djnugent

So... I did something stupidly awesome yesterday... By stupid, I mean dumb, and by awesome, I mean very informative(for me...). I wasn't sure where to stick some of this, but since most of it is related to the TGA>DDS Converter I thought I'd put it in this thread. If everybody already knows all of this, then that just proves how far behind the curve I am... I was thinking about how textures needed to be resized to be the square root of something in order to be processed by DDS converter. Except I was getting errors with anything that wasn't 10242 or 40962. Then it hit me - sq rt of 4096 = 64 , 1024 = 32, 256 = 16, etc ---- WHICH ALL EQUALS PROCESSOR (or Game-Engine Processing) ARCHITECTURE. So all textures have to be equal to 22, 42, 82, 162, 322, or 642 (pixels = 4x4, 16x16, 64x64, 256x256, 1024x1024, 4096x4096 respectively, and ONLY THESE SIZES will work with the TGA > DDS Converter. Other sizes will obviously work if kept in TGA format I tried coverting something that was 1282 (which is where the stupid/dumb part comes in...hyuck hyuck!!!) which ends up equaling 16384x16384 pixels. First of all, I don't recommend trying this - Adobe PS had my system (6-Core AMD + 8GB DDR3 RAM + NVidia GeForce GTX 710) completely maxed out on all resources just trying to process & modify an image that high-res, and the file size ended up being 1GB, soooo..... do it at your own risk... And here's where I need some help - I edited the TGA for PCHMA01 at that resolution. I sharpened and cleaned up as many of the facial details as best as I could (which took about an hour to process because of the size). I had the hair and goatee so sharpened up that it actually looked like HAIR. Then I reduced the image size back down to 4096x4096, converted to DDS, and saved to my override folder. When viewing the PC in-game, his hair (the hair that I super-sharpened) shimmered and I'm not entirely sure why...like now it was picking up on a bumpmap or cubemap - my understanding of texture-maps is below novice, at best. So... am I right? What made them shimmer/sparkle? I've read numerous forums regarding mappings, and I think I'm close to something kinda big here (maybe just big for me... ) without enough general knowledge to be able to clearly dictate what is actually happening. Feel free to PM me or re-submit this to another thread if needed.

Hey all!!! Just thought I'd give everyone an awesome heads-up: GOG is selling a whole bunch of Star Wars classic PC games for next to nothing if you buy them in their bundles: Saber Bundle Blaster Bundle Sweet...

IT WORKED!!! Took me a minute to realize it was 'Alien_Mandalorian1', 'Alien_Mandalorian2', & 'Alien_Mandalorian3' that I was trying to change. Once I changed the envmap from 'DEFAULT' to 'CM_Baremetal' all of the textures came through normally. I didn't realize that I was missing so much detail... Thank you for the assist Malkor! @ SH - I'll try to make a quick instructional doc with pics by tomorrow. Fairly straightforward, and the results are a lot better than removing the ALPHA channel. Question: Is there a difference between CM_BAREMETAL, cm_baremetal, and CM_Baremetal? I saw all 3 being used in appearance.2da and I didn't know if it is case-sensitive.

Has anybody made any headway on this? I just installed an NVidia GeForce GT 780 Ti (it's pretty awesome...). I was hoping one of the perks would be resolving this, but no go - It's only slightly less transparent now. I was able to do the Photo Editor 'Remove ALPHA channel' fix, but it leaves them looking slightly flat and texture-less...

I had the same problem - once the Saved Game is loaded, you should be able to go into full screen. It's weird, but hey it works

ATI or NVidia graphics card?

As far as Bao-Dur and his robe situation, check out THIS mod by ChAiNz.2da (IT'S AWESOME!!!) I've found that Bao-Dur is a lot more useful than I had thought in previous run-through's. He can pretty much get you into any system, his skill-sets level up fairly quickly, and after a couple of planets in he can build just about any upgrade as long as you have the components.

Right, mistype - Meant change to 1024 OR 4096 :-P

All I know is...now I'm going to have to go through all of my TGA's and resize them to 10242 to 40962 so I can convert them all to DDS, which is going to take FOREVER...as I've got about.... 40-50 mods currently installed... Actually...I just did a count... I have 67 mods installed, about 2/3 of which is JUST textures, not including any that have MDL and TXI files as well... Holy crapola. didn't realize it was that humongous...

@ VP - no, I didn't have to change anything, except for resize the image to something that was the power of 2. It wasn't for any models, only NPC heads @ DS - Just an FYI - I ran the HD Darth Nihilus .TGA files through the converter and put them in override - it has eliminated that pause on the loading screen, so thank you! *I had to resize N_darthnihh.tga to 4096x4096 (I didn't want to lose any of the HD, so I elected to go way up instead of way down). Still doesn't lag...

Used it for a PC texture (PMCA01/D1/D2) - simple, easy. In -> Out. Nuff said. Texture looked good to me, but I didn't scrutinize over TGA vs DDS in-game - processing time was nice and fast too. I'm going to test with the HD Nihilus mod to see if it eliminates that brief 3-5 second pause before loading the main menu at the game-start screen. Thank you!

What about a Force Form or Lightsaber Form? I did download and run DarthInsidious's lightsaber forms for K1 and I liked them... I can see why he did it that way as K1 doesn't incorporate Force forms. It just makes more sense to me if it's a Feat, Form, or Power (that doesn't have to be manually cast).

So... I bring this up because of a request that I posted: http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/3017-requests/page-24#entry32174 In my head, it sounds like having it as a Feat would make the most sense, like 'Two-Weapon' fighting or 'Weapon Specialization'. Judging by what I have posted what I've been reading, it sounds like it might be WAY easier to create a new Force Power that, once equipped, is ALWAYS on (like Force Deflect/Redirection). It just sounds REALLY cool, and i want to get to it, would just like a direction from which to start... Thanks for the feedback, Box. That was helpful, even just to clarify which direction would be the "bad" one

Just a general question - can somebody point me in the right direction on how to create a new & unique feat? A link to a tutorial(s), or a quick summing-up would suffice. Thank you in advance!

REQUEST: Create a Force Power or Force-Related Feat for Jedi equiping blasters as their primary weapons. Similar to Targeting Feat and Precise Shot feat - maybe add +5 - +20 damage for I through III levels. Just a draft: Check out Powers and Abilities: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Paladin Jedi Paladin Level 1 Adds +1 to all saving throws Adds +1 to accuracy Adds Damage +5 Unstoppable Reflex +1 2. Jedi Paladin Level 2 Adds +2 to all saving throws Adds +2 to accuracy Adds Damage +5-+10 Unstoppable Bonus Feat : Weapon Specialization Blaster Pistol Reflex +3 Class Skill: Stealth 3. Jedi Paladin Level 3 Adds +3 to all saving throws Adds +3 to accuracy Adds Damage +12-+20 Unstoppable Bonus Feat : Weapon Specialization Blaster Rifle Reflex +5 Class Skill: Demolitions Maybe make it so that if Level 1 is chosen, then the rest auto level-up at certain levels (Paladin Level 2 @ Jedi Sentinel/Guardian Level 8---------Paladin Level 3 @ Jedi Sentinel/Guardian Level 16). Whatever somebody deems fair. If it's easier, make it a default Feat limited to Sentinels and Guardians. A plus would be creating a Feat called Master Close Combat, then make a prerequisite having Paladin Level 1 Feat. I don't know about anybody else, but both Atton & Mira are prime candidates...

DAMN. Speechless. Those skyboxes are gorgeous.

AH! Cool, thought I was going nuts... So - the question then is does DDS process faster because it's a BioWare file-type? And what makes the TGA's less efficient - is it like JPEG vs TIFF file?

Great, thanks for the advice! Just out of curiousity, do you get any lag on the opening loading screen with your HD Nihilus MOD: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/367-darth-sapiens-presents-hd-darth-nihilus/ It's a fantastic re-skin, just noticed it takes about 4-5 seconds before the loading screen comes up (when it's Nihilus being displayed on the opening screen). How high is the resolution on these textures? Doesn't seem to happen anywhere else, and it hasn't taken anything away from game play experience - nothing freezes, crashes.

I'm going to take some screenshots and make some comparisons between 512x512, 1024x1024, and 2048x2048 to see how much of a difference it actually makes in game-play.

Any drawbacks to using higher resolution for things like faces and clothes? I'm going to have to reset mine to 2048. Which does seem huge, but my graphics card doesn't seem to have an issue with 1200 X 1200 - in fact, it seems to make a huge difference for things like faces (details, shadows & lines). P.S. - Thank you! As a network admin, I should have immediately recognized 8x....

I've been doing some random retexturing, mostly for myself as I get practice. First thing I've been doing is increase all textures to 1200 X 1200. Most re-works I've downloaded ended up being 512 X 512. So...what is the max resolution recommended? My 1200 X 1200 PC looks pretty awesome... Just wondering if it causes issues moving forward...

Now I feel stupid... I was using these forums/guides to find it: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=144809 http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/info/ArmorSkinning_expand I don't remember what specific robe I was looking for, something my character was wearing that I thought would look cool with a couple of tweaks. Is there an easier guide? I thought I had a handle on nomenclature, but obviously not so much the case. PC nomenclature ended up being pretty easy.

I concur - it took me over 30 minutes to figure out which texture a robe was using, only to re-texture, copy to override, and find out I was retexturing the wrong damn robe... grrrr It's almost easier to just create a new one sometimes...

Another "would be nice/cool/probably-not-required request": Maybe a way to pick the NPC's Jedi class...? Seems kind of hemmed in where it is. I can see why the NPC's were given their respective classes, but it would be nice to pick one for a couple of them instead of them being stuck with what they get. Just an idea, not really relevant to the story-line, but it would make the NPC's more customizable, especially later when they start to split up into separate squads.

Generally seem to become Jedi for me in the following order: 1. Handmaiden (have not played as female, can't speak to how difficult/long it takes to make Disciple a Jedi) 2. Bao-Dur 3. Atton 4. Mira (LS) I play the planets in this order - Dantooine, (Coruscant-for the gear... ), Nar Shaddaa, Dxun/Onderon, Korriban, M4-78, then wherever... I go in this order so that by the time I get done w/ Nar Shaddaa all my NPC's are Jedi. Atton and Bao-Dur seem to Jedi up right about the same time. Bao-Dur is difficult - you almost HAVE to be LS to do it, and he has to be in your party a lot until he does - only way to earn influence points it seems... I was unable to turn him Jedi playing DS. I concur VP - maybe the ability to be able to choose your NPC's class would be a cool mod... I will suggest it in MOD requests...