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Yeah, game devs use their modelling program along with additional tools to generate a normal map from a high-poly model -- along with the low-poly model itself. Most image editing program plugins use the diffuse texture as a guide for creating them instead as hobbyists that modify games in particular, don't have access to the high-poly model to create new normals from. I guess that would be more ideal, however, in some cases the newer normal maps are better.. Thanks. The Czerka structures used a Telos Citadel Station texture which meant you couldn't do much to it without affecting Citadel station. It's nice being able to use textures for purposes other than what they were intended, but at a certain point, it becomes a rather nasty visual limitation; at it's basic everything ends up looking the same, at it's worst it is illogical, like the use of concrete textures for structural supports for Citadel station. You probably could all things considered, use prefab concrete in space construction, but our expectations are that it will be made out of metal or metal-like materials -- like ceramic and other composites. And I really think that even though you can't enter the structures themselves and they're used in only one area, that the base is of such importance that it needs a more distinct memorable appearance.

The filter plugin takes the diffuse (color) texture and then allows you to select a range of options and output a normal map to be used with the diffuse texture in games. Normal maps are a way of making a low-poly 3D model look like it has more detail by telling the renderer to render the diffuse texture's pixels differently in way of lighting -- as simply as I can put it. Some references on normal maps: Normal Mapping (OpenGL) - has video to watch which might help Oblivion Parallax and Normal maps - fairly good info on the mechanics, especially makes clear the respective RGBA channels Tangent Space Normal Mapping - I guess you could say this is more technical and "modern" in a way, but also gives additional info

I guess you've never seen a normal map? It's a blend of the before diffuse (color) texture and the normal map derived from it; a plugin I'm working on for the image editing program. Xuul has done a YouTube video of my original release for this mod: http://youtu.be/zOi5pPmZfmQ

I think the new scheme is better; with the back texturing, I'd be tempted to change it slightly to something more darker so that the front faceplate really stands out more, maybe the lower back half. But in the end I think you should do what makes you happy, as I don't have the whole vision of what you intend it to look in the end .

Thanks, it's nice to hear that people like the work. I know that I gripe a lot about the limitations of how to do things, but that's because I see how things can be and get frustrated when I can't make any progress in making them a reality. Still nice to hear that people like what they see; let's me know I should keep at it . Yes and no, I could hex one of the model rotating cylinders to use another alternative texture, but, I think it is a waste of effort and unnecessary burden to place on the game renderer for very little burdent. The best option really is to edit the mesh, especially the way the cylinders are UVW mapped to use any texture. The way it's setup I'm sure was a quick way of doing it, however, the end result is very poor. I'm no modelling expert, but, I'm pretty sure they could of had differing parts of the mesh set to use different parts of the texture to better effect, rather than letting it "wrap" the texture around the mesh. I might give it another shot, as one of the problems is that I don't use these tools on a regular basis. Every time I start up again I have to essentially relearn how to do things -- though this time I'm making notes . It also doesn't help that my model editing folders and files aren't very well organised; this is in part due to how MDLops and NWmax exports files, with all exports using the same .mdl file extension whether they are in binary or ASCII text format. If you neglect to make a change in NWmax as to where it exports files and what it calls them, it's easy to have things overwritten and lost; not to mention it can be initially unclear what file version you're working with -- an NWmax export or MDLops. Anyway, I'll probably get around to looking at the problem in more depth, and this particular model is a good test case to see whether module environment models can be edited and run in game without any issues; but, currently I have other small projects that I'd like to finish up first before taking on another code-based one.

A bit of an update... In way of the Ravager and Sith Fighter texture, this is as far as I am going to take it for the time being: I'll wait and see if Fair Strides has any luck with editing and exporting the model -- unless it is modifying the perl scripts that MDLops uses, I don't see it being a success :/. EDIT: I take it you guys would like for this texture to be made available ASAP, I might do that once I've heard back from Fair Strides on what happened further with his area model editing efforts. Have made some more progress with the Telos Restoration textures, need to do one more rock (replacement) texture, the "grass," new shield wall animated texture, and then finally additions to the skybox to tie it altogether. I'll post up a set of screens for that when I'm done. I've also been doing some placeable object textures, in particular those found within the restoration zone: For those curious about the meaning of the transparent pink desk in the last post, well, a problem I've had is that modified placeable models seem to pop out of existence when the camera passes over them; I do believe I know have this resolved as the modified mesh for this desk can attest to: The new(er) approach(es) I was hoping would allow me to modify more complex model files like those with animated elements and lightmaps. It doesn't so that means that module environment models are sill a big issue.

Yeah, I thought that might be a factor, but really, why not make use of the extra texture space? I think what happened is that they were going to do it differently but then ran out of time either went with what they had or did some quick fix. They may have also gone this way because they couldn't get the sith fighters to look right via the XBOX hardware -- there may have been rendering limitations. So, they opted to go blurry instead and hope that with the action going on that players wouldn't care if they had played through to that point. But really, there would have been at least one producer who had to sign off on it, and in my opinion, this is just unacceptable quality-wise -- especially as with their tools, it would have been a 15 minute fix: Hex editing is not going to much help I think; you can edit the meshes to use a different texture, but editing UVW mapping is more difficult. There are discernible numbers that you can make out clearly along with the texture filenames, appears to actually represent a value, however what does what, is harder to discern from the soup of surrounding gibberish. Yeah, I didn't think you'd have much luck . I think there is another way to do it that I thought of last night before going to bed that might work with existing tools, better than hex editing... EDIT: like my new desk? I textured it myself .

Is there some rule written somewhere that you can't have both..? I personally prefer the red, black and chrome, as the other seemed to bland in a sense -- but that really depends upon context and how you modify that texture further, especially with specular.

I think that depends upon how Hassat Hunter did it in script..? Likely he has overridden specific scripts to achieve his affect, you can do the same with others so that there is no conflict via injecting -- you're modified script runs and when it does, it then calls the original script that you've renamed to something else.

Yes, yes I am. I've progressively gotten more agitated as the week has worn on; not for any particular reason though, just one of those weeks . That's fairly easy to do, either use Rtas Vadum's way or if you are really set on doing the same even shininess as seen in that screenshot, you can simply duplicate the image, erase all the skin areas from the image, select all the transparent parts, invert your selection, and then switch to the other layer and delete these from those. You then set the opacity of the clothing layer to something you're happy to. You then need to create the TXI file, and yes, you may need to edit the relevant appearance in the 2DA file. With the TXI, you might want to use a different environment map texture than the default; simplest is to take the default image, and then modify the hue, saturation and lightness to something more blue and darker -- if you want a black vinyl look. Well, you might want to try the blend mode of the new skin layer and set it to something other than normal and fiddle with the opacity so that the original underneath texture shows through. It will help you get more detail yet help with the covering up of the seams. As far as the ugly black texturing underneath the arms, well if I understand it correctly, it is because you have simply made all the faces of that area of the texture / mesh black. You are following the UV map too closely in that there is no straight arm seam there as far as textures. You will need to find out where the clothing sleeve "edge" is on the texture rather than relying on the edges of the faces as shown by the UV map.

Yeah it's the backdrop sith fighters which are part of the animated skybox model I think. Looking at what textures they use -- haven't opened them up yet -- the only 2 models to do with this in these sections I believe are: "221telc" and "222tel06" which both use the "TEL_Rav" texture. Ideally they should be using an entirely different (new) texture, UVW mapped to use all of the space.

Telos Ravager and Sith Fighters test: In order to get any detail on the fighters the texture has ended up 2048x2048 and coming in at around 16mbs... I really hope who ever was responsible for this texture was subsequently fired . Especially as the lower half of the texture is completely blank and as far as I know, serves no purpose but could of been used for higher detail Sith Fighters -- higher in detail than I can get currently with an image half the size at the very least.

The "shine" as part of your texture has nothing to do with specular; that's just the diffuse color with it shaded that way -- that is NOT specular; I'm starting to wonder if people even know what the difference is between my texture work and the work of others, and why, it's important... :/. Adding shading to the texture is a bit technical and fiddly. I would suggest that you remove the added sleeve and go back to bare skin -- which is always a good thing for sexy psychopathic killers . It's easier then to make that blend better by modifying your texture overlay. FYI: unless you plan on editing the base model, expect there to be at least the odd noticeable seam with textures, where one part doesn't blend properly witth the other. If you look at the vanilla texture, you will likely be able to spot seams there already; the best you can do is make sure what you add does not make it even more noticeable, and if you can, try and make it less noticeable .

Already found the saves, didn't know which one to use though. Still, bit busy at the moment with a tricky part of the Telos Restoration Zone:

KoTOR doesn't really do normal maps, it uses an older technique when they first called it "bump" maps. It is very much a RGB normal map, in that I'm pretty sure it will ignore any Alhpa channel component -- which some games use for specular, others use to store a depth map. And even then the RGB approach will likely be inferior to anything a more modern game engine can handle; like only good for things that need to look shiny in a very plasticky or rubbery sense, which limits its uses. So far I don't think anyone has ever gotten the game to accept a custom normal map; the game will refuse to load them. I've tried a number of times a number of ways and had no luck with it. Did think of a another way to try recently but I doubt it will be successful and even if it is, not sure how much benefit it will add. Though, I figure there is another more sure fire way of doing it, two actually, but that means a lot more work; one more so than the other.

K1 and TSL do specular along a similar lines as many more modern games do it via a normal map, in that the Red, Green and Blue channels of an RGBA image are used for the normal map, with the alpha channel being used for the specularity map -- as essentially a specularity map is a grayscale black and white image representing what is and isn't shiny. However, K1 and TSL instead use the diffuse (or color) map where the RGB is used for color with the alpha channel used to house the specularity information. Which is fine as long as you don't need the alpha to represent something else -- like actual transparent parts of the image. This is why some games (probably most) use a separate grayscale image as a sepcularity map, or, house it with the normal map instead. Anyway, yeah, the specularity is the alpha channel of the diffuse image along with the correct line added to the TXI file. Most of my TXI files only have the one entry in them and that is: "envmaptexture CM_baremetal". That tells the renderer to use the correct shader in order to use the alpha channel as a specularity map. FYI: you don't have to use CM_baremetal as the specularity map; TSL more or less only has the one generic specularity texture, but K1 actually has 2. I also created a few custom ones, however, I usually just use the standard one as it seems to work well enough.

Yeah, there usually is a difference between seeing the textures as part of a screenshot and seeing the textures in-game. There is a difference due to differing "temperature" (etc) profiles used between your OS desktop and that used by the game -- also your in-game contrast and brightness settings will play a part. So, it doesn't look as "dark" in game, also, the textures are the way they are due to specular. Pretty much all the textures make use of specular as long as the alpha channel is not being used for something else. Some of the "bright" parts is actually the specular effect being applied to the textures, making the surrounding areas appear darker in a way -- I've noticed it is more pronounced when viewed as part of a screenshot out of game as well.

Anything suitable I can find that I have permission to use, or, a range of samples I'll mix together in Audacity to fit the look of the cantina. Might take some work on my part as my experience so far has mostly been in way of editing sound effect files for another game; but, with a little work...

You prefer the low-resolution and washed-out textures that were created without the tools and techniques of today and an understanding of how to get the most out of your game engine... Well, I guess that would appeal to some . Yes and no; the thing with TXI files is that you still need to know how to make textures that along with the TXI files will make the most of what the game engine is capable of. For example, you can use "decal 1" with any "blending" mode, not just "punchthrough." Why you would do that is if for example the mesh you are using has had it's texture settings set to make the texture applied to it look darker than it does; like an artist would do if they didn't quite grasp the finer points of how to get their texture to look right within the game engine as it does in Max. Knowing how to solve the problem with a TXI file still relies on you being able to create the texture to make use of the solution. An example of this and how I used "Decal 1" can been seen in the screens below in regards to Bao Dur's remote:

Yes, that's the one that drives me up the wall. Not sure how I missed it as I'm sure I would have checked all the sound directories to find it. At last, al_cantina_band, you're reign or below mediocre music that is an offense to the ears, can come to an end, and, not soon enough .

I've heard that Blender is pretty good at that -- it comes with an in-built video editor. The only video "editing" I usually do is re-encoding movies into a format that my TV's set-top box will like, and for that I use Handbrake. Though if I had to do any serious (actual) video editing where quality was an issue, I'd probably give Blender a try first .

Yeah, I don't think it is a WAV at all but rather some midi music that was taken from an old Star Wars game;the developers must of had some nostalgia for it, I don't . If you know where it is -- if it isn't in code -- and how I can obliterate it from the game... You're my new best friend. EDIT: oh, forgot to add it is the Telos Station Cantina -- there is only the one.

The game freezes mid loading of the save game. I'll try and see what I can do via a save game editor, however, I was wondering if you could tell me what mods relating to Telos you have installed? that aren't just texture and/or model changes. Also, could you send me a version of it where you have unequipped all items from the current party? clothing / armor, weapons and headgear. It would be great if the save game will also allow me to view the outside of the Ithorian compond as there are changes I need to make there along with the other entertainment module -- not sure whether you're still fighting to get to the compound or fighting to get to the Ebon Hawk, but, I need to see as much of Telos Citadel Station as possible . I don't think so as there aren't any gigantic mushrooms! Though, I did try something in way of the trees and their branches, it just looked really ridiculous, especially the way the multiple branches overlap and intersect. You're barking up the wrong tree if you expect me to redo rendered movies as well; there is a reason I don't post 3DS Max renders, stills or movies . ... More or less finished the beach and ocean textures: I was aiming for something a little less idyllic as this is a planet that was bombed after all and suffering from environmental pollution. So I was aiming for polluted water where the main life is of the bacterial kind. Bit of an issue with the texture that's supposed to blend the sand to the grass. Don't think it can be helped much as the original textures weren't designed to blend in that well -- considering that they were low-resolution and blurry anyways. Don't see much use in trying to work it further unless I can actually modify the meshes themselves.

I haven't tried to mod any of the sound files yet -- there is one piece of cantina music which drives me up the wall I'd like to change in particular -- but I know that they are not straight out WAV files but rather something that Obsidian cooked up. Unfortunately. So you need to apparently save them as a "raw" WAV file in order for them to even play in game. You would put the respective sound files within the correct folder: StreamMusic StreamSounds StreamVoice In the case of music it would be the top folder listed -- these folders are separate to the override folder. As far as adding new sounds, you can edit the respective module's GIT file settings for ambient music that is played; I believe it has listings for different music options like battle music. You'll find the settings at the top of the file if you use KOTOR Tool to view and edit them and I think they are referenced via an integer value -- like "52" corresponds to a specific entry (row number) found within the ambientmusic.2da file that you can view and edit also with KOTOR Tool. It is possible to add new rows to the 2DA file and then edit the GIT entries to make use of the new sounds, however, you will likely need to save/package the whole module file and place it within the Modules folder. Otherwise the area may not load with the game freezing up. Another option is to script the new sounds in, however, you will still need to remove the original sounds as well. And that's as much light as I'm gonna shed on it as I don't have a lot of practical experience modding the sound files for the game yet .

The original movies along with the prequel movies, Clone Wars animated series, and, the new animated series Star Wars Rebels will all be "canon" with everything else as part of the expanded universe not -- it'll still exists as these will all still make money for Disney and other parties, however, it will be treated like an alternate history not to be considered for new future content. In a way I think it does and doesn't make sense, in that I find much of the Star Wars movies, in particular prequels, dorky and inconsistent. Whereas I find the KoTOR series to be some of the best Star Wars content I've come across (all things considered) -- I also like the Bane trilogy; the Revan book not so much. It also gives an opportunity to jettison the "made for a quick buck" novels and such that were "canon" but are complete trite IMHO . In particular I find the Darth Plagueis book to be disappointing in that that particular story deserved better telling and could have made better use of concepts / themes to better effect. I think the best you could hope for from EA is something along the lines of the Jedi Knight series with maybe a better storyline -- or perhaps not considering ME3. I doubt that they would do a strong RPG considering what they did with Mass Effect once they acquired Bioware -- though there are arguments as to why you wouldn't do an RPG in the same vein like KoTOR. But, that all depends upon the exclusivity of the rights and all -- maybe EA aren't the only ones who will be making games for Star Wars, and a (standalone) RPG -- not another MMOG thanks -- will be made by someone. ... Back on point of what this thread was about, though I've considered the idea of porting K1 over to TSL, it's a moot point for me because I know that in order to get the textures made for K1 -- and aren't already found in TSL -- to look right within the TSL engine, you need to rework them. That means all those environment textures in particular, otherwise, they will likely show up far too bright and faded within TSL -- the opposite is true if you use TSL textures in K1. That means releasing a rather big texture pack of K1 textures to be used within TSL -- that I would image would not be kosher on LucasForums. Further, my goal personally is to first get TSL modded and fix and restore as much as I can in way of textures and models; for that it means in some cases adding in missing K1 textures, in others, it could mean adding in models to go with unused textures in TSL. Then I would very much like to be able to use various assets that are hard or currently impossible to create with the existing tools. Not straight out "port" over but rather use them as a base for something new in order to re-purpose them. So, not to recreate K1 within TSL but to make use of some of the assets within TSL -- likely to be very heavily modified. In the future I think it would be best to port all of the K1 assets to TSL as it will be the best way of experiencing the original game; especially if more advanced modding techniques are permitted to get around various problems of the TSL engine. Techniques that would as far as I recall and understand it, get you banned from LucasForums for just even mentioning it -- which is rather idiotic in my opinion .