Grand Campaign Graphics Overhaul - Historical City & Terrain Graphics / Historical Minimaps / Period Art Event Messages + Icons / Ancillary Graphics / Loading Screens (released) + Period Art Character Graphics (WIP) - Last Update: April 24th 2010

[jarnomiedema]

is there a way to get rid of this upsetting transparent camera location quadrad on the mini map that makes the minimap mainly unusable ???

I know what you mean Croshy.. I hate that thing too.. There's bound to be a .tga file in the pack files somewhere that places that triangle thingy on the campaign map. If I can find that and turn the alpha channel completely black, I could get rid of it forever. However, so far my search has been in vain I'm afraid..

Still looking though!

By the way, in case anyone missed it by just going to the third page instead of scrolling all the way to the bottom of the second, I might as well repost the 39th post in this thread here, so it's at the top of this page for easier viewing..

Replies

I would like to do same in NTW that you do in ETW, that is to replace the portraits of generic admirals and generals with the historical originals. But I have never modded these files before, so if you could point me in the right direction, it could save me for a lot of time. I need to know what files to edit and how. I can put in the time and find my own portraits, but a little "How to ..." would be nice.

Phew.. Now there's a question.. I would love to help you out, but it's a pretty lengthy process to explain. Suffice to say, you need the Pack File Manager, a graphics program that allows you to edit .tga files (Photoshop is what I use), a whole lot of patience and a giant amount of source images..

Use the Pack File manager to open up the pack files in the data folder in the installation directory of Napoleon, and look for a file structure that goes something like +ui > +portraits > +european > +general / +king / etc. Click on the UI directory until it's selected, right click; select 'extract selected' and choose a directory. That'll extract all the portraits into the directory you specified, allowing you to edit them at will..

One word of advice though: you're going to have to make the ovals yourself. That proved to be my biggest hurdle. After I managed to make an oval that I was reasonably satisfied with, things started moving a lot faster. If you don't make the oval, the smaller versions of your portraits will be squares..

Good luck! Also, if you don't have any modding experience yet, I can really recommend that you start out small and work your way up from there. I personally started out with retexturing a bunch of units first to get my footing in how modding the game works and from there I started trying new things..

hey still got 198 conflits like BorisGudonov had, u know what the problem is?

As Hip63 said, the conflicts are a normal part of the modding. All of the textures that have been replaced in-game (such as the event messages, loading screens, etc.) all conflict with the original textures. That's why that number is so high. So there's no problem to worry about. If the mod doesn't work after you activated it in mod manager and played the game, let me know and I'll help you out.

Amazing work. This is how the game should have looked from the beginning. Can't wait for the portraits to be completed.

Thanks! The portraits are coming along nicely. I've now almost retextured all the kings, plus there are now historical leaders for when you start the game in 1700 and if you decide to play the game as the United States in the fourth part of the Road to Independence campaign. So if you want to piss off King George III all over again, you can now to it to his historically accurate likeness..

Campaign Map Graphics - Version 3 coming up!

For the past few days I've also been working on another little secret project. Besides the city graphics and the farm fields, the campaign map of Empire always felt a bit bland as well. Especially after playing a little bit of Napoleon, the difference was immense. Going back to Empire after a little bit of Napoleon was kind of a letdown really. The campaign map just felt a little too green and a bit light on the details..

So, I decided to 'fix' that as well.. Presenting: version 3 of the Campaign Map graphics, now with improved ground, river and road textures!

In these comparison screenshots, you can see an overview of France in the spring and closeups of Paris in spring and winter. The top part of each screenshot is my new and improved version of the campaign map, while the bottom part is what the campaign map looks like originally. Enjoy!







As you can see, the ground texture now has a bit of a hilly, mountainous feel to it, while also being somewhat darker. The rivers are more dirty and muddy and the roads (in this case the highest level of road) is more pronounced and detailed.

Hope you guys enjoyed this little update! Now back to work for me..

EDIT: To clear up some confusion, this new version hasn't been released yet. The screenshots above are just a preview of what's coming up in the next update, which is still under development.

[hip63]

looks great

hip63

[TheJian]

Man your sick as hell. Its brilliant and original, I tip my hat. F--- Rep you have my respect, not that im anyone.

[Gen. Svin]

love it. but are the minimaps in the full version beacause if they are they dosnot work for me

btw its just amazing

[goforit]

Amazing work. Keep it up. The cumulative effect of these mods is a kind of Empire II, a sequel. It's like a breath of fresh air.

[Sir Arun]

jarnomiedema, is it possible to include a loading screens downloadable file that also keeps the original ETW loading screens ALONG WITH the new ones you have picked?

Or is that impossible because the new ones can only replace the old ones to show up?

[titanvoyager]

A truly piece of art! I´m really loving your work. It improves a lot the historical inmersion, please don´t stop!

[hitokiri2486]

When I saw your preview pictures of the maps, I was completely blown away. Talk about immersion.

I'm giving you all the rep I can for the next year...

Edit: Btw, I had the same problem as someone earlier had posted, about the awesome new mini-maps not showing up with the "all-in-one" mod pack. I took a look in PFM, and it looks like the map files are not in there.

[jarnomiedema]

Thanks for the great comments guys, they're much appreciated!

love it. but are the minimaps in the full version beacause if they are they dosnot work for me

Edit: Btw, I had the same problem as someone earlier had posted, about the awesome new mini-maps not showing up with the "all-in-one" mod pack. I took a look in PFM, and it looks like the map files are not in there.

Whoops.. I think you guys are right.. In my hurry to get the mod back up I must've forgotten to add them to the large pack. I'll make sure they're included in the next update, along with the improved campaign textures. For now, I think the best way to solve this is to just download the minimap pack seperately..

EDIT: Also, in case this happens after downloading: for some reason when you click on old savegames, the snapshot of what territories you hold in that savegame isn't automatically replaced with the new minimap. If you load the game though, the minimaps in the campaign game are replaced, and once you save it again, the savegame minimap will also be replaced.

jarnomiedema, is it possible to include a loading screens downloadable file that also keeps the original ETW loading screens ALONG WITH the new ones you have picked?

No, unfortunately.. I have seen that DarthMod uses a variety of loading screens, with different names from the ones from Empire, along with a custom database, but since I absolutely suck at doing those things, I've simply replaced Empire's original textures..

[Hilarion]

Alright, I'm back in town. Is there anything else you need help with? Queen portraits perhaps?

Also, is the mod compatible with DMUC? I placed the mod_grandcampaigngraphics.pack at the top of my UC script, but only the city graphics and ancillaries are changed... which is strange since my own music mod works fine.

[Sir Arun]

Alright, I'm back in town. Is there anything else you need help with? Queen portraits perhaps?

I think the Indian Queen Tarabai and the french queen Sophie (?) don't have custom portraits.

Here's one for Tarabai, I couldn't find a higher res one:

Also, is the mod compatible with DMUC? I placed the mod_grandcampaigngraphics.pack at the top of my UC script, but only the city graphics and ancillaries are changed... which is strange since my own music mod works fine.

Music mod? Could you please give a link?

[Hilarion]

Music mod? Could you please give a link?

Sure!

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=343388

Take note, though, that it's intended exclusively for those who play as France. I may do one for Great Britain or Austria at some point.

[Skyline Pete]

So is the map overhaul, textures and what not for the GC map, released already?

I got the graphical overhaul component but the existing textures for the ground remain unchanged.

[jarnomiedema]

Alright, I'm back in town. Is there anything else you need help with? Queen portraits perhaps?

Queen portraits would be great, although I already have a great deal of those to be honest. Really, anything that remotely resembles a high detailed portrait from the 18th century would be perfect.. All kidding aside, the categories that will be the most difficult to fill are the missionaries (roman catholic, protestant and orthodox) and the rakes, so if you could find anything there, that would be a huge bit of help! I wish I could +rep you more for all the assistance so far!

Also, is the mod compatible with DMUC? I placed the mod_grandcampaigngraphics.pack at the top of my UC script, but only the city graphics and ancillaries are changed... which is strange since my own music mod works fine.

That's odd indeed, because it works just fine for me.. I added my mods to the bottom though, so maybe that works better?

I think the Indian Queen Tarabai and the french queen Sophie (?) don't have custom portraits.

Here's one for Tarabai, I couldn't find a higher res one:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Thanks! The Indian portraits are still a long way off, but this is a great first step.. If you find anything else, feel free to post it here! I can use all the help I can get!

So is the map overhaul, textures and what not for the GC map, released already?

I got the graphical overhaul component but the existing textures for the ground remain unchanged.

No, I haven't yet released the ground textures that you can see in the preview pictures at the top of this page. I'm still doing some testing with it and I'm thinking of working on the trees a little bit as well. Furthermore, I'm also working on the character portraits and am still 12 portraits away from finishing the King category (should be done very soon), so by the time I'm ready to release those, I will probably also release the new ground textures..

[jarnomiedema]

Here's a quick announcement I think you'll like:

I've just released a preview version of the Period Art Characters Mod, which you can download here:

• Download via MegaUpload
• Download via MediaFire

It includes the following:

• 100 unique King portraits, with historically accurate starting portraits for the 1700 start Grand Campaign and the fourth episode of the Road to Independence Campaign.
• Several unique General portraits, making sure that all starting general portraits for all factions from the 1700 Grand Campaign are portraitted.
• One unique starter Admiral for the Netherlands (more of a joke than a serious portrait, but I just had to include this hero somehow. If you don't recognize him, do a Wiki-search for "Michiel de Ruyter" )

Enjoy!

Absolutely critical is that, until this part of the mod is fully completed, I will keep posting updates for the Portrait Mod as a bit of substantial progress is made, but I will not fully integrate it into the larger mod until it is completely finished. So for now, this will be a seperate mod.

[Sir Arun]

How many king portraits are there in total?

[Hilarion]

I got it to work by manually deleting the conflicting DMUC files via the Pack Manager. Still, strange that such steps would be necessary.

I'll find some missionary portraits for you when I have the time. I agree though, rakes will be difficult. Perhaps more plainly dressed noblemen would fit the role?

[jarnomiedema]

How many king portraits are there in total?

There are a total of 100 King portraits, so they've all been replaced with historical portraits.

I got it to work by manually deleting the conflicting DMUC files via the Pack Manager. Still, strange that such steps would be necessary.

That's really strange indeed.. Which files did you have to delete? Maybe Hip63, who intends to include this mod in the next version of the DMUC might use this information to some benefit..

I'll find some missionary portraits for you when I have the time. I agree though, rakes will be difficult. Perhaps more plainly dressed noblemen would fit the role?

You're right about the rakes (I've been thinking about the exact same thing. To give you a few examples, here are some portraits I've found so far that seem to fit the 'rake' persona):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So far I've only made it up to 8 potential rake portraits unfortunately..

[Sir Arun]

MegaUpload says the file's temporarily unavaliable

[Hilarion]

That's really strange indeed.. Which files did you have to delete? Maybe Hip63, who intends to include this mod in the next version of the DMUC might use this information to some benefit..

DMUC contains sub-mods for modified loading screens, portraits, artwork, etc. So I basically looked at what you changed, in the mod_grandcampaigngraphics.pack, and went through the DMUC packs looking for and deleting matching directories. Most of them are in the DMUC_Custom.pack.

You're right about the rakes (I've been thinking about the exact same thing. To give you a few examples, here are some portraits I've found so far that seem to fit the 'rake' persona):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So far I've only made it up to 8 potential rake portraits unfortunately..

Okay. I'll do some searching.