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Hi folks! I've had a total modernization rework of KOTOR head models floating on my mind for years and thanks to the fantastic tools released on this site, I've been able to get a fully functioning prototype going with a few test cases. I'm starting this thread to document my progress with it and share with the community. First up, huge thanks to developers of KOTOR Tool, Kotormax and MDLops for making this possible. My goal is to build a universal head base that can be extrapolated to replace all the player and party head models with a much more modern standard - one that looks good, and is also very easy to adapt and modify. Hair will be handled as a separate mesh instead of something modeled as a fixed part of the head model, as is the solution in vanilla meshes, removing the need to do skinning cleanup for new heads. Texture layouts for heads are standardized as a result. Where I'm at right now: -New head geometry completed. -New teeth, tongue and eyes. -Eyelids are no longer separate geometry, instead the eyelid models have been converted to dummies and the eyelids on the head mesh are skinned to them, allowing for far more natural looking blinking. -Much more believable eyelashes have been integrated as a result. -Head is fully skinned for facial animation, though this is still a work in progress and needs a lot of testing and iteration. -Early tests for texturing and stylization are underway. First pass with vanilla eyelashes before I took the plunge to try the dummy skinning route, which ended up being a huge gamechanger. Skinned eyelids and eyelashes. Much more detailed teeth! Testing out eyelid skinning. To see how much I can get out of the new geometry I chose to start with a pretty major quick redesign of Juhani based on Cathar from SWTOR. If I have the stamina to see this project to full completion I'll probably also make a 'classic' version. This is probably going to be a pretty long project, but I'll try to keep updating once in a while. I plan to release a full resource pack of this even in the absence of a fully completed replacer mod. Thanks for stopping by! I'll be happy to answer any questions in the meantime.

Is there a list of the files modified by TSLRCM? There are errors in the NCS files, and I'd like to know if these are errors in the vanilla code or TSLRCM. I already have TSLRCM installed and would like to avoid uninstalling and reinstalling to see what is vanilla and what is modified. For those who don't know, I'm working on an NCS decompiler. If these are errors in the vanilla code then I *may* ignore them and assume they work the way BioWare intended. (Even though it's wrong. I'll spare everyone the details since they only make sense to a programmer.) But if it's TSLRCM we may need an update, and I don't want to be the one to have to do it. 🤣 One file in particular is k_contain_unlock.ncs. I've found two separate errors: one misinterprets the type of the input data, the second is a logic error. Neither of these are game-breaking in this file, but they may produce unintended results if they are present in other files. On the positive side, I may be able to finish this by the end of September! 🎆🎉

I don't see k_contain_unlock in my clean copy of TSLRCM. However, it includes k_inc_treas_k2, which TSLRCM does edit, so it seems like TSLRCM should edit k_contain_unlock as well. k_inc_treas_k2 has a recursive function so any script that includes it will trip up DeNCS. Lots of other scripts have this problem like OnSpawn scripts (k_def_spawn01, k_def_spn_t_drd, k_def_spn_t_jedi, etc) and merchant scripts (a_stock_geeda, a_stock, tienn, a_stock_geg, etc).

Does remaking the existing modules may didn't work for you? Just my 2c -- I think everyone be better off remaking the existing modules rather creating new ones, at least with resources/SDK that we had for now. I mean, modules not only about models and textures -- there are also lightmaps, paths [in PTH format if I recall correctly] and many other details that's close to impossible not seeing the day-light to create from scratch -- that if the goals actually to make them functioning in real-time, rather than only for display/proof of concept. Take this one for example. That's a reskin of RedHawke's ORD Mandell Mod. From what I see, it looks decent enough for a new planet, without having the feeling like it's a straight copy-paste to Dreshdae. Another outstanding example is this one by @Sithspecter [excuse me for using your post as a reference, SS] -- -- if I haven't told that it was a reskin of Manaan's Sea Floor - I wouldn't have guessed, really. Edit: another great example of reusing modules is @jc2's Lehon Mandalorian Expansion. He's remaking the Rakatan settlement as the Mandalorian stronghold in his mod. Though aesthetically look the same, other than that everything looks different with smart replacement of NPCs and placeables. Though locally I did modded the looks of the module, so it looked like this -- -- and that's only changing the skyboxes and the flag's texture. Not yet involved with lightmaps, AuroraLight and fog. TL;DR -- there are much more important things rather than fiddling and getting burned out with newly created areas/modules; such as gameplay, storyline, characters/NPCs, voice-overs and audio [BGM, SFX] are elements that can make a reused modules feels unique and fun to be play with. I mean, big name developers are also known for reusing their assets far as I'm concerned, hahah. Edit2: what I'm trying to say above was -- it's not entirely impossible, only it's a pain to do so. At this point we may have to reflect at Canderis' post above. Also I seemed to forgot that you were talking about doing a "KotOR III" -- I thought it was about new modules, even more a new planet that already send chills down my spine, hahah. I hope that can be useful -- since you asked for feedbacks. P.S. hope that I can contribute more on this one, but since I haven't finished TSL yet think I'm stuck at technical areas for now, lol.

There's still a few decades before that comes out, plenty of time.