first!

In


C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Shaders\FXO

are .fx files, which if you have an NVidia card, can be editied with this:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/fx_composer_home.html#2 I believe.

Shader are used to create color and light effects.

In
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art\Movies\Era
are .dds files. These are stills for something

(AFAIK, these files are usually used on textures for models. I can use NVidia's MeLODy to to create certain .dds files for normal maps.... ones I don't see the Civ IV engine using.)

The rest of the movies appear to be .bics, and there was an editing tool mentioned in the C&C threads for .bik, but I am not sure where
that thread was.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html

is where you can find another NVidia tool, that allows you to directly manipulate .dds files through Adobe photoshop... (which I do not have)

anyways, here is a look at an infantry texture, using NVidia's Windows Texture viewer:
This texture is 128 by 128, and IIRC, .dds files are also only 256 color. This was found in the
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods\American Revolution\Assets\Art\Units\Militia folder

It also appears there are 3 file types for models:

.NIF, already mentioned, this would be the mesh files
.kf = keyframe files, I assume these handle the animations, since they are all named after animations
and .kfm = I don't know what this is, but since their is only one, and it is named after the model, I would assume the m stands for "master".... OK, enough investigating the engine... back to a game as the Japanese....
 

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