[MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

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[MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

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Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

It is a graphics mod for Age of Empires III by Omkar that presents new textures and arts for to the original game.

- Now every civilisation has it's own unique architecture.
- Every unit upgrade has some new unit art.
- Added new art to some civilisations for more historical accuracy.
- Updated some civilization flags to more historically accurate versions.
- Fixed the mistakes by the game creators and improved them.
- Works with all versions of the game. (preferably TAD for best experience)
- No change to gameplay.
- All campaigns are playable with this.
- Contains an installer and uninstaller for easy use.
- ESO compatible. You can play it in multiplayer with players who don't own the mod.

Find my mods here: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=14894

Thank you!
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

This mod may get integrated into the ESOC Patch. :grin: Give your feedbacks here: http://eso-community.net/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9971
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Panmaster »

How did you separate the different "cultures" that share building models ? Won't the protoY.xml load the same models ?
There's east (Russians, Germany), med (Spain, Portugal, Ottomans) and Britain/Dutch/France.
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by SirSouthwest »

Can you share images of what they look like. I am at work and don't want to DL files!
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

You must have noticed that Church has unique textures for each civilisation. The same technique has been implemented. It's all the beauty of intense programming.
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

Added new updates ( download and articles). Will be available soon: http://www.moddb.com/mods/omkars-mod
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

It seems the mod is now complete with installers for easy use. Please visit page to download latest version.
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

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Post by top_cao »

sometimes out of sync
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by P i k i l i c »

Yes it is a bit sad, I think I would still have it if it didn't occur :sad:
Consider not the one who speaks the truth, but the truth that is said

:hmm: AoE logic :hmm:
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

I cannot do anything for that. Out of Sync occurs for any kind of lag during game. Since I have added so many buildings, it is natural that weaker computers may lag a bit. Better if you have a strong processor or both players own the mod to prevent this.
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by EAGLEMUT »

Yo @Omkar_Satapathy, the moddb page appears to be down?
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by gustavusadolphus »

I have my doubts on this making it into the patch but it would be nice if it did! You have my support!
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

EAGLEMUT wrote:Yo @Omkar_Satapathy, the moddb page appears to be down?

Fixed now.
gustavusadolphus wrote:I have my doubts on this making it into the patch but it would be nice if it did! You have my support!

Thanks!
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

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Post by EAGLEMUT »

Omkar_Satapathy wrote:
EAGLEMUT wrote:Yo @Omkar_Satapathy, the moddb page appears to be down?

Fixed now.

Thanks. Page is up now, but download button doesn't seem to work.
gustavusadolphus wrote:I have my doubts on this making it into the patch but it would be nice if it did! You have my support!

I'm interested in integrating it.
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Re: Building Textures - Omkar

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

EAGLEMUT wrote:Thanks. Page is up now, but download button doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for letting me know. Fixed it as well.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by _NiceKING_ »

main menu lags hard for me, but in game it seems fine :hmm:
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

_NiceKING_ wrote:main menu lags hard for me, but in game it seems fine :hmm:

You may get low FPS at the menu screen, since the mod preloads all building models into hc so that the colours do not vanish ingame (fix to RT Bug).
You can disable the fix, enable Homecity visuals using one of the optional setups in the addons section.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

Since I do not like socialising on Facebook and other Social media, it will be great if someone can help sharing this mod with AOE3 players on those sites.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

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Post by EAGLEMUT »

Omkar_Satapathy wrote:
EAGLEMUT wrote:Thanks. Page is up now, but download button doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for letting me know. Fixed it as well.

Nice, works now.
I've tried out the mod for a little bit so here's some quick feedback:
- Great work on the building models, looks really cool. Haven't experienced any graphic bug with the buildings.
- Some of the units have switched up models in contrast to the RE game version, for example a Veteran Hussar on the mod looks like a non-Veteran Hussar on RE. While I see why you've done this (because age0 models are already in the game afaik), I think this is going to be a source of confusion for players coming from the standard game version or potentially even twitch viewers watching a match on this mod. I'd rather have less unique models than switching them around in this way, to be honest.
- For similar reasons as above point, I'm not a big fan of changing the civilization flags to look completely different. I guess this is less of an issue though, would be interested in how the rest of the community feels about this.
- I see you have also changed the general color feel of the UI, I think it looks good.
- Can confirm mod doesn't cause CRC mismatch and works on both RE/EP.

Omkar_Satapathy wrote:
_NiceKING_ wrote:main menu lags hard for me, but in game it seems fine :hmm:

You may get low FPS at the menu screen, since the mod preloads all building models into hc so that the colours do not vanish ingame (fix to RT Bug).
You can disable the fix, enable Homecity visuals using one of the optional setups in the addons section.

Ahh, that's very unfortunate, I've noticed this as well.
Throwing an idea here; would it perhaps be possible to preload the models and then somehow delete/remove them from the hc afterwards, so that it stops lagging? This is actually a considerable issue in not only the main menu, but also in-game when one tries to send HC shipments.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

@EAGLEMUT
To use building textures only you can opt to use the building folder in art folder only.

I got the idea of preloading models into HC from the fact how the building colours in HC can be easily change without RT Bug. I tried the method and it worked!

There are about 200 models that are required to be preloaded to HC to fix RT Bug. It will definitely make the menu laggy. So I was forced to remove the hc visuals to help reduce this lag. I instead added a static UI that hides the background.

About possible fixes:

1. I also want to do preloading and then deleting but there are no such options in the game as far as I know. Homecity units do not die since they don't have dynamic hitpoints.

2. I have another idea of loading the models to the HC to a place which is not in visual range this will load the units to the game but not to the ram, but I couldn't find the correct bone to attach the model.
If someone can find the correct bone to each civilisation hc, I can re-enable the visuals.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by EAGLEMUT »

Thanks for the info. There is a feature of the original homecities where when you send a unit card, units will spawn in the homecity screen, walk to the docks and then eventually out of visible range. Not sure if you already know about this, but it could be a solid lead, I've only learned about it recently.
Otherwise perhaps @musketeer925 can chime in with his advanced modding knowledge :love:
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

EAGLEMUT wrote:Thanks for the info. There is a feature of the original homecities where when you send a unit card, units will spawn in the homecity screen, walk to the docks and then eventually out of visible range. Not sure if you already know about this, but it could be a solid lead, I've only learned about it recently.
Otherwise perhaps @musketeer925 can chime in with his advanced modding knowledge :love:

You are right. One way is to call it like Homecity shipments. They will walk out of screen after spawning. Then they can be killed ingame. But that will need the modification of Proto, Techtree and StringTable to make the new unit and card. As you know it will cause CRC mismatch. So I avoided it.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

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Post by musketeer925 »

Interesting idea to load them into the home city. I'll have to think further about how the big HC lag problems could be resolved.


In WoL we actually resolved the lag involved with preloading so much stuff (when preloading in game) by using the only appear in editor flag on the proto unit.

I was actually very surprised that you could do that and still have it work -- it seemed to me that the whole point of preloading would be to actually preload all the textures, which is presumably the very thing that causes all the lag.

In any case it seems to me that you ought to be able to use something like a cinematic block with the only in editor flag in the home city to prevent the lag.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

Post by Omkar_Satapathy »

musketeer925 wrote:Interesting idea to load them into the home city. I'll have to think further about how the big HC lag problems could be resolved.


In WoL we actually resolved the lag involved with preloading so much stuff (when preloading in game) by using the only appear in editor flag on the proto unit.

I was actually very surprised that you could do that and still have it work -- it seemed to me that the whole point of preloading would be to actually preload all the textures, which is presumably the very thing that causes all the lag.

In any case it seems to me that you ought to be able to use something like a cinematic block with the only in editor flag in the home city to prevent the lag.


It seems to me the actually the game engine gets confused while loading models and textures.
If it loads the textures first then model the new textures do not appear.
While if it loads models first then textures the new textures do appear.
Homecity always loads the models first that's why it never lags in loading new textures.
So your idea of preloading textures will not work.
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Re: [MOD] Graphics Mod (AOE3)

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Post by tilanus »

EAGLEMUT wrote:- Some of the units have switched up models in contrast to the RE game version, for example a Veteran Hussar on the mod looks like a non-Veteran Hussar on RE. While I see why you've done this (because age0 models are already in the game afaik), I think this is going to be a source of confusion for players coming from the standard game version or potentially even twitch viewers watching a match on this mod. I'd rather have less unique models than switching them around in this way, to be honest.

I remember being quite thrilled myself about the idea to update the AoE3 units with nicer, more accurate designs until I came to the very same realization. It basically is why I would only recommend to redraw the aoe3 textures in better quality, though that would need to happen in ideally the same small texture sizes, because larger textures usually result in more lag.

- For similar reasons as above point, I'm not a big fan of changing the civilization flags to look completely different. I guess this is less of an issue though, would be interested in how the rest of the community feels about this.

Yea, I also agree. It should also be noted - especially since EP is multiplayer-focused - that it's by not enough to just exchange the top building flags and HC flag buttons, but that you also need to replace the massive flags in quicksearch and the consulate flags, too. I don't know if Omkar has done that as well, but it'd need to be a major requirement in order to be included in EP.

Finally, in terms of flag selection one needs to keep an eye on ensuring a sufficient level of variety and contrast. For example, there shouldn't be too many flags that use the same color tones. That's one reason why AoE3 flags are not overly historical, they are like that for the sake of color variation.

@Omkar
Thank you for crediting Imperiosus on your ModDB. :) He was the lead artist of the first NE team generation. Was happy to see the honest credit, thumbs up for that!

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