Obi-Wan's TPM Padawan Lightsaber

[DarthParametric 3,795]

So per a request in the request thread, I decided to knock out Obi-Wan's lightsaber from The Phantom Menace. It was actually pretty straight forward. I already had a high poly one I had done years ago, so I just modelled a new low poly one over the top using the original as a guide. Modelled, mapped, and textured in just a few hours. Runs about 1,500 tris:

 

 

 

Unfortunately I seem to have hit a snag testing it in the game. In TSL, it looks fine in the workshop interface, but in the game proper it doesn't want to show the texture. It either just shows the envmap, or a grey model if the alpha channel is removed. When grey, it also noticeably has some weird animated effect to it, almost like static or something.

 

 

I don't recall encountering this before, so I'm scratching my head at the moment. If anyone has some suggestions on what the issue there is, I'd appreciate it.

 

Edit: Curiouser and curiouser. It seems to work fine in K1:

 

[redeemer6666 9]

Sick saber model, Strange it seems to work in K1 but not TSL.

 

Whenever I texture anything I just drag the texture onto the model through 3DSMax. Always works.

 

I assume this is how everyone does it? 

[DarthParametric 3,795]

It has a texture applied to it. The source Max scene is the same for both, the ASCII model is just compiled separately for each game. And the texture shows up fine in the TSL workbench interface, just not in the game proper.

[redeemer6666 9]

Freaky, Hope you manage to figure it out.

 

That saber really is nice.

[Sith Holocron 2,482]

That saber really is nice.

Though that saber didn't really jump out at me in the actual movie, I really like the way it looks here. I hope someone can assist you with this.

[Kainzorus Prime 206]

Long shot, but have you tried removing the envmap and seeing if it made any difference?

[DarthParametric 3,795]

Yes, as mentioned in the first post. It just ends up grey with a weird static sort of effect on it.

 

Tried a new save to see if that was related and discovered a new level of screwiness:

 

[Kexikus 995]

I remember seeing a similar issue (where the hilt turned blue) somewhere in the last days. I thought it was a bug report here on DS but I can't find it...

IIRC there was no solution but if I remember where it was, I'll still post a link.

[DarthParametric 3,795]

This is on the Steam version, I wonder if that is significant. Might have to reinstall the CD version and see if it happens on that as well.

[RevanKenobi 0]

I'm the one who made the request and that looks incredible! I can't believe you were able to put it together that quickly.

[M3ales 1]

Yes, as mentioned in the first post. It just ends up grey with a weird static sort of effect on it.

 

Tried a new save to see if that was related and discovered a new level of screwiness:

 

Getting same issue on steam version, its not location based, tried on peragus + hawk, both get bug. Using the Default Replacement Hilts Megapack (by Kaidon Jorn). Infact in one of the my steam playthroughs I've got a lightsaber permenantly without a texture. Tried the same on my old cd version, it works fine, no texture 'jumping'. 

 

Good job with the model though.

[DarthParametric 3,795]

Getting same issue on steam version, its not location based, tried on peragus + hawk, both get bug. Using the Default Replacement Hilts Megapack (by Kaidon Jorn). Infact in one of the my steam playthroughs I've got a lightsaber permenantly without a texture. Tried the same on my old cd version, it works fine, no texture 'jumping'.

Odd. I haven't seen that issue with other models I have tested in the Steam version of TSL, like blasters or HK. I wonder what it is that only saber hilts would be affected. If it was a shader issue you'd think it would affect pretty much all models.

 

 

I'm the one who made the request and that looks incredible! I can't believe you were able to put it together that quickly.

Cheers, but as I said I already had a high poly model to base it off, so all the hard work of matching references and so forth was done years ago. Texture-wise it's pretty basic, just shiny metal with a few black bits and some coloured knobs, with some bakes from high poly meshes to make AO, etc. maps for the ribbed sections.

[M3ales 1]

I remember seeing a similar issue (where the hilt turned blue) somewhere in the last days. I thought it was a bug report here on DS but I can't find it...

IIRC there was no solution but if I remember where it was, I'll still post a link.

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/3401-help-for-tsl-lightsaber-hilt-mod-flaking-out-on-me/page-2 ?

Apparently fix was to turn on Disable Vertex Buffer Objects, which I coincidentally just turned off on telos surface because it seems to prevent the host of openglv32.dll crashes I've been getting.

Turning it on again fixes it for me.

[DarthParametric 3,795]

Hrm, so it would appear. Thanks for the info. I don't recall that ever being required in the CD version. I wonder what they changed?

[Squall Lionhart 81]

I actually believe the issue is dealing with the updated version of the game. I had a similar issue with some Jorn's textures on his hilts. I then moved to the legacy version of the game and the textures appeared as normal.

[LiliArch 115]

Hrm, so it would appear. Thanks for the info. I don't recall that ever being required in the CD version. I wonder what they changed?

From what I've heard, included a typo'ed version of that line in the .ini. But for some odd reason that line seems to be causing much more weird (and conflicting) issues in the updated Steam version than in the older ones.

[DarthParametric 3,795]

I don't think the line is the issue. The lack of spaces just means it would be an invalid entry and thus ignored by the game, which would effectively be the same as setting the proper line to 0, i.e. enabling vertex buffer effects. You can enable vertex buffer effects on the CD version without the issue happening. That would point to a shader issue Aspyr have introduced. Possibly it is related to their added option to disable the effects for Force Speed.

[LiliArch 115]

Indeed, and they did add that typo'ed line way before the issue began happening... I seem to be unable to focus there. So, probably changing the code somewhere broke it in some other place. Usual software business, unfortunately...

[Teddy273 4]

I've had the same issue and found a solution just now. Open up the swkotor2.ini file in your base game folder. Scroll down to [Graphics Options], you should have this line : "DisableVertexBufferObjects=1". If it's not, add it. Somehow, this parameter doesn't work without spaces between the words, so you'll have to add them, in order to get "Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1". Problem should be solved.

 

EDIT : Just noticed you already figured out it was due to a problem with the vertex buffer. Anyway, no need to disable it, just edit the line.

[DarthParametric 3,795]

That doesn't actually solve the problem. The underlying cause is a bug Aspyr introduced into the Steam version.

[Guest]

Yeah that happens on my version too with any Lightsaber.