Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

[AstroCat]

I've just got DW, and this mod already improves the experience right away. I haven't used any ship mods yet but I see this one includes some.

Question: There are 0-26 family + others ship folders in the game but the mod only goes up to set family21. I presume this is because of the new expansion and the mod not being updated in a while? Are people using GEM's ships as well, or sticking with the default ones?

[Seraph86]

thanks men, tested the planets & stars and the ruin graphics so far, sadly it seems that the planets now are duble shaped in my game as if two planet textures were layed on each other (maybe due to the shadows expansion).

[AstroCat]

Make sure you are using the Shadows planet shadows, if you do it seems to work great. See post #140 above.

[Mansen]

Let me save the trouble of re-installing over a single image (which should be fixed in the release and re-uploaded by someone)... [:'(]

...\Distant Worlds\images\environment\overlays\shadow

http://peecee.dk/uploads/052013/shading.png (Save as)

[AstroCat]

It's a shame the creator of this mod Martian isn't around these days. He should really come back and continue his work, his mod has really made the game look visually tons better. [:)]

[Mansen]

Agreed - It's been a day one install for me alongside with Sirians resources.

[AstroCat]

Yeah Sirians resources are really helpful as well. I'm still going back forth as to use Martian's striped ships, not sure if I like it or not.

[AstroCat]

Are there icons missing? If so, then maybe we can try and make them if they are needed.

[necaradan666]

The button that fades civilian ships is noticeably missing.

[Oberst_Klink]

*CLOSED* Found it!

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: necaradan666

The button that fades civilian ships is noticeably missing.

Looked at it again and the GEM 2.4 mod got the Fade Civilian Ships button.

Klink, Oberst

[dostillevi]

Its present, but it is from the base game, not from the mod. It looks out of place.

[Buio]

I really like what parts from this mod and Sirian's mods brings to the UI. The icons, cursors, landscapes & ruins from this mod combined with messages, resources, components, character role from Sirian are great together. So much clearer and better looking than default.

[Oberst_Klink]

*CLOSED* Got you now; you meant the icon doesn't look as funky as the other GEM 2.4 mod icons of the UI. Well, it works

[Buio]

ORIGINAL: dostillevi
Its present, but it is from the base game, not from the mod. It looks out of place.

I made a lame attempt at creating one using the "Civilian Vector" button as base.

Off


On

[MizzouRah]

So is this mod good to go for Shadows?

[Buio]

ORIGINAL: MizzouRah0971
So is this mod good to go for Shadows?

Yes, just delete the shadow folder (under \Images\environment\overlays\) after unpacking the zip. Apparently it's not compatible.

You can just customize what you don't want to use by removing stuff before copying.

As always do a full backup of your original game folder before starting to use mods that overwrite original game file (many do but not all). That way you can just copy back original files if you make a mistake or isn't happy with everything. I got two backups, one with all original files after installing Shadows, and one with my default image mods I always want to use.

[MizzouRah]

ORIGINAL: Buio

ORIGINAL: MizzouRah0971
So is this mod good to go for Shadows?

Yes, just delete the shadow folder (under \Images\environment\overlays\) after unpacking the zip. Apparently it's not compatible.

You can just customize what you don't want to use by removing stuff before copying.

As always do a full backup of your original game folder before starting to use mods that overwrite original game file (many do but not all). That way you can just copy back original files if you make a mistake or isn't happy with everything. I got two backups, one with all original files after installing Shadows, and one with my default image mods I always want to use.

Thanks used your new fade civilian ships icon and reinstalled the overlay from the backup I had, all looks excellent!

[invaderzim]

How is late game performance with GEM compared to without GEM? I'm also wondering if there is any way to further improve performance by removing some shading elements or reducing the complexity of the graphics? After the game progresses to 70 years or so (sometimes I just let the AI play until I want to intervene), the game starts to feel like a slideshow.

I made a lame attempt at creating one using the "Civilian Vector" button as base.

Hey, I like this button for hiding civilians, can you upload for file so we can try it?

[invaderzim]

By the way, do you know if some parts of GEM can be installed into C:\Matrix Games\Distant Worlds\Customization\ so that I don't have to overwrite the original game files?

Edit: It looks like you can install the shipset into C:\Matrix Games\Distant Worlds\Customization\GEM\shipImages instead of overwriting C:\Matrix Games\Distant Worlds\images\units\ships

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the game will load assets placed it C:\Matrix Games\Distant Worlds\Customization\GEM\Images\ so it looks like you can't do the same with planets and landscapes. Maybe you can make folders for planetImages and landscapeImages though.