xander2077

This was not all my doing. A user on JKhub did this for KotOR, but Cerez laid the groundwork. I am simply building on that, because I did not like the black hair and that version looked way too human for me. She had regular human skin on the poor girl and just a black nose... now this white hair one is cool, and I really like it with the black Juhani clothes, but I actually like my other version of this better really (below). My problem area is trying to make the hair on the body look ok without making it too hirsute. I’m also having problems trying to match up the colors on the neck to the torso since I can’t paint it all on the model just yet. (Missing files blender says and won’t say what) But since nobody usually plays with their characters in underwear (unless they regularly get excited about the sears catalog underwear section) I guess I can either let someone else take a swing at the fur or just leave it alone. Organic stuff is not one of my strong points. Unless it has some reptile in it. So here is Juhani all dolled up and ready for the game. I already play tested her and she looks fabulous this way. Either way, and I will have 3 versions, they all look nice, and I think she will finally give Bastila a run for her money at the bar. No more ugly Juhani.

Thanks. I never made a saber from scratch before for this game, but I whipped it up in about 15 minutes, and I plan on skinning it later on some time. But I have a lot to do. Heck, I don’t even know if it is facing the right direction. I used another saber hilt as a guide on dimensions, and joined my mesh to that one and deleted that mesh, so no telling if it is the right way. I will probably make the suggested weapons and stuff for this mod if it ever begins to be a tangible idea. But I would gladly hand them over to anyone interested in completing it.

On a whim today, I decided to start working on a reskin of Juhani based on a mod I found on JKhub, where a member there (Cerez) decided to make a head mod for Juhani that has hair. this is the only head mod that would possibly work with my masks, so I wanted to try it out, but like most mods, this one was born out of necessity or a good idea, or expansion on a good idea. I’m not sure if they are a member here too but they were showing off the Iriaz mod, and a few others, so maybe. Sooo, I started to reskin the Juhani with hair mod, and came up with this: an even more canon style Cathar. Wish I was better at fur, because I would love to see some versions of this with a few subtle stripes. Got the head done, and I kind of like the white hair and silvery eyes, but I still need to tackle the underwear and any clothing. I may use a clothing mod that really upped the style of her default robes. I probably won’t post as much here as I did for my masks mod. The reason being I wanted to get it done, so it is a good way to get help, and it was a good way to keep everyone informed after dragging it out so long.

To me there is a difference. It seems like every version of blender is different, and they only stayed the same for a very short time. (Maybe the period was somewhere between the 2.4 to right before 2.6.) The basic controls are the same, but they still need to refine the controls a bit. so that is why certain key combos don’t do the same things any more, or they stopped using certain functions that were good and adoped some that were similar but not as good, but overall the changes have been decent, better than it used to be. I just wish they would make it so you could drag the controls on the mesh and it was more interactive like max, but they have already been told they need to do that way back in 2.6 and it is now 2.8.

I don’t think that is possible in the game engine, but it could be an area mod if the EH location mesh was edited and a trophy added to the wall, but I am not sure how that would work since I think it references the same model every time inside the ship - unless a second one could be forced. But yeah a rancor head trophy in the ship is a cool idea, but not very practical when someone is trying to escape a planet being destroyed by the Sith. I vote for a rancor robe... or rancor armor. That seems more plausible. Now the Krayt dragon head in the center of the cargo hold would be kind of cool, maybe as a skull. As far as rancor claw or rancor tooth melee weapons, that is another good one. I think a set of razor claws as melee weapons would be more fitting for a rancor trophy than a tooth knife, and more useful. I still like the lightsaber hilt made from a tooth, one of the really big ones. But to set all that up you almost need a vendor that has been hacked to make them a sort of go between where you can sell them the stuff and then buy back the products made from the trophies. That is the only way I can think of doing it where you can sell them the leather and then the armor or robe is in the inventory for sale, or the teeth and claws are sold to the vendor and the appropriate weapon and saber hilts are there for sale after that. Then upgrades or saber building can be done at the workbench. Rancor claws like this and they could be dual wield items - and a saber hilt like this. Both can be "crafted" on Tatooine. And the rancor armor or robes cold be as well but that is a simple reskin. would not want to wear them in the hot Tatooine sun though.

Archive.org is a mess to navigate, that is hardly a solution, so something bigger is going on there, I honestly do not think that the FileFront archivers are satisfied with the way it has been handled, and there is something else going on with them collaborating with nexus. But I’m waiting on a reply from the site owner. If you skim through the announcement, then it makes it seem as if the nexus is doing everyone a favor, and that is good PR but not the truth. if everyone is so dead set on using a site like archive.org with a very terrible interface and organization, or what is left of GameFront before the plug is pulled, and keeps sending links that are long dead or only on the Wayback Machine any more, then maybe it’s time to update the links to a page that actually works? I don’t see anyone doing that. All I hear are a lot of complaints about things. But it aint the end of the world. Whether we like it or not, those that own servers can do what they like with the content on those servers, even if that means deleting the content wholesale. Those guarantees that FileFront and GameFront gave modders probably won’t hold water at this point since someone else has stepped in and I’m sure they have lawyers on retainer that trump anyone’s moral ideals right about now. Yeah I wish things would just stay the same, but that is never the case. Things move and shake, and there will be upheaval from time to time. Sites will go down. I got a lot of life experience, and among that life experience, I had the misfortune of going through multiple hostile takeovers on a corporate level. And when the buyer steps in, they start to meddle and demand, and make unrealistic goals sound good. And they have the money to back up their demands with corporate lawyers. So they will bludgeon people into submission. And it is a dirty game. The rules get changed, guarantees go out the window, and they come up with creative lies to cheat everyone. heck my brother is going through that for the first time in his life and I hated to do it, but I had to be frank with him that the new owners of his company are not interested in keeping their end of the deal and will try and find a loophole to cut him out of his company shares. And I think something similar is going on behind the scenes on these sites that are being pulled and reorganized. With that fly in the ointment, and the FileFront archivers in a panic as well, I think they all discussed what would be a better solution than archive.org and came up with the nexus. Whatever else is going on is anyone’s guess. But it is not what everyone thinks. These guys probably know each other, and behind the scenes they were already talking about things when they got the word that the sites were being pulled imminently. It’s not like nexus barged in and held a gun to anyone’s head or anything. That is the job of ubercorps. And a month is hardly enough time to get this all done. Think big not small. The problem is not just black and white like a lot of people idealize. Sure it would be nice if puppies and unicorns were frolicking in the rainbow, but that’s never the case in real life. So what should be and what is are often two different things. I honestly think that while this was an opportunity for nexus, and their site layout is more suited to presenting these mods, they also stepped in a huge pile of crap by taking this on because of the sheer volume of the task. something else people forget is that a lot of times things like this, on the corporate level, are handled kind of like someone buying debt from the original lender. There is fine print there that pretty much protects the original lender from any problems the new debt owner may encounter, and there are tons of lawyers involved. I don’t just think this was some arbitrary decision and that nexus staff didn’t look at the legal ramifications of it all. I think there were lawyers involved, and who knows? Maybe in that meeting GameFront decided to hand things over to nexus. In which case it is similar to someone buying debt. the fact that nexus has said they will delete any mods that the original authors don’t want on their site means they are trying to make sure they respect those old defunct FileFront guarantees that no longer matter anymore. Sure they matter to modders, but from the legal standpoint of FileFront, they can’t guarantee them anymore, so to them it’s a moot point if they can’t uphold modders rights. So they pass the torch. If they are being dissolved, then they don’t have any say so any more. It is out of their hands once they go down. So before they do something had to be done. So you have any experience with trying to call people say for a fund driver based on their donations previously? It is a nightmare... that is sort of like what it would be like to contact every modder who ever uploaded at GameFront. Like I said not just the mods for KOTOR, but every mod ever uploaded. Now we are talking authorship on the level of the library of congress. Do you seriously think there is enough staff and time in a month to handle all those emails and keep spamming people to respond about their mod? That is insane! How long did it take to archive everything on archive.org when there was not a month deadline? So what's the best way that modders could be contacted? there are no phone numbers, this is all based on emails if it were ever an option, and if the person is dead, or the email account is no longer active, then how effective you think it would be to put that first when there is only a month to rescue those files? It makes no sense to put manpower on that when all hands are needed to handle files. So they made the provision for modders to contact nexus if they have an issue. That’s just realism. They are not funeral directors. They don’t have to usher people in and hand them Kleenex and pat them on the back, they are more like first responders. @ liliarch. if a domain was bought out, that is one thing, and yes that has happened, because the redirects say so... but I am talking about the servers. when a company dissolves, the new owners tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater. since FileFront is going down, that means they are being dissolved, and those servers, while cheap, are not going to be functioning much longer. forget domains, we are talking physical computers. who cares if they have a temp domain it won’t be any use once those servers are scrapped at the local computer recycler or sent to India to be melted down. I really do not think that FileFront staff owns those servers any more. or they would not be moving files off of them. it doesn’t matter what happens to them really, that is up to whoever bought them out, whether they end up being stuffed in a warehouse, or stuck on a pallet to get rained on, or moved to another building and repurposed is not the point. the point is the time frame. a month points strongly to corporate interference by someone who could care less about modders rights. the tells are right in front of everyone. it is not cut and dry like people want it to be. it is a mess. it should be viewed as a mess and then when the dust clears, then deal with it. until then not much good whining will do. Here are some screens of how effective using the old sites are now. so they are taking down even the references to the old KOTOR mods. like it or not the files are gone from GameFront. and the last file I can find on archive.org is this super pack that is about 2.5 gigs. hardly anything left there either. so thinking that is still going to be around is wishful thinking.

well that accounts for why i never heard of them and assumed they were some new guys. but yeah most definitely corporate intrigue going on and i know all about dying companies, they tend to get cut-throat even worse at the end. if that is the case then whoever bought them out is forcing the issue on what is left of filefront... not the nexus. And whoever holds the purse strings of a dying company they are trying to revive or reinvent, well, they have the say so. They will make cuts and force uncomfortable things like this down peoples throats, whether we like it or not. nexus is more or less a leaf on the wind if all that is going on. Trying to balance the demands of a supercorp and the needs and rights of modders is a tightrope i do not envy them. As far as the advertising fiasco the nexus has to deal with right now, that is a separate issue not related to them helping out filefront archivers. As far as i know there is cooperation between both sets of people and it looks like filefront needed the help. So put that all together, with nexus having advertising issues still and helping out the archivers, and that is a strain.

Honestly, I think it is more than the FileFront staff can handle or are equipped for. I really don’t think that Nexus offered to help as much as FileFront asked for help. The fact that they are willing to take help means they are understaffed, so I’m not even sure that wherever they are archiving to is going to be adequate. I really think that the FileFront staff is in over their head this time. As I said before, if there is a pushy corporation rushing things, then of course they are going to cut corners and be in a panic. With that new e-zine taking over, that seems to be the case. The Nexus site owner has even said that even if they upload mods, the mod owners can ask to have them taken down, and they will. But it may be a while until they can do it because of the chaos right now. I’m getting some of this from thoroughly reading the Updates but also from the comment sections. I think it would be better to find out for sure, without all the political rhetoric, so I asked Dark one for a reply concerning the whole operation. I don’t expect an immediate reply though due to them being very busy. If anyone wants to know the scoop, it is not hard to email the guy and address the concerns related to all this.

Yes the decision to focus on python 3.0 dependency is something i disagree with entirely. And this effected Nifscripts in a bad way, but Neverblender actually works right in spite of that misdirection. In linux, the distro has the default python set to 2.6 or 2.7, but it has provisions for 3.0 even though it is still largely in the beta stages for supporting older applications. The problem comes in when older apps that need a lower version of python call for that version, and even if it is present (because linux keeps them all in separate directories and does not overwrite older versions) for some reason applications cannot "see" that version of python and fail. While it is ok for blender to support 3.0, some of the scripts still depend on 2.6, and the way it is handled is so different there is no way to patch between the two reliably. So when some applications decided to move exclusively to 3.0, they jumped the gun before the bugs were worked out, and the python 3.0 dev team had to backtrack and try to figure out backward compatibility that they overlooked terribly, since some of the scripts that we all use were still dependent on lower versions. and even then the way they try to convert the python scripts to work in older versions is terrible. So there is a huge mismatch in versions and how fast people update their applications or scripts to the new language, nobody seems to be in line yet completely. they are all over the place. and then to top it off, some of the scripts have dependencies that have been omitted from the linux base, so they wont work any more, so it seems like to me that the application developers would try and bundle everything with the dependencies and older version of python but that is hit or miss... Plus they did not foresee the issues that 3.0 would cause, and i think they are pretty much fixed now, but becuase they changed so much in python and because of the way linux handles python, it can be a huge hurdle to get everything working in concert. i have suggested to them that they make some kind fo a library that can tell what version of python an app or script needs and direct it to that version without just brick walling, but i am not sure if they took it into consideration. In windows there may not be an issue with python, since you can always just install the necessary stuff in the same directory as the exe and get it working. Linux is not always so easy. sometimes they discard things before they should be becuase they assume everyone is up to speed, but that is never he case when it is open source you are talking about.

no lol, i only use old blender (2.49b) to import some mdl files that wont import with the new (2.8) blender plugin. There are two version on the neverwintervault site. one is for 2.6 (but is supposed to work in 2.49b even though it does not) and the newest one which i believe will work in 2.7 and up. I would probably not want to export anything from blender 2.49b. The new blender plugin seems to handle export better in my opinion , unless you have better results than i do, but YMMV. It probably also depends on which operating system you have, since i can only use one import script and the rest will not work for me in linux. If you use a different script then your OS probably has a lot to do with the success rate of a plugin. What happens when importing it to old blender (with the plugin i use) is a lot of extra materials get added to the model that dont belong. so i only use it in extreme cases and immediately save it as a blend and open that in blender 2.8. then i do my work there and export only from blender 2.8. the reason i even tried going the other way was because of the vertex paint feature in 2.49b that i really like which is the fake ambient occlusion. but when i open it again in 2.8 that is wiped so it was pointless to save it as a legacy blend file. I just made mention of all that nonsense because i was trying out different things and so i know what will happen if you pass the model between the two versions of blender. best to import in 2.8 and export, and only import in 2.49b if you absolutely need to. Now there are plugins that 2.49b has that 2.8 does not (yet) but i use that more for morrowind and my workflow for that is the exact opposite. But that is a moot point for Kotor.

Well I don’t think they see themselves as the saviors of FileFront, but they are doing what they can do to help. The reason I could see them in a panic to save the files is because there may be things going on behind the scenes we don’t know about. Are those files archived on the FileFront servers? if so, the new owners could be demanding they be dumped to make room for things they want to use them for, and FileFront staff that is left making the transition over to the new owners, went to the first people they could think of to facilitate it. Every link I have followed to a so called archive is redirected to the Escapist, so they (that magazine) seem to be doing a hostile takeover of what is left. I can see some of their execs giving the kill order to clean those servers out if that is the case. Seems typical. Of the other sites that host the same files, they are either not as well known, or not as well organized as nexus usually is. The difference between the Kotor site on nexus and how it is now is alarming. It is all in disarray, when it used to be nice and neat, although somewhat sparse. And remember this is not the only game they are doing this with. There are tons of other games that don’t have any equivalent host sites they have to get the files for or they will be gone, so they are painting with a broad brush here with all of the files. Why would contacting the mod creator be the last step in this situation? Because there is a time limit, and contacting people who are MIA is time consuming and takes a lot of manpower to achieve. I think we all know from attempting to contact people that have dropped off the modding map, how frustrating that can be sometimes. So they are thinking practical, not necessarily nice to do or moral obligation. They had to make a quick decision, and I don’t think any of us in the same shoes would be approaching it differently unless we had the foresight to think a year or two ahead. But such is the realm of business. They have not been given much time to work with. Large corps usually don’t like to stretch deadlines like us modders do. They are very black and white and aggressive. They want those servers now and they are going to get what they paid for. They could care less about some old mod files. The fact they are even allowing any time at all for someone to rescue files is kind of gracious. Maybe the nexus is not the only mod site that exists, but they are a familiar one. I am not 100% sure of all the details behind it all, but there is a sense of urgency in their actions. Not to be a hero, but to beat the clock. It will get sorted out later once they have gotten past the new server owners breathing down their necks. I know I’m playing devil’s advocate, and it is not to start an argument or anything, but we need more information from the nexus as to why they stepped up with the urgency they did the way they did. For now we can only go off of what they announced, and what the admins over there are privy to that we may not know but they are willing to divulge. And maybe a little deductive reasoning... I know they are not the only game in town, but they are doing this out of care rather than carelessness. I just don’t think they have time enough to dot their "i's" and cross their "t's" Edit: I just had a thought, and even though it should be the other way around, perhaps the best way to deal with this is to get together with fellow modders and petition the site to take mods down they don’t own, from the owners themselves. I think if enough of the people that actually created those mods get together, then they will oblige. However realistically it may take a while until the dust settles and they get around to fulfilling such requests, or assigning proper ownership. First though, if anyone wants to know what is really going on and why this is happening in detail, it is best to get it from the horse’s mouth directly. Differences aside, I think given a chance, the admins there are approachable on the subject, and will listen to anyone’s concerns. At least give them the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure they don’t intend to disrespect anyone intentionally.

wouldn't subtle signal be more akin to spidey senses? what do we call those Xuuley senses? LOL but yeah i guess you could compare the subtlety of it to the bat signal.

I am noticing that it is a huge nightmare in progress organizing and uploading. I assume they will have to go through and make sure there are no duplicates of uploads, but I did notice some of your mods for example, were uploaded again by the nexus team, so it seems they are in a panic over trying to save everything before the files are gone forever. The duplicates will have to be weeded out later. Hopefully they don’t remove the ones that were uploaded by the authors as a result. If that worries anyone I would suggest contacting them before they eliminate the wrong mod page. Once they are done uploading and organizing, the next step is to remove dead links, approach the original authors, and pretty much get the KOTOR sites on nexus in order, since it is all out of whack now. I realize they are assuming a lot by doing this, and not everyone will be happy about it, but at this stage until the smoke clears they are literally in a battle to save what they can while they can. I guess the old saying "it's better to ask forgiveness than for permission" kind of applies here in their eyes. To put it in perspective, if you were going to die unless someone rescued you, would it not be better to be rescued? Even if you ended up in a place you didn’t want to be at the moment? At least the mods will still be alive, and the alternative (oblivion) would be terrible for many of the mods. I think to offset that is to try and get in contact with as many of the quality modders that will probably otherwise lose their files, and get them to upload some things here, that way there is a cleaner alternative and it will weed out some of the less desirable stuff. Over there they are uploading everything they can salvage, and some of the mods are not really my cup of tea, but I guess it’s better to do that than be picky right now.

I would have upvoted your comment, but the site told me that i met my limit for the day. There are some things i want to fix already about this mod but i may go another route on that, simply because only juhani has the ear clipping issue. so i may redo her head some time to help alleviate that. or i may just use the human version of her head model and keep the cat texture. Xuul, i just want to hear your famous intro for this mod. LOL thanks everyone for downloading.

unfortunately every link i have tried to follow to the filefront server does not go to a mod. instead it either goes to the wayback machine and the download link doesnt work, or it goes to an ezine for gaming that is called http://www.escapistmagazine.com/ and no mods are there, i looked... how i feel about it? i could not have found some of the mods not hosted here otherwise. i dont know what links you guys have but if you have not visited them in a while, they are dead and gone. they would not be rescuing files unless the website was being taken over by The Escapist and trashing the mod files. this is not the only game they did that for. now granted some of the mods i could take them or leave them, but there are some real gems they rescued. what with people falling off the radar and assuming their mods are safe on filefront, i dont disagree that the nexus is doing this for good reason. filefront was like the library of alexandria for mods. since some new kid on the gaming block wants to toss them all out, and they were above board about working with the filefront people to rescue these mods, and are offering to let people claim their mods, then its the best solution i can see. this is a lot different than some wad taking your mod and uploading on some russian site and claiming it as their own. (no offense intended, just an example)

it would be interesting to see that as well as a hidden bek expansion. like after the vulkars are cleaned out, suddenly the beks are less closed off to the group and all the areas in their base are opened up, maybe even an additional vendor or two in the unlocked areas?

So are the stats going to be reduced to more manageable levels for the separate mod?

yes, and that sounds like a good mask mod idea! i think this will be the only true bobble head mod for Kotor. or how about a rancor head necklace? solve that one in the game engine anyway for a rancor head mask, which one would you prefer? number 1 or number 2? (and yes i mean mounted on a plaque) Orrrr... you can also run into someone who teaches you how to craft the tooth into objects, and can also turn it into a knife, or part of a lightsaber hilt (mini quest?) so in that case there would need to be a couple of teeth. one not so good, and one grand tooth.

I use blender 2.8 native to linux and i also have blender 2.49b portable that i use in wine. 2.8 is the one i have neverblender in, and it is a simple zip file install from within blender, so it is really easy to install. For blender 2.49b, i cant figure out either how to get even the old version of neverblender working... so instead, i use a 2.49b blend file that opens the script window properly so i can run the import script for Kotor mdls, and this is the one i use only for problem mdl files that i have to force into blender. Most of them import fine into 2.8 with no issues. Once i open problem files in blender 2.49b, i can then save them and open them again in 2.8 If you want both you can also look for the portable app version of 2.49b and then do a full install of the latest version, that way you have both. You can move files between new and old blender, but beware, if you save them in old blender they will work in both, but if you save them in new blender they will screw up in old blender... UNLESS: you save the file in new blender as a "legacy blend" file, however this destroys any animations and sometimes skin weights and bones. If you try to open a 2.8 file in 2.49b, it will import only the edges with no faces, and the rest of the things that were with the model will be gone, and sometimes whole sections of model will be missing. Also convert to tris before saving as a legacy because any quad faces will be deleted on opening in 2.49b. Also the 2.49b import method i use, for some reason assignes a bijillion materials and other weird things in the file, so it has to be cleaned up before it will work as an aurora model.

Vanilla Masks Overhaul View File This is basically just a drop in override mod for the vanilla masks of KoToR. With one exception: Tetas Royal Band Restored By Darth Insidious is required before that one will work. I included it because it is a vanilla mask, but it was hidden in the game files. All models and textures are overhauled. Some more than others. Even if the model does not look different by much there has been a lot of time and effort put into tweaking the UVs and editing the models to be smoother without adding too many polys. I wanted to release three of the masks as helmets, however those will be added later in an optional expansion of this mod. TODO: Fix some things about the textures such as glowing things that should be glowing, and add new replacement icons. If there are any model problems i will gladly fix them and re-up the whole archive. New file in addition to the main file is the icons for the new masks. Thanks to djh269 for offering to make these icons and send them to me. A huge help. That leaves trying to figure out some issues with reflection for some of the masks, and maybe a few animations that are supposedly supposed to be on them. Stay tuned for more great updates in the future! Submitter xander2077 Submitted 05/27/2016 Category Mods K1R Compatible  

Ok, since I had to rethink my approach to the vanilla masks, and reserve the helmet versions for a later mod, I whipped up some better versions of the 3 vanilla masks. What I basically did was tweak some UVs and fix a few oddities on them, and there was really only one that I added better details to in the geometry and had to completely reunwrap, but sooner or later they will be done and I can finally release this. Here is a pic of the mask I revamped and gave more rounded off edges. And the other one where I had to fix the UVs. I don’t really need to show the last one since it did not really change that much, just needed the back fixed to avoid overlapping faces and flickering. Before final release I will have to make sure the last 3 vanilla masks are correctly placed on the heads and such, and then look for any texture anomalies to fix as I view them in game. The final pic is one I whipped up really quickly and have no texture for yet, but it is a skull of the Mythosaur mask. This is the traditional symbol of Mandalorians from time immortal. It should be a fun mask to put in game later.