Empire Total War HD: Napoleon Environments 1.1a

[OreoMan32]

Introduction

-

Empire Total War HD: Environments is a fragment of an on-going project to evolve Empire Total War's graphic environment. The goal in mind is to learn from recent Total War's graphic environment, and apply the same mind to Empire. This main focus of this mod is to introduce a new setting to the stage of Empire's ambiance. Bringing updated graphic detail, to the battlefields of the 18th century. Napoleon graphic environment is appropriated into multitudes of new environments with a momentous number of added textures to enumerate in what is, one of the largest graphic projects of Empire Total War to date.

Features

-

-Environments. The expanse of the globe are encompassed into brighter, more diverse napoleon environments that change according to each region. Fog Lighting effects are a case in some maps, that are also seen in napoleon.


- Textures. Added napoleon textures. Props, trees, miscellaneous objects to replace to old Empire's Textures. Fits well with the new Lighting Effects, makes textures stand apart.


- Flora. Grass, leaves, flowers, bushes from napoleon. Adds a more suitable color pallet that blends well with the unique environments that are added.

Minimum Specifications

-

This mod is meant to be a light-weight version of Empire Total War HD: Terrestria Orbem. Graphic performance will be significantly better on this version, however there will still be instances of frame drops due to the environments and textures that are included in this version. Make sure you are running on a low-mid end system to handle the tasks given to it by this mod and the game.

Compatibility

-

Being compatible with light overhauls, and smaller modifications. Is not compatible with major overhauls or any graphics mod as they contain files that may conflict. Any conflicts with vanilla should be due to the user's game folder

Showcase

-

Screenshots taken on Empire Total War with Environments HD enabled in Ultra settings on a FHD display at 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

​Recommended Mods

-

This is meant to be a light-weight graphic-performance mod. For those seeking a more complex graphic overhaul, Empire Total War HD: Terrestria Orbem pushes the game's graphic environment to the near limit, which means it's made to be taxing and demanding in order to get the highest graphic quality out of the Empire Total War Engine. Suitable for modern systems.

Download Link

[Frunk]

Well done on another release, mate! Remember this thread if you'd like to use it again. +rep

[HGRC]

Hi Oreoman, great work! I just tried this mod and it works very well. It is a very noticeable difference regarding the other graphics improvement mod that I was using, the NTW graphics for ETW (tweaked by Milton I think). The image is very clean and details are quite sharp, some of the artifacts that I was getting (as shimmering on the fences in the battlefield etc, straight lines on buildings in the distance) are magically gone. Campaign map looks sharper and cleaner, lighting seems very well balanced in comparison to NTWGraphicsForETW... Did you use some kind of SSAO? Because what I am looking at is somekind of SSAO on the campaign map but I don't have it on in the settings. It does look great.

But I have one question. As you must know, the shadows in this game are ed. I don't mind that in the battlefield, I can choose another angle to look from. But what I do mind is the shadows flickering on the campaign map.

You see, NTWGraphicsForETW changed something about the angle of lighting, I don't know, something, that made the graphical issue with shadows on the campaign map almost unnoticeable.

Now, with your HD overhaul, when Summer season comes, there come the flickering shadows that are more noticeable in some parts of the map than others. In Winter, because there's different type of lighting I guess, it is less noticeable.

My question is, is there a way to NOT HAVE a change in lighting when Summer season, and keep always Winter? I am using no Winters mod so I don't have snow, but I would like to know if there's an easy way to remove the change of lighting.

Thanks a lot and again, great work. Textures look beautiful, better than ever now!

[OreoMan32]

Hmmm, strange. I don’t recall editing any campaign features. And with hard beta testing for this mod I did not find any issues. I shall read over the .pack file again to make sure there are no campaign graphics in there, or if there or, might be conflicting vanilla graphics. I shall come back to you soon.

[HGRC]

I don't think it has nothing to do with your Environments HD mod. It is an old, old issue present in both Empire and Napoleon, just that the shadows are ed if you look at them from certain angles, both in campaign map and battlefield.

NTWGrphics for ETW managed to disguise this somehow... I don't know what it is, I have been told in this forum that light comes from one single source only in Empire, but you can see clearly that when you change season in Napoleon the shadows flicker like crazy and then when the trees sway they become blocky, pixelated. In empire, they are blocky and pixelated anyways, there's only one season change, and there is no major change of lighting/atmosphere light so the flickering does not happen, but in Summer the pixelated shadows are more noticeable. If the light comes only from one source and IT DOESN'T MOVE, how come it is different from Winter to Summer? Is it the intensity? I don't know.

As I said, the blocky shadows are always there, but in Winter they are less noticeable. I know I will never have perfect shadows in Empire or Napoleon. But I was asking about if it was possible to disguise it that way: having always Winter lighting.

I am using Ultra on everything, 2x AA, my computer can run without lag this game and using GEMFX, (I have tried already many times to disable it/reinstall etc but Gem is not the issue here. A completely Vanilla Empire will portray the same shadow issues) so I don't think it's any card issues etc. There are examples on YT of what I am talking about. I actually thought this happened to everybody, I have seen streamers (fairly old videos I know) that had this issue in their videos and in Napoleon too.

Thank you for your interest, please do respond whenever you find a possible tweak to this, or some new information. Thanks a lot for your reply.

[OreoMan32]

Now that may be possible, I am currently working on a campaign hd lightning , and I found that you can to keep the winter campaign lighting on at all times. That mod will fix the problems you are saying, while having a different lighting from summer and winter. I just don't want the same lightning for summer and winter, the game's graphics are already so bleak and bland, so we must add features whenever possible. If you want, I can temporally upload a patch, that adds winter campaign lighting 24/7, until my next mod comes

[HGRC]

well...yeah, I'd really like that! That would help me "not see" those ugly pixelated shadows. I understand that what you are trying to achieve in terms of artistic development is totally other thing and this mod really, really makes things look much better, as I said.

If you can upload that patch, that'd be awesome. I will download that campaign hd lighting mod for sure, anyway. But if you have that patch, please upload it! Thanks a lot. But, out of curiosity, you do get those blocky shadows nevermind the setting (low/mid/high/ultra) do you? That's something to keep in mind for your upcoming mod if you want that everything looks as nice as possible. I asked around some time ago and Sirlion I think told me the shadowmap was impossible to mod, there was no way that shadows could be changed. But if the lighting changes, then...maybe?

Thanks again, I'll be waiting and will tell you how it goes.

[OreoMan32]

Ah yes, in my mind nothing is impossible. The position of the sun in the skybox effects the position of shadows and in some cases the shadow quality. So by editing the position of the sun you effect the entire quality of the shadows.

Also my Empire Total War is being reinstalled, so it takes 1-2 hours. I Will have the link ready ASAP

[OreoMan32]

Sorry for the Wait, I had a AP physics course to attend to

Permanent Campaign Winter Lighting.pack

[HGRC]

Of course, no problem, thank you for uploading it. Should I replace the environments then? Or just add this patch to data and that's it?

EDIT: I dropped the patch into data, it seems to work. But... two things:

1. It looks way darker than the previous Winter lighting, so much that icons over spies and priests are almost black. It is hard to distinguish features and details on models on the campaign map, they are very very dark.

2. Did you change the direction of the sun? Is this the cause of the issue mentioned above? Because what I see is that shadows are cast from a totally different angle... which is great because it solves the issue with shadows, but as I said, this is way too dark.

Sorry, I am of course not trying to complain here, you went out of your way to help me solve an issue and for that I am very grateful. So thanks, maybe I installed the wrong way? Should have replaced the Environments HD with this one?

[OreoMan32]

No no HGRC, your comments are vital to my coming mod

Glad to see the issue of the shadows are fixed. But we must address the darkness. I will see if I can lighten the campaign lighting.
Environments HD is about battle graphics, the patch I gave you is solely campaign graphics, so you drag and drop into data folder.

[HGRC]

Glad to be of service!

Yeah that's what I thought, so I put it in data finally. But had to remove it because of the darkness issue. So I am not using any effects on the campaign map (apart from Gem)

I lowered my shadows settings to high, and although the shadows issue is still there (pixelated) is seems that is more stable. I'll just play this way until you figure something out or come up with the next mod, which I think just looking at this one Environments HD, I guess it's gonna be perfect.

I cannot stress enough what a good job you did with Environments HD, it's amazing, the battles look great and the textures are crisp and perfect. It's a total joy to play the game this way. And I thought it was already looking good with the couple graphical mods that I had and gem, but this is another level. So thanks a lot.

Well, I'll be checking the sub for more news on this! Be well!

[Souron]

These screenshots look great. nice job on the release!

[OreoMan32]

Thanks Souron, glad you liked them

Thanks too HGRC, I'll let you know when I come up with the patch and the mod.

[Miltonr87]

Truly, incredible! It deserves all my compliments, serious! I don't know how you adapted the buildings and smoothed the screen filters (or whatever you call it) so well, but they are wonderful in every scenario. It's the kind of "boost" that I've been looking for Empire.


By the way, I would like to recommend this submod / mod to the Awards here at the Total War Center if It allowed. Moderatos, please, take a look here! It is simple, but super detailed and significantly changes in all battle scenarios (bringing them as close as possible to the Napoleon experience) without bugs.

I believe it is also compatible with all mods like the old DarthMod (I honestly didn’t test it, but from my point ov view and the files what I saw, I believe it doesn’t generate any conflicts).


Oreoman, I suggest you to open a page on ModDB too. A lot of people over there are looking for a visual boost in Empire and, for sure, your changes will be well received.

Congratulations!

[OreoMan32]

All Kind words! I would be honored if you would do that.

If the empire community is at MODB, then I shall upload there.

[The_Lord_Snow]

Going to give this mod a shot. Thank you for your work!

[OreoMan32]

You are welcome

[OreoMan32]

New Download

[OreoMan32]

1.1 Released