Sithspecter

The new Tattooine area looks neat. Might I suggest using Fair Stride's Walkmesh Editing program to change the floor to dirt? That way you'll get the sound and dust effects when the player walks.

The story of Sleheyron will involve the elements that David Gaider (original Bioware writer for Sleheyron) has mentioned. I decline to post any further details, but I have spent quite a bit of time writing the story to fill in the gaps.

There has been much talk about lightmaps, and I just wanted to make a clear distinction of what lightmaps do for area models. Here is a before/after with lightmaps on and removed for your viewing pleasure: As you can see, lightmaps make a huge difference in setting the mood of the area and can make or break the feel of a module. They are very important to get right.

Very nice work on the Korriban skybox!! It sets the mood very well.

All of these skins look amazing, keep up the good work.

It's weird how KotOR modding works like that!! I've always had trouble with the huge lightmaps, you have problems with the small ones, so strange. Glad you got it working, see my PM about the lightmap. One thing you can do if you just have one giant lightmap is work it over in Photoshop and contrast it and such the way you need it.

David Gaider who did most of the content on Sleheyron mentions a bazaar-like area with lots of merchants: We plan to incorporate a bazaar-type atmosphere into an area with lots of merchants, as well as majordomos for the Hutts.

No idea, as the old adage goes, it will be done when it's done. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you are referring to the original Bioware screenshots of Sleheyron as the tech demo, I have carefully scoured hundreds of Bioware screenshots, including those from early formats, and the Sleheyron screenshots we have are consistent with the early format Dantooine and Kashyyyk, which appear to be in their finished states. Sleheyron is supposed to be kinda drab and bland. However, I do assure you that the areas have their own kind of beauty. I personally believe that my current work is about as good as it gets with the tools that we have. I have gotten better over the years, each attempt to work on Sleheyron has resulted in progressively better models. I do admit that most of my early stuff was very, very bad. And even the demo here on Deadly Stream pales in comparison to what I can now do with lightmaps. Again, this will be a marathon, not a sprint. I may have to take occasional short breaks, but I will keep coming back to this, I somehow always do. I can't guarantee a constant stream of areas or content, but I will do my best to craft top-notch areas that are consistent with Bioware's intended Sleheyron. My very first ones were garbage. It was bad. Check some of the first pages here: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=186244 I have gotten progressively better, even though my latest stuff blows even the last demo out of the water.

I'm planning on including the Star Map. I've heard different rumors about the supposed difficulty of adding another Star Map (from easy to almost impossible), but I know a scripting genius who I'm confident can work it all out.

All skyboxes aren't cubes. The one for Sleheyron is actually a cylinder broken up into four sections. From what I've seen, the skyboxes that are "cubes" aren't actually cubes. Each side is actually a concave curve in the center, which results in a slightly sphereical cube. However, the edges would still constitude a cube shape. This shape gives it a little more depth while keeping the edges lined up nices. For the Malachor skybox, I'm assuming that for some reason one side just sticks way out beyond the edge (I don't really feel like looking up the Malachor skybox). Even if this is the case, and assuming that this is a completely square cube, it's very possible that the developers could have UV mapped this side so that the edges of the textures would in fact line up. I have no idea why they would do that, but it could be what's going on. Either way, the skybox is in no way hard coded or anything. It would be a very simple matter to whip up a new one that doesn't have such strange edge problems.

That's true, but choosing a fairly neutral primary AuroraDLight gives the best overall appearance for the characters. If you get creative, you might could section off different areas based on lighting and adjust the AuroraDLight brightness accordingly.

I'll take lightmaps over aurora lights any day of the week.

I've tried to place only NPCs that I can see in the original Bioware screenshots, plus a few more. There may be additional NPCs placed, but I'm trying to keep it even with the existing KotOR areas. The music exists in KotOR and is used in the Mystery Box module. It is titled "mus_area_slehey" (I think that's correct), which implies that it was originally intended to be used in Sleheyron. As far as signage goes, I've tried some neon types before but, as you point out, prefer to remain faithful to the original. There will be some symbols that are in the original Sleheyron textures that I will use in upcoming modules. Thanks, glad that I could help make your day a bit better. I hope tomorrow is better for you. Well, Holowan seems mostly dead these days but I may try to shake it up a bit.

Area Overview: Sleheyron City Not much is left of the original Bioware Sleheyron. What remains is only fragments; textures, small pieces of models, and a few ancient screenshots. From these fragments, I've been able to piece together the original street layout of Sleheyron and replicate it. The results are spectacular: Thanks to KAurora, a bit of research, and some hard work, the City of Sleheyron comes to life!

There will be a brand new video produced closer to the completion of the project. Probably not too much fog, but maybe in appropriate modules. This is something of an experiment in lightmap editing (pretty much all of KotOR modding is part experiment). I'm exploring the best technique to streamline the lightmapping process and producing correct results. Lightmapping can be very difficult to get correct at times, but by breaking areas up into smaller pieces it generally turns out right.

Lightmaps add a special texture designed to imitate lighting over the existing texture on an area model, vastly enhancing the realism and creating a very immersive environment. Made possible by MagnusII's advances in KAurora, Sleheyron will boast all fully lightmapped areas! Below is an example of how lightmapping affects the area environment: As you can see, areas will no longer be flat and drab, but can now utilize dramatic lighting to enhance the overall mood and feel!

Here's a question for you all: Is Sleheyron the lava planet or the barren planet? The KotOR galaxy map lists the terrain on Korriban as "Volcanic Mountain Range". As far back as I can remember, everyone has associated Sleheyron with the Lava, and Korriban with the Barren. Is this correct, or is it a common misconception?

Yes, I've gathered as much of the original plot as can be had from David Gaider's interviews. I've even gotten in touch with the man himself, but unfortunately he doesn't remember anything beyond what we already have. Not surprising considering it's been almost 12 years or so since KotOR was being developed. In any case, after extensive examination of David's plot summaries, the gladiator arenas are only going to account for around 1/3 of the total Sleheyron plot. That's probably a bit premature at this point, but I will take a rain check on that at a future date.

This will be all brand-spanking-new to incorporate advances in KAurora for lightmaps, which frankly make my old modules look like a bunch of garbage. No. My version of Sleheyron will adhere strictly to the look of the available Bioware screenshots. I have been able to deduce the layout of the street module based on the screenshots, and have made excellent progress in replicating it. Disbeliever's approach is much more creative and unrestrained by the original look. I've also chosen to pursue as much of the original plot as I can find.