Does anyone know how to create city view images?

[monkspider]

.....and if so, could you share a few pointers with me? A collegue and I are looking at adding a city view image for the Statue of Liberty wonder included in the Balancer mod. If any expertise could be shared, I would be eternally in your debt!

[Dark Penumbra]

For simple buildings and monument wonders, like the Manhattan Project (not your case, but useful for modders anyway), check out Art\City View\Buildings\Additional Buildings.pcx

I haven't figured all of it out yet (haven't looked *that* much but I've looked a little, since I want make a big mod, at least for myself ) but here's what I've got so far:

The filename format is this:

If you want the building to change appearance from one era to another, the format is (Type)-(Building name)-(Era)-(Terrain)

If it stays the same, then it's (Type)-(Building name)-(Terrain)

(Type) can be:
IMP for a City Improvement
WON for a Wonder
SWON for a Small Wonder

(Era) can be:
ANC for Ancient
REN for Middle Ages
IND for Industrial
MOD for Modern

(Terrain) can be:
D for Desert
G for Grassland
P for Plains
T for Tundra
Sh for Shadows


(Building name) I'm not too sure about... I haven't found where the game stores the building name to use for the PCXs. It's not as simple as simply using the in-game name, because Hoover Dam is just Dam, Nuclear Plant is PlantNuke, etc etc... and I have a hunch that whatever file determines that also determines where on the city screen the wonder/improvement will show up.

The difference between terrains is just the ground underneath/near the Wonder. Shadows are an alpha map (white = softer shadow, gray = darker) of the shadow's shape.

Hopefully that helps a little and someone will be able to fill in the rest.

[Elucidus]

Dark Penumbra,

I figured most of that out already and, in fact, already created the city view file, at least a preliminary one. Althoug the terrain thing was a mystery. I did a search in the civ dir for any text files that refer to any of the city view file names.


Did that make sense? Oh well.

I came up empty. My only guess is that for now it is hard coded. That is just a guess as I couldn't find it.

Thanks for you help though.