Medieval-izing Crusader Kings Graphics I

[Sarmatia1871]

While the gameplay of Crusader Kings is great at creating a medieval atmosphere, with all chaotic developments of a huge number of competing dynasties, I'm starting to find the graphics a bit too cartoon-ish. So, I've begun modding the graphics files with medieval images I've been finding in various places, to make the Crusader Kings actually look like it's set in the 11th to 15th centuries!

To start with, I've put up here the modified Province Banners, the little men that show you the relative power levels of the different groups in your province. Here are what they look like together when they all get medieval:

Here are the event, action and province background images. There are two sets, a Latin one, to use when you play Catholic countries:

And an Orthodox one, for when you play Byzanitum, Russian principalities, Georgia, etc...:

To download, follow the link (9.88 MB):

http://rapidshare.com/files/17045031/S1871_Graphics.zip.html

To use, copy the contents of the appropriate culture into your "CK\GFX\Interface" directory. Remember to back this up if you want to go back to the originals!

 

[Solo_Adhémar]

nice idea, good job )

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Great work.

 

[Gratianus]

Great stuff really.
I'd like to see new building icons, interface and so on!

BTW, can I ask a question?: would you make additinal graphics of faces (hair, eyes, misc, etc) ?

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Thanks for the positive feedback. Anyway, here's a quick preview of a few of the Orthodox event and actions pictures, which still need a bit more work (and somewhere to host!), but should hopefully be completed (along with the Latin ones) at the weekend:

As you can see, the juxtaposition shows it's quite inconsistent (eg. Russian, Byzantine, Serbian, etc. pictures from a variety of periods). Also, some of the images are highly abstracted, due to the difficulty of finding any medieval Orthodox images which aren't obviously icons!


The building icons are definitely a major job - for a very brief preview, here is a medium castle taken from a manuscript illustration:

This is the only one I've got done so far (no construction icon just yet either), and which I did just to check if it was feasible.

I'm also thinking of redoing the trait icons as animals, basing the representation on medieval bestiary symbolism (eg cruel = bear, avaricious = griffin, kinslayer = viper, zealous = panther). I've got all the images together, but getting them down to the really tiny size used for the icons while keeping them still recognisable is a bit tricky.

Faces would be extremely difficult: while it wouldn’t be hard to get a large number of different facial features together from period illustrations, editing them into a regular profile format wouldn’t be easy. They’d also probably end up looking even more grotesque when put together in combinations using the DNA strings than the usual CK profile images!

 

[Calgacus]

Oh my, cool stuff.

 

[Gratianus]

I used images and found some problems.
1. The halation lies between masked and unmasked part. I think it's better to make the border distinct.

2. New banners didn't show when I saved the images as .bmp and copied them into interface folder.
To use them properly:
1) save the images as .bmp
2) open and copy them
3) open the original banners
4) paste new ones in the originals

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Ah yes - I've followed my own instructions on using these, and see what you mean!

I think they got a bit garbled through putting them onto the image hosting site - it turned them into a .jpeg, and then back into a .bmp at some point, so this seems to have created the hazy border, which doesn't exist on my original files (although there is a bit of a green mist above the nobles icon which I'll need to get rid of). Is there anywhere I can put up a .zip folder of the originals that could just be unzipped into the CK GFX\Interface directory?

 

[Gratianus]

Is there anywhere I can put up a .zip folder of the originals that could just be unzipped into the CK GFX\Interface directory?

Excuse me, if I misunderstnad what you say, but I think you are seeking an uploader.
I use http://upl.silentwhisper.net/.
You can upload files there up to 5MB.

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Yeah thanks - just uploaded them as a .zip file, and put the link in the first post. So, they should (hopefully) be the proper images and work now...

 

[Ayeshteni]

hmm, will be watching this with great interest.

I tried making face modifications - the result was hilariously bad and gave up.

But I am liking what I see so far, keep it up.
Ayeshteni

 

[Gratianus]

Yeah thanks - just uploaded them as a .zip file, and put the link in the first post. So, they should (hopefully) be the proper images and work now...

They work properly. Thanks! :rofl:

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Okay, first post is now updated to include the new event and action pictures. The Latin ones are mostly from the latter part of the CK period (eg. 14th-early 15th c.), while the Orthodox ones are from a wider time-frame.

A few of the Orthodox ones are a bit ropey as well (eg. the Action_Peace and Event_Plague), but it's pretty difficult finding appropriate looking images that are the right sort of proportions! If anyone wants to improve these, has any suggestions, or has found or got better images, please do so, and put the results here!

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Well the pictures look great and everything works fine, but this picture made me smile a bit

A very dangerous predator indeed

 

[Ayeshteni]

:rofl: Well those horns could gore you, or you could get ploughed to death. I dont think I am wrong when I say that the peasants in medieval times had a high mortality rate - this could be a contributing factor.

Ayeshteni

And I also use quite a few of these graphics, they are very very nice.
Ay, again

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Well the pictures look great and everything works fine, but this picture made me smile a bit

A very dangerous predator indeed

Thanks, glad people like these.

However, there is no way I'm doing anything to get rid of the bovine threat to medieval Europe!

For hear, young novice, that is no ordinary bull: it is in fact the ferocious bonnacon, of which the learned chroniclers fearfully say:

"In Asia animal nascitur quod bonnacon dicunt. Cui taurinum capud, ac deinceps corpus omne tantum iuba equina. Cornua autem ita multiplici fleu in se recurrentia, ut si quis in eo offendat non vulneretur, sed quicquid presidii monstro illi frons negat, alvus sufficiat. Nam cum in fugam vertit proluvie citi ventris fumum egerit per longitudinem trium iugerum, cuius ardor quicquid attigerit adurit. Ita egerie noxia submovet insequentes"​

That poor peasant is doomed, as is anyone three acres o) behind him - fear ye people of Apulia!

(Okay, it has no mane, and it's difficult to see the way the horns are curved, but still!)

May be a bit of the hiatus on the other illustrations though, as I've started up another mod for HOI2 (treason!) and time I have available for the computer is limited!

 

[NexusRTI]

The link with the original graphic mod (http://www.thefilehut.com/userfiles...vBannersmod.zip) is not working properly. I always get the message, that the zip-file does not exist.

Is there a way to re-host the file?

Thanks!

 

[unmerged(51836)]

The link with the original graphic mod (http://www.thefilehut.com/userfiles...vBannersmod.zip) is not working properly. I always get the message, that the zip-file does not exist.

I agree,it doesn't work.It looks really great and I would like to have it.Can you rehost it?
The new event screens are realy good,but the orthodox are .... well not sutable.And,being orthodox myself,I belive you will not be able to find anything more sutable;there is not so much pictures from orthodox culture (except little from Russian I think) that are not icons.If I find something I'll do what I can to help.
___________________________________________
Bored from the same old castles?You are irritated by,old,same,small icons in your courtier window? Try my mod Tzar Dusan's Castle and CourtierIcons Mod

 

[Willelmus]

Bloody brilliant!

Took a while to be able to download the images, though.

 

[Kujy]

These look awesome, make the game look even nicer. First link doesn't work though.