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[MOD] Better Looking Characters (more realistic and historical)

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Shaytana said:
Sadly I'm guessing that transparent ui bug is a memory issue for low memory computers that in order to get rid off I would probably have to cut the mod into nothingness pretty much. I personally have never experienced it. :( I could of course make further cuts to the lite version, but for now I'm waiting on more feedback, I guess Wiz implemented lite for CK2+, if he wants more cuts I'll make them.
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Unfortunately, this is likely the case. I am surprised Zonkie doesn't have the same problems with Vanilla after a few hours of play. With only 2GB of RAM you really have none extra to share around. If there was even a minor memory leak in lite it would be enough to push her/his memory requirements over the edge.

As for the memory constraints, if Wiz wanted to make the >2GB fix mandatory he should never have a problem using the regular version either. To be honest, I would prefer CK2Plus to not use the lite-version as it is missing a lot of the quality and efforts of your work.
 
James_Manring said:
Unfortunately, this is likely the case. I am surprised Zonkie doesn't have the same problems with Vanilla after a few hours of play. With only 2GB of RAM you really have none extra to share around. If there was even a minor memory leak in lite it would be enough to push her/his memory requirements over the edge.

As for the memory constraints, if Wiz wanted to make the >2GB fix mandatory he should never have a problem using the regular version either. To be honest, I would prefer CK2Plus to not use the lite-version as it is missing a lot of the quality and efforts of your work.
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Aye, I agree with you... so for now I'm waiting to see how things go.

Version 8d - the stuff I'm running atm has some minor changes over 8c - it's got a lamelar armor template implemented /recolored for reuse in various martial places, and it's got some fixes in the dds files - not additions but some fixes to layers etc.

Today I'm going to most likely play a long game with my new byzantine (gameplay) mod and while reforging the Roman Empire I might see some stuff that needs addressing along the way, so I can do some more layers fixing.
 
Playing my Byzantine game for hours now, and I see no issues at all... I guess vanilla+minimal changes+ BLC 8c+cultural cities = 0 issues. (on more than 2 gigs memory that is)
 
Shaytana, you're playing a campaign! :p You deserve the break, if not only to enjoy Crusader Kings II, but to admire the work you've done :) I too wanted to reforge the Roman Empire, but in the midst of my struggles (after having acquired Byzantium for the Hautevilles through marriage), I had the peculiar idea to revive Zoroastrianism and spread it across all of Europe.

Where "Better Looking Characters" is concerned, it's disheartening to hear that you've had to simplify the mod for the sake of technological limitations. I can't blame you if your enthusiasm has waned. I would have been reporting back on versions 7 and onward, but my Crusader Kinging has been hampered these last two weeks.

Have you contacted any of the Paradox developers? I suspect there is something going on here that we don't completely understand. You've added tons of lines to portraits.gfx. Perhaps a hidden syntax error is causing all of these memory leaks. For all we know, something that inane could be the culprit here (it could even be a formatting convention within portraits.gfx that we're not privy to).

Anyway, don't despair. Rejoice at what you've contributed to the community! We're all in the insanity of creating-and-testing Crusader Kings II modifications (without documentation) together :)
 
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Thank you for you kind words mate! :)

When I originally decided upon a long term vision for BLC it was to pretty much have every culture use its own set of 27 frames layers and fill those in progresivelly, till everyone had the maximum variety possible... Sadly I now realize that given the current coding you'd probably need a NASA supercomputer for that hehehehe. :laugh: Well, not really but dds load takes up a lot of memory and the more memory you use via dds the less you have for other things...

I don't think it's a coding issue on our side mate, I think it's simply the fact the game was not coded to maximize graphics potential, the way it uses dds is just a memory hog. :) Had I realized people would run into issues I would have gone about developing the mod in a completely different fashion maximizing memory efficiency, but I didn't expect the issues so BLC is not set up for maximizing memory efficiency, and to modify everything to set it up in the best possible fashion would require too much time investment. :(

So for now it's pretty much on hold, I only need to figure out what exactly I want to do for 8d. :)
 
Hey Shaytana, I don't know what image editing program you use, but in GIMP It's possible to change the compression method of the .dds. Apparently, there's one (DXT1 something) that is half the filesize (544kb to 204 kb) of one uncompressed (I tested in one Alan dds). I didn't test it in-game, but it may be worth to check and see if there's a compression that is lighter and works in game (some messed up the colors).
Perhaps this may help with the memory problems?
 
Yeah, I think this is true. Got a message from Rafek, who adapted my dds (icons/events_portraits) for his mod.
In his own words: I also compressed your textures to DXT3/5 format to take less space. I did the same with mine in the portraits section. The size goes down from 1,4MB to 300kb so its much lighter.
Might be worth cheking it out.
In my case, I use Photoshop but finish things up with Paint.net.
 
I've been using DXT3, a few of the paradox files were 3x the size and I compressed those. I can further compress stuff to DXT1 but I don't think they look right. :closedeyes: I will try to see how it looks in game though, given it would drastically cut memory to be fair.
 
I've just tried DXT1, some stuff looks alright, other stuff just looks _wrong_... I don't think it's a viable solution unless someone is willing to re-edit all of the stuff that does not look right - would take a long time. :blush:
 
One thing that can be done to further reduce memory load is this - a rework of the headgear layers -
1) make slot 1 imperial crown be used by christians (not muslims or cultures getting special graphic) when in command and remove the in command version - culture code the use of the slots
2) make slot 2 crown be used when in command by kings + see above
3)cut out the redundant crowns for christian cultures and fill the slots with the differentiated helms - make the layer max size and fill it with the helms and culture code the slot usage...
4)there is less potential to do this for muslims because of the differentiated turbans and radical differences in the peace/in command headgear versions, but there is some merger potential

The sad part about this is....after doing all of that the memory gains would probably not be that great. :blush: Also making sure all that coding worked 100% as intended would not be a walk in the park.

EDIT: To top it off it could very well be that switching to bigger layers with more frames might cause some memory leak issue... so doing all of this might be detrimental in practice hehe.
 
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I don't think it's necessary to do any more cutting, the memory use of the lite version seems fine for those having issues and the full version continues to work for most people with the 2gb fix. I plan to bundle the lite version (because I don't want to lock out people with only 2gb of memory) and include the full version + 2gb fix as an optional install.
 
Wiz said:
I don't think it's necessary to do any more cutting, the memory use of the lite version seems fine for those having issues and the full version continues to work for most people with the 2gb fix. I plan to bundle the lite version (because I don't want to lock out people with only 2gb of memory) and include the full version + 2gb fix as an optional install.
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Aye I believe that when I get around to release 8d it will only probably feature layer tweaks, fixing some small errors etc... well I guess also the new implemented lamelar armor, I might look through my templates and implement something else as well, but I'm against doing the headgear stuff (it would be very very time consuming for very little gain) - I spent around 1 hour today starting on it then I just had a "fox this" moment and gave up hehehe... just getting all the culture coding in place is annoying... ofc if someone wants to do it, hey I'll credit them. :cool:
 
Reforging the Roman Empire is great fun. Sadly, any time I get close, Paradox releases a patch and I have to start over. :p
 
@Valinn

Thank you mate! I must admit I recently loaded the game without BLC to see if I notice any speed difference, and strangely enough the one thing that struck me was how hideous and errr wrong, some characters looked, and why I started the mod in the first place, not so much because of the clothes hehehe, which actually got me thinking maybe I should go back to adding some dna.

@Federalist girl

I'm playing with my own ERE "reforms" mod - which makes it insanely OP because you get a lot of neat stuff, buildings, professional troops etc, you can basically turn the ERE into such a powerhouse you just sniff in the general direction of your enemies and they collapse into a heap of dead bodies. :p I went overboard when making the tagmata system, not to mention my solution for a less feudal empire OPed the crap out of it. I didn't get to giving the good stuff counterbalances once you get it in place, so basically in my mod atm once you get the empire in great shape, it's glory glory time. *not that it's hard to play the ERE in CK2 vanilla, my modding just makes it invincible squared... and well it's kinda fun on a casual "I just wanna forge the greatest most advanced empire ever" playthrough... but I'm guessing if I'm going to give it another playthrough I'll have to mod some challenge in hehehe.
 
What did you do in order to make it less feudal? I have more comments, but I'd like to not sidetrack the thread *too* much.
 
Federalist girl said:
What did you do in order to make it less feudal? I have more comments, but I'd like to not sidetrack the thread *too* much.
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It's a rather crude implementation atm, been too busy with BLC to do something truly elaborate hehehe... The OPness is mostly a result of demesne size increase and ease of revocation of titles. I have a lot of ideas about how to do it better, but for now I didn't dedicate the time needed to implement. :D
 
I hope I don't read this thread to mean that you've finished updating and that this is the final form. This is such fantastic work it would be tragic if this is all there would ever be. Every release has just made the game better. I can only imagine what else you could do.

I've been waiting and hoping that some day Western kings and dukes would stop going to war in that vanilla armor with the backpack straps. They look like grunts. The King has a crown on his head and he's wearing dull cheap mail and carrying kilos of gear on his back. It's great for courtiers and counts, but kings?

Anyway, thanks again for all the great work you've done.
 
Valinn said:
I hope I don't read this thread to mean that you've finished updating and that this is the final form. This is such fantastic work it would be tragic if this is all there would ever be. Every release has just made the game better. I can only imagine what else you could do.

I've been waiting and hoping that some day Western kings and dukes would stop going to war in that vanilla armor with the backpack straps. They look like grunts. The King has a crown on his head and he's wearing dull cheap mail and carrying kilos of gear on his back. It's great for courtiers and counts, but kings?

Anyway, thanks again for all the great work you've done.
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Thank you for your praise mate!

As it stands BLC is being developed very slowly, basically if my fancy strikes me I might add something. :) I'm a bit more interested in working on my own gameplay mod atm, when it comes to the rather limited modding energies I have left. There will be for certain a v8d at the very least, and that has a lamelar armor implemented, currently for some muslims but I think I'm also going to maybe use it for Byzantines... I might also change the way kings display in command now that you've mentioned it... I originally wanted to display them a bit differently but there was a demand on this thread to just give them chainmail and crown hehehe. You can see that already some kings display differently, some have helms with crowns and different colored mail, there's even some golden mail for some titles.
 
Maybe optimizing and compressing is the solution instead of cutting out the things that makes this mod enjoyable? If that doesn't work maybe it's best to restore the cut stuff and start including things and make 4GB of ram a necessary.
 
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