Using 2D Leaderscenes with ingame Voiceovers

[Leugi]

So yeah, this is actually really simple. I'm making this a tutorial, mostly because I' didn't see it on another, most usually just point you out to adding the 2D scene while deleting the 3D, and thus having no voice at all. This tutorial assumes you already know how to add a leader with xml, and all that.

Let's say you're making a custom civilization and adding a leader to it. Of course, since the whole leader modeling is still an issue, you'll likely add a 2D .dds image as the leader.

The whole process, as in some other tutorials like Kael's guide is usually at follows:

In the Leader xml:​

<Leaders>
		<Row>
			<Type>LEADER_KATARI</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_LEADER_KATARI</Description>
			<Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_LEADER_KATARI_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
			<CivilopediaTag>TXT_KEY_CIVILOPEDIA_LEADER_KATARI</CivilopediaTag>
			[B]<ArtDefineTag>Katari_Scene.xml</ArtDefineTag>[/B]
			<VictoryCompetitiveness>5</VictoryCompetitiveness>
			<WonderCompetitiveness>3</WonderCompetitiveness>
			<MinorCivCompetitiveness>9</MinorCivCompetitiveness>
			<Boldness>10</Boldness>
			<DiploBalance>3</DiploBalance>
			<WarmongerHate>10</WarmongerHate>
			<DenounceWillingness>10</DenounceWillingness>
			<DoFWillingness>6</DoFWillingness>
			<Loyalty>8</Loyalty>
			<Neediness>10</Neediness>
			<Forgiveness>1</Forgiveness>
			<Chattiness>10</Chattiness>
			<Meanness>3</Meanness>
			<PortraitIndex>1</PortraitIndex>
			<IconAtlas>CIV_COLOR_ATLAS_QULLANA</IconAtlas>
		</Row>
	</Leaders>

So, you have your leaderscene. From this point, you actually have 3 options with your 2D leaderscene dds:

• Using the 2D scene on low quality graphic options, and using an existant 3D model on high quality. This will keep the voiceover, but you will likely have to warn your mod users that you must set the quality to low if you want to see the scene.
• Making the 2D scene override completelly the 3D model, and thus making it a silent leader. This way it doesn't matter if the graphic quality is set to high, because it will always show the 2D scene.
• Overriding partially the 3D scene with the 2D .dds, while keeping an existant voiceover. This is kind of a way of having a bit of both.

Option 1: Custom Low Quality 2D scene, existant High quality 3D scene.

You may want to use this if you mostly want to have a full animated leader as something more important than seeing your .dds . Don't know if its the case of anyone, but well.

All you have to do is copy the attributes from another scene, in this case I copied the ones from Pachacuti to our Katari_Scene.xml (Referenced in the Leader xml). And replace the bolded part with your DDS

<LeaderScene FarClip="600000" lights="Pachacuti_Lights.gr2" camera="Inca_Pachacuti_Camera.fxsxml" camera_animation="Inca_Pachacuti_CAMERA_CAMERA_LOOP" ColorKey="Pachacuti_COLORKEY.tga" cubemap_prefix ="Pachacuti" [B]FallbackImage="Katari.dds[/B]">

	<HackLightSettings color="255,175,255" direction="-0.46,-1.1,-0.2" intensity="0.1" />

	<DOFSettings max_width="3.04" blur_distance="1059" ramp_distance="729" ></DOFSettings>
	<BloomSettings max_width="13.04" scale="1.60" min="1.11" ></BloomSettings>

	<LeaderObject  model="Inca_Pachacuti.fxsxml"></LeaderObject>
	<BackgroundObject model="Pachacuti_Scene.fxsxml" ></BackgroundObject>
	<BackgroundObject model="Pachacuti_Scene_VFX.fxsxml" ></BackgroundObject>

</LeaderScene>

Option 2: Only 2D image without voiceovers

You may want this if you are making, say, a Portuguese Leader, and of course you don't want him saying "Welcome to America", so you simply don't have a voiceover adequate for your leader...

All you have to do in the Katari_Scene.xml is the following:

<LeaderScene [B]FallbackImage="Katari.dds[/B]">

</LeaderScene>

This way you can keep your High graphic settings and the leader will show in 2D anyway.

Option 3: 2D image with existant voicovers

Now, the reason of this tutorial. Honestly, it bugs me a bit when I use custom leaders without voices, even if the voices would be a bit not-accurate. Therefore, I wanted to put them voices, without having to lower my graphic quality.

An interesting case for this would be, say, if you make Lincoln. You can easily use Washington's voice there, without feeling guilty.

So, this is simply it, on the Katari_Scene.xml:

<LeaderScene FallbackImage="Katari.dds">

	<LeaderObject  model="Inca_Pachacuti.fxsxml"></LeaderObject>

</LeaderScene>

So... It seems that when there are no gibberish model stuff aside from the model itself, the game decides to simply use the FallbackImage. For some reason, the voice is associated with the model, even when it can't load the model entirely.

This way you can have a 2D fixed leader image, an ingame voiceover, and High Quality video settings.

Reccomended Tutorials before reading this one:

• Kael's Modders Guide: Its perfect for starters, although it doesn't have certain Expansion-specific stuff.
• DDS Texture (Image File) Creation and Usage for Beginners: Also useful, when making leaderscenes you'll have to use .dds'
• How to replace leaderhead 3D animations with 2D still images (& then add 2D leaders) Also useful, but be sure to read all the pages, as many things changed with the course of time.