Thor110

On 1/7/2019 at 7:28 PM, Qui-Gon Glenn said:

No, not really! I just didn't want to make any assumptions, which looking back I clearly failed

indeed, sometimes little details can help a google search, so you are welcome.

Ah I see, the only detail I actually missed is that NWN is Bioware / Bioware made the Aurora Engine XD how the hell did I not know that? Great game I use to play years back and I can't even remember Bioware made it! For some reason I thought NWN was a different companies game.

Yeah 100-140 errors sounds about right, the problematic maps were

Korriban m38aa,38ab and 39aa for K1 to K2
and
Telos Restoration Zone, Dxun and Dantooine for K2 to K1

However a lot of models reported animation errors, duplicate animations and a few other errors, I generally ignored this due to most of them coming from files I was not actually interested in using for the moment.

ie : you will get less errors if just converting the maps ie m01aa - m50aa and 000test to 999dia.

I still hopefully plan to release a K1 to K2 port if allowed by everybody here that would require users to manually copy files from the first game to the second game, but we will see, alternatively I will just have it as a personal install.

NWN Model Viewer Assets ( Old Release, New Release on ModDB ) I will write a tutorial to go along side the files but basically you need to extract the models.bif from the game using Kotor Tool and then combine them with the resource I have provided on ModDB which is intended for my module re-skinning tutorial, combining your extracted files with these will allow you to easily flick through all of the models in the game to pick for using.

This is a small release of files that will make it easier for people to make modules, it will also help me pick out objects to use to make the galaxy look and feel a little different and to prevent any duplicated modules looking too similar, the idea was suggested to me in a Private Message as they thought I had made the NWN Model Viewer and asked about an easy way to flick through all of the placeable objects in the game, I decided doors were also a good shout and I will also do the same for the maps to make it easy to pick which pieces of which modules people might want to use in creating a new map.

placeables.7z

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17tGy0eEPfEq1beEoBKONwxhksjg-1DfA

doors.7z

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1teCmyC6pLtQ0oVhhsQeM05yerAZLJP99

and I will soon release the maps in original form with the relevant textures too, this is to allow for easier viewing of the placeable objects and doors, as well as maps and models in general in the game, also making it easier to document and record exactly what placeable objects are what, maybe in a .doc somewhat similar to how people have many guides to what movie files are in the game and cut-scene modules etc.

To view these models you will also need the NWN Model Viewer from this link : 

https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/other/tool/simple-model-viewer-64-bit-patch

I will update my tutorial at some point but unfortunately if you want to automate the process I would prefer people took the suggestions I gave and worked out how to do it themselves, I simply used Bulk Rename Utility, Xpadder and an Xbox 360 Controller as well as MDLEdit for Batch Conversion of the models and maps, as mentioned in heavy detail in my tutorial, the thing you may be forgetting to do is to convert to ASCII in K1 or K2 mode dependant on the map and game you are porting from and then set it back to K1 or K2 mode for the Binary conversion again relevant to the game you are porting the map to.

As mentioned in my topic some maps do not port properly, I even explain the steps I took to get them working.

I do plan on writing more tutorials, but not until I know each area that I will be writing about well enough.

Though a little rushed, I followed my own tutorial several times, though this doesn't prove it's easy to follow.

You are best off sticking to doing a single module at a time until you get a good feel for exactly what files you need.

As previously mentioned I do still hope to release as a modders resource, but people will have to be patient and give me a few weeks or more to get a good start on my main project, as mentioned with the K2 to K1 maps, there was too many problems with foliage and I could not resolve this issue during the conversion, I also had to convert it "planet by planet" instead of all at once so that I could note down which pieces failed to convert properly and to save me ending the MDLEdit process all the time through task manager.

Currently preparing the modders resource folders containing mdl, mdx and .wok files for all placeable objects, maps and doors as well as all the textures for each model, the NWN model viewer is really handy for these packs I will release allowing users to easily flick through content that can be used in module creation, Placeables especially.

Unfortunately there are often many reasons to things like this, most likely considering how popular K1 is compared to K2 as well as their market research to prove it may not be worth it in the long run when looking at a time / money / profit ratio or from a business perspective.

I personally am very interested in pursuing this officially after the bulk of work for my main mod, even if people think it is a crazy idea to contact Obsidian, I personally do not and if there would be a cease and desist order I guess at least this way I could get it before starting work on the idea.

But without permission I would not pursue it as I would not want to prevent an official release which could be superior or of similar quality.

Update : All doors in K1 have been edited so the player can not only walk through them but open them with no challenge, this is for testing purposes.
I still need to add a duplicate peragus door, but this will take five minutes.

Nearly on the final step, adding the new galaxy map / planets and backing it up as v0.25 as a completed modders resource to be released when I am finished with it.

I also have plans for a few other handy tutorials and modders resources that should make module creation a little easier for anybody new to it or unfamiliar with the filenames they might need to use to populate a map, such as a comprehensive guide to what module pieces are what as well as placeables and placeable objects.

I will also be cutting up every module there is in order to make an alternate "modders resource" made of map pieces cut and arrange into tilesets to allow for the creation of new buildings and dungeons for the game with little work, this mod in general should also allow for much more diversity when modding either K1 or K2.

Another resource I will be releasing will be a folder with all of the placeable objects and relevant textures for them in a single folder as well as a link to the NWN model viewer, giving users a nice folder / easy way to view all of the placeables / placeable objects in the game, I will also have a map version of this resource and I will release it to save users time extracting the games contents, converting and arranging things in such a way could take hours for some people.

Really looking forward to constructing new maps, given all the pieces available in both games it should allow for an awesome amount of content to be made by me and other users after release, I will also be re-constructing all of the maps in one file ( per module ) rather than in pieces per map for an alternate project.

Hoping to turn this into a comprehensive mod that combines both games and adds all the necessary content for both as well as easy mod compatibility with both games and vice versa, also removing .6GB of files that are contained in both games.

Please let me know what you all think about the ideas in general, any specific ideas amongst the bundle of plans I have talked about, many of which may be abandoned in the long run if they prove to be an un-manageable workload.

Looks good!

Nice bit of information there, considering you can run it windows tablet and mac, as well as modded xbox and pc, thats enough platforms to start for sure!

We will surely have to wait and see.

For the meanwhile here is a small update and a tip on how to use a really good program meant for gaming for modding purposes.

19 minutes ago, Jorak Uln said:

During the works on Telos i tried a different approach to  the Czerka Sign while being  inspired by the awesome London conference Signs of Deus Ex:

Vanilla:

new - shiny appearance/reflections ingame:

SWTOR porting for textures and models as well as voice overs could definitely give the game a fresh feel, great idea! @Jorak Uln

Question : What does everybody think about a complete port of KotOR over to TSL for an Ease-of-access focused mod intent to save space for users and make both games more easily accessible and built into a single launcher program.

Aurora Engine Research : Upcoming ( I will find out which was the most up to date game released before Bioware was handed the Aurora / Infinity Engine ) as well as look into any changes made by Obsidian ( if any other than strapping it on top of the first game ) and see if I can add any new features, effects, elements, assets and more.

Aurora Engine Games

Infinity Engine Games

On 1/5/2019 at 10:24 PM, Qui-Gon Glenn said:

Signal the tower!

 

To arms!

 

Just don't talk about those plans here again, and keep on doing what you are doing. Edit your OP to not say that, and edit your funny and good post to keep it all good. This is unfortunately your best course of action.

Increasingly the internet is composed of busybodies, crybabies and tattletales that will try to control you any way they can to satisfy strange needs. Ignore them as much as you can.

 

Edit: DO NOT CONTACT THE MAKERS, ARE YOU MAD?

I will leave this message to correct things as I will make my intentions clear that I will not pursue this immediately simply because it could prevent an official K2 mobile release.

As for contacting the makers, maybe a bad idea but who knows, TSLRCM & M4-78EP got a lot of publicity and seemed well received by Obsidian.

A better idea would be to continue making a mod for both games and hope to get enough publicity to raise the issue.

On 1/5/2019 at 10:25 PM, JediArchivist said:

Is it ok if we just work on this for personal use only, eventually release only a tutorial here so that anyone with basic computer skills could create their own K2M Port?

Eventually the final mod could be published on some other site non-affiliated with DeadlyStream, like Moddb...

I may or may not pursue this, I will be focusing on my mod for the moment unfortunately, but there is always the future.

On 1/5/2019 at 10:29 PM, Qui-Gon Glenn said:

Yes, and you can do that and get help here without talking about that part of what you are doing.

Pro-tip - you will fail miserably trying to port the games in one direction, and have success the other. I will not explain.

The reason they could actually pursue a cease and desist would be a legitimate reason that I understand and agree with. It would stop Obsidian being able to release K2 mobile one day. But I am fully on-board with trying to make it official and hoping for enough recognition after making a decent enough mod with K1 & K2 maps.

Unfortunately the legal implications may actually prevent me releasing the modders resources at all... ( I hope not, though I will definitely not be releasing the K2 to K1 maps until every single one works ) as for the K2 to K1 idea it is still my idea to pursue this, but it will require users to own a copy of both games in order to copy certain files from K1 to K2 and it's main focus will be an ease-of-access mod allowing users to have a singular 6+ GB Installation as opposed to two 4+ GB Installations.

But this will also be the focus of my efforts long after a storyline focused mod meant to add the planets to both games which was my initial intention / the original reason I started working on all of this as well as having decent copies of all of the maps for an older project I was working on to re-use the original KotOR maps.

I know it would only work this way as I am already struggling to port the maps to the first game and being built by Bioware is a stronger and safer system, too much editing of the files causes it to crash from what I have seen so far, it also has memory references to the sizes of some files, where as K2 by Obsidian is somewhat jerry rigged on top of the first game to work ( from what I have seen of the games file structure and build ).

Maybe you think differently though?

Thor110

Thank you for suggestions and thoughts about everything, as previously mentioned I will not pursue a K2 to K1 mobile port without either an official go-ahead ( preferably after what I think could be years worth of work and recognition from Obsidian, depending on how in depth I go about it ) though I do have small-scale plans for basic re-introductions of every planet towards the end of the game and a new basic galaxy crawl for every planet and a main questline for it and then my thoughts were to request user made quests & side quests to place around the galaxy and to accept ideas / suggestions, maybe even vote for what quests to include in the end.

Additional : I will still back up both versions at some point as a "modders resource" but may or may not release them due to concerns raised.

Understood, though the reason for Aperion was because it was a COMPLETE remake of the original game, which meant if they ever planned to remake it themselves they could not, though it is definitely good to think about it in this sense, the thought already popped to mind, but no reason I couldn't just host it on ModDB or my own site when I finally make one..

Given how this could prevent them releasing K2 for mobile, now I think about it the same kind of cease and desist order could be applicable.

Note : Perhaps this could actually be worth contacting Bioware & Obsidian to ask about ( as well as presumably Disney now > _ < ) I mean even if they were to take the work and release it officially I don't think I would mind.

This actually falls perfectly in line with something I already had planned as I had this strange feeling K2 was not on the app store / android or ios and I had similar thoughts about porting one game to the better engine be it K1 or K2 and the files are pretty much ready for release, the K2 to K1 map pack will be my first release and should be available within the next few days, as I didn't originally have much planned for them, but I did think about porting the entire game to the better engine and or vice-versa as well as porting K2 to K1 mobile.

Could be a great project to start, though it wouldn't surprise me if Obsidian popped up, took it and started selling K2 on the app store, but I guess that would be a good thing in a way.

I am pretty sure all the scripts should also work fine, if not most of them, for example the Onderon Turret and Peragus Turret mini-games are currently working in K1.

MDLEdit, Bulk Rename Utility & Kotor Tool, but bear in mind the conversion process fails on some maps and I had to individually pick them out.

Primarily Telos Restoration Zone, Dxun and Dantooine from K2 and then one module from Korriban in K1 failed to convert properly over to K2, but I solved the Korriban map issue using NWN Model Viewer and resaving the file, but this has not helped with my K2 to K1 port issues.

The tutorial is already up but only really covers how to do one at a time, those are the three programs I used to make everything happen at once, I have also been using DVD Video Soft Image Converter for easy converting of a lot of TGA screenshots to PNG.

I completed porting all the K2 to K1 maps just yesterday, as I said everything will be unedited EXCEPT the .are & .ifo files because I need to remove entries for the scripts I am not using but in order to fix this all you would need to do is use kotor tool to re-extract the .are & .ifo files for each module, which really doesn't take too long, extract the .rim ( not _s.rim ) to a new folder ( name it m38aa or 001ebo ) to correspond with the map it actually is and extract all three there, you would then be able to combine with mine to include the original are and ifo.

The process was exactly the same in reverse for K2 to K1 but as mentioned gave me more problems with Foliage than I was expecting.

Knowing that you play on the Mobile version is good to know as I am going to be looking for Beta Testers for Android, Mac, Modded Xbox and PC, not sure if it is moddable on any other platforms ( ie : 360 or xbox one )

also know that all files I have are already lower case ( I think ) so I am hoping to make a quick port for both modders resources to all platforms.

I only have access to a PC, I have a friend playing on Linux to test for me and I may run an Android emulator to test the android version, but we will see.

If you have a good look at my initial post it covers all tools used and roughly explains most of the process I believe, the process for map by map to bulk is pretty much the same, you just need to extract the entire models.bif at once to a folder, then convert to ascii in the relevant game mode, then back to binary in the mode for the game being ported to.

then delete the original and the ascii and use bulk rename utility to remove "-mdledit-mdledit" from every file ( otherwise I would have given up )

Note : More than happy to help anybody with any issues they come across during the process, but I am nearly ready for a full release of the K2 to K1 maps, K1 to K2 maps I will be holding onto until I have made a good start on my project that uses them ( though this could easily change )

Also looking for people to get involved with the project, being that it is nearly ready for me to start work on story content.

Additional : A note about the ifo files, I have had to modify spawn locations for some maps so as to prevent being stuck in cut-scene areas or behind walkmeshes so for anybody that needs the original positions you will have to extract the original ( .rim ) file not the ( _s.rim ) file, currently this has only been on one map ( Peragus Administration Level - Spawns inside the Kolto Tank ) but I am sure there are a few more I need to do it on.

P.S. Also thanks should go to JCarter426 as without them this might not have been possible, they gave me a rough outline of how to port maps from one game to the other and I took it upon myself to try and port them all.

I have already changed my mind about including the scripts / triggers and decided to include them in the base release as I have now seperated out the model files for placeables and characters not in the first game.

If you look through the spoilers at the screenshots I have posted I have already done a full port of K2 maps to K1 and K1 maps to K2, just having some problems with the Telos Restoration Zone, Dxun and Dantooine at the moment, vector calculations are off in the conversion causing foliage to get stretched across the entire map.

After loading Korriban - Sith Temple and having accidentally left the creatures / git file intact and seeing it all work fine, I decided to make sure I had all odd models that the second game has which the first game does not.

I will be re-extracting the git files for every module and leaving them intact, only changing what I need to in the are and ifo files, such as removing on enter scripts that will crash the game ( unless I actually include the script, but I do not plan to include it in the module file ) I will however include the scripts for each module as part of the modders resource.

For example the Peragus Turret game and Onderon Turret mini-games both work in K1, I did this by leaving all the scripts there, I am now hoping to compare the Swoop scripts from K1 and K2 to make the swoop tracks work in both games as well.

Though the Onderon Turret minigame works, the ships don't animate / explode or dissapear, my guess is I am missing another file for this.

For example my folders contain the .are, .git, .ifo, .pth and .utd files, but the rest of the scripts are inside another folder as I do not know if I will want to include them in my mod, but they are there for anyone else that may want to reconstruct the modules with all of the scripts.

New information : I removed all the scripts but will re-add them as I plan on using some of them.