Sithspecter

January 1st, 2103, on the 100 year anniversary of KotOR. It will be called, "The Mod You Will Never Play"

Updated thread to appease those who want a specific release date as well as a vague time frame.

You are being harsh. You've read far too much into the thread title, and have chosen to focus on criticizing it. Have you read the thread at all? If you had, you would see that while the title is "Coming Soon", this WIP thread is not meant to generate hype. If you want to see a great example of a hype-generating machine, I highly suggest watching an Apeiron live stream. Before I started this thread, I worked for almost a year secretly with my partner, Fair Strides. By the time of the announcement, we already had a significant amount of work done. As I've stated before, everything that we choose to show in this thread will be in a complete state. All the screenshots I've posted have been of things that are 100% complete. Updates are fairly sparse because they don't need to be coming in every second. I try to focus more on modding and less on forum-ing. If you haven't seen anything to critique at this point, it's because you haven't looked. I've posted quite a few screenshots of finished areas, and Xuul has done a video highlighting three areas. We're also trying to keep a lot of it a surprise. Our testers were quite pleased and surprised to find there were several more areas they had never seen before already complete. I post project updates around every 2-3 months. They are farther between, but they're still regular. If you're wondering if the project is still being worked on, I can tell you: the project is still being worked on. To be fair, I can ask you the same question: You didn't really expect this project to be finished almost immediately did you? I didn't say, "Almost Done: Sleheyron", "90% Finished: Sleheyron", or "Nearing Completion: Sleheyron". I said "Coming Soon: Sleheyron". I'm sorry I have apparently dashed all your hopes of a quick Sleheyron release. I guarantee nobody wants it to be released more than I. But, to appease you, I'm changing the name of the thread to "Coming Eventually: Sleheyron", since it seems that's what you want in this instance.

Blowfish64, I'm sorry you are growing impatient with the lengthy development of this mod. It's true that building an entire planet from brand new areas is a long process. We work mostly with limited, homemade tools that often produce buggy results. We also receive no reimbursement for the time we spend working on this mod, which is well into the thousands of hours at this point. We also have real lives and problems that we can't neglect. If you are growing impatient with the progress, you can always try out some of the excellent mods in our Downloads section. In addition, you could also provide constructive criticism about what you've seen of the project so far. As a wise Jedi Master once said, "Patience, young Padawan." Also, the phrase "Coming Soon" sounds a lot better than "Coming Eventually", but both are relative terms.

In a couple weeks. I have the ASCII files ripe for a TSL conversion, and I do plan to convert them over soon. Just give me a bit to do it. As stated in the Readme and elsewhere in this thread, you can install over Toasty Fresh's Weapon Model Overhaul. It's best to remove any blaster related .uti files before you do the install.

I'll try to port the weapons over to TSL because it doesn't seem as if TSL has very many unique weapon textures that aren't directly ported from KotOR 1. It seems like most people don't usually use the existing models as a base for anything except for armor retextures, in which case they don't modify the UVs at all. In my experience, in most cases it is far easier to re-create a higher poly model if that is what you're going for and just texture it from scratch. I don't know much as far as UV plugins go, but I generally UV map everything by hand after the first side view planar map. It's easy enough to hand map most of the low-polygon models that one would create for KotOR or TSL. If you want to continue this discussion further, perhaps we can make a new thread for UV/texturing techniques and others can chime in.

Another thing that I did was model the weapons with UV mapping in mind, and I UV mapped them with texturing in mind. When you model, you should be creating the model in a way that makes it easier to UV map. I can probably describe some of how I do this in better detail later. When I UV map, I typically start with a square, planar UV map from the side. This orients all the components in the same direction (for applying filters, embossing and such), and makes the scale the same for all of them. Then I adjust each individual component so that there is no stretching. The texturing will just take practice. Check out all the tutorials you can find, and not just for weapons. You can learn lots of techniques and then apply them to what you are doing. Look at all the filters in Photoshop, and see what they do. Also check out the different layer styles and see how different things look as overlays. A common mistake I used to make was an over-reliance on the "Add Noise" filter. I still use it, but not as heavily as I used to.

Yeah, initially I was going to let it slide but I changed my mind and did it at the last minute. I did the same treatment for the War Droid and Assassin Droid, which carry repeating blasters using the same texture name. Still a handy fix to have.

Check out the PSD textures in the Modder's Resource Pack, I included them for just such a reason. It mostly takes practice. Find all the tutorials you can for various things and practice. My texture skills are a culmination of 7 years of messing around in Photoshop. Both FG and HSB change the UTI files. It's not a problem if you use the TSL Patcher. You can use it to change item properties of already existing files.

I actually included a similar fix in High Quality Blasters.

Just to clarify, I was working on this for several months before I made the "WIP" thread. Feel free to PM me if you like. No I don't know, but this is why I suggested installing Fallen Guardian's mod manually and removing any .uti files that deal with blasters.

Thank you, but don't sell yourself short. You do amazing work. I've been playing your version of Aurra Sing and it's incredible. All your work on character models is great, and I never have come close to doing anything as good as you in that department. And I have to also give credit to the designers for the original KotOR blasters as well. They packed a shocking amount of detail into 64 by 64 textures, and all I really did was copy it in a larger form.

I'm sure that is the case. For my mod, Zaalbar and Chuundar's bowcasters use the same model/texture (w_bowcstr_002). Fallen Guardian's texture mod alters the .uti for Zaalbar's bowcaster to use another (w_bowcstr_003) that my mod does not override. The easiest course of action would be to copy w_bowcstr_002.mdl/.mdx, and rename them to w_bowcstr_003. You shouldn't need to do anything else.

It's true, I thought people would prefer more detailed images of the weapons. I'll try to get some screenshots from in KotOR that show what the weapons actually look like. It's honestly a blast playing with them though. So much so that sometimes it hindered my progress Once you install it, you'll never go back. That's very high praise coming from you RedRob. Thanks for the detailed critiques! I'm glad you noticed the Ion blaster. By default, KotOR uses the same model for the disruptor and ion pistols. I almost went the same route as well, but decided against it, though the designs are quite similar. I chose to kind of emulate the feel of the ion rifle with the sights so there was a bit more of a connection. The odd shadows are a side effect of quick and dirty rendering. I rendered all 51 guns from 2-3 different views. I ended up spending hours making the images, and sometimes I wasn't too particular about how they turned out... The Cinnagaran Carbine, now that I look back on it, is one of the worse textures. Admittedly, the quality of the texture work varied somewhat between the beginning and end of the project. It took me a bit to establish the aesthetic I wanted to work with. The carbines were first up, and I probably could have done better on the Cinnagaran especially. Some of the other, less used weapons (sonic rifles, cough cough), didn't receive as much attention either. I almost started texturing an abysmal model of the sonic pistol, but I made myself go back and start over to do it right. I did spend a bit of extra time on a few, the ones that stand out to me are the; Mandalorian Assault Rifle (it's my opinion that's the best texture I've ever made), Repeating Blaster, Blaster Carbine, Disruptor Rifle, Mandalorian Ripper, Sonic Rifle (I believe I did a fine job of transforming that terrible design into something less ugly), and actually the Sonic Pistol (it may be small, but that texture was actually quite nice). I would have liked to have a unique and from scratch texture for each and every one of these, but unfortunately that just wasn't realistic. There were a lot of elements that were reused, but hopefully those can be overlooked. Which is one nice thing about not being able to see the weapons up close and personal in KotOR. KotOR really hides the flaws pretty well, but still showcases how much improved these are over the originals. I'll try to get some screenshots that can show how they look in KotOR and what I've done with the alpha channel. Thanks Quanon! I have all the original ASCII files, so I should be good to give this mod the TSL treatment as well. There are a few more textures that I might do, or maybe just repeat (like the 6 or 7 sonic pistols?! Why are there so many?). I will probably take a couple weeks to have a break from this mod, and then I'll get back to the TSL version.

I'm planning for High Quality Blades next. Fortunately the blades should be much easier. Unlike Toasty Fresh's mod, I plan to redo all melee weapon types, including stun batons, Gaffi sticks, quarterstaves (not that anyone uses them), and lightsabers (even though they've been done over and over). I'll probably make a few changes, like swapping the vibroblades to a shorter, knife-like blade similar to Inyri's mod.

Fallen Guardian's additional modification changes several of the blaster .uti files. I'm guessing it's just the model variation, which should be fine if you have the old or new version. I just recommended that to play it safe. The new version makes a couple of changes and fixed a problem where Kebla Yurt's store sold the wrong Sith Sniper Rifle. Your install should be fine, but to get the sniper looking "Sith Sniper Rifle", you'll have to cheat.

There is a reason to have both: Toasty Fresh's mod does include most melee weapons in addition to the blasters. I hope to also do a High Quality Blades this summer as well if I have the time. If you want to install all three, here is my recommended installation order: 1. Toasty Fresh's Total Weapon Overhaul 2. Fallen Guardian's Weapon Model Overhaul Texture Rework (you'll need to manually install this one, extract all the files from the tslpatchdata folder except for the .uti files that are blasters) 3. Install High Quality Blasters That should get you the blades with the new textures. Also, I've updated the file with a TSL Patcher install in case you snagged the earlier manual install. This should help quite a bit. I've wondered the same thing as well, and hope to release a mod that improves the effectiveness of blasters later in the game.

High Quality Blasters for Modders View File A KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC RESOURCE High Quality Blasters for Modders By Sithspecter Description: These are all the source files necessary for you to create your own iterations of my High Quality Blasters. Permissions: If you wish to create a mod that adds on to my High Quality Blasters mod with a new item utilizing these resources, you are free to do so as long as you provide the appropriate credit AND please message me with a screenshot. You don’t need to wait for me to respond, just drop me a PM so that I’m aware. DO NOT UPLOAD UN-MODIFIED SOURCE FILES FROM THIS RESOURCE WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM MYSELF. THIS RESOURCE IS INTENDED TO ALLOW MODDERS TO CREATE THEIR OWN RETEXTURES AND REMODELS OF THE WEAPONS. Use: Included are the original ASCII model files and the PSD source texture files. It should be all you need to create your own retextures/remodels of the blasters in the mod. To achieve final texture results similar to my mod, complete these steps once you are done with your texture: 1. Merge all the visible layers into one layer. 2. Select all and copy. 3. Paste into the Alpha Channel 4. Invert the image in the Alpha Channel 5. Play with the Brightness/Contrast until you achieve predominantly white, with bits of black where you want the texture to be shiny. 6. Size the image to 512 by 512 for rifles, and 256 by 256 for pistols. 7. Sharpen the image 2-3 times. 8. Sharpen the Alpha Channel 2-3 times. 9. Profit Bugs: Due to differences between the body models (especially female), the weapons will sometimes appear to clip the hands (especially in the female off-hand). There is nothing I can do about this without introducing more issues, it is something that happens with the default weapons, and you will have to live with it. The Assassin Droid and the War Droid carry repeating blasters. I attempted to retrofit the high quality blaster to those models, but was unable to due to tool limitations. The texture is still applied to the old models, albeit incorrectly. It still looks better, though slightly odd. You will have to live with it. The new textures are also applied incorrectly to the weapons you can see on the tables in Kebla Yurt's store. They might look a bit funky, but you will have to live with it. Legal: THIS MODIFICATION IS PROVIDED AS-IS AND IS NOT SUPPORTED BY BIOWARE/OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT, LUCASARTS, DISNEY OR ANY LICENSERS/SPONSORS OF THE MENTIONED COMPANIES. USE OF THIS FILE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND THE ABOVE MENTIONED COMPANIES OR THE AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR COMPUTER FOR THE USAGE OF THIS FILE. Submitter Sithspecter Submitted 05/16/2016 Category Modder's Resources  

Yes, you can read & write the new model without having the old one. MDLOps will convert the ASCII model to binary without referencing the old one. All you have to do is hit "Select File", select your new model file, and hit "Read and Write Model". It will put a .mdl file and .mdx file in the same folder as the source file that are named "filename-k1-bin.mdl/filename-k1-bin.mdx". Just copy these to the override folder and remove the "-k1-bin" from the file names. How are you exporting the models from Blender? Do you have NWMax for it somehow? Or are you porting to 3DSMax and then exporting? Best success comes from 3DSMax. 3DSMax and Blender are obviously very different, so if you're using Blender your results will vary.

Please leave a comment and let me know which is your favorite blaster from this pack!

File Name: High Quality Blasters File Submitter: Sithspecter File Submitted: 16 May 2016 File Category: Mods K1R Compatible: Yes A KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC MODIFICATION High Quality Blasters By Sithspecter Description: When Knights of the Old Republic won Game of the Year in 2004, none of the awards were for the blaster models. While the storyline and gameplay are top notch, the default weapons are sadly lacking in quality. Extremely low polygon models combined with 64 px by 64 px textures make them horrendous to look at. On my last playthrough of KotOR, I had enough of the ugly blasters. Who wants to pay thousands of credits for a terrible looking grey-ish blob that's supposed to be a top notch firearm? Nobody, that's who! So I sought out to fix this problem and provide high quality models and textures. This mod completely replaces the existing blasters with newly modeled firearms, complete with high quality textures. Special care was taken to retain the form and look of the original items, but in a high quality package. Each weapon was carefully textured based on close examination of its default counterpart. It's a much improved package that I hope will be a permanent addition to your KotOR override folder for years to come. Use: Use of High Quality Blasters is extremely easy. Put all the files in your Override folder, then play the game. That's it! The new models will automatically appear when you load up your last save. However, this mod does make a couple .uti changes to avoid doubling up on weapon textures. I've applied a new model and texture to a few items that share a model and texture in the default game. The following items are affected: Baragwin Assault Gun Baragwin Disruptor-X Weapon Baragwin Heavy Repeating Blaster Baragwin Ion-X Weapon Carth's Blaster Genoharadan Blaster What this means is that if you already have one of these items, it will still show up as high quality, but it will share a texture with another high quality item. If you re-acquire one of these through cheats or KSE, it will appear properly. If you start a new game, everything will appear properly. This will not negatively affect the gameplay in anyway. A note about the Sith Sniper Rifle: I discovered that the Sith Sniper Rifle is widely used as a blaster wielded by Sith Troopers. It looks somewhat comical used by them (predominantly fired from the hip). So, I have included something of a patch that allows the Sith Troopers to use a regular looking version of it with the new texture. The Sniper version can be found at Kebla Yurt's store in the Upper City North of Taris and in a container in the Sith Academy on Korriban. If you want to cheat more Sith Sniper Rifles that look like a sniper, use the following code: giveitem g_w_blstrrfl006 Installation: 1. Run "High Quality Blasters Installer.exe" in the zip file. 2. Follow the on screen instructions, and point the Installer to your game folder (not Override folder) 3. Profit Version 1.1: If you have installed High Quality Blasters previously, you can install this version over it and it will still be fine. However, if you want to fix the bug of the blaster randomly appearing under the Ebon Hawk on Tatooine, you must remove the following files (make sure of exact filenames): w_ionrfl_004.mdl (NOT w_ionrfl_04.mdl) w_ionrfl_004.mdx (NOT w_ionrfl_04.mdx) INCOMPATIBILITY: IF YOU HAVE TOASTY FRESH'S TOTAL WEAPON OVERHAUL OR FALLEN GUARDIAN'S WEAPON MODEL OVERHAUL TEXTURE REWORK, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO INSTALL THIS MOD OVER THOSE MODS WITHOUT AN ISSUE. HOWEVER: DO NOT INSTALL TOASTY FRESH'S TOTAL WEAPON OVERHAUL OR FALLEN GUARDIAN'S WEAPON MODEL OVERHAUL TEXTURE REWORK OVER THIS MOD. IT WILL LIKELY CAUSE THE TEXTURES TO BE WRONG. Bugs: Due to differences between the body models (especially female), the weapons will sometimes appear to clip the hands especially in the female off-hand). There is nothing I can do about this without introducing more issues, it is something that happens with the default weapons, and you will have to live with it. Changelog: Version 1.1: Fixed an issue where a blaster rifle randomly appeared under the Ebon Hawk on Tatooine. Fixed an issue where Bith instruments were replaced by pistols. Fixed the Assassin Droid and War Droid models to accept the high quality repeating blaster texture for their weapons. Credit: Thanks to 90SK, Fair Strides, Varsity Puppet, and Kexikus for providing feedback for this mod. Credit goes to Kexikus for the inspiration from your screenshots. They look fantastic so I modeled the screenshots for this modafter your High Definition Skyboxes mod. Permissions: Do not upload this mod or assets from this mod, modified or not, to other sites without my express permission. I have uploaded this mod to multiple sites and can provide support on those sites. Legal: THIS MODIFICATION IS PROVIDED AS-IS AND IS NOT SUPPORTED BY BIOWARE/OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT, LUCASARTS, DISNEY OR ANY LICENSERS/SPONSORS OF THE MENTIONED COMPANIES. USE OF THIS FILE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND THE ABOVE MENTIONED COMPANIES OR THE AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR COMPUTER FOR THE USAGE OF THIS FILE. Click here to download this file