Civ4 Useful Programs

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This page provides links to programs that are useful and help with modding Civilization IV.

Essential Programs for nearly all aspects of Modding

  • A text editor, such as Notepad++, emacs, vim, or even WordPad and Notpad (which come with Windows)
    • Vim and Emacs are good for hardcore programming - Notepad++ is good for just about anything.
  • A diff/merge tool, such as WinMerge or Beyond Compare
    • Vim, Emacs, and some other text editors contain merge/diff tools in themselves.


Map/Scenario (WorldBuilder-like) Programs

XML Programs

While there are some XML editing tools for civ4, none are necessary. In fact, most experienced modders prefer the directness of a text editor like Notepad++; however if you are having difficulty understanding and editing the XML you should consider using the user created tools below.

Python Programs

You will need a text editor like Notepad++ to modify python.

  • Civilization4 Python API Reference Guide: is an invaluable reference guide listing the various calls and functions available to the modder in python.
  • Python IDLE: is an advanced python tool designed for python programming in general; it's usefulness as a tool to utilize for scripting in Civ4 is questionable; in fact if you need to use IDLE to implement and test your civ4 python code, the functionality of your code would probably be better served in the SDK; as Civ4's implementation of python can be very slow and should be limited to simple scripting and interface functions.

Graphics Programs

SDK Programs

Misc Programs