CarthOnasty

I was looking for a centralized list of all of the parameters for .txis and what they did, but I wasn't able to locate anything. Here's what I've discovered so far, looking through various KOTOR files. By all means let me know if anything is inaccurate or if you can provide any more information. Thanks! blending Various blending options using the alpha channels of the .tga. (Think Photoshop blending options.) blending additive Used for translucency. Equivalent to Add or Linear Dodge, the color is added to whatever is underneath. blending punchthrough Used for transparency. e.g. grass, hair, etc. bumpmapscaling Increases the intensity of the bump map, i.e. increases the height of the bump map. bumpmapscaling 1 bumpmaptexture Defines the bump map for the texture. bumpmaptexture C_Hutt01b bumpyshinytexture Used with a bump map on a texture that uses an environment map. e.g. If you're using cm_baremetal on a metal texture, you'll want to use bumpshinytexture instead of envmap. bumpyshinytexture C_Hutt01b cube Defines that the associated texture is a cubemap. cube 1 decal Renders the texture on top of anything it's flush with. Black areas of texture will be translucent. decal 1 defaultheight The height of 1 frame for an animation. defaultheight 128 defaultwidth The width of 1 frame for an animation. defaultwidth 128 envmaptexture Defines the environment map for the texture. envmaptexture CM_Bright fps The speed at which frames will cycle when animated. fps 24 isbumpmap Defines the texture is a bump map. isbumpmap 1 isdiffusebumpmap ??? isdiffusebumpmap 1 isspecularbumpmap ??? isspecularbumpmap 1 mipmap Multiple copies of the same texture in different sizes to be rendered based on distance from PC. With this command, you can force the game to always show the highest mip. mipmap 1 numx The number of horizontal frames for an animation. numx 4 numy The number of vertical frames for an animation. numy 4 proceduretype Followed by cycle, initiates the cycling of frames for animations. proceduretype cycle Here's a more specific example for how an animation would work: proceduretype cycle defaultwidth 256 defaultheight 256 numx 3 numy 2 fps 12 Shout out to Kexikus, JCarter426, and DarthParametric for all the additional info.

No need to apologize, I wasn't very clear. This was mainly a post about creative block frustrations. Yeah, that's what it seems like more and more would be the best course of action. If I go down that road though, I'd do the whole thing. That's more of my version 2.0 plan, but I really might have to for stop-gap.

I'm kind of stuck at this point with the mod. I've gotten everything to the point in which I really like it, except for this little darn thing: Not to mention I find the skin heinous to boot: It's kind of a bizarre shape, a decahedron I want to say, and there's a lot of repeats. And then every other side of the shape uses a different part of the skin; any kind of seamless look has been damn-near impossible. I've gotten a basic texture on there I like, but I'm having trouble "finding some character" with it. e.g. The original skin has that weird circle/sun rusty-gold thing on it. Anyway, I'm at a loss right now. It seems like a waste to just slap a texture on there considering all of the other details I've added to the rest. I'm certainly open for any suggestions!

This is going to be pretty cool once I get it implemented.

You the best! Thanks for the in-depth info.

I've come across a .tga that is animated in a model (essentially increases and decreases in size to provide a glow-effect), though there is no associated .txi. Here's the file in question: This leads me to believe that the graphic is animated by the model, though the .tga looks like it's set up in frames. Is there a way I can check to see if this is the case in the model?

Here's the HUD with a 50% transparency. Looks better imo and just needs a few tweaks here and there. Thanks for input!

You were correct! This did the trick, thanks! I agree, that's another idea I've been playing around with. I liked the idea of using a nebula in there, but it starts to get really cloudy.

It usually is from what I understand, however on all of these HUD pieces, the original alpha channel is completely white. Therefor meaning the whole .tga has the transparency applied to it. (From what I can gather.)

The alpha channel is still there for sure. I'm not sure how I'd go about making the HUD more transparent though. My theory is that the the original was so blurry that it gave that illusion of a more transparent HUD.

Here's an update for you folks. I've been messing around with the map hud(?), getting cleaner lines and sharper graphics. Take a look: The one downside I'm seeing (personally) is that now the graphics are more crisp, they also tend to clutter up the map as a whole. I've been playing around with alternate graphics but have to find something I like. I think once released, I'll over the original version and then my version.

Haha, glad someone appreciates my idiosyncrasies... Thanks bud.

I'm not sure how to best describe this, but here goes. Can more than one effect be applied to a model in the .txi file? e.g. Can I have envmaptexture CM_Whatever AND blending additive? Can and would more than 1 alpha channel have to be used? TYIA.

Gotcha, maybe in the final version then I'd offer just a basic revamp and then a version for extra placeables and whatnot. Seems a bit short-sided on BioWare's part, but ah well. Thanks for the info!

Thanks! In regards to the placeable limit (bummer btw), would this be in reference if I were to make a model for each zone? Thanks!

///// 01. Background ///// Hey folks, I wanted to learn about reskinning, modding, etc. I noticed this last time that the star maps could use some tender love and care, so I thought I'd give them a shot. Here's an example of one as well as its skin as a reminder: ///// 02. Prep ///// After locating all of the model files, I wanted to first know where everything fell on the model, so I made a grid and applied it as the star map skin: Resulting in the following: I then took screen caps of various angles, locations, etc. ///// 03. Planning ///// I knew I wanted the textures to be a much higher quality as well as much more realistic. I perused through various metal textures, corroded, rusted, etc to find one I liked at still fit into the time period. I found old, abandoned trains to be a great source of inspiration/textures. Regarding the runes on the model, I wanted them to stand out much more and thought were a very cool feature that could be integrated. I made them a bit more front-and-center and added a glow via CM_Bright. ///// 4. Work Thus Far ///// Okay, enough stalling, here's what I have so far: ///// 05. Challenges ///// Lining up the indentations was very difficult and they honestly don't line up on every side. I just got them as even as I could considering the sides and hoped for the best. As you can see in the above screen caps, there's discolored between the body and the feet, though this isn't the same for every location. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. Lining up the circle piece is pretty tough, as the surrounding areas' texture is also about 40% larger so it's just a matter of finding that balance. ///// 06. Next Steps ///// Figure out what the hell to do with that base. I'm not even sure I like what's there originally. Maybe leave it blank? Or does it need something, I dunno. General seam clean-up. Retexture the sphere in the middle as well as a couple other pieces once the map opens. ///// 07. Future Plans ///// In thinking about a version 2, I'd like to actually edit the model files. I think some edges could be softened, but mostly I'd like to adjust the mapping to avoid so many repeated areas of the texture. I'd also like to adjust the lighting in a couple of places. Would I go as far as to customize it for every zone you find a map? I dunno, that's a big endeavor. ///// 08. Final Remarks ///// Well there you go. Thanks for reading through this wall of text. Feel free to leave any constructive criticisms or advice. I'm open to any and all!

I've separated out an .mdl with mdlops (just to see what textures a model uses). I'm on a Mac, so I'll see if I can't run it via Wineskin or Parallels. I may just be getting ahead of myself though and should maybe make a basic reskin to start. Thanks for ALL of the info, I really appreciate it!

Gracious, much more than I anticipated, but I'm not surprised. Would this be where I create the ascii version of the mdl file? Could this be done in Blender or Maya or is 3ds Max the best way to approach this? Thanks for the feedback!

When playing around with modding K1, I've noticed a lot of parts of skins are repeated on the model. Here's a example I noticed with the star maps: Am I able to keep the original model, though create a new skin (that in this example) would be unique for each arm of the star map? Does this make sense? Thanks for any info you can provide!

Recently, I've been playing around with modding some skins (K1)--simple placeables, etc. to get a feel for it. One issue I keep running into is that the modded skin in-game is much darker than outside of game. I'm wondering if this is an issue with the .tga format? Or is there something I'm not seeing attached to the object I'm skinning? Could it be purely environmental light throwing off the color? Any advice you could offer would be much appreciated. Thanks!