sELFiNDUCEDcOMA

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Everything posted by sELFiNDUCEDcOMA

  1. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    OK, so I guess I couldn't help but "re-skin" the texture anyway; it's just to ugly to look at, the original texture and model I mean. They shouldn't of used the only male Twilek to appear in the movies as the reference for all the Twileks in the game. The first uses my original bump map texture, skin specular sheen appears more pourous -- bit hard to tell when not seen in-game. The second one uses an alt bump map resulting in a more glossy uniform sheen to the skin -- again, hard to see when not in-game. As for the re-skin part, I altered the shading to the forehead bumps along with some eyebrow elements.
  2. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Wow, I think you've found your calling in life.
  3. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Feel free to re-skin all the textures of the game; I however, have better things to do than create everything from scratch, especially for a texture that is only used TWICE in TSL as far as I can tell . My final work on the texture below, the bump/specular effect is more subtle as anything stronger looks weird when seen in-game and animated. Like a lot of things, what you can do is limited unless you want everything to look like glossy plastic.
  4. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Well, posted this already in this thread but thought it's worth posting here as well: Kind of replacing the specular effect I was using/developing for characters with a bump/specular effect. This was a quick test to see what I could do with it -- once a few hiccups were overcome . I also found some better ways of upscaling existing textures; if only I had discovered them earlier...
  5. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    My own initial play with using "bump mapping" for characters:
  6. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Yeah, my comment about DirectX/OpenGL was more to do with Obsidian having made "improvements" to the engine; things like shaders. Anyway, I realised what my issue was, I had created a test folder within another folder inside of Override. Forgot that TSL will look within folders found in the Override folder, but, won't actually look at any folders nested within those. Seems to be working now, at least with the twilek_m01 set of textures. Looks like their normal map effect is heavily tied in with alpha and specular -- why the existing ones tend to look like shiny plastic. Still, probably can do some interesting things with it... EDIT: if you mean the acid-ice texture set I think you mean (below) it does indeed appear to have what looks like to be a valid RGB normal map and not a grayscale image
  7. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Wouldn't this be better place in the "Tutorials" section of the "Kotor Modding" forum? Just seems that this is something that might help some people and will likely get lost in time in the WIP thread :/
  8. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Yeah, I think that perhaps people are assuming it is easy to update these models files for areas; it's not as the tools available don't really support it -- from my experience. What it really needs is new tools -- preferably not written in Perl -- though it requires a bit more knowledge of the model formats. If I'm wrong about it, I would love to know how -- specific tools and steps involved -- as I'm sure would a lot of people. But, I think that sticking with dated tools written when much was not known about the various file formats, or much was available via the internet as is now, is NOT going to improve the situation for KoTOR/TSL modding .
  9. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Hmm, I can't get it to work with the Quarren for TSL. Tried using a normal map filter -- not NVIDIA's, should make no difference as far as my knowledge of normal map filters go -- too before converting it to grayscale and it still would not work for me. Either it appears to have no effect or a prompt appears stating the bump map is invalid. Tried a bunch of TXI variants as well. Have you guys mostly been testing with K1 or have you actually done this in TSL as well? I ask in that the engine's aren't exactly the same in that one is OpenGL and the other is DirectX/OpenGL. EDIT: oh, and not sure my previous statement about there being bump maps in the game files of either game that are simply greyscale images of the color diffuse maps; I recall coming across the odd one, perhaps in K1, but I can't find them so perhaps I am mistaken :/
  10. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Funny, I've been learning to 3D model and how to create materials and the textures they require, and a while back, I finally realised the difference between (proper) bump maps and normal maps -- didn't realise that the pink normal maps were just interim ones though. Was going to test out a simple greyscale map to test it out in TSL but never quite did to due to work. I think you will find that there is no need to run any kind of normal map filter first on the diffuse (color) map before changing it to greyscale -- of the few bumpmap greyscale textures in the game files, you will see that they are for the most part greyscale version of their diffuse counterparts. The game should generate a normal map from the diffuse. It's a similar thing with some 3D modelling applications and game engines like Unreal Engine 4. You can set it up so that a material will take a greyscale version of your diffuse texture, and from that, calculate the normal map from it. Results aren't perfect, as really, you want to be able to have more power/influence on how the final normal map is generated; but still a lot quicker and easier if you don't have the tools to do so. Also as far as K1/TSL, using a greyscale image that has not been "normalized" prior to being made greyscale, means that you can then tweak other aspects of it like: brightness/contrast, shadows/highlights. These should then affect the end RGB normal map generated -- though, I'm guessing that there are limitations on what you can achieve, especially as it's not an RGBA normal map. Cool to see the progress made to do with this -- one of the less understood parts of the game engine along with the model format. Interesting to see what else you guys uncover .
  11. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Well, I started a new job a while back so my time is a bit limited; I also started a short-course in 3D modelling and animation. So, any free time I have usually goes to completing the course. I guess it is on hold for the immediate future, and whether I have to cut the scope back or just release what I have at the moment. I'll decide when things are a bit clearer on my end .
  12. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Yep, you sure don't
  13. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Whether you do or don't is your business; my comment was aimed at community tool development in general, with an eye for future support for tools -- Perl based tools require people willing to learn Perl; I for one do not as I see no long-term value in doing so, especially when I know other more popular languages. Plus, if you're going to learn programming, I wouldn't start with Perl if you're working with Windows platforms -- you're going to have to move on from it if you want to be a programmer, regardless. Anyway I'm not trying to pick on you or whatever, just saying that just because existing tools were created with Perl, doesn't mean you have to use Perl for new tool development. Some of those tools were created several years ago when to the developers, Perl, was a good option; now we have far better ones.
  14. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    It's a scripting language used for Linux -- it's not really class / object based, why you end up with huge long scripts, and the syntax isn't very "familiar" to anything more common, like say PHP. Though I really shouldn't have to say more, it also isn't all that much used beyond Linux / Unix (or whatever) for admin purposes. And though it has various libraries and such available, it was never meant for anything graphical -- EDIT: when I say graphical, I mean UI elements and things like rendering data as an image like a 3D model. If you go to a book store, and look in the computer programming section -- if they have one -- you will not find a single book on Perl; though, you will likely still find books on PHP and other "scripting" languages. In my eyes, Perl, is junk because it is a bit of a dead end only used within certain niches. Plus, if you're going to code a tool for a windows platform, you have an abundance of other far better options to use -- such as Visual C#.
  15. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Ewww Perl! Kinda cool you did it with Perl, can see why you would with the existing code-base of sorts. But I kind of wish people would stop using Perl for tools .
  16. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    What did you code this in?
  17. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Well, it would probably help if you used the right tool. I don't know why you are using Aurora's tools when you're trying to do something for TSL. Frankly, you should have researched that aspect a bit on your own and figured out what tools you can use and what they can and can't do. Why you likely have not gotten a reply, as no one likes having to answer such questions. With the current tools, you will NOT be able to load any modules, at least not so that you can see it in 3D. The best is KOTOR tool, which will give you a 2D overhead view of a map, however, it does not support all the modules in the game. Most people will tell you not to even bother using that aspect of the tools at all, as the module editor is unreliable. You can use the rest of the tool-set to view the game files along with edit things like scripts. BTW: did you work on Starpoint Gemini 2, or, do you just like the game?
  18. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Yep. I'm interested in what MDLops is possibly NOT translating or interpreting. When the program loads a model, it reads in the binary info and builds the data for it via variables it creates and assigns to. That view shows you what is in those variables. If the program is not parsing certain elements into variables, as it is set to ignore it, then you get an unclear picture. Especially if you then create an ASCII output file that then gets read in and edited via another program, and then has to be loaded back into the original program. Data gets lost along the way. Not quite.
  19. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    I'm pretty sure that the "View model data" button is referring to the translated binary, not the raw data -- from what I gather looking at the Perl script. So, it's gonna have areas that are missing. And yeah, I've already done those things .
  20. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    From looking at the code, there are various lines that have been commented out to do with nodes and such of the model file format. Why they are commented out, I can't be 100% certain of, however, it is likely that certain model info is just not used by NWmax and even including it, makes it go awry. So there is no point in supporting such functionality. Anyway, the real issue is the mesh replacer function, as it should be replacing just the selected mesh data, and leave everything else behind. However, that functionality I believe is reliant on the same binary to ascii reader that the export function uses. Basically, the way it works is fundamentally flawed from what I can gather. To learn anymore, I would have to write a binary to (raw) ascii function -- not what mdlops does, which is more along the lines of interpreting and ignoring what it doesn't need to know. That way I can get a better idea of what mdlops is and isn't exporting. Not that I think that is all that hard to do, but, not sure when I'll get around to doing that .
  21. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Curious that both the original file and screenshot would become corrupted; doesn't seem like what I suggested would result in that -- I'm sure the site is more resilient than that. Anyway, thanks.
  22. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    If you mean why it wouldn't download but redirect to the homepage, my guess is that when I had the mod page open for edit, to at least fix the light grey text on the dark grey background if not update the mod altogether. I believe I ended up having to reboot my system. Not 100% sure how the site really works, but my guess people were being redirected because the site still believed I had the mod page open for editing. It's the only thing that I can account for the download being redirected along with the screenshots for the mod disappearing. BTW: is it too much to ask that the "file reported broken" message displaying at the top of the mod page be removed, as it is clearly no longer the case..?
  23. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    I woke up to a message telling me that my mod file was broken, on investigation, I found for some reason that as reported, it did indeed redirect to the Deadly Stream homepage. So, I decided that I would do a small update of the mod incorporating some new material and fixes: The mod page where you can update the udpate can be found here. If the WIP Alpha 1-1 is still not available, bug one of the moderators, not me .
  24. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    I forget the reason for this, someone -- Hunters Run I think -- said it has to do with the walkmesh not being exported out with the model. I know that with an existing model, that if you edit the mesh faces and UVW mapping, all you need to update is the MDX component. If you update both you will get the disappearing door issue, if you just update the MDX, you won't. If you want to update textures, you then hex edit the original MDL file to leave as much of the model file intact as possible. A custom door with a custom mesh is a bit more difficult, but, as long as the new mesh(es) match those of an existing model file... Anyway, that's one way of doing it but perhaps there's an easier way if you understand the issue better and now how to export the model correctly.
  25. sELFiNDUCEDcOMA
    Yeah, Audacity isn't all that shabby considering what it does and that it's for free. I don't think it is so much MDLops that is to blame but more the reliance on NWmax to get models in and out of Max. If a model exported out of max is missing elements, then MDLops had no reason to support their functionality when compiling binaries of models. Though, it is a bit perplexing why the update mesh function doesn't work that well, considering it is supposed to just modify an existing binary model, not one that has been decompiled to ASCII text. You'd think it would leave anything it doesn't have to update alone, and make sure to retain as much model info as possible. Anyway, I might give it another shot with Taina's Replacer myself, just to see what difference if any it makes, and to get a bit familiar with the tool considering it's not that easy to find. Someone over at LucasForums should update the list of tools to include ALL tools up to their more update version; either that or one of the moderators should do that here at Deadly Stream for when LF goes down and can't be accessed .