Leaderboard

Just gonna put a teaser here: anyone remember this old video from 2007? Well I found the mod that this came from. Thank you @jc2 for that link to that old archive that has a small repository of old kotor mods back in the pcgamemod.com days

///// 01. Background ///// A couple of years back I had an idea to create a new modding suite for both KotOR games. My original idea was something along the lines of Kotor Tool on steroids with a built in 3d module editor. As time went on I learned a lot about the game and it's systems getting me to a point where my editor could load an entire module complete with 3d models, sound, waypoints, triggers, walkmeshes, and more. I then realized my knowledge of the underlying engine wasn't up to snuff because I kept making bad design choices on how I linked everything together. Fast forward about a year later after I've poured through about all the Docs and Resources I could find on the original games and the NWN Engine they spawned from. The project has now expanded to include game engines for both games. Yeah I know what you are thinking "Well that escalated quickly" and I have to agree because I never thought I would ever attempt to recreate the original KotOR games let alone in JavaScript lol. ///// 02. The Big Question ///// And now to the big question i'm sure a few of you have asked at this point... Why write something like this in JS? Well because it's fun. I do a lot of work with JS when i'm working on websites and am constantly blown away by everything it can do. It's also cross platform and at it's core platform independent. The original scope was also just for a Modding Suite with some 3d sprinkled in so it made more sense then. ///// 03. The Other Big Question ///// Why not just write your stuff in C++ and contribute to the xoreos team. Well that's simple i'm not even close to being well versed enough in C++ to contribute in any meaningful way to that project. I mean for the most part I can look at C++ code and understand it and get the gist of what it's trying to do. I wouldn't have even had a shot at this if it wasn't for them I owe so much to what they have discovered so far . I do wish them well and hope that once I publish the code they can hopefully find some stuff they can port the their project. And yes I do plan on making this an opensource project so anyone can contribute. ///// 04. Credit ///// I want to be sure and give credit where credit is due. I am totally standing on the shoulders of everyone who came before me. I could not have gotten this far if not for all the people who have shared their knowledge on these and other forums. @bead-v @DrMcCoy to name a few were instrumental in helping me get this far as the MDL/MDX format was really the bane of my existence for a while. Also all of the tool makers who shared source code allowing us to follow in their footsteps. I can't begin to mention everyone by name but if you have put anything out there in regards to cracking a file format or how the internal game mechanics work there is a good chance I have read it and have been helped by it! ///// 05. End Game ///// I really don't have an endgame per se. I just really have a lot of fun doing this in my spare time. I would love to someday have the entire game playable with this engine and finish the modding suite. In the mean time I will post updates when I have stuff to show. ///// 06. Ok That's Enough Talk ///// Source Code: https://github.com/KobaltBlu/KotOR.js/ Public Alpha Build: https://github.com/KobaltBlu/KotOR.js/releases/tag/V0.0.2 Website: https://swkotor.net Online Demo: https://play.swkotor.net/ I'm sure by now you're ready for me to show something. So without further delay here is some footage from TSL enjoy! ///// Screenshots ///// I copied the post template from this thread https://deadlystream.com/topic/6088-wip-star-maps-revamp/

I think you may have mistaken me for @JCarter426. But I like the direction these videos are taking, is there any chance you could add commentary/judgement on the mods towards the end?

My updated version of Alternate Revan Romances mod is also hosted on KotOR 2 Nexus, actually. You'll need to reinstall KotOR 2 and the mods, and then start a new game, since the original Alternate Revan Romances messed up the globals needed to be used by TSLRCM, which could cause potentionally game-breaking issues like the one you had on Nar Shaddaa. If you don't start a new game, you may encounter more issues as you progress the game. By the way, I just updated my Atton Rand and Male Exile Romance mod recently, so if you haven't downloaded the latest version I would also suggest you download the mod again and install it.

Damn, this is impressive. Good work! 😀 And yes, it is further along than xoreos, from a raw playability standpoint. By what you're skipping, It's mostly "just" (without trying to downplay your work) script functions, though, yes? From the underlying code framework, systems and concepts that are missing in the code, I assume it's probably quite similar to xoreos, correct? How does the start of KotOR look for you? That's where we're "stuck" at the moment, in the first room with Trask, because there is a lot of party management stuff necessary there. I'm certainly curious and interested in your code, how you solved certain things, and what I could pilfer for xoreos ;). So please, do get the code ready. The main issue for xoreos, though, is that we need people to work on it, if you allow me my recruitment spiel here. You can reach me here, by mail, on Freenode IRC, wherever :P (I also think that you're selling yourself way short if you think you couldn't meaningfully contribute to xoreos. For the most part, C++ isn't some wildly different animal from JS. It's not, say, Haskell.) xoreos, too, is of course also just standing on the shoulders of giants, building on work by others. I too owe a lot to those, and also to the people here. <3 In either case, again nice work, and good luck :)! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about xoreos' code, or would like to talk shop or something :P

Fantastic! Many thanks for the efficient-yet-rather-effective tutorial DarthParametric! I'm in progress on practicing this information now. I will attach the said tutorial in the first post to have the potential reader an easier access to its knowledge. Again, thanks! And very much appreciated. ____________________________________________ Anyways, I just found something that is quite "important" while ago; I surfed through the game files with the KotOR Tool and found a cubemap which labeled "CM_eh", and then leads me to assuming that it was linked to the Ebon Hawk's specularity. And yes it is; I opened the file using PS and there are E-Hawk's reflections init. So, I fiddled around with the vanilla EH's textures and have them all implemented with the said cubemap- assigning vanilla bump-map to the linked textures and later having this results: This is the entrance/exit passage of the Ebon Hawk. I haven't checked the bump-map inside this room model so as we can see there are no bump-map applied there; but more-or-less, this how the room looks with the "CM_eh" applied to the textures: This is the Hawk's dorm, and bump-map feature has been checked for this room. This one of the Hawk's alley'; no bump-map applied but "CM_eh" has been utilised on them textures. This is the intersection near the engine-room. The bump-map and "CM_eh" has been applied in this room model. This is the Swoop's room; I ended-up changing the alpha on the bike with the standard reflection because the vanilla alpha is not really effective, I mean; I am certain that BioWare wanted to give the impression that the Swoop was having an incident before, looks from the reflection it gave. It produces an inside-bump-and-dents-like reflection but I don't know, maybe the execution could be nicer, I think. This is the cabin whom Juhani used to chill. No bump-map applied yet in that room. This is the cockpit. Bump-map applied. This is too from the cockpit but from another point-of-view. This is not really vanilla because as we can see there are Sith Holocron's "KOTOR2 More Subtle Animated Ebon Hawk Monitors (still not including Galaxy Map)" and Fallen Guardian's "Ebon Hawk Texture Enhancement" computer panel featured there. Must haves! And this is the Hawk's center room. Bump-map applied. Edit: ndix UR's "Ebon Hawk K1 Fixes" are featured in the screenshots. ____________________________________________ To tell the truth, the primary motivation of this research was because of this screenshot of Ebon Hawk's interior from one of Apeiron's tweet while ago. I know, and it was obvious; different engine means different results. And even if with the same engine but with the wrong application of feature could leads to different results too. I only kind of curious about how optimal is this [IIRC] Odyssey Engine could be? Many thanks for taking your time here. Hope this finding kind of helps.

Some general tips. When importing level models, in order to see what you are doing you'll typically want to change to default lighting: And hide walkmeshes: In this case things were pretty simple as there was already an existing mesh that could be duplicated for the water mesh. It was simply a case of selecting the mesh, going to Edit->Clone, choosing the Copy option (you must choose Copy in order to get an actual standalone duplicate), giving it an appropriate name, and then hitting OK. Then, with the new water plane object selected, go to the Editable Mesh modifier and enable the Vertex sub-level. Select all vertices and with the Move tool position them appropriately. You may also need to use the Scale tool in order to resize the mesh, if necessary. Now you can create a new water material and apply it to the mesh. Then edit the OdysseyTrimesh modifier options. Turn off Lightmapped, set Self Illum to pure white, enable Bumpmappable if it isn't already. Then you are pretty much done. Make sure your new mesh is a child of the base, then export and compile. In other cases you may need to create custom meshes, for example the rectangular trough from the initial central walkway model.

Huh, it didn't come across as harsh, though? It's all good, I'm not slighted in the slightest (), as far as I'm concerned we're good. We're all good . Heck, I don't want any beef or rivalries with anybody, I want us all to help each other along. That's one of the reasons I'm in FLOSS to begin with. And yes, this KotOR JS project is obviously further along, and that's absolutely fine, and great work. I mean, this (and this, a bit later) is the current state of KotOR in xoreos, more or less, still stuck in the first room. There's only a handful of script functions implemented. The intro cinematic doesn't work play, and you can't get Trask to open the door. Similarily, there's a person implementing their own NWN2 engine over on the Neverwinter Vault. The renderer is way further along than xoreos, with proper shaders and everything. I'd of course be happy to have more contributors to xoreos, the xoreos-tools and Phaethon, but I can also understand that people want to do their own thing. Sorry for taking up this much space here, I just wanted to be absolutely clear on that.