Blog #54 - Possible Expansion to K1 Portrait Pack?

Sith Holocron

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I'm considering doing an expansion pack for my NPC Portraits for KotOR 1 mod covering characters from Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge that would be released separately. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, I'll need some questions answered and perhaps a few save games.

(1) Which characters in that mod can become temporary NPCs in your party and therefore have portraits that would be used in the game? I've found the following names . . .

Akirakon (This is short for "Akirakon Sin", IIRC.)
Channa (More on her in the next question.)
Charlie (This might be "Verbal". It's been a long time since I've looked at this and I've never played the Solomon's Revenge version.)
Kob (This is short for "Kobayashi", IIRC.)
Malak (This is a past version of Malak before he turned, before he had his jaw damaged.)
Mech (I think this is "Mec Han'ic", the Rodian captain of the ship in the version of the mod that I played a long, long time ago.)

(2) It appears the Shadow/Sera Degana/Channa character seems to have more that one portrait. Could someone confirm more than one is used? Here's what I've found . . .

http://imgur.com/lBC0RbV
po_channa.txi

http://imgur.com/030Bw7S
po_channa2.txi

http://imgur.com/7noaTAh
po_channa2d.txi

http://imgur.com/pSfTOZs
po_channa3.txi (Was this used as a portrait? It looks more like a capture from the character alignment screen.)

http://imgur.com/yiCQCME
po_channa3b.txi

If it is actually the case that all of these are used, at what point does she use each portrait?

(3) What would be best backgrounds to use for these new portraits? Keep in mind that the backgrounds would have be able to support anywhere from 8 to 12 frames of animation.

(4) Following up question (3): Can you provide saves that would position the player in front of those particular areas to be used as backgrounds to save me some time? (If your background is used, you get credited.)

(5) Does any one have warp codes for the new areas exclusive to Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge?

I have asked Quanon if he'll do the renders like he's done before my other packs. I hesitated to do so because I'm sure he'd much rather be working on his own projects and I don't want to more than a pain than I already am. (I haven't heard back from him yet.) However, if you would like to do the renders so you can match the characters as closely as possible to the angle and facial expression of the original portraits, that would good too! Leave a message here and I'll let you know what size I'd need the picture to be. You should probably wait until we have the other questions worked out first.

Update: This is slightly off-topic but the reason I tend to lock my status updates is so people will comment where I direct them to. In this case, replying here in this blog - rather than on an update which could be off the main page in less than a day - works best for all of us.



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The first Shadow portrait is the default one. The second and third ones are used during her Mandalorian Wars flashbacks. The last one is used during her Orion flashback. I have a list of the BOS:SR modules that I could send to you in a PM to reduce clutter here.

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Received your warp codes. Thanks a lot.

 

As for the portraits, would you say that in your opinion that I'd only really need to make the first portrait for Channa?

 

Those Warp Codes by the way are:

 

bos_bridge - Mandalore's Capital Ship Bridge

bos_canyon - Korriban Wastes Canyon

bos_circle - Dreshdae Civilian Quarters

bos_czerka - Czerka Mining Facility (Main Level)

bos_czerka2 - Czerka Mining Facility (Castigation Level)

bos_czerka3 - Czerka Mining Facility (Residential Level)

bos_czerka4 - Czerka Mining Facility (Maintenance Level)

bos_digsite - Dreshdae Dig Site

bos_ebovis - Ebon Hawk (Shadow Vision)

bos_msp1 - Mandalore's Capital Ship (Docking Bay)

bos_msp2 - Mandalore's Capital Ship (Crew Quarters)

bos_msp3 - Mandalore's Capital Ship (Bridge Entrance)

bos_orion - Orion Crew Deck (Shadow Flashback)

bos_orion2 - Orion Starboard Section (Shadow Flashback)

bos_pit - Empty White Box Prison (???)

bos_rep2 - Formidable (Shadow Vision)

bos_sewers - Dreshdae Sewers

bos_sincan - Canyon (Akirakon Sin Flashback)

bos_sintem - Temple Exterior (Akirakon Sin Flashback)

bos_sintem2 - Temple Summit (Akirakon Sin Flashback)

bos_stage1 - Dantooine Council Chamber (Akirakon Boss Trial 1)

bos_stage2 - Mandalore's Capital Ship Bridge (Akirakon Boss Trial 2)

bos_stage3 - Revan's Flagship Bridge (Akirakon Boss Trial 3)

bos_stage4 - Lehon Temple Summit (Akirakon Boss Trial 4)

bos_stage5 - Korriban Temple Summit (Akirakon Final Cutscene)

bos_taris - The Battle of Taris (Shadow Flashback)

bos_tem0 - Korriban Ancient Cave

bos_tem1 - Temple of Shadow (Long Hallway)

bos_tem2 - Temple of Shadow (Solomon Encounter/ Holding Cells)

bos_tem3 - Temple of Shadow (Inner Chamber)

bos_tem3b - Temple of Shadow (Inner Chamber Post-Battle Cutscene)

bos_tem4 - Temple of Shadow (Hallways)

bos_tem5 - Temple of Shadow (Chasm Bridge)

bos_tunnels - Mining Tunnels

bos_wastes - Korriban Wastes (Desert)

bos_wastes2 - Korriban Wastes

bos_wastes4 - Korriban Wastes (Cave Exterior)

ship - Orion Main Deck

ship2 - Orion Starboard Section (Exchange Attack)

ship3 - Orion Starboard Section (Post-The Shadow's Bane Opening)

ship4 - Orion Main Deck (Post-The Shadow's Bane Opening)

ship5 - The Shadow's Bane

ship6 - Orion Starboard Section (Post-First Akirakon Sin Defeat)

vision1 - Dantooine Council Chamber (The Shadow's Bane)

vision3 - Revan's Flagship (The Shadow's Bane)

vision4 - Dantooine Jedi Academy (Shadow Flashback)

vision5 - Dantooine ruins (Shadow Flashback)

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The po_channa2d shows her as dark sided, so I think at least that one should be different from the rest.

 

About the other portraits:
Akirakon is never your party member but there are sequences when you play him yourself, so he has a portrait in those.

Shadow you already know.

Verbal is a partymember at some point I think, but also is the main character for at least one sequence.

Kobayashi is definetly a partymember.

Malak I don't remember to be honest.

Mech is also a partymember I think. I'm not sure on that one though.

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The po_channa2d shows her as dark sided, so I think at least that one should be different from the rest.

 

About the other portraits:

Akirakon is never your party member but there are sequences when you play him yourself, so he has a portrait in those.

Shadow you already know.

Verbal is a partymember at some point I think, but also is the main character for at least one sequence.

Kobayashi is definetly a partymember.

Malak I don't remember to be honest.

Mech is also a partymember I think. I'm not sure on that one though.

Malak is a party member during the "Battle of Malachor" sequence.
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The po_channa2d shows her as dark sided, so I think at least that one should be different from the rest.

First, each of the portraits would have the heads facing the same and at the same angles as the originals.  For channa2 and channa2b, besides having use the dark sides skin, I would be using two different backgrounds.  For the light sided version, I'll likely be using your Taris background without the bombed out buildings.  For the dark sided version, I'll be using the "Taris Destroyed" version.

 

I'm guessing po_channa3b is used for when she's a temporary party member in BOS's prologue. So I think the interior of that Hammerhead ship you're on in that prologue will work for her portrait.

 

And that po_channa is when she's your regular party member. So I could reuse the Ebon Hawk one for that.

 

But for po_channa3.txi . . . I'd like to find out what this one is for. I will change this to standard "head-shot" style portrait but I need to know the portrait's context so I can figure out the background. So players of this mod, where is this portrait used?

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Party members on party selection screen aren't rendered in the game engine, but are shown by images. Po_channa3.tga is used for that.

 

Also, for regular party member Channa I'd use Korriban Valley of the Dark Lords, as we haven't a party member portrait from Korriban.

 

It is also worth remembering that Dark Hopa once made an HD texture of the Shadow.

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I'd probably want this mod to be used for Malak's render for the portrait.

 

I haven't found Dark Hopa's reskin for Channa on our site but perhaps it isn't uploaded to Deadly Stream.

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Does anyone have a game save for the Taris Flashback?  Tried warping there but then I can't open the doors . . . and I don't see a warpband mod for K1.
 
Never mind . . . I think I managed without it.

DS%20Background%20Animation_zpszfpfbsii.

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I'd probably want this mod to be used for Malak's render for the portrait.

 

I haven't found Dark Hopa's reskin for Channa on our site but perhaps it isn't uploaded to Deadly Stream.

What is the difference? This is only a model, the exclusive textures come with BoS:SR. And, concerning Dark Hopa's skin, it isn't uploaded anywhere yet, although it was shown on her picture showcases. It would be good to PM her about it.

 

Also, you don't need a warpband for K1. There is a warp cheat.

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What is the difference?

Use it and see?

 

Also, you don't need a warpband for K1. There is a warp cheat.

I think you may have missed the part where that warp issue was lined out and there was a big picture put below it as an update?

 

And, concerning Dark Hopa's skin, it isn't uploaded anywhere yet, although it was shown on her picture showcases.

Link?

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That would be pretty cool for default Shanilia background.

Then the maker of Shanilia mod would have to both request it and provide the render that I need. This thread is for Brotherhood of Shadow characters however so let's keep it on that subject.

 

So folks: For Korriban, where's a good background that would provide decent animation? You can post screenshots to illustrate your point. I would prefer something that isn't Dreshdae as I want more natural or ancient environments and not something "modern". The background would need to be able to 8 to 12 frames of looped animation. Recommendations for skyboxes for Korriban (KotOR and not KotOR2) would also be welcome.

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So if folks are wondering on how I do this portrait rendering, here follows a quick and dirty run down:

 

Place to start, is a tutorial I made some time back, it was part of a lightmap tutorial. But this part deals about setting up the render engine and lighting:

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/kw7btvf80epzcyp/Lights%26Render.pdf

 

I'll now list a few extra tweaks, I found that improved the look of the portraits. Since the above mentioned tutorial deals more with lighting an area instead of a character.

 

A first note/ change, when reading the tutorial, the step where you switch 'on" Global Illumination. Step 2 on the screenshot ;-)

 

There is a small box called Multiplier, it has a value of 1,0. You can enter 5,0 in there.

Below that is Maximum Photons per sample; this is set to 500. Jack it up to 40.000.

 

Keep following the instructions about how to setup the lights and other bits. Nothing changes there.

Next use MDLops to compile your model to ASCII. Use NWmax to import.

 

Now to get a good shot of the character, first, make a big box that surrounds the model. Turn the box into a Edit Poly. Then Chamfer the back ceiling and floor edges.

Then delete front and sides. Select by Element, click on the box. Then use the Flip button. So that all faces, now, face inwards.

 

With all the faces still select, scroll down to smooting options. Click on autosmooth. Deselect the faces.

Open the Material editor ( M-key). Change any slot, from the Standard material to Arch&Design.

 

In the options of this material, there is a drop down list. Pick 'Pearl Finish'. Apply this material to the chamfer 'box' background.

Add in some lights. Three to 4 lights works best.

 

This is how my scene looks like:

 

 

Chamf_Box.jpg

 

 

 

View of the material thingy I talked about:

 

 

Arch_Pearl.jpg

 

 

 

Select any viewport, just click on it. Hit P-key to change it to an Perspective 3D view. Move around the view. Untill you get the shot of the character you want.

Then hit Ctrl+C to create a camera. Next hit Shift+F. This will set the Safe Frame. The view port now has the same size and dimensions as what your rendered image will be.

 

If that is set at 800x600pix, the view will now look like that. If it is set at 1024x1024 the viewport will now be square. You can further tweak the camera, even move it around in the other viewports. You'll see the changes in the 3D viewport instantly.

 

For the skins of the character I just use the Standard material. I drop the skin into the Diffuse slot. But also into the Spec Color, Spec level; Glosiness and Bump slots.

I then play around with the specular values and the glosiness. For human skin I mostly go for Spec 55 and gloss 35. Bump I scale back to 15 or 5.

 

You can play around with the values, it just depends on what you want. Just experiment, do lots of little test renders. Best @ 512x512 for example. Quick to do and you get a good idea on how the end result looks like. 

 

This is just a very quick run down of things. I might create a more noob friendly tutorial later on. :D

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Thanks a lot, Quanon!  This will be a helpful thing for folks to be able to do their own portrait mods.  (Wink, wink.)

 

I do have some bad news to follow that nice tutorial.  It's not horrible though.  I'll be waiting on a particular character re-skin before this project can be completed.  If we want higher quality portraits, that's the price we pay.

 

However, I am still looking for input on Korriban background suggestions as I listed in my last post.  So there are things that I can and will do in the mean time.

 

Update: I'm surprised no one mentioned the explosion on the Taris background.  LOL

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Then the maker of Shanilia mod would have to both request it and provide the render that I need. This thread is for Brotherhood of Shadow characters however so let's keep it on that subject.

Shanilia did I say? Well, that was my autocorrect. Shanilia is not a party member.

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superSzym, I trimmed your quote of mine as you were only commenting on one small part of it.  (I wish more people would do that when quoting.  Use what you need and disregard the rest.)

 

I may have more news in about a week or so or this project.

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@Quanon: May I suggest posting this in the tutorial section? There people who need it would have a chance to see it, unlike here where it will be lost quite easy.

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Quanon is now on vacation.  As he already mentioned that he might be doing an expanded version of what he posted above, perhaps we should wait until he's back from Spain and has a chance to complete that.
 
So . . . who thinks they could make a higher resolution version of this droid in BOS:SR?
 
po_charlie_zps6joykboy.png

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I am about to ask what seems like a porting question. Please read to the end first before judging.  (Thanks!)

Weird question . . . can the Sera Degana skins be used on Twilek characters in K2?  Here's the plan . . . 
 
I change the main PC character to use a Twilek model.  I somehow remove the colored bar, text, and the alignment indicator as seen below.
 
http://imgur.com/8LrdiSJ
 
I then take a number of screenshots of this area without the alignment bar and arrow, crop them, then make a TGA and TXI out of them.
 
If I do all of that, then I can add animation to this portrait . . . plus it would be a bit clearer, I think.
 
Thoughts?

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The body model is the Bastila one, but I think K1 has the same features on your alignment screen.

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Yeah, you can just do that on the K1 alignment screen. The only upside of using the TSL one would be that it's in higher resolution. The K1 one won't allow you to make your new texture any bigger than the vanilla/BOSSR one.

 

Also, if you end up replacing that texture for Shadow, you might want to consider replacing it for the vanilla party members as well.

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I do believe your allowed to port Sera to TSL because all the female twi'lek textures are in TSL already and Sera's texture is a modified twi'lek texture which means porting her head shouldn't be an issue, however, her body texture is Bastila's slave outfit and I'm sure that isn't in TSL. In short, head can be ported no problems, body cannot be ported.

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Also, if you end up replacing that texture for Shadow, you might want to consider replacing it for the vanilla party members as well.

If I were to do that, I'd still need to figure out out how to temporarily remove the alignment stuff and symbols covering a portion of the screen in both K1 and TSL.

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