"I have no set release date in mind, but I'm looking at Spring/early Summer potentially, though, don't hold me to that!" - Me in my January 2018 blog. Oh boy was I right on the "don't hold me to that" part...
So, hey guys! It's been over five months since my last entry, so I thought I'd give you all an in-depth update on TPK, and why it's taking so long. Before I explain I just want to make one thing clear: This project is not dead. It's alive, and you will see it this year, I promise.
In March I uploaded a new trailer with a release date of "Spring 2018", as I don't need to tell any of you, that release time came and has now gone. Truthfully, I can't give an exact date yet, this is because I simply don't know, and I really don't want to rush anything. I've been working on this film since June last year, and it's been a very busy twelve months. So starting from the beginning...
- June 2017: Legacy of the Sith is released, I go straight into production on TPK. Complete the first 3-5 minutes of the film quite quickly.
- Late June 2017 - July: I went on holiday for nearly two weeks, and with also visiting family I was away for pretty much a month. No progress on the film.
- Late July - end of August 2017: Resume work on the film, around 25 minutes is complete by the end of August.
- September 2017: My first semester of my final year at university starts. Open the flood gates to the hell of third year work.
- September - November 2017: Consistently balance working on the film and uni work.
- November to December 2017: Our film shoot at uni starts, 12 hour exhaustive days. I go straight into the edit of that film after. Still find some time to work on the film. Just arriving on Malachor V.
- End of December 2017 - Semester ends! I have about an hour of the film done. First teaser trailer released on Christmas Eve. Go home for Christmas, eat a lot of food.
- January 2018 - Return to uni and film work.
- February to April 2018: Film work slows down, waiting on lines from actors and my uni work ramping up. I have another film and a 10,000 word dissertation ahead of me all due by May.
- April 2018: Film shoot begins. 12-14 hour days shooting, the most exhausting few days of my life. Straight into edit after, deadline is not far away. I also finish my dissertation in this period.
- May 2018: All deadlines are handed in. By this point, I have not worked on the film in over a month. FINALLY receive some lines from a voice actor. Back to work on the film. I hit around an hour and 25 minutes.
- Late May 2018: Officially wrap SHOOTING on TPK. Begin working on promotional material whilst I wait for lines.
- June 2018: As of now, the film is done EXCEPT for lines from voice actors. Every After Effects shot, colour grade, part of the sound mix, etc. is done. All I have to do on my end is plug the lines in when I get them and create the credits sequence.
So that's where I am at. As you can see, I have been incredibly busy, but, I've tried my hardest to work on the film where I can. I really can't wait for it to be done so I can start releasing the promotional material (got a couple of nice surprises planned) and then the film itself. If all goes well, and I receive all the lines by the end of July, then the film will be out for AUGUST. But, again, don't hold me to that.
Thank you all for bearing with me through this, I promise it'll be worth the wait!
Want even more proof it's nearly done? Here's a screen shot from my final mix timeline, once I receive the lines from my actors the next 30-40 mins will be exported and join this timeline below to fill in the gaps. (The film has been edited slightly out of sequence):
TL;DR: It's nearly done minus lines from actors.
I’m glad to be able to talk about porting. It’s not the subject itself that I find as mysterious and alluring as some forumites seem to, but it’s been such a taboo topic for so long that I find it refreshing to be able to talk about everything I’ve been repressing.
Porting content from one game to another within the same series (e.g. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords) is now allowed on Deadly Stream. Because I’m allegedly “staff”, I was told about the change of policy a couple days before the official announcement, and I was shocked. I’m still shocked. Honestly, it feels weird discussing the topic even now. Not in a bad way - like I said, it’s rather liberating - but in an I’m still having trouble believing this is a thing sort of way. This would’ve been my tenth anniversary on LucasForums, if it were still online, and I was on the FileFront forums for a bit before that. Porting was always banned and I don’t remember when it wasn’t. When Deadly Stream went online, it maintained the same rules, and now that’s changing. It’s a shift in policy older than this website, put in place before many users here even played the games. It’s a surprise, to be sure - and I expect a welcome one for many.
Given the nature of this modding website, I expect anyone reading this likely knows well enough about porting, but not everyone is a modder or PC gamer and I have been asked before what porting is and why it’s a big deal. Porting is taking copyrighted content - models, textures, music, or what have you - from one game and putting it into a different game. It’s a kind of modding, but the distinction is that regular old modding works within the confines of whatever game is being modded, editing the existing assets and/or adding new content created by the modder, while porting involves something that wasn’t in the game and that the modder doesn’t have the rights to. Why is this a big deal? It isn’t in some communities. Different sites have different rules, and some do allow it. But it wasn’t allowed in the KOTOR community until now, though I feel I need to add a qualifier to that. It was kind of unclear. Porting was certainly against the rules on LucasForums, and with LucasForums went the KOTOR community. While I was a reviewer for KOTORFiles part of my job was to make sure the mods I reviewed didn’t have anything that wasn’t allowed. We were, for example, instructed to be on the lookout for TSLRP when the beta was leaked. If you were to ask me if porting were allowed I think I’d say no, but I don’t think that was an actual FileFront rule. JK3Files hosted mods that ported content from Jedi Outcast to Jedi Academy. There were also a few KOTOR mods I suspected of ported content - textures I recognized from Jedi Academy, for example - as well as mods that included other copyrighted material like music and sound effects. Fortunately, though, nothing ever came under my review that called for an examination of the laws of porting. To further complicate matters, the official release of MDLOps - still hosted on StarWarsKnights.com - contains a tutorial on how to port the Tenloss disruptor rifle from Jedi Outcast/Academy to KOTOR. Bit of a mixed message there.
Regardless, on LucasForums porting was certainly verboten. But for a long time, this was a moot point. There was a lot in the modding realm we couldn’t do. Until a few years ago, we couldn’t work much with head models - the animations would break, or something worse would happen. And unless you used Taina's Replacer, which didn't allow change in vertices, the smoothing would break. Even if you could get a model from point A to point B, it wouldn’t look as nice as it did back at A. Different tools could only handle different things. KAurora couldn’t do animations. MDLOps couldn’t convert lights or lightmaps, emitters, or walkmeshes. I don't know if room animations didn't work or if nobody ever tried it. All these things and more would break even if you were keeping a model in the same game. Most of these issues were only resolved last year with the development of KOTORMax, MDLEdit, and the updated MDLOps. For this reason, perhaps, porting as a reality was a rare concern. Only two cases from those days stand out in my memory, both of which involved screenshots taken in K1 to make textures in K2, and both of which deemed ok by the administration. On Deadly Stream, there was that fiasco with the credits. More often than not, the matter was merely theoretical - someone would unknowingly request something that required porting and be shot down for it. It was forbidden as a theory even though it wasn’t much of a possibility and I don’t know why. It was a rule from before even my time and I’ve never heard the issue properly debated. Porting wasn’t allowed, and you weren’t allowed to talk about why it wasn’t allowed. I find that a bit unsatisfying, so I’ll try to see things from both sides of the issue and debate myself.
Argument A: Porting is a copyright violation. It’s taking something that’s not yours and distributing it without the copyright owner’s permission. In more extreme cases, publishers have moved to shut down mod projects/websites for fear of losing sales, such as with conversion mods that would remake a game in another engine. Modding as a whole is already on shaky legal ground, so it’s not wise to attract that sort of bad attention. The line is drawn here.
Argument B: Porting isn’t anything like pirating a game because it involves a fraction of the content and requires the framework of a game to access it. It’s unlikely that any mod would negatively affect a game’s sales. If anything, more mods for a game is a good thing and content ported from one game to another draws interest in both. There’s nothing illegal about porting for personal use. The only part in question is the distribution of game assets - but that applies equally to all mods. The only difference is from which game the assets originated. It doesn’t make sense to apply a different standard of rules, especially for games in the same series that already share a lot of assets, like KOTOR.
Those are the essential arguments, as I see them. At the risk of earning Kreia’s wrath, I’m not going to take a side. This is a bit of a coward’s way out that I can take because I’m a modder and I can port stuff myself if I want to and not rely on downloading it from Deadly Stream - more on that in a bit - but that really is how I feel. I don’t see it as a matter of what’s right or wrong or what’s legal but rather what you think is a good idea and how much of a risk you want to take. Some communities take a risk and never have any trouble. Some - not many, but some - have taken the same risk and had their mods taken away. It’s a subjective matter, and maybe that’s why I’m a little bitter about the LucasForums days - because I see it more as a decision we should make as a community rather than an ultimatum that must never be questioned (even if most of us don’t know who made the decision or the rationale). But whether or not it was entirely by choice, that was what the community decided and I went along with it. That was then, this is now. It seems the community has gone in the other direction, and I’ll go along with it.
The question has become not what is allowed but what is and isn’t possible. I imagine, in the coming days, as more people ask this question there will be some poking and prodding to explore the new horizons. So I thought I’d save anyone reading this a bit of time by admitting that I’ve known how to do a lot of naughty things for a while now. I’ve been porting for personal use - not to make mods, but for my film projects that demanded it. Characters from different games interacting with each other, locations we wanted to use in another context, or just things that were useful for cinematic purposes - K2 has a lot more animations than K1. I’ve already been poking and prodding for years now and I no longer feel the need to hide it. I’m not going to go into much technical detail yet - perhaps when the modding wiki is online, if it's permitted - but I can answer some general questions right now.
For K1/K2:
Can we port head models?
Yes. There is some difference in the bone structure for each game, but there’s a specific process that works. It’s not even a huge difference, but it makes the lips of K1 heads clip in K2 and leaves K2 mouths gaping open in K1. My guess is Obsidian changed things during their development of the facial animation system that was never finished. The fix is essentially to copy the skin onto the appropriate game’s set of bones.
Can we port body/full body models?
Yes. Without any qualifiers.
PCs? Party members? Aliens? Really?
Yes.
What about robes with capes?
Yes. The supermodels would have to be edited to include the cape bones and their animations, but it could be done. I had one go at it but it’s a bit shoddy at the moment.
Can we port other animations?
Yes. With a few caveats. 1.) K1 has a limited number of animations that can be scripted, though new cutscene animations are an option. 2.) K2 has more combat animations than K1 and under different names. A couple bugs in K2 stem from failure to account for this, and unless they’re named properly for K1 the same sort of problem would occur. 3.) K2 has a ton of other new animations and they’re added all over the place, which complicates any sort of porting.
Can we port models with their own special animations, like Darth Nihilus?
Yes. The same animation concerns apply, but that’s it.
Can we port textures - fancy ones, like bump maps and ones with animations?
Yes. The TPC format doesn’t change, so even in the event that we’re unable to properly decompile to TGA/TXI, simply copying over the TPC is enough. I have a texture archive for K2 that includes all of K1’s textures (and any that happen to share the same file names are overridden by the K2 versions).
Can we port areas?
Probably. I’ve had one definitive success - m14aa, the Jedi enclave courtyard - and a few partial successes or failures. But it’s still early days and I suspect the problems may have been procedural. The courtyard has grass, running water, and room animations - all the things I’d expect to go wrong first - and zero problems. Lightmaps, which used to be destroyed during ASCII conversion, load fine thanks to the new tools. There is a difference in how each game is lit, so a ported module may end up too bright or too dark, but that can be fixed in the .are file. Good signs so far, but not enough for me to be confident in a hard yes yet.
While we’re on the subject, since some of you seem to have been left out of the loop, we can also edit areas now. You might’ve seen area fixes in recent mods, but I’m talking full on editing like changing the lighting or texture mapping or adding a door to a new module. This would come in handy, for example, if one wanted to make new area mods that connect to the existing game, or integrate cut ones like the Czerka warehouse, or restore modules on Dantooine or Korriban that were left out of K2.
Can we port feats/lightsaber forms/prestige classes/the upgrade system/the level cap/everything hard-coded?
No. These were never porting issues. These game mechanics run directly through the game’s executable rather than an external file that we can mod.
For the MMO:
Can we port items?
Yes. See MDLOps’ tutorial.
Can we port vehicles?
Yes. I ported the Mantis bounty hunter ship to K1 as part of an area model on Taris. I stripped it of its bump maps because I didn’t know how to work with those at the time, but I imagine if we could figure out how to convert the formats those could be included as well.
Can we port character models?
Probably. But you’d have to weight it to KOTOR’s set of bones, which isn’t easy or fun work. That’s kind of why there aren’t a lot of new character mods at all for KOTOR. I’m not at all familiar with how the MMO models are set up so I can’t comment further.
Can we port areas?
Maybe? I can import the models into 3ds Max. To get one in KOTOR would be a lot of work - making new lightmaps and walkmeshes, replacing any emitters like running water with KOTOR standards, almost as much work as making a new area from scratch - but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible. Of course, KOTOR has issues with vertical space - can’t have one walkmesh on top of another - so there may be issues with the designs, depending on the area. But I don’t think poly count or anything like that would be a problem. The MMO seems to average around KOTOR’s level, some things better, some worse. I really just haven’t had the time to try it yet.
These are all just my general impressions so far and your individual success may vary. But overall I'd say there’s a lot we can do and not a lot we can’t do - just a lot we weren’t supposed to do until now. The point of this blog isn’t to encourage porting, exactly. It’s your choice whether to do it or not. Because of the rules (the old rules) I’ve always strived to use assets that are in both games wherever possible. It’s more challenging that way, but it almost always resulted in fewer complications. Even with porting allowed, I’ll probably still do that in the future. It's simpler. But now that, surprisingly, after all this time, that is a choice people can make, I want to put this information out there so those of you who are interested in stepping down this path may do as you choose. I’ll be available on Discord if anyone wants to see some more examples of my porting attempts or get a more thorough overview of the process.
Personal opinions not endorsed by FileFront Deadly Stream.
I've been converting the Imperial Agent storyline into a audio drama. From time to time, I need to have folks do the lines for droids and aliens because - as it's an audio drama - I can't rely on subtitles. I'm looking for a someone to record the lines below if they're interested. British, Irish, Welsh, or Scottish accents preferred but I'll listen to all submissions. Male or female voices welcome. Mono or stereo. MP3 or WAV.
Lines:
I request your attention. I have an urgent message for you from Grand Moff Ilyan Regus. [Editor note: use pronunciation for "Moff Iyan Regus" using attached sound file as a guide line]
Grand Moff Regus is the commander of Special Forces. I am patching you through now.
Ilum is accessible by starship. I am uploading relevant star maps as directed.
Operation Dark Ice is of critical importance. You should proceed to Ilum now. T9 M6 ending transmission.
Darth Malgus represents a critical threat. Grand Moff Regus and the War Council request your immediate presence.
Access granted. Removing Darth Malgus from the Galaxy is the top priority.
Moff Ilyan Regus.mp3
Twelve years ago in Boston, I went to a release event for Drew Karpyshyn's first Darth Bane novel, Path of Destruction. I was so excited to meet the man who wrote my favorite video game of all time. When I got there, I was one of about 6 people there, two of which were my parents who graciously drove me, and it felt a little awkward to be honest. Drew read a passage from his book and opened it up to a Q&A afterwards. I asked him about the possible KOTOR connections that might be in his book (the passage he read has included the mention of Selkath), my Mom politely asked him about his other works in fiction, and then it was done. The 501st showed up in some Stormtrooper armor, which was cool, I got my book signed and off we went. It was a nice little event. Over the years as each book came out and then the Revan novel, and then TOR, I would email DrewK who would actually engage in back and forths with me about characterizations of Revan, the Exile, and lastly the apparent non-twist ending of Dynasty of Evil (I still don't understand this one). Overall, don't really know where I'm going with this other than to say that Drew was a nice fella, and I'm appreciative for the experience and whatever slight connection I made with him.
So, that's that.
Also, if I said that I was working on voice lines for you, I still am. Trying to get paid work now that I'm in the proper state, so that's been my absolute focus - but I will get back to the fan stuff soon.
Best,
UC
Minutes ago I am having this abstract thoughts.
If the Jedi have their own code:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
And the Sith:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Is there any "cult(s)" in Star Wars franchise with a code that is in between these two?
I'm a rookie in Star Wars thing [the first time I'm into Star Wars was when playing KotOR, which is about early March this year I believe], not many things I know beside the fact that there are the Sith and the Jedi.
Actually, because of this thoughts I kind of wanting to start a mod [in the future- there are still unfinished projects now; sorry peeps 😛] that create an NPC(s) that represents this "in between" faction.
Moments ago, I googled searching the fact for "do Heaven and Hell exist in Star Wars?" to at least, legitimate-check it. And the result; it does- point to this reference.
So, using that as starting point I concreted these random words that is coming out of my head to be a "code" and name the "cult"; the Unknown.
Believe in there is no Heaven nor Hell.
Believe in their existence.
Believe in there is something in between.
Believe in the Unknown.
Maybe one of you reading this could tell me if there are already factions that is beside the Jedi and the Sith, because this idea kind of bugging me now [the idea of start a story about the Unknown to tell the truth 😛, but maybe if you are interested on kick-start this concept; knock yourself out! ]
Again, thank you for reading this [if you have been reading this].
And I am sorry- for the inconvenience may I have caused from this writing.
May the Force be with you!
I've gone back and edited the descriptions of some of my mods - Sound Effects for K1, Blaster Visual Effects for K1, and Blaster Visual Effects for K2 - because I've started a new thing. It's a video series I'm calling my Mod Showcase. I felt that the previous setup wasn't doing a very good job of showing what the mods were all about. With the sound effects, the screenshot was... obviously not helpful in the slightest because that's not how sound works. The Blaster Visual Effects mods do have a more visual thing going on, but I have firsthand experience of being unable to judge these mods by still images alone. When the games' paused paused it's kind of just a big blur. It really isn't the same thing as seeing it in motion. I needed to watch the blasters fired from multiple angles when I was working on the mod to decide how I felt about my changes, and I kept going back and forth on the issue. For a while I wasn't sure if I was making things better or worse. I can't tell you how many kath hounds I killed during testing. So, in both cases, I thought having video would help to give people more of an idea of what the heck the mod does does and maybe more of an incentive to download it.
The videos serve as a more in depth preview, for those of you who only take a cursory glance and judge the mod by its screenshots (I'm certainly guilty of this myself). I do a bit of before and after also go into a little technical detail about how I've done things from time to time. I've only done two so far, but I might continue this format with my other mods. These were the only ones that stood out to me as needing a more involved explanation, but I already know what my mods do, so a second opinion would help. Let me know if you have any specific requests.
Also, to my surprise, with the site upgrades Deadly Stream automatically embedded my YouTube videos when I pasted the links. I didn't have to fuss around with it at all and was able to put them in the descriptions with no difficulty. I'd actually had this idea for a while and made the first video without considering how to get it onto the site. We could embed YouTube before, but I wasn't sure if it would work in a mod description, and then I wasn't sure how to do it in the upgrade. And then it went and did it on its own, so it definitely gets a pass on ease of implementation. It's too early to say whether my showcase is a good idea, but I do think some other mods could benefit from a video preview (particularly other sound effect mods) and if you were worried about having to fuss around then you don't have to worry about that.
Many kath hounds died to bring you this information.
Greetings, meatbags.
Last time I posted in this blog was quite a while ago, so I thought I'd share what my recording space currently looks like in Texas.
The rundown: It's a big ol' closet with moving blankets strung up on the walls and draped above me like a circus tent.
The equipment: I've been slowly adding more and more to my space throughout my various moves.
First off, the second most important instrument you have (after your voice). I've had three mics throughout my 6 or so years recording VO. I started off with the respectable Blue Yeti USB mic, moved on to the AT2020 and now have landed at the E-100S Condenser Microphone. This thing is good for me to help bring out the natural bass in my voice, but is not markedly better than the AT imo. If you're looking for a good starter mic of your own, I'd recommend the far more affordable AT.
Next is the Audio Interface, which is necessary if you're using a non-USB microphone like I am. I use the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, which is a plug and play type setup and has never steered me wrong.
The next most important part, is your recording software. Audacity is free and it's what I've always used.
Extras: Music Stand to hold your copy (or script), mic stand, stool to place laptop on, LED clamp light to see copy, dog trainer clicker to mark mistakes with loud pops in recorded track.
That's all there is to it.
Til next time.
- UC
No clickbait intended
So, after reading some very constructive discussion between @JCarter426 @Kexikus and @DarthParametric in @VarsityPuppet's Ajunta Pall WIP thread, I'm having a little understanding of- why Mono channel would better be implemented rather than Stereo channel for Action, Force Powers, Blasters, and Lightsabers Sound FXs on this game [and I believe in other games too]. It is relevant for the said example to use Mono channel, because- for example, we would want to hear a humming sound of lightsaber on the left side of the speaker when the camera is facing right [something to do with voice panning- if I recall correctly] won't we? And those would not be possible with Stereo channel I'd supposed. The exception would be for dialogue VO on cutscenes- I believe those would be most suitable for Stereo channeled .WAVs or .MP3s as the reason is obvious; for immersion purpose and deep mental involvement of contexts been told.
Personally, I am still hoping that Stereo channeled SFXs would be possible to be utilized in-game as me and @CarthOnasty having a plan to alter the Star Map opening sound; to something different than vanilla. The sound has been made, but is still in Mono channel now.
Thank you for reading this [if you have been reading this].
Cheers, and may the Force be with you 🙏
In TSL, there are no wookiees, except for a single angry Wookiee...
I'm fairly certain if you have that infamous NPC Overhaul you may run into a few more, but there are no important wookiee characters. In K1, there's an entire planet of them.
I'm not suggesting porting Kashyyyk to TSL, but it would be interesting to see wookiees show up as a sidequest or potential companion interaction. For instance, if you had Hanharr mabye you'd run across some wookiees on Nar Shaddaa, either free them or sell them into slavery. This would allow character development of the PC for LS or DS points, it would highlight Hanharr's disregard for his people, and it would allow the PC an influence opportunity, more XP, and if you had Mira vice versa, though Mira has actual voiced lines, while Hanharr has alien VO.
The location could be changed, but Nar Shaddaa seems the most believable location.
Hanharr and wookiees are prime real estate for modding since they use Alien VOs and are not very prominent in TSL.
Wookiees could show up as slaves of Czerka on Telos, and need to be freed, or captured and sold to the Exchange or G0T0.
Additionally, a Big Z could easily make a cameo and have a hostile interaction with Hanharr resulting in the death of Big Z, or Hanharr for that matter...
Not sure if i'll ever do this, but if I did work on a content driven lore expansion mod, wookiees would be included.
RAGEQUIT!
Well, this project at least.
Here's what I wanted to do. The Landing Video would have covered all three areas of the mod preceded by an orbit shot.
The pan would have been quick but the EH green screen would have only shown up after the pan stopped moving.
(I even had a skybox set up for the fountain module - no one ever pointed out that there's a blue Dantooine sky above that room but I sure as hell noticed it.)
On to Part 4 though . . .
(The takeoff video would have been much shorter - going straight from a take off (part 4) to leaving Coruscant's orbit (part 1).)
The problem was even after acquiring 3DS MAX, Adobe After Effects (for the engine glow) and having NWN MAX, I could NOT get the buildings to load up. The frustration is extreme. It's too much work for a mod that I wasn't ever really crazy about in the first place. Not having something to release at least saving me the pain having the release be either outright ignored or nitpicked.
Hopefully, one of you have loads more talent than I do because I'm tossing in the towel on this one.
Since many of you lack the intestinal fortitude to ask me directly why she was banned, allow me to illuminate you.
Multiple times, she violated Rule 6 - the bumping rule. She was warned many times via PMs not to do this but she continued to do so. She even bragged about doing so here.
Let's not forget here continual complaints that folks weren't working non-stop about mods he put in requests for. Modders will work on mods at their own pace and badgering them about it isn't going to increase that pace.
Twice, she violated Rule 3 - Flaming/Harassment - when she PM'd me (and presumably others) to complain in a profane manner about previous complaints. Because of the language used in the Private Messages, I wouldn't be able to post them here. (I've deleted them from my Inbox so don't bother to PM me to ask to see them.) By the way, she also complained about delays on the boards. She continues to complain about mods not being created on her schedule off the site. Here's a choice example from YouTube.
Here's something you might be forgetting: I don't get paid for this job. Modders don't get paid for making their mods, either. Do any of us need ceaseless aggravation from folks that can't be patient and/or abide really simple rules of discourse? Like it or not, this forum does have rules and by using this site, the user has agreed to abide by those rules. Follow the Rules and you'll not get banned. It's really as simple as that.
I've deleted most of LucytheAlien's threads that lacked any responses. If she's not going to be here to respond, the deleted threads really serve no purpose any longer. Threads she initiated that had received responses remain.
Here's what the site owner has to say about this situation, by the way.
Snigaroo - one of the administrators over at the KOTOR2 Subreddit - dislikes using M4-78 EP. That's his right. However, when I do my next play-through of KOTOR2, I want to use both the KOTOR2 mod build and the M4-78 EP. Might anyone have any suggestions what the install order would be in this particular situation? You should assume that I am using the 4CD version of KotOR2 and that I am playing on a Windows 7 computer.
I'm leaving this blog open as I have no idea when M4-78 EP will return to Deadly Stream.
I'm also not asking for any additional mod suggestions. When I'm satisfied that I have the Mod Build and M4-78 EP working well together, I'll make a new blog asking for suggestions.
Kotor 2 is riddled with cut content, while TSLRCM restores most content and other big projects like M4-78EP restores their respective content there is still a small handful of cut content still hanging around and this one I will be discussing may or may not be known as commonly as let's say the GenoHaradan.
Recently, I discovered some cut lines for Bao Dur's intro that indicate that this was going to be different than how it goes in Vanilla/TSLRCM. As always, I cannot restore this original intro in a way that works as it'd essentially have to cut more dialogue to restore even fewer dialogue but I have restored a select number of lines into the normal Intro in a way that does work.
Help wanted!: As I own a Windows 10 PC I cannot download/use the tools to make Lip Syncs for the cut lines. If anyone owns a Windows 8 PC or under/can actually run the tools required to make Lip Sync and knows how to make them feel free to reply to this blog/PM me about this and I will give you details on what lines that need to be Lip Synced.
Here is what I got so far
I have been recommended to not release what I've got as this is a bad first impression so if anyone is interested in working with me with the Lip Syncs be my guest, also tell me what you guys think of the lines.
I thought I’d start one of these blog things. I’ll be using them to announce... things. First up is the release of a mod that’s five years late.
Veterans of the LucasForums era may remember a mod for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords called “JC’s Toolbox”. It added what I called “a collection of items for developers, filmmakers, and cheaters of all kinds”. It let you do things like open and close doors, get free items and XP, teleport, spawn characters, and play animations, and it granted full control over the party system so you could add or remove party members wherever and whenever. I initially sought out these functions while making videos with the game, and also found them to come in handy with mod development.
Before I made the Toolbox, I relied on a few different mods - the Whereami Armband, Call of Aid, Teleporter 2000, and the Wrist Console - to perform these functions. Most of these mods performed their function through armband items; you could equip the armband on your player character, and then it would fire the mod’s script when activated. The Wrist Console was a little different, using Mira’s wrist launcher as a template instead. But they all gave you an item that, instead of creating an energy shield, would fire a custom script to teleport you or spawn characters or whatever. I even made my own edits to a couple of these mods, adding more features like animations and unused camera modes that were left over from Neverwinter Nights. I used these for years before deciding to learn how to make a proper armband myself instead of hacking someone else’s.
In the process, I also learned that armbands and wrist launchers weren’t even necessary: there’s an unused item type called “Plot Usable Item” that functions like an armband, but the function is available so long as the item is in your inventory. You don’t have to equip it at all. I believe this was used for the sonic device on the water suit in the first game, the one that lets you kill sharks. It still functions in KOTOR II, and since you don’t need to equip it to use it, I could access more than two of them at a time. The entire party could access them, too. That was much more convenient than the previous setup. So I decided to rebuild not only my mod hacks, but also many of the original functions of those mods, to give myself a set of Plot Usable Items to replace all the old tools.
With accessibility being a non-issue, I decided to make several tools, each with a limited scope. My hack of Call of Aid had gotten particularly crowded, so I wanted to avoid that. Each new tool would specialize in a specific area, such as spawning characters, playing animations, or managing the party system. And I overdid it. The initial release of JC’s Toolbox contained eighteen usable items. I ended up making the actual Toolbox item just to be able to fire the other seventeen from the same place.
According to my records, I released the K2 version of my Toolbox in December 2012, and over the following year I made a couple updates to that. I didn’t release a K1 version. There was a good reason for that. A bunch of my scripts wouldn’t work. It took me five years to figure out why.
I was never compiling scripts for K1.
It’s rather embarrassing, but that’s that’s the truth of it. I compile my scripts through a batch file, and I have a different one for each game. When I first set up the K1 compiler in 2009, I neglected to edit the file to change the game number. On top of that, I wasn’t aware of some significant differences in scripting for each game. I knew Obsidian added many functions, but I didn’t realize they had changed a few of them too - common functions like ActionStartConversation, DestroyObject, and CreateItemOnObject. Several functions have been altered to pass more parameters in K2. For example, when creating an item in K2, you can specify whether the player will be alerted through the GUI or whether the creation will be hidden. I first learned how to script in K2, and you could say I developed some bad habits and wrote all my K1 scripts under the assumption that they worked the same as they did in K2. And because both my compilers were set to compile for K2, I was never told otherwise. No error messages, no scripts that wouldn’t compile, nothing. The compiler was reading K2 scripts and writing K2 scripts, so as far as it was concerned, nothing was wrong.
For nine years, I was writing scripts for the wrong game.
For the most part, these scripts did work. I’m amazed how much of it did work. Even though the scripts were compiled for the wrong game, even with the differences in those functions, they did run. After all, I wouldn’t have gone so long without noticing the problem if the scripts didn’t work. I’m only now realizing how many oddities I encountered can be blamed on this mix-up.
Up to a point, my scripts would run properly. Even if my script was compiled for the wrong game, most of the functions are the same, so it was happy. Then it would reach one of these functions that Obsidian had changed. It would get to an extra parameter that didn’t belong in K1. That’s where the trouble began.
With CreateItemOnObject, the parameters are the item name, the object to receive the item, the number of items to create, and then whether to hide this process or not. In K1, the script was happy to put in the item, and the object, and the amount, but when it got to that last bit, it couldn’t take it anymore. The function wasn’t coded to allow a fourth parameter. So it would execute the first three parameters, and then it would get stuck. That meant it would actually create the item, as I intended. But the rest of the script wouldn’t run. Not just the rest of that function, but the rest of the entire script.
That’s how these bugs would play out. My script would run up to a point, and then mysteriously stop running. It all makes sense to me now, but understand that for years and years, I didn’t have any reason to assume there was a connection between these oddities, or that they could all be blamed on such a simple mistake. As far as I was aware, they were isolated incidents beyond my control. I thought that was just the way things were, and developed some workarounds, like executing CreateItemOnObject in a separate script, that let me do things the wrong way for nine years.
And even doing things the wrong way, I still managed to achieve most of what I wanted. But these bugs crippled the Toolbox for K1. I started working on it shortly after the initial release of the K2 version, but certain scripts just would not behave. I released a few betas of the K1 version that lacked the misbehaving features, but I held off on an official release until I could get them to work. I could never figure that out. I only realized my compiling issue recently, by happenstance, and from there I was able to unravel the whole mess. It was all because of a stupid mistake that was Past JC’s fault.
Now, JC’s Toolbox for K1 is ready for release. It’s a collection of items for developers, filmmakers, and cheaters of all kinds. It lets you do things like open and close doors, get free items and XP, teleport, spawn characters, and play animations, and it grants full control over the party system so you can add or remove party members wherever and whenever. It’s five years late, but it works. And it was programmed for the right game.
Are you familiar with the M4-78 documentary series that Xuul and I have done? If so, be aware that I'll eventually have to sit down and work on the next chapter. (A new chapter will be on its way to the
sometime in the near future - have no fear.)
The next chapter that's coming to the playlist covers Darth Stoney's version of M4-78. That means the one I'll have to start writing after that is the M4-78 Enhancement Project. If you've played the EP and had any head-scratching moments, what better way is there to get those answers than by posing a question or two that I can present to the makers of the mod to have them answer and/or explain?
There's lots of material to cover here: the initial version, the 1.2 update, the 1.3 update that's exclusive to Steam (and I've never even played), and the 1.4 update still being worked on right now by zbyl2.
If you have questions about the past or current versions up to 1.3, would you please let me know by listing them below? I'll credit you in the video as long as it's a family friendly name. (You may also be un-credited, if you so desire.)
I would suggest holding off on questions about the future version, as I plan to split the M4-78 EP content into more than one part. I might even do a walk through video once the 1.4 material has been covered. (Apparently, I'm a masochist and my work is never done.)
To our viewers, thanks for your patience in our slow roll out of the content. Your enjoyment is why I do this.
I had to redo one of my videos as I screwed up the audio on it (the Bounty Huner one) and I thought I may as well point the folks here to them in case they haven't seen them.
Examples of the LucasArts Golden Guy
Examples of the LucasArts Golden Guy, Part 2
Every mod I've created has had one bug or flaw. From its design and finding out how to make things work, all the way to the finished product.
It seems that I will always update my mods at least 2 times before I'm satisfied and haven't cause some1's game to crash.
========> On that note, thank you for downloading my mods and experiencing this pain with me. <========
I will continue to improve and renovate my mods, but I'm still hitting walls on limitations. I can't script enough, I use the wrong function at the wrong time/place, etc... I end up fixing a door, but permanently locking another, because Bioware cloned that door. Despite my constant spree of failures and bugs, I don't want to quit, nor stop helping those who've downloaded my mods.
I had a vision to mod. I put effort to mod. I published a mod. And I have the responsibility to maintain that mod's quality. I cannot overstate how important bug testing and reporting is to me.
Reflections on Mishaps: I cannot skin or model, both attempts have been meet with clear failure. For the most part, I try to test out my mods before publishing them, but sometimes my tests are incomplete, for example, SF Door Fix, I only tested the first door, unaware that there was a door in the next module with the same tag,resref, and name.
Current mod failure: Resisting Arrest on Manaan, which can cause party members to be stuck indefinitely. I want to fix this mod, but it's low on my list.
Reflections on Success: Shanilia (as far as I know) is without bugs, but I am skeptical, when I have time to play kotor again, I will fully test out Shanilia and see if everything I wanted exists in the game. Save Mission: My most popular mod, simple content adding mod, but even that had to undergo editing - considering my current knowledge I may try to splice lines to create a more immersive conversation. Additionally, the PC reply options are long winded, so I may want to change that.
Tool Bag: was a personal best for me, it may not be as good as T3M4 being a workbench in k1 as he is in k2, which has been done by many modders. I wanted to learn how to replicate BOS:SR and Call of Aid, how were they able to activate a script with an armband and how could I use that for my own nefarious needs. I learned how to do this, expanding my modding knowledge, and now the PC doesn't have to lug around T3M4 in k1, because, no offense to the little guy, but he's borderline useless. (Note: Which is why I have plans to renovate, making him and HK-47 more reliable in combat)
As always, mods done by request are less enjoyable, but more rewarding - because people are thankful that you've done something for them to address a part in the game they wanted to change. SF Door Fix, Save Mission, Massage Choice, Train the Handmaiden, Train Disciple, Mentor Band, Party Leveler 1&2 (which was renovated by another modder and released with additional changes, part of me really enjoyed seeing someone take an idea I had and improving it, the other part of me was frustrated to a lesser extent), and lastly, who can forget Kill Marlena. (Improved Grenades was pseudo requested tbh).
In general, my modding centralizes on adding content through items and dialogue, small gameplay changes.
Current project that's taken priority is Train Disciple, hopefully, I can put a significant amount of effort into that over the next few days. I have a save game thanks to N-Drew directing me to female saved Games in our Saved Games category on DS, (special thanks to Darth_delator).
On other news, Lehon Mandalorian Expansion (LME) is still looking for voice actors... and there are about 10 bugs needing to be addressed, over all though, it looks like I will be able to finish the project in the Summer of 2018, which is good news. I should be directing all my efforts there, but I've been procrastinating lately.
Well, that's what's been on my mind recently.
Stay tuned for my April 1st mod release of Taris J'ika!
-JC2
I'm not promoting this on my Status Update this morning as I don't want to divert folks from my assistance to my other blog post where I've trying to get folks to assist a movie maker. In this instance, this request is coming straight from me.
Yes, I know I've asked about requesting folks to remake videos elsewhere. This is a narrower field of vision - and doesn't have to do with dealing with either landing or take-off videos.
I'd like the following videos remade by the talented modders here, recorded and exported in (at the minimum) 1080p resolution.
(The remaining four videos will follow due to video post limits.)
For the soldiers and attackers, please reuse the same armor types. Switch up the heads if you want if you don't want them to all look like clones. Use whatever skybox and environment texture mods you wish or keep them the same if you want. Keep the same music and sound effects. The object is to have clearer videos than what we have currently and not to entirely remake them.
Upload them here and wherever else you want so people can use them.
You may have seen that DarthVarkor has already redone the Kreia's Fall video - probably to me being annoying. JCarter426 redid the TSL Opening Credits in French mostly due to me paying for it - and I don't even speak French! (Thanks to them both for their awesome efforts.)
Tell me what you need to make this happen.
I have no experience in working with models so therefore running admin on subjects I'm not well versed would seem doomed to failure. However, I might be able to pony up a few bucks to make this happen. I'm not a rich man so don't go into this expecting a fortune here, folks.
PS: If you stop by the thread, please leave a comment - even if it's just to say that you can't do it but appreciate the idea. I'd like to know that I'm not just howling out in to the void.
I'm looking for recommendations for great mods for KOTOR1's Taris and the Endar Spire - both texture mods and anything else that might enhance the experience of those two planets in particular. Asking for a friend.
Hey everyone,
So I haven't updated this blog in a while, truth be told, I completely forgot it existed!
So what have I been up to since my last entry? Well I began full work on the final film in my KOTOR II Movie Quadrilogy! I've been working on it since around June 2017 (some months have been more productive than others) and I'm really pleased with it so far, I honestly think it's some of my best work and I'm aiming to go out with a bang.
The film is being edited slightly out of sequence but I feel confident in saying I have around an hour and 20 minutes locked down, with the next 10-15 currently being cut together, the complete film is looking at being around 2 hours & 5-10 minutes (not including credits). I uploaded the first teaser for it on Christmas Eve and since then I've actually made a surprising amount of progress, expect more previews/trailers in the coming couple months.
I have no set release date in mind, but I'm looking at Spring/early Summer potentially, though, don't hold me to that! That's about it for now, I think. I have a very busy semester ahead of me too, and I'm in no rush to get this film out. It needs to be the very best it can be.
Here's the first teaser for anyone who hasn't seen it yet:
~ DV
This topic has been discussed a million times over during the years and each topic has been concluded with "There isn't enough content to restore it and would be custom content" and no one has taken up the challenge of making this a reality. This blog is an idea made by me on how a custom content Disciple Holocron mod should play out.
Before I begin with the actual idea for those who don't know what I am referring to once the Disciple was a Jedi a female Exile and he would find Holocrons and these Holocrons could teach the Exile and him a new Force Power, this hasn't been restored as only lines remain, no actual Holocron's or locations for the Holocrons exist.
For those who are interested in lines here is a video by Sith Holocron of the cut lines
Now for the idea.
Holocrons should be founded on most worlds as placeables. For locations, I would say
Jedi Holocron in the Onderon Royal Palace museum Jedi Holocron in the Jedi Enclave Sublevel Sith Holocron in the Sith Academy
First off, if you're male you should still be allowed to open the Holocron without the Disciple. If you use Party Swap then a male character can hear Disciple's lines but another male penalty will apply which I will mention later on. The powers the Holocron should teach you are Force Crush, Force Enlightenment and Battle Precognition. As Battle Precognition can be taught by the Handmaiden if you're male or use party swap a penalty should apply to the Holocron that teaches Battle Precognition so that you don't learn it twice.
My idea for a penalty is that the Holocron for Battle Precognition should be found on Dantooine behind a locked door in the Sublevel. On the opposite side of the academy away from the Holocron room should be a Mercenary Corpse with Thorium Charges and a Datapad to detail how he was to find Jedi Artefacts for Azkul so he could sell the Artefacts for credits to fund his Mercenary Army (Or learn the Holocrons secrets for himself as he does state he was trained at Malak's academy possibly hinting he was a Sith Student on Korriban). Using the Thorium Charges from either the dead mercenary or somewhere else the Exile can blast the door down, the penalty here is that if you have Handmaiden male or female the Holocron "breaks" in the explosion similar to the one on Korriban with Bastila's message if you are light side. If you don't have Handmaiden then the Holocron can teach you Battle Precognition.
The Jedi Holocron in the Onderon Royal Palace museum should be viewed by the Onderonian's as a Jewel not knowing of its true nature, where it came from presumably was found on Onderon during some previous war left behind by a possibly dead Jedi. The Exile should learn Force Enlightenment from this one and gain Light Side points for doing so.
The Sith Holocron on Korriban should be found somewhere in the Sith Academy maybe the Sith Library as there is a Sith in K1 who states there are Holocrons in the Academy and also Scavengers have been trying to steal these holocrons. This Holocron will teach Force Crush and give the player Dark Side points.
Obviously, you cannot receive Force Enlightenment or Force Crush at the end game like in Vanilla and TSLRCM. Another good idea for this mod is that you teach your Jedi Companions your new powers, Disciple on the over hand if he was present when you learned the powers will gain the power with you meaning you don't have to teach him at all.
For the actual Holocron placeable's I'd suggest Insidious' Holocron Placeable Modder's Resource found here- http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/581-k1tsl-modders-resource-holocrons/
Hello everybody! I've previously had someone else record a fine version of the line below but as he's also playing a larger role in the chapter, I'd rather not have any viewer confused by one person playing multiple parts. Therefore, I'd like to open the smaller part to the general public.
If you are interested, record the part below and I'll let you know once I've found what I've needed. This role is not gender specific so anyone can feasibly offer an attempt. It would probably be easiest to record yourself, and then post your entry in the form of a YouTube video here in this blog.
Pronunciations/Direction:
You are reading out an entry on Wookiepedia. In essence, you are the Wookieepedia.
- "M4-78" should be spoken as "M four seven eight."
- "Vash" rhymes with "Bash" or "Crash"
- "Kaah" rhymes with the "aaah" you make at the doctor's office.
- "Ohtok" spoken as"Oh" and "Tock"
- Try pronouncing "Tourath" as "Too" and "Wrath". As we technically have no known pronunciations of "Tourath" available to us, try to wing it!
Here are the actual lines.
