Unit requests thread
- Thread starter Thunderfall
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PPQ_Purple
Purple Cube (retired)
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Doesn't FFH have a tiger riding elf unit? Maybe you can start with that as a base.
Jarmrik
Warlord
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It has, but it's a melee unit, so no rangedstrike, unfortunately.
Sturmgewher88mm
Kaiser
Does anyone have experience pulling units from other games? I was able to convert a .obj to a .nif but I'm struggling to convert the textures to .dds, it keeps turning them black and distorted 
Also since I haven't gotten to test ingame yet, will a high polygon count crash the game? If so, what's the best way to reduce polygon count without making the model unrecognizable?
Also since I haven't gotten to test ingame yet, will a high polygon count crash the game? If so, what's the best way to reduce polygon count without making the model unrecognizable?
The Tamriel mod has Elves/Orcs riding various deer and other various creatures. Let me know if you need help finding that mod.
SaibotLieh
Emperor
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Normally converting texture files to dds should be a rather straight forward process, since you are just changing one graphic file format into another. This can of course reduce the quality, but should not render them unusable. What kind are the original files, and are the resulting dds files themselves black and distorted or rather the textures on the units?Does anyone have experience pulling units from other games? I was able to convert a .obj to a .nif but I'm struggling to convert the textures to .dds, it keeps turning them black and distorted
Also since I haven't gotten to test ingame yet, will a high polygon count crash the game? If so, what's the best way to reduce polygon count without making the model unrecognizable?
As for the polygon count, more polygons will put more pressure on your system, slowing it down and at one point probably crashing it. But at which point the number of polygons become a problem is hard to tell and will differ from system to system. In general, I would try to not go too much higher than the original units, but two or maybe three times the standard polygon count should normally be unproblematic. It in fact also depends what kind of unit you want to create. If they are single model units like great people, generals, tanks and so on, they can have more polygons than three model units like warriors or swordmen. Also, it further depends how many of these units you will see at the same time. You can expect to have more workers and longbowmen at a given time than settlers and missionaries.
That all said, it is sadly not easy to reduce the polygon count and still being satisfied with how the unit looks afterwards. Blender for example has an option to do some automatic reduction, but that normally can make thin parts of the unit like arms and legs leave looking weird. But maybe there is some AI magic available nowadays.
Jarmrik
Warlord
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I agree with SaibotLieh (and would have asked the same for the texture part).
Also which softwares do you use to convert the said model? The "black and distorted" makes me think of an incorrect PNG use/conversion, or a problem with UVmap. Did you change the size of the original picture?
I'll add that if you're thinking about using a 70000 triangles OBJ and just use it as a CivIV NIF for numerous units (tanks or infantry for example), you'll never see the end of the gameturn.
From my own experience, I strongly advise against Blender's automated processes like "decimate"; it's a pure waste of time.
It's faster to do the model by yourself than working on a detailed one in the hope of having something usable (in terms of computer performances).
As PPQ_Purple mentioned once, an >100kb NIF file can already be considered as an heavy object for CivIV engine, if you want to use it for armies.
Also which softwares do you use to convert the said model? The "black and distorted" makes me think of an incorrect PNG use/conversion, or a problem with UVmap. Did you change the size of the original picture?
I'll add that if you're thinking about using a 70000 triangles OBJ and just use it as a CivIV NIF for numerous units (tanks or infantry for example), you'll never see the end of the gameturn.
From my own experience, I strongly advise against Blender's automated processes like "decimate"; it's a pure waste of time.
It's faster to do the model by yourself than working on a detailed one in the hope of having something usable (in terms of computer performances).
As PPQ_Purple mentioned once, an >100kb NIF file can already be considered as an heavy object for CivIV engine, if you want to use it for armies.
Jarmrik
Warlord
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Looking for a canid skeleton. Tamriel doesn't have any.
hrochland
Prince
@Sturmgewher88mm
I think most of us work in Blender. However, I remember that 3DMax had a tool to simplify the triangle system while preserving the texture clipping.
Unfortunately, I don't have 3DMax anymore.
Sturmgewher88mm
Kaiser
Normally converting texture files to dds should be a rather straight forward process, since you are just changing one graphic file format into another. This can of course reduce the quality, but should not render them unusable. What kind are the original files, and are the resulting dds files themselves black and distorted or rather the textures on the units?
As for the polygon count, more polygons will put more pressure on your system, slowing it down and at one point probably crashing it. But at which point the number of polygons become a problem is hard to tell and will differ from system to system. In general, I would try to not go too much higher than the original units, but two or maybe three times the standard polygon count should normally be unproblematic. It in fact also depends what kind of unit you want to create. If they are single model units like great people, generals, tanks and so on, they can have more polygons than three model units like warriors or swordmen. Also, it further depends how many of these units you will see at the same time. You can expect to have more workers and longbowmen at a given time than settlers and missionaries.
That all said, it is sadly not easy to reduce the polygon count and still being satisfied with how the unit looks afterwards. Blender for example has an option to do some automatic reduction, but that normally can make thin parts of the unit like arms and legs leave looking weird. But maybe there is some AI magic available nowadays.
SaibotLieh, Jarmrik, and hrochland, thank you all for the responses. The textures are .png. I'm trying to port the Elite Hellcat from Jak II as a jet fighter replacement.
I'm using Blender 3.6 but this is the first time I've ever done this or used Blender. I followed instructions generated by Grok (so not sure how reliable it is), so while I was able to convert the .obj to .nif, .png to .dds is proving difficult. After I got the textures converted I was going to move on to reducing the polygon count.
<Nexus>
Traveler of the Multiverse
If you succed I'd like a copy too
SaibotLieh
Emperor
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- Sep 25, 2009
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So, does the dds not look right or is the texture on the model wrong when using the dds? Maybe upload both files so we can have a look.
