[Graphics]Portrait and Still Leaderhead Mod

[ChaotikVisions]

Portrait Mod:

Theres not much to say about the mod, its a simple change. I found portraits or paintings of all the leaders online and used them to replace the animated leaderheads. All images used are copyright their respective owners, not by me. I started the mod to increase performance because I noticed diplomacy taking awhile to load at times. With this mod installed it should load instantly, no animations or such to take up memory just a picture. Some of the images aren't that great, so if someone finds a better image somewhere i'd be happy to use it.

Installation and Play Instructions:
Simply extract the folder to your Civ4/Mods folder, then load ingame and the changes should take effect on all new games started with the mod loaded.

Alternatively you can add "Mods\Portrait Mod" to your Mods = section in the Civilization4.ini file, this will make the mod automatically load at startup(no restart required).

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=19081_PortraitMod1.1.zip

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Still Leaderhead Mod:

Still just a simple mod, i've just taken screenshots of the animated leaders and converted them to dds files to replace the old ones. This time i've used 512x512 images so theres much less distortion of the images. They look nearly the same quality as the animated leaderheads now, just frozen in place. I also corrected a bug I had missed in the earlier version of the mod(misnamed the bismarck.dds) so now everything should be working properly. Enjoy the performance increase and being able to play without wanting to hit Caesar because he keeps swinging back and forth while you're trying to think.

Installation and Play:

Extact the mod to your Civilization 4\Mods directory, then load the mod ingame to play.

Alternatively you can add "Mods\Still Leaderhead Mod" to your Civilization 4.ini file in the Mods = section to make it automatically load the mod up when starting the game(doesn't require restart this way.)

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=19081_StillLeaderheadMod1.2.zip

Once more thanks to the folks in #apolyton for the idea and suggestions.

[Sartaq]

I might actually be able to play a huge size map with this mod lol. Thank you.
I'll wait for the screenshots of the actual game portraits version.

[userqwerty]

irre;evant info now so im editing the post out

[userqwerty]

double post

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by userqwerty
this is the second part of the file. for some reason the upload sevice here on the forums only takes 500 kb files.

The Upload Service take up to 10 MB files. Forum attachments are limited to 500 kB.

[ChaotikVisions]

Couldn't wait a day userqwerty? :P I uploaded the Still Leaderhead Mod like I said and its ready for any who want it. I also updated portrait mod dl with instructions in the readme(see above post) on how to make the mod auto-load at startup. Anyway, I hope someone besides me gets some use out of this and post any bugs/complaints/suggestions you have here.

[ChaotikVisions]

Hmm, good news to anyone who uses this besides me, through some testing I found out it accepts 512x512 dds files for the leaderhead as well. I was using 256x256, but it causes some quality issues with the image. The file size is larger 250kb per image versus 61kb, but its effect on performance should be the same. I'm going to test that tommorow and make 512x512 copies of the images and release new versions of the mods assuming everything works right.

[Ekmek]

can you do one taking stills from the civ3 leaders and size them right etc?

[Maquiladora]

I noticed that the images are stretched vertically in the diplo-window, but in the civ selection screen they display normally. This can be really annoying as you have to artificially stretch the image horizonally a bit to make it look right in the diplo-window.... or am i missing something?

Edit: or rather the civ selection window is slightly less stretched vertically but still stretched. Which begs the question, why do leaderhead pics have to be 256*256 then?

[ChaotikVisions]

They can be 512x512 instead of 256x256, I just converted all of them all so the images look better now(non squished/stretched). I'm uploading the mod now but it'll take a little bit for my dialup, but once I do i'll update the first post so people can download it.

And yeah E I could do the Civ3 leaders, any image really. It just needs to be sized right (tested 256x256 and 512x512 so far) and converted to dds for the game to be able to use it. But with the Civ3 leaders I don't see the point, most of the leaders aren't the same as in Civ4, plus I already uninstalled my Civ3 to make room for Civ4. :P

Anyway, in a little bit i'll post the updated(with better quality images) Still Leaderhead Mod, the Portrait Mod is going to take longer to work out.

Edit- Already, edited in the new readme/download link, enjoy the mod. Oh and if anyone already has the Still Leaderhead Mod installed just extract to the same directory and overwrite the old files.

[Ekmek]

I only wanted the civ3 leaderheads to add additional civs in, like the ones they left out (Zulus, Carthaginians, etc).

thanks.

[ChaotikVisions]

Well if you want I can get them for you. I was thinking about trying to mod in Carthage anyway and need a leaderhead pic for them. Do you just want me to get 512x512 dds pics of all the Civ3(and PTW/Conquest) leaders in dds format for you, ready to be used?

[Ekmek]

ChaotikVisions,

thanks for the offer, I'm stil waiting on my civ4 so i'll be patient. I was just more excited at the prospect of adding the old civ3 civs back in. If you do carthage that would good just to see your work and how you did it.

thanks

[prscormier]

Freakin great! maybe I can turn the music on again. thanks!

[userqwerty]

bump