Quanon

Here's my 2 tutorials on how I do most of my lightmapping.

It's 2 PDFs; taking you through the steps to get to a nice looking lightmap.

I don't cover any modelling or UVWmapping; just the basic steps to render the lightmap.

The second tutorial deals with the lights you can setup in 3Ds Max. I've kept basic again.

There's a lot you can do; to get good looking results in a render. But then you might be waiting for 4 hours for your lightmap to render.

With my more basic method you can get a good result, without loosing to much time on just rendering.

I do use this extra script to get my lightmaps, you can find it here:

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/multi-objects-unwrap

This site, explains how to use the script and how you can adjust the interface of Max to easily access the script.

http://users.skynet.be/arketip/arketip_multiObjectUnwrapENG.htm

Creating Lightmaps

Setting up Lights and Render

Camstudio is just bad. It will lag like that on any system.

 

Bandicam would be the way to go. You can set the codec, control the audio streams and it will strain your pc way less.

Looks like they also have a nice package, Bandicam and Bandicut. I got both in one go

As it looks like on Win10, I can't find any editing program for vids.

Onwards to get a script on paper and what I should actually record

@Quanon: If it's alright with you, I might be ripping off the mod info from Nexus Mods and having someone upload the mod to Deadlystream so I can change the author to you afterwards. This is until Tyvokka can try to track down the problem.

That's okay with me. That way it's easier for folks to find

Don't mean to sound like a jerk but I can't help it but feel you made her worse (Feels like i'm looking at a Star Wars the Clone Wars character).

No problem, to each his own. There are many reskins out there for the party members and all of them are different. 

Work continues on Mission, tweaked little stuff here and there.

I also started work on another Twi'lek; I run in to these to often in K1 and they just look so, pixelated mess.

There's 2 more of these skins, but first the classic red and green.

Also considering to do Canderis next. I like using him in my party as my gun slinger, while I team up with Bastila, and saber bash all oppesition
Plus, he's a male character and has hair, which should be a nice challenge.

It's tempting to say I'll do the whole party for K1, but then I might get bogged down.

Knowing myself

To Record a Good Video:

 

Video:

 

The best free option is Shadowplay if you have an Nvidia GPU that supports it or the AMD alternative.

 

 

You can use the free trial version of Bandicam to record 10 min long clips with a watermark. I would advise using this over Camstudio because it will not lag your system and be higher quality.

 

If you end up buying software avoid Fraps. Get Bandicam it is way better.

 

 

Audio: Very important for people to understand you. Bandicam running  and your mic is usually fine but if you have any background noise (humming, buzzing ect) then use audacity when possible.

 

For really good audio record it in audacity. Leave a few seconds at the start of the recording before you talk so you can use the noise removal feature to get a cleaner take. 

 

 

Throw it together into windows movie maker or any other editing program then you should be good.

 

Any other video questions just ask me. I've made a few videos in my time.

I have an AMD card in my system. I've tried out Fraps, it's okay, to take a few screenshots, but the video stuff doesn't really work that well with a program like 3Ds Max.

Camstudio really sucks  up my CPU power somehow. And I have very decent system specs; unless ofcourse this video capturing business is taxing? 

So Bandicam, I'll look into it, might buy it. Just 10mins? And watermarks, bléh

Thanks for the tips though

@Kexikus: PM me about the export part? 

Looking great!

 

I do have one complaint though: The new skin makes the look on her face somehow more serious and a little angry while in vanilla she's more happy looking. I don't know why that is but if you were able to change that back it'd make the mod even better

Hahaha, ok, I should be able to get that sorted. Her brow's are now a bit lower on her head. That's due to the pictures of the model I used.

But with some further tweaking I should get another, perhaps, more satisfying result.

It's probably the shape of the eyebrows.

 

@Quanon: In the second picture in the in-game previews, in the upper-right panel, is that blue where her teeth/tongue/inside of the mouth should be?

 

Also, what is the exact error message when you try to upload the file? "No file was selected for upload."?

Yes, her teeth and tongue share the same spot on her texture. The tongue is super tiny speck on the UVmap.

The inside of her mouth is also bit sloppy, I'll do my best to get that sorted in a next update

And, yes, I get the "No file selected" thing. Is it to big?

I've trying out some little video recording tools, though I'm not really sure what are the best free software out there to do this sort of thing.

The one I've got now, CamStudio, is a bit sluggish on my system.

So open for suggestions on that and I'll create some new tutorials, both written and vids, which I'll upload to my youtube channel.

To quickly anwser your question:

Extract both the MDL and MDX file for your chosen model.

Run MDLops, pick the game the model is from. Then hit the Read and Write button.

This will create an ASCII version of your model.

Then start up Gmax, with NWmax installed.

In the NWmax, panel, mostly this located on your left side of the interface.

Look for the tab: MDL loading.

Hit the button BROWSE.

Track down that ASCII file!

Then click on IMPORT button.

Hold on thight; depending what model you're importing it make take a few seconds to a minute

Voila, you should now have your model in Gmax.

You can add all sorts of modifiers and mess around with the thing.

Note that around your model is this bright green square!

That's the Aurorabase; you can select that.

On your rightside of the interface, you can find the options on what the Aurorabase does.

One of it's main features is, yes; look for it! Exporting!

You can setup a path of your own choosing to where you want this new model to be exported.

Again it will be an ASCII file. Which means you'll need MDLops again to "bake" it to a proper MDL and MDX format the game uses.

Very quick and dirty, but that's the gist of it

After a frantic week of modding, it's done!

I can now publish my new made reskin pack for Mission Vao.

I remade all her body textures and her head ofcourse.

All of them are now 2048x2048 in size. So there's a bit more detail on them.

I kept the same look for her, no odd color changes, she keeps her "vanilla" look.

Just in better quality!

Download link:

NEXUS

or

MediaFire

No deadlystream release just yet, file refuses to upload...

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+                                 INSTALL                                             +

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Copy all the TGA files to your Override folder.

That's it!

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Minor preview in game:

Renders from 3ds Max:

Is this to turn mission into an adult? Sorry if I missed it somewhere above

No, not really, just updating the skin. I haven't changed the model

There have been a lot of nice reskin packs out there for the regular armors/ robes, skyboxes and areas in general.

I just couldn't find a party reskin to my liking. Not that they are bad, just not my taste or that matches better with the "new" look you can give the game.

If you install a few it can all start to look a bit cluttered.

EDIT: Did a last push for today: getting close to be done. 

Close up of the face with finished tentacles

Clothing; just need to do the small pouches on the front of her jacket. And that armband on her rightarm, just doesn't fit. It's ugly as hell, now that I look at it again.

Ingame test: I did a dialogue with her, but that didn't get on a screenshot? I also noticed her teeth and tongue are blue

Another little tweak I need to get done.

Back with another update: Another afternoon spend on getting all of Missions skins done.

Her regular clothes have had some work done: boots, pants and her jacket are being worked on.

The skin for her arm and gloves have had some work done to. I just need to set the color of the skin to blue.

At the moment it's a nice pinky human flesh tone. Perhaps not healthy looking for a Twi'lek

Quick little shot:

What fun! Being at home for a few extra days, instead of work. I can continue on with my modding project.

I've started to add in more details on the clothes. Nothing overly special. Just a small splash of extra color.

And her shoes/ slippers? Are almost done, just the underside is in need of replacement.
I'll then switch back to the skin. Doing these little preview renders, I'm wondering how much I can hide the seams of the UVmap.

Right now they're a little exposed I think. The shoulder/ arms and hips/ thighs are going to be the hardest part. Not sure if I can get that really fixed.

Looking at the old skin, they made her underpants and top a little longer, so it "hides" the seems.

Another "not sure what to do" are her Lekku/ tentacles? Is it only on older Twi'lek that they are more "gnarly", rimples and dimples? Should I keep them smooth?

At in a an extra color? Any suggestion on what the canon/ lore is on these.

Anyway, another preview of things so far:

I think you should keep the freckles, it's part of what makes Mission

I've started to add them back in, though it's very subtle at the moment. Perhaps a bit too faint.

It's tricky to know how much is needed. Painting and looking at it in Photoshop is different than in the game.

But then again, the game does have some close ups in the dialogues.

Do appreciate the comments

Luckily, I've got various versions and many layers. I can do a small set (more natural, more make-up, lots of freckles, less... zombie style ) and let the people choose which face to use.

Anyway, here's how things stand so far!

I got the face and body to match as close as possible. Also started to add back her underwear.

Keeping the classic look. Grey sport top and undies.

I can go back and do a different take on it, but first the classic game look.

Today, had a bit of fun stitching all these parts together.

I used various photos and body parts from a model, to get to this.

It's not perfect; I might have to dabble with hand painting the elbow, kneejoints myself.

A photo will never 100% match. The other bits work OK. I just need to get the color from the body to match with the head.

The layer options I used on the head don't really work out on the body.

Which I failed to do, it's sort of close, but still too different for my tastes. I'll have to do some research on the subject.

And no fear, she'll be wearing more then what is now on display. 

Yeah, I got it fixed. The double eyebrow thing is gone aswell, I switched on the wrong layer

Minor clean up work required, the eyeliner is a bit heavy, the lips don't match just right yet.

Then I need to decide to get that "gloss" on her cheecks back, or go for a more make-up effect.

Well,

Been awhile since I posted anything in here. I've not been too lazy... well a bit, to be honest.

I haven't done much work for my own mods, just helping out a few fellow modders here and there. Slowly, yes, I'm very content people have the patience to deal with me.

A slug on sleeping pills goes faster.

Still; I felt an itch, after playing around with other peoples skins (sounds sick), check my album for those; CLICK BAIT. I just had to have a go at it myself again.

After playing around with the Twi'leks in 3Ds Max and a short play session in Kotor, another playthrough in the running, it was obvious Mission needed attention.

So after 4~5 hours of labour here's what I have. Did some hunting on the internet for fleshy skins and portraits. Lovely model, named Adele/ Agness is now Mission Vao.

Glorious. It did take me some time to get the blue tint back. Much going back and forth.

There's still some work to be done, you'll see in the renders she has two pair of eyes and eyebrows. I didn't use the UVWmap overlay, I'll need to fix that.

Then giving here outfits a redo as well. Then matching it to the head skin

Skin is 2048x2048 at the moment.

A mod like that would just make no sense, Goto is supposed to be a droid since he projects a hologram, image a Toydarian projecting a Hologram. For the voiceover, Fassa and Quello they don't have enough lines to replace Goto's voice, As for Watto's you'd be basically be cutting out scenes from the movie meaning you will have a bit of any music that plays during it. Though I do believe replacing Hologram Goto with a new one will make logical sense as it for well fit in with the story and you can still play -http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/229-g0-t0-overhaul/

Well, to be honest, it would be a mod that is just funny and not really seriously intended to keep for the rest of the game.

And true, replacing GOTOs voice is I think just impossible, I've no idea, how many spoken lines he has. But since, he's a party member, I bet it's a TON of them.

Thanks for the link though. I started a new playthrough for both the games ^^

By Goto I do hope you mean the Hologram as that makes logical sense, Though I would recommend making the Goto Toydarian evil looking so it matches the Goto's voice.

Lol   Actually I was thinking about replacing the droid with the toydarian; see what it gives. And replace his voice with Fassas/ Wattos? from Ep1.

It would match well, GOTO bitches all the time on the Exile. Fassa does so to on Anniken.

To bad we can't give'em a big gun of sorts.

I don't understand this? Who says a Toydarian has his private parts between his legs? He's an alien...   
Never noticed this "issue' untill now. But to each his own I guess.

It would be cool to replace GOTO with a Toydarian.

Perhaps I'm biased to leather thongs on twi'leks to give any comments on that part 

Been working on the other structures for the Manaan skybox. Very much WIP, ugly shadows, need to fix up the smoothing groups and further tweaking the mesh.

But here's a quick preview on how it looks so far.

Wow, I wasn't expecting anyone to pick this request up after such a long time. Thanks for doing that

 

For the texture: Maybe it would be enough to simply reduce the contrast?

Lol, I was planning on doing these waaaaay sooner. But I never got to it.

That's life I guess; it throws things in the way, so a modder can't get to his business

So, I spend most of my time creating a new texture to go with my model, closely eyeballing that one picture you posted.

To get the same feel and look; as best as I could. I'm not really all that well in the texture department.

Then adjusted the UVWmapping a bit. Playing with the render settings 

Picture time!

Also many thanks to Jorak Uln, he created the window texture; and I really love it!

Hope you don't mind me using it on this project Jorak

Had a good start on that "circle" the landingbay is located. The detailing is simple, since this is a distance shot.

But I can't find a good texture from Manaan areas, that matches better, to the one seen in the real skybox.

It's close, but far to cluttered/ busy to work. Anyone any idea what texture would be a better fit?

Redoing the color to match, isn't an issue. But so far it doesn't look good enough to me.

Here are some preview shots, the fins in the background are a quick mock up

Oh, and this is just 1/4 of the full circle/ tube shape

I've got a request for all the model makers out there.

 

Right now, my pack replaces every backdrop or skybox texture with two exceptions. That's not too big of a deal as those two look quite good in their vanilla version but I'd still like to replace them. But to do that I'd need a custom model I can then render for the textures and that's my request. If anyone wants to make those, let me know

 

Here are the two (actually three) textures I was talking about, showing which models I need:

 

ManaanBackground.jpg

ManaanRing.jpg

 

They are used as backdrops on Manaan if that's important in any way.

Time to pick this up and run with it!

Spend some time on another city, I can visit Manaan as well.

For the Dejarik game, why not, do the same like you did for the billboards and commercial signs

Add a small circular plane, as a placeable, fit it nicely in the center of one of the tables, so you can pick a table or 2 to change and the other remain untouched.

Since it's a placeable you could perhaps add in a tiny Rancor with a hologram effect applied to it. But that would suck up polyies.

Perhaps; we could render out a few game beasties with the hologram effect, stick those to small planes on top of the Dejarik tables.

Just thinking out loud though ^^

Overall, Nar Shaddaa has always been my favourite planet, since I visited it in Dark Forces 2 for the very first time

I'd love to have it if you wouldn't mind.

Here you go! One TGA file with said texture. I double checked, but my PSD file is the same as the TGA; I collapsed the layers.

The quick run down of things I've done, by just seeing the texture: Used the Smoke/clouds render effect, black and white.

Then applied a glass/ ocean ripple effect. 

Using that as a top layer I made a bottom layer, with just a gradient in it. Going from this orange to red.

I then changed the layer mode of the the top layer to multiply, overlay or something. I might have used a copy and another mode.

Last step was to make a clipping mask and apply a bevel&emboss effects by just double clicking on the layer mask. And then setup the options for the bevel stuff.

I can't give any specific numbers and tweaks I did, that's lost to history, lol

http://www.mediafire.com/download/4xleq9m3b9sd769/QKor_Data.tga

I found a render back and a zip file with all the stuff for this Korriban Temple thing I started once. The texture is very basic really