GameByro exporters for Max/Maya?

[theatrus]

Does anyone know of any sources for export plugins for 3ds Max or Maya? Perhaps Firaxis will release a 'Civ4' edition to export models with?

As it stands right now, it will not be possible to fully replace unit models. It can reskin them it looks like, but not fully replace them model?

[drekmonger]

Morrowind and Pirates! both use the same file format for meshes as Civ4 (NIF), so exporters exist. There's a thread on CivFantics where a guy successfully exported a simple GeoBall and used it as a mesh for a unit using a NIF exporter on Milkshake (a free 3d modeler).

In theory, you could export any old model, but I doubt Civ4 would know how to rotate the model without a base bone.

We'll need to know what the base bone (if any) is labeled. In addition, for animations we'll need to know what the keyframes are labeled. For example, in Morrrowind, there's S: Idle Begin, S: Idle End, S: Attack Begin, S: Attack End, etc. etc

....otherwise the models will just be static without animation (which is probably fine for a homebrew mod anyway....)

Hopefully, someone in the know will expose these details long before the Jan SDK is released. Otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised if someone figures this stuff independatly--might be as simple as using some sort of pre-existing import plugin....I've never personally used the NIF format, so I don't know if the labels are preserved. Maybe they can be read with a hex editor?

[drekmonger]

A little more digging.

First, you might want to check out the thread on civfantics:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=132429

From that thread, apparently there's .kf and .kfm files for animation. "keyframe" files. Maybe they can be easily read with a text or hex editor...I won't know personally until tommorrow.

Some bad news:

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.

Doh. Really wish they had gone for a non-"secret" format.

[theatrus]

Yeah, thats what I've been fearing.

Has anyone found any links to these exporters for Maya/3ds? One of the things I liked about engines like Unreal is the wide availability of ActorX for easy model exporting. Hopefuly some solution will be found here.

[Locutus]

Graphics modding tools are still forthcoming, they will be released on Civ4.com in due time. I'm not much of a graphics expect so I don't know how useful they will be (or even for what programs), but right now it's important to realise that the release of the game is just the beginning for the modding community. Give it some time (although I do strongly encourage you to see what's already possible, what's not, what you want to be possible, etc -- I can assure you Firaxis is following the developments here and on CFC and they'll be able to take that into account with their planning).

[theatrus]

Awesome, as long as something is in the pipeline

[drekmonger]

Originally posted by theatrus
Has anyone found any links to these exporters for Maya/3ds?

Try googling for morrowind mod tools to find .NIF exporters for studio max.

Hooray, re: Firaxis releasing graphics mod tools.