Salk

Vurt, I suppose your interest has now shifted to K2, but could I ask if you intend to work on those fixes for the screens I reported and if you also intend to produce more of those excellent K1 heads (and possibly change the one you publishes to have no braid?) Thanks.

My guess is that a few changes never got properly documented.

vurt, I downloaded the latest version (0.99a) and I noticed LTS_screen01, LTS_tech01 and LYV_scren01 are still in need of a fix. Also, from what I understand, the reason why some of the textures do have transparency issues depends on the fact that they include a non empty Alpha Channel but not an appropriate .TXI file. Cheers!

Oh yes, when it comes to saving space TPC is way better. Incidentally your estimate about size is right. I've mostly TGA textures in my override and I'm exceeding 17 GBs. Out of curiosity, could you tell us what needed fixing? Cheers!

Excellent idea, heyorange!

Just to give a little help, I am showing the result of a single texture LTA_wall02.tpc in the game. Hard to know now how many other textures could be affected, but I know for a fact that there are at least two more in the LTA_wallxx.tpc series of textures. Normal camera: First person view camera: UPDATE: I converted the texture LTA_wall02.tpc into .TGA and checkid it out with GIMP. There is no problem with the Alpha channel. So when I tested it again in TGA format, the issue was gone! This reinforces my dislike for .TPC textures. In the past, I have had bad experiences with them and gave up on the idea of converting the massive amount of HD textures I have in TGA format into TPC just because of that.

vurt, I was testing the LTA_wall series of textures in Anchorhead. They generally look very, very good. But I have transparency issues with them which are notable when looking around. I can make a video of this, if you like. But I can confirm that this is not happening with the original textures or even the HD textures I was using before. To reproduce, go around in Anchorhead and look at where windows are. You will notice that often times you can see the blue sky straight through some of them at certain angles.

Great job on Juhani. A question though: the tiger-like skin could perhaps use some darkening of the paler parts, in particular the cheeks? Or conversely making everything else slightly paler? To my eyes there's perhaps a little too much contrast and that makes it lose some uniformity. But it's just an opinion. The result is already excellent. Thanks!

I think you've done an excellent work with Juhani. Just a few tweaks could make it perfect also for "compatibility" with human romance. Just removing the whiskers may be good enough, actually. I'd love to test that version. Thanks for all the hard work and support, vurt. PS By the way, could you use Juhani's head model pony tail to fix the braid of your nice Weequay head? Just an idea... PPS I looked at the LTS_screen01 HD texture and I noticed how the AI model interpreted oddly the actually simple yellow/orange lights on the panel. They should be no different in concept than the round, green ones. Instead LTS_tech01 reintroduces a recurring problem with the model converting something into letters. LYV_scren01 is instead good except for two random arrows that the AI model generated for some reason where there should be none. I attach an image about this last case to show.

vurt, if I may suggest a small variation to the very good plc_locker HD texture, I'd tone down the amount of "rust". The original presents signs of wear/rust, but in a much smaller grade. I tested it in-game and it does make quite a difference. Additionally, the original presents (on top left) four metal airducts (for lack of a better word) and a series of metal plugs in column on the right side that did not translate into the redone AI texture. Otherwise, I think it's excellent. I attach the original texture.

Looks nice. Reminds me a lot of Reptile from the "Mortal Kombat" game.

Great to see you back with us! Best of luck with this new project of yours.

Yes. I understand. The "problem" which is what made people do Juhani retextures that made her look even more human than she looks originally in the game (and personally I never liked that) is that Juhani has a confirmed romantic relationship with an NPC and in BioWare intention she was to be a romantic choice for the Player as well. There is a popular restoration mod that allows for that. Now, I guess it's easier to cast her into such a role while maintaining most human traits. The more she's portrayed as a bipedal cat the harder it becomes. Other than that I think your retexture looks very good. Cheers!

I agree that the original Juhani texture is too bright and also lacking... skin texture. But perhaps this one is a little too... "feline"? One thing that the original texture did right according to me was to balance human traits and animal traits. Just my two cents...

vurt, I was looking at a set of Dantooine HD textures, specifically the LDA_grim0x series and while I can appreciate the high resolution, I'm preemptly (meaning I did not get a chance to test this in-game even because I have no idea where these textures are used in particular) afraid that they would not mesh well if we compare them to the original. Example LDA_grim01. Original: Yours: The original one has a much warmer red/brown color but as shape goes I'd say it's alright in this case. In the case of LDA_grim03, it seems that the plant is wrapped around a metal bar (see most left in your HD retexture) and in the case of LDA_grim05. the "body" of the "body" of the foliage should perhaps be a bit thicker? Cheers!

Sorry to hear you are having so many problems working with the normal maps, vurt. From what I know, not many texture artists around here have created HD textures using normal maps. Perhaps the difficulty of making them work in the game is what kept them all away from it. Best of luck!

From what I understand reading Darth Parametric's comments in this topic, it seems that normal maps are not something you want to introduce in the Odissey engine.

vurt, I understand that TPC files take much less space. But I was wondering if you could provide a .TGA version of your modification, as well? It makes looking through the images to do comparisons and/or find issues a much faster job. Perhaps when you release version 1.0? Thanks!

It is indeed twice the size. I am testing conversion using MDLOps rather than MDLEdit and I will see if it can be used in-game for a custom NPC head. All this, of course, does not affect the goal of your modification which I'm sure will work perfectly for those that use it as intended. It is just a personal matter for myself, so you don't really have any kind of obligations to "fix" anything. Thanks for your interest, though. Cheers! EDIT: My attempt at conversion was only partly successful. The hair on the back are stuck in a rigid position.

vurt, looking at the LKO_sky01SM.tga retexture included in your package, I noticed that the AI must have interpreted a narrow cloud in the original as star light of some sort. I have attached a picture to demonstrate.

Thanks for the reply, vurt! I thought it may be inconsequential, but I wanted to ask you just in case because the size of the model here differs considerably from the original Bioware PMHA03 (both the .mdl and the .mdx parts) so I was trying to understand where the included pmha03.mdl/mdx were coming from. Cheers! EDIT: Talking to DP on Discord, it seems that the decompilation would produce a broken ASCII, if it even was successful at all. So, yeah, I wanted to use your nice texture for an NPC in my game rather than to replace a player's head and I cannot do it without converting the PMHA03 model...

vurt, I tried to load the model into MDLEdit (tried both version 1.03 and 1.04) to decompile it and when I do that, I get this error message: "The vector recalculations were off by too much to be able to determine the smoothing groups. Try decompiling with different vertex normal calculation settings." Do you perhaps know what that means? Cheers! PS - If I uncheck the default checked option "Calculate Smoothing Groups (binary)" in MDLEdit 1.03 or the, I guess corresponding, "Recalculate vectors (Reading binary)" in MDLEdit 1.04 then the loading doesn't produce the error message. But I'm quite sure it would not be a smart thing to do...

Great patch, vurt! Thanks! But from what I can see, LDA_gspray02.tga is still the same texture?

More feedback: in PLC_SevrdArm.tga, there are some issues (in the context of a very nice texture upgrade). One part of the texture (bottom left) should show the palm of one hand. It shows the back of it instead. Ther grey/brown part of the texture should be clothing (of the same kind used in N_CommM01.tga), but the reconstruction shows something much more solid than that. Around the hands / fingers, the texture should be human skin. Not sure the AI got it right and of course I'm not sure what part of the texture are actually going to be used by the respetive models. I have attached a picture, at any rate. I was also wondering if perhaps your model could come with something a bit more sophisticated for LUZ_palm01.tga. The way it is now, it does not look anything more than a simple upscale that wouldn't improve much or perhaps at all over the original. Cheers!

It'd be great to have a properly working engine for K1 and K2. The roadmap shows they're still quite far from something usable, though. Best of luck!