Stormie97

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Everything posted by Stormie97

  1. Stormie97
    That characteristic flatness is due to the different texture systems used by K1 and TOR. I'm not familiar with TOR's engine but I suppose it uses some form of PBR rendering or, at minima, a somewhat classic combination of diffuse, specular and normal maps. In layman terms, this means that TOR uses various texture maps to render things like depth and variation in roughness, while the diffuse (or basecolor map) simply handles color information. Good ol' Odyssey on the hand doesn't have such fancy features. Everything you want a model to display must be contained within the diffuse map: depth, shadows, etc. What you see in your diffuse texture is what you get in game. Since TOR's diffuse maps are likely little more than just color information, you don't get much detail in them. To fulfill the quality level you seek would require a comprehensive retexturing job. Luckily, skilled texturers are still active on this site. Best you can do is ask DP's permission and post a mod request in the appropriate section, or tackle the challenge yourself.
  2. Stormie97
    In all honesty, I haven’t replayed any of the 2 games ever since releasing my very first mod. Just been busy making new stuff, most of which I haven’t shown anything publicly and that I won’t ever release ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  3. Stormie97

    Sneaky Peeky Final

    Spoiler

    Clothing_preview003.thumb.jpg.f7d3dab222246ffd6faf4f9a75ef58ec.jpg

    Coming soon: a new WiP thread showcasing my upcoming Duros replacer and more

    1. Stormie97

      Stormie97

      He'll be fine, I hear they have good prosthetics in the Star Wars universe.

    2. DarthParametric

      DarthParametric

      Lol, not quite what I meant. I was referring to Odyssey trashing all your hard work with it's broken mip implementation.

    3. Stormie97

      Stormie97

      Ah I see. Well the point of the high poly sculpt here is to bake all those details into the diffuse texture of the low-poly in-game model, using Substance Painter's Baked Lighting Filter (pretty awesome stuff). It worked quite well for the head so I don't expect too much ugly stuff for the body.

    4. Show next comments  3 more
  4. Stormie97
    I'd tell you that bumping threads is poorly looked upon but lately the site has been, let's say, a bit too quiet so whatever. As for the mod, I haven't really followed the development closely. After a a quick read-through, I guess could pick up the last files that were shared in the thread and finish the mod myself. However, @defreili hasn't been around since April and I would hate to cut the ground from under his feet should he come back at somepoint to finish it.
  5. Stormie97
    I'll add a few notes to DP's already fairly comprehensive answer. Apart from the 3d model itself, you're going to need a texture, but just one. Modern game assets use a variety of texture images, all serving a different purpose: diffuse, ambient occlusion, normal maps, roughness map, metalness map, etc. For good ol' KoTOR, you'll only be interested in the diffuse map (also often called "albedo" or "base color"). KoTOR does support normal maps/bump maps, but honestly I've never been able to see the difference in-game, so don't bother with those. While there's a lot of cool stuff that has been done in their respective modding communities, remember to ask for permission to the mods' original authors before starting to port stuff. Otherwise, you won't be allowed to post your port mod here, nor to ask for assistance in the process should you need it. In my experience, provided the authors haven't gone AWOL, they'll generally agree to it as long you as you give them proper credit for the assets. Just want to add that, once you've done all the prep work in your 3D software, you'll want to use MDLEdit to convert the .ascii files (created by KOTORMax/KOTORBlender) into KoTOR's preferred file format (.mdl/.mdx). Yep! I remembered a couple of old tutorials on Youtube showing how to import new weapons in Kotor. They both use NWMax and MDLOps, so remember to use KOTORMax/KOTORBlender and MDLEdit instead. Custom Models in Star Wars: KOTOR 1 & 2 KotOR1 Modding Tut Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 These should help you kickstart your project.
  6. Stormie97

    Welp someone seems to REALLY REALLY dislike my Juhani mod as well as anyone who dares like it.

    why_tho.thumb.jpg.a8e2a9477ef5fac57bcc425d59ccd630.jpg

    1. jc2

      jc2

      Haters gonna hate. . .

    2. Thor110

      Thor110

      Maybe people like Juhani and her massive chin and strange outfit.

      I'll admit I didn't think much of your mod when seeing it, but I never really liked Juhani to begin with.

      The amount of interactions around here doesn't seem to be based on much more than chance anyway coupled with regulars.

      You do only have a sample of 9 people though... or am I missing something.

    3. Malkior

      Malkior

      It's counterintuitive to just downvote something without giving reasons for the criticism. 

      Clearly some people dislike the mod on a fundamental level, so I'd personally like to know why.

  7. Stormie97
    This is where the fun begins!
  8. Stormie97
    It's definitely finicky. I'd gladly take a look at it if needed, you can send me the file by PM.
  9. Stormie97
    The lowest loop of vertices that connect the head to the body need a weighting of 1 with respect to the necklwr_g bone. The second row of vertices from the bottom will then blend the weight of necklwr_g with neck_g (I just do 0.5/0.5) and then the third loop can finish the blending by applying a weight of around 0.1 - 0.2 for necklwr_g. So it seems you need to play around with the blending a bit. Adding an additional loop at that area can help as well.
  10. Stormie97
    While less fancy, I'd just assign the head to a companion, either via KSE, editing appearance.2da or creating a disguise item, and go through conversation options with them. Generally when something is wrong with your weights it's quickly noticeable. Granted, you won't really get any extreme animations to test your skinning, but player heads rarely move much anyway.
  11. Stormie97
    It's a small, but really nice addition to every startup! Think you could do the same for the Bioware one?
  12. Stormie97

    Duros Rework in-game preview

    It's alive!

    What you're seeing is V3 of my Duros head. I've tweaked pretty much everything, multiple times. The head is pretty much done now, all I need to do is create the three texture variations, as well as incorporate any advice or feedback I'll get from now on.

    versions_compar.thumb.jpg.15b717fc35ec90c4c6fd4cff0bfd9fdf.jpg

    Now I'm off to work on the body model. Until then, here are a few other angles (diffuse texture only):

    Spoiler

    v3preview.thumb.jpg.fbf64bd47973186e5b22a2a9611f0146.jpgv3preview02.thumb.jpg.a1a0aac36a474346d9f0417b7fd11aa2.jpgv3preview03.thumb.jpg.3b83f666df4cc04263d9c440452fefd9.jpg

    And, as always, critique and feedback are very much welcome.

    1. Malkior

      Malkior

      There is honestly very little I would do aside from maybe accentuating the wrinkles near his eyes and down the sides of his face like this.

       

      See the source image

      However, that could be achieved with the texture just as easily.

       

      The head is the perfect shape, and the mouth is just the right level of pouched. 

      As an aside, I love that you used Trask as your test character. For some reason, it's entertaining to hear his lines coming from that face.

  13. Stormie97
    Not a problem.
  14. Stormie97
    Yes that’s to be expected. The outfit is assigned to column J in the appearance.2da file. I added it to all vanilla playable heads and companions, but as you can imagine, I can’t implement the outfit for custom appearances a priori. However, you can perform that edit yourself, it’s as simple as filling in a cell in a spreadsheet. Open your appearance.2da file from your Override folder using KoTOR Tool, navigate to the line that contains your custom head, then scroll to the right until you reach column J. Simply add the name of my model to both cells (model and texture), for that you may just copy the name I used in the default appearances. Save the file and you’re done. This can be done for any custom head. Just mind the gender as the female and male models have slightly different names.
  15. Stormie97
    Eh, I remember that one of the first posts on this site was to request someone to port a model of ROTJ Luke Skywalker that was posted on jkhub.org. That request wasn’t answered so I decided to go ahead and give it a try with zero knowledge of 3D. After multiple failed attempts, I eventually succeeded and proudly released my first mod ever. In doing so I discovered a passion for 3D and made it one of my favourite hobbies. I made a huge amount of progress in those last two years or so. Granted I release something only whenever a unicorn gets sacrified, but that’s because I keep improving my workflow and technique and so previous projects become outdated. Anyhow I’ll always encourage people to have a go at it and I’d gladly point whoever asks towards some useful free resources that helped me learn 3D art from scratch. As for your request, I didn’t answer yet because I want to commit to finishing my current Duros overhaul mod (not forgetting all my RL responsibilities). Even then, I don’t want to make any promises or commitments, but if the mood strikes me, I’m leaving the door open to it.
  16. Stormie97

    Sneaky Peaky Three

    Spoiler

    imageproxy.php?img=&key=dba823a22405d2caDuros_head_preview001.thumb.jpg.3b04f6deb6252d47185c7bec9362fa8b.jpg

    I've made good progress on the head. The shown texture is a quick and dirty, but promising job using SoMuchDiffuse, a really cool add-on shader for Substance painter. It's basically a bunch of materials that rely on baked lighting to produce a diffuse texture that looks almost PBR, making the normal map practically redundant. I'll also try to add some specularity later on to make the eyes and skin nice and shiny. Polycount is 3.5k triangles, but I still need to model the mouth interior, upper and lower teeth and the tongue.

    If this goes well I'd like to extend the project to other aliens species in K1 that have poorly aged. Might create a new WIP thread dedicated to this project. Next step, some in-game tests.

     

  17. Stormie97

    Sneaky Peeky Two

    Spoiler

    Duros_WIP2alt.thumb.png.8cefd147c68ed672574b24506d8933dc.png

     

    1. Malkior

      Malkior

      Yep, the Rodian eyes don't even have a round eye surface. Don't get me started on the others like the Ithorians or Nikto as well.

    2. DarthParametric

      DarthParametric

      Separate head so it can use regular armour (albeit with hand surgery) or are you sticking with the fixed appearance of the originals?

    3. Stormie97

      Stormie97

      Separate head and torso. For me, it’s mostly about enhanced texture space. Not sure I’ll bother making a playable Duros myself (or armor wearing Duros NPCs) but I’m planning on releasing a modder’s ressource archive alongside with it, with everything needed for textures and such.

    4. Show next comments  3 more
  18. Stormie97
    I’m not sure what causes your black screens, but if you want to play K1 in high resolution, you should follow this tutorial. I also recommend installing these mods: HD icons HD Menus and UI High resolution menus Main Menu Widescreen Fix
  19. Stormie97

    Sneaky peeky 🙂

     

    Spoiler

    Duros_WIP.thumb.jpg.3c20abe8cb1cdd750de80d7e2638be50.jpg

    WIP

     

    1. DarthParametric

      DarthParametric

      It's like the Star Wars upside down Forever Alone.

      Btw what's the poly budget? I'm thinking those brows should probably be geometry (at least partially) rather than normal mapped.

    2. Stormie97

      Stormie97

      I'm exploring higher poly meshes here, so polycount will be anywhere between 2k and 5k probably. So I'll make most of it actual geometry, should be doable without going overboard. Especially considering that Duros heads don't move much, apart from their mouths.

      Edit: Maybe a lil' more than 5k, but I'm not worried too much about the polycount.

  20. Stormie97
    Just for that I'm very much looking forward to this! Often times the dialogue options feel straight out of a Fallout New Vegas with low Intelligence playthrough
  21. Stormie97
    Possible, yes. The most difficult part would be to get permission to port the actual models. I don't think the original author is active in the community anymore.
  22. Stormie97
    Absolutely! First, you'll want to UV unwrap the head. I recommend watching this tutorial, it is for Blender but the underlying principles will apply for any 3D software. Once you have your UV layout nice and flat, you can start the texturing process. There are a few ways to go about this. You can either use real photographs of human faces and manipulate them to fit your UV layout. It's the kind of process that was used a lot for low-poly models from older generations of video games. You can also paint the textures by hand, which is my preferred way. It's not as daunting as it sounds, but I do recommend some sort of graphics tablet to make your life easier. I heavily recommend Substance Painter for this part, you can get it with a 30-days trial here. This software allows you to drag and drop pre-made materials and blend them together using masks. There are a lot of nice tutorials on Youtube for that. For 100% hand-painted textures, 3D-Coat is a nice alternative. I also recommend making a high-poly version of your model even if it's just the low-poly subdivided a few times, as long as it has the same proportions as the low-poly one. The high-poly will allow you to bake mesh maps such as the normal map, AO map, curvature map, etc. directly in Substance. KoTOR only uses diffuse maps (and technically normal maps, too) but you'll be able to overlay the details of the mesh maps on top of your layers in Substance. Alternatively, I've been playing around with SoMuchDiffuse, which is a plug-in material for Substance painter that directly integrates the detail from the mesh maps in a colour map, perfect for games like KoTOR or Dota, which it was developed for. It's not free however, but it only goes for USD25.
  23. Stormie97
    How about a free video guide instead?
  24. Stormie97
    Well basically when you take the bones together, they form a skeleton. A skeleton is then a set of primitive 3d objects, which are then animated. It's done that way because animating the models themselves would be tedious and you'd have to repeat the same steps for each model. Whereas by animating a common rig (skeleton), you can just fit your models around it and have them follow the movements of the rig. KoTOR is no exception. If comes with a couple limitations, for instance each mesh has a maximum bones limit of 16. If you take a look at the vanilla models, you'll notice that they are generally seperated in 3 parts: Left arm, Torso, Right arm. That's because of the 16 bones per mesh limit. So generally I'd advise you to split your models in a similar fashion. Second limit is four 4 bones weights per vertices ; in other words, any single vertex can't be influenced by more than 4 bones. Honestly this is a non-issue, at least for body and head models. Most of the time you'll be weighting your vertices with respect to 2 bones, sometimes 3 at max. But it's important to know. With that being said, if you acquire a 3d model online and it comes with it's own rig, I think it probably won't work within KoTOR, input from other modders in needed here. If that's the case you'd simply have to get rid of the skeleton it came with and rig the model with the KoTOR skeleton instead. It's not the most exciting part of bringing new models into the game, but it's necessary nonetheless. As I said, need confirmation from other modders on this.
  25. Stormie97
    The engine can handle many more polys than the vanilla model do have. @DarthParametric knows the actual facts and figures better than I do. No idea about textures sizes, but generally you can get very good results using 2K textures, or even by downsampling to 1K. Depends on the size of the model I'd say. Recently Koru has shown some progress they've made on improving head models, it's looks really good. Personally I've been looking into remaking high-quality some body models but I'm not yet ready to show what I've come up with. Regarding taking models available online: well it depends. If you're looking at a particular model, you have to figure out: where does it come from? Has it been ripped from another game without specific consent of the game's studio? Or did an artist make it and publish it onlline? Is it available for sale or do you plan to rip from a platform like, let's say, Sketchfab? If it's available for sale, what's the user agreement that comes with it? Would the author agree to have it ported to KoTOR as a mod? If none of those apply, was the model published as a free resource?