Thursday, December 6, 2012

Texture Bug Fix-ish!

Along with the height adjusting camera, a possible fix for the terrorizing "texture bug", which plagues all AoE3 mods, has been released. After some tests did by my self and my friend Martin it turns out it really fixes the problem, which is amazing!

For those who don't know what I'm talking about let me explain.
The process of "creating a new unit" in AoE3 is composed mostly by texturing, since you don't actually create a new model, just re-texture existing models and mix up different animations and accessories.
This is how all mods do it. Lately, the possibility of creating and importing new buildings and animations from other games appeared, but units are still tricky.

You would wonder why is AoE3 modding so restrictive or hard compared to other games. I don't think anyone really knows, but probably the developers didn't knew or didn't want anyone to mod it so much, thus they didn't released any official modding tools or info...
Who knows...

So, the bug makes the game to basically refuse new textures in order to keep the game running smoothly. This probably was a big problem back in 2004 when the game was made, but now we're in 2012...
This bug, of course, results in new textures reverting back to the model's default texture in the middle of the game... Most of you have probably seen it. All of you had it even if you didn't notice. No matter how powerful your PC is, it will happen.

Fixing this bug raised the system requirements a bit, but it's nothing huge, don't worry.
I played AoE3 on a 64mb video card, so I really don't worry about it, still, I wanted to let everyone know.

What I did was to enable an existing engine code which keeps new textures no matter what.
This will basically make everything so much better and awesome, since now we can have more "new units" and have more variation between cultures and civilizations without the fear that it will all go to hell while playing...

Thank you for your time and enjoy!


PS: And why the hell don't you people tell me the zip download is incorrect, it's a zip with the installer in it...
It should be like on ModDB, a zip with the mod's files for manual installation...
I got zips mixed up, that one was for AoE3 Heaven... Gonna fix it...

15 comments:

  1. Hey Mandos, so how's that campaign progress?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well... There is no progress... for now...
      The WarChiefs campaign is horrible to edit and fix...

      Just look at it, in one moment you're Iroquois, in another you're American, in another you're Sioux, and most of the time you are a combination of all of them...

      It doesn't make sense and it's ugly as hell...
      There is so much work to do that I kinda lost interest... for now... I'm not saying the project is dead, I'm just taking a brake.

      Delete
    2. Well, the 'different civs' are enabled by techs, which affect the "Black Family Estate" Civ.... Maybe if you tracked those techs...

      Delete
    3. Those "tech" just give units and stuff, the civ's sound and look in controlled in other places.

      Delete
    4. Yeah, that's what I said! Maybe you could disable those techs, and change the actual core of the Civ....

      Delete
  2. Well those are really bad news... Maybe You could do TWC last, and try to do TAD now, I assume they must be easier. Also, that way, you won't have to trouble yourself with thoughts like "after that nightmarish Native campaign, I'll still have the Asian one" etc. Also, You'll be 66.(6)% done that way! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, the TAD campaign doesn't require that much editing, I mean it was made pretty well, not many problems, probably because it wasn't made by the geniuses at Ensemble, it was made by Big Huge Games.
      It if was made by Ensemble, then it would probably look like TWC campaign...

      I told you, for now I'm taking a brake. The holidays are coming you know...
      Tell me if you find something wrong in the TAD campaign or any other.

      Delete
  3. "What I did was to enable an existing engine code which keeps new textures no matter what.
    This will basically make everything so much better and awesome, since now we can have more "new units" and have more variation between cultures and civilizations without the fear that it will all go to hell while playing..."
    You serious!???? Could you please reveal this secret code ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, well I just registered for the forum because I want to try this new mod. I've played a Napoleonic Era and War of the Triple Alliance and I have such curious about is this. Where I can download it?. If you want I can help publicize this mod to other gamer, I have youtube account where I upload videos of Age of Empires 3, I am also registered in other forums where many AoE3 gamer, if you want I can help. Greetings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a big button here on the blog called "Downloads"...
      There you find the installer version of the mod (recommended) and the manual install version.

      If you want to help the mod grow more popular go ahead.

      Delete
    2. Thank you very much friend, I have 6 years playing AoE3 and I like these types of mod as it makes the game more entertaining.

      Is it still working on the mod or there are no more updates on this mod?

      Delete
    3. I'm still working on it but I took a break.

      Delete
  5. Okay mate, I'll try the mod and then tell you. Greetings! =)

    ReplyDelete
  6. When will the new "Improvement Mod" come out?I hope soon =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am starting to work on it once again.
      As I said, I took a small vacation, now I will resume work.
      Expect great things to come soon!:)

      Delete

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