JCarter426

Wow, that looks nice. I've been using Excel to generate the data points I need but frankly my feeble attempts were not adequate. I'd love to try this but I can't run the game at the moment - but I know someone else who's interested so I've sent him your way.

When you apply the shader in the 2DA, it gets applied to the entire character. That's why some player lines in K2 have it while most lines don't; some of the heads have jewelry or some such, needs the shiny. Anyway the deal is like you said, either you can use a shader or you can have transparency, but not both. EXCEPT... the electromesh armor does use a different shader. It uses CM_Bright even if you put something else in the 2DA. And if you try to use a shader with any other texture with that model, it will always use CM_Bright instead. I think it does that because the first TXI (PFBC01 or PMBC01) uses that, so they all do. But for Bastila you want the 2DA to have a shader and then the texture to have none, not a different one... so I'm not how to get it to do what you want, but there might be a way to do it. I used to have this problem and it went away when I changed my video card... if I recall correctly, it was a driver issue, essentially certain newer drivers cause KOTOR to not like it, and I couldn't roll it back for whatever reason, so I just switched cards. I'm not sure if there's a fix otherwise. Incidentally, even switching cards hasn't made the issue go away completely for me. It still kind of blocks things out along the edge of things, although it's not as bad as before.

All of her underwear variants use the model P_BastilaBA. And all the clothing is P_BastilaBB. P_BastilaBB02 is her cutscene model (clothes); the only difference is that the flaps aren't flex meshes, but instead are weighted to additional bones. I don't believe the model is ever used in the game; rather, it's left over from when the Bink videos were animated.

No, it's not - but you do need to reload the module if you're currently in it.

Yeah, looking into the animations is going to be my next task. I think I could work with the few flying animations it has now, but it might be possible to grab some more from the shyrack models so I'm going to look into that. I've also been working on getting motion captured animations working with the game models too, through Autodesk MotionBuilder, so if I can find some winged ones I'll give that a try too.

Ah, I didn't realize anybody had done anything with this already. Truth is, I disregarded the model myself for a long time. When I first thought it I just thought "what am I going to do with a grey drexl?" Didn't think texturing it was worth the effort. It wasn't until yesterday that I thought of something to actually use it for, and of course by now all the old networks are in the dark. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, guys.

There's an unused flying drexl model in the game files, c_drexlf. It's fully animated, but not textured: I'm trying to restore this, but frankly I don't have the patience to texture the whole thing from scratch. I tried piecing it together with the other drexl model's texture but it's never going to look as good as what some of you out there could manage. So I'm looking for some help, a collaboration of sorts. I've already adjusted the UVW mapping a bit to be more convenient, and I'm willing to handle anything else in the modeling and scripting areas if necessary. I just need a texture artist better than myself who can fill in the missing pieces and smooth out the edges. There's no real urgency to this - it's just one of my many side projects - but I have some things in mind for it in the future, so I figured I'd put the word out now.

Ah, thanks for reposting these. I haven't had time yet to learn lightmapping yet, but these will definitely come in handy.

Thanks, guys. And if I have any luck with what I'm trying to do, I may be back to help out with the tutorial situation on that front.

Does anyone have a lightmap tutorial? Even through Archive.org I can't find any with the content intact.

When something like that happens, I convert the model back to ASCII through MDLOps and then work from there. This usually fixes the discrepancy between what you see in your modeling program and what you see in the game. If you still have problems, I can take a closer look at your hilts in a few days, and see about making that extended tutorial too. Just backed up with a bit of work at the moment.

This part is problematic. Local booleans behave a little weirdly, so to avoid issues I'd recommend calling them in the following ways: if( GetLocalBoolean(OBJECT_SELF, 53) ) { or if( !GetLocalBoolean(OBJECT_SELF, 53) ) { I forget what the issue is precisely, but it's something along the lines of they can never be set to false; they're either true or not true.

Ah, I'm familiar with some of your previous lightsaber hilts. Converting them for KOTOR isn't too difficult, but its modding tools are a bit finicky. Firstly, you need to export an existing lightsaber hilt of the same type. The models are w_lghtsbr_***, w_dblsbr_***, and w_shortsbr_***, in either models.bif or items.bif depending on the game. You need both the MDL and MDX files; put them in a folder somewhere, unedited. Next you need MDLOps to convert the binary models (MDL and MDX) to an ASCII format that NWMax can read. Load the saber MDL and select "read and write model". It'll automatically generate a new model (for example, w_lghtsbr_001-ascii.mdl). This is the file you want to import into your modeling program through NWMax (import geometry & animations, on the left under "MDL Loading"). Merge your own saber geometry (just the hilt) into the scene, then move and resize it so it more or less matches the original saber. After you're done with that, delete the old saber and then use ResetXForm in NWMax's Mesh Tools on your saber geometry. That's basically a safety to make it use the correct transformation data, because it can get confused and use the original settings sometimes. Link the saber blade geometry to your hilt, then link your hilt to the saber dummy (not the Aurora Base, the other one). Once you're done editing your model, select the Aurora Base and export it through the Modify panel. Make sure you export this in a new location so you don't mess up any models you've been working with (I usually send it straight to the desktop). Export geometry and animations, and you can ignore the sanity check as that thing is never helpful. This will generate a file with the same name as your Aurora Base, but it's still in ASCII format and has to be converted back to binary to be loaded in the game. Rename the file, adding the extension "-ascii_new" (e.g. w_lghtsbr_001-ascii_new.mdl) and put it in the folder with all your other models. You'll need MDLOps 0.5 for this next step; it doesn't work in version 0.6 and 0.7 doesn't currently support it. Select the Replacer tool and load the binary model (the one you extracted from the game files) and the ASCII model (your own edited one). When you hit "read models" a new window will come up, asking you to replace stuff. Select the original hilt (it will be named "lshandle" or some such) and replace it with your saber hilt geometry. Essentially, you're taking the hilt from your edited model and placing it in the original binary model with the correct blades. The blade color will depend on the model (001 is blue, 002 is red, 003 is green, 004 is yellow, 005 is violet, and the K2 colors aren't consistent so you'll have to look those up). You'll either have to run the replacer several times for each color, or duplicate the compiled models and hex edit the saber names and blade colors, whichever you prefer. You will have to use the replacer for the red saber anyway, because the blade texture has a different number of characters (w_lsabrered01 as opposed to, for example, w_lsabregren01 for green). Anyway, after you have all your models, move them to Override and rename them. Copy all your textures as well. If your textures use an alpha channel for shaders, you'll need to generate another file for that, but it's pretty simple. A simple metallic shader is a text file that says "envmaptexture cm_baremetal". Rename the file to match the hilt texture's name and change the file extension to TXI. One last thing: K1 and K2 models are in a slightly different format, and may cause the game to crash if one is placed in the other. So you'll need to repeat these steps separately with binary files extracted from each game. I think that's everything. I can go over it in more detail later (with pictures and such) if you want.

No, as I said that's the only element in the rendering engine that functions that way. Models are 3D objects that have texture applied across the whole geometry and that texture is visible (or not visible) from any angle. Only particles have variant rendering.

It's not possible. Currently, anyway. The only visual effect that functions the way you want is the particle system. I ran into this problem when I was trying to make my own weather. The end result of that was I got SS to teach me how to use the particle system. Lightsabers don't use particles. Instead they have a rather hacked method of two planes perpendicular to each other, with some trickery with the alpha channels. Even if we could add particle emitter support for lightsaber models - which they currently do not have - I don't believe there's any existing emitter that creates a single, stationary particle... nor am I sure you could get the blade to retract properly.

Well, I suppose technically he was a knight for the duration of one conversation. Then he became a master. But that's beside the point. I don't know how else to explain it. Every Jedi character that appears in the game is called either a padawan or a master. Bastila is a padawan in training to become a master. Apprentices are bestowed the rank of padawan upon completing trials, which is exactly how knighting works in other stories. No, she was still a padawan too. She still had a master and was in training. That's the collective term again. I'm talking about knight as a distinct rank between padawan and master. For example, "A small squadron of Jedi Knights in snub fighters could penetrate the Sith blockade and dock on the space station." Vandar isn't talking about Jedi with the rank of knight, specifically. Surely some of them are masters. Some of them may be padawans. But they're all "Jedi Knights". The only named characters ever called knights in the game are actually Revan and Malak, but I don't see any clear mention of that as their specific either - just that Revan was a "charismatic knight" and so on. The word only shows up 44 times in the TLK, and a lot of those instances are due to the game's title or item names.

The problem is they didn't use Jedi Knight as a rank at all. The only ranks mentioned in the game are apprentice, padawan, and master. The player goes from apprentice to padawan; Bastila is explicitly called a padawan and she speculates the Council is testing her to see if she's ready to be a master, so presumably that's the next step for her - no knights. The first thing wrong with this is that apprentice and padawan are not distinct ranks in other works. When Obi-Wan is Qui-Gon's apprentice, he is also a padawan. Tales of the Jedi predates the term "padawan", but has Arca's apprentices transition immediately to knighthood. Also, in a modern guild system, apprenticeship is only attained upon completing the first level of education; so if one were to make a distinction, I'd say padawan would be the lowest rank, with an apprentice specifically being a padawan that has a master. The second problem is that apparently you go right from padawan to master. While in some situations this is true (Obi-Wan again), there's clearly meant to be the intervening rank of knight because there are knights that are not masters, but also no longer have masters (e.g. Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, Luke in Return of the Jedi). Essentially, they used padawan in place of knight. Perhaps it was to avoid the confusion of how Jedi as a whole are called "Jedi Knights" regardless of their rank.

Placeables and doors have no scripts for us to look at, and I have no knowledge of a script governing what the security spike actually does, either. It's not a spell and the baseitem.2da lines for K1 and K2 are identical, and I don't see anything obvious in the source scripts, or a function in NWScript. So on that front I don't believe there's anything we can do. There's simply no code for us to look at. However, I don't think that's the issue anyway. My guess is it's a GUI problem. If the security spike simply doesn't show up in the PC GUI, that is. I don't recall what happens, because I've been ignoring the things for over a decade. But if that's the case, that would be my guess. They did change the GUI for the PC version, so it's possible that was left out somehow. We'd have to compare the GUI files to be sure. Unfortunately, the Xbox files for K1 are not included in the PC version. However, both the PC and Xbox files for K2 are, so it might be worth a look still. If it's as simple as a missing entry or a typo, it can be fixed... but it very well still could be something hard coded.

I was primarily thinking of the clouds, yeah. Although the International Space Station is above the stratosphere, as you can see here. The lights I was referring to are the red ones that seem to be randomly distributed on control towers or some such, not just lights from buildings. You can see them pretty clearly in MalMov01.bik.

I had this problem as well. I've made 3D models of most of the game's planets, but I could never get Telos right either. Yours looks much better than any of my attempts, but it looks like you've run into the same problem I did with the station. First, it looks a little flat. It's hard to make it have depth because of how small the height is relative to the width, but a little more drop shadow or emboss might help. Second, it looks uniform. In the Bink videos, there are bits sticking out that are just scaffolding with nothing built on them, there are buildings noticeably larger than the ones around them, and there are red lights dispersed across the station. I think part of why it looks uniform is all the detailing sticks out so much, so if you add another layer for the larger buildings, and then one for control towers with the lights, you could tone down the contrast of the station layer so the outlines aren't as obvious. In the Bink video, most of the gridwork blurs together. Putting a scaffolding layer underneath might also help with the depth. Another thing the Bink videos have are more prominent longitudinal lines... like the station was constructed from vertical strips. And I agree about the atmosphere. It makes the station look translucent. Great work so far, though. Really, it looks far better than mine did.

There are Selkath VOs on the Xbox version. The name Liskis sounds like a Trandoshan, Quarren, or Twi'lek to me, though.

Actually, there are belt models in the game - i_belt_001 through 014. As has been discussed before, though, you need a hook on the body models for anything to appear (and I don't believe they have belt hooks) and you also need a way of telling the game to render the belt model on the belt hook when it's equipped... which nobody has figured out how to do in KOTOR, to my knowledge. Some of it seems to be in the 2DAs but I could never get anything new to show up when I messed around with it. The key data could very well be hard coded.

Here's my folder and its contents so far. Now it's time to convert this file with MDLOps. Load your edited ASCII file, then read and write. MDLOps will generate a new MDL and MDX. Run the Head Fixer on the MDL. The Head Fixer creates a new, fixed MDL file to put the animations back. Rename the fixed MDL and the MDX file from the previous step to whatever you want. However, the file name must have the same number of characters as the original (in this case 8). You could get around this by renaming before you export, but it requires more setup work, so I resign to keeping it the same. Once you've chosen your name, open the MDL in a hex editor. Find and replace the original name (mine was P_AttonH) with your new name (mine is JC_DuH01). Be careful to only replace characters, not delete them; that would break the model and cause your game to crash, most likely. There are 5 Duros textures in the game, so at this stage I use the same process to create duplicate models for each texture variation. After some 2DA editing to get the head in the game, or in my case simply keeping it as P_AttonH for a quick test, we can see our final result: Behold, a new head that can go on any body. You can use roughly the same process to create new full body models if you like, mixing heads and bodies from different models. That's what I did for the Handmaiden Sisters and I've made a tutorial here. So, go make new heads, and good luck!

Open your original head project (Atton Template for me). Select and rename everything with Tools -> Rename Objects. Add a prefix, something that makes it obvious which head these objects belong to. Now merge it with everything from your head project (I called mine Duros Head 1). With that imported, you should see one head at the origin and one above it. Select everything on the top half and move it down. Make it overlap the other head as much as it can. Now that everything is in position, you can link the MaskHook and GoggleHook helpers to head_g with the Select and Link tool. For this next part, hide everything except the two head geometries to make it easier to see them. Then you need to turn on the Snap Toggle so you can snap to vertices. Select your new head geometry and go edit the editable mesh. Move each vertex along the bottom circumference of the neck into the corresponding positions on the template head. These two heads have the same number of vertices so it's pretty easy. If you're not so lucky, you might need a bit more modeling skill to get them in place. You may also have to adjust the vertex weighting, which is not very fun. I didn't have to for the Duros, or the majority of the heads I've done so far, so I'm not going to cover that here. I also decide to scale down the second layer of vertices to match Atton's neck more closely, so there isn't a bulge. Once you're satisfied with your vertices, unhide everything and then delete all the objects in the template head. You won't need them anymore. The Duros model was lacking a texture, so I applied one here using the material editor. I notice his head includes a turtleneck, so later I might remap the model to remove it. Or maybe Duros just get cold easily. Now, this part is important. I only learned this through experimentation, because frankly it's not a very intuitive part of the design. Animations are applied to the head and body separately, meaning you can end up with each part playing entirely different animations if you don't give them the same setting. We don't want the Duros to use Atton's animations, so I change the supermodel to S_Female02, the default male supermodel. We do this by selecting the Aurora base and changing the text in the box next to Super in the MDL Base Parameters. We could change it to something else if we like; I might decide I want the Duros to retain his hunched over posture... if so, I would make some new body models that use those animations and then set the head's supermodel correspondingly. Now's a good time to save again. I save in different slots; that way if I screw something up, I won't have to start over from the beginning. I also notice the goggle and mask hooks are most certainly in the wrong places, so I reposition them. There's only so much I can do, however, as the shape of the head is just too different from a human's; only the breath mask looks any good. When you're finished editing, select the Aurora base and export as geometry only. Export it anywhere except in your folder, so you don't accidentally overwrite something. Now rename your file to something new - again, so you don't overwrite. The naming scheme I use is the original model name, plus "-ascii", plus "_new". Move this file to your folder now.

Now save this as a new project. In a new project, import your full body model (mine is N_Duros). Now delete everything except the highlighted items below. Again, it will differ from model to model. What you're trying to keep is the object necklwr_g and all its children, as well as the head geometry - called here simply "head", but it may be "Head_Geo" or even part of "torso". This head is already its own object so that's it. Other models have the head as part of the torso - but that's fine, as you can simply delete all the vertices below the neck for those. In any case, save this project once you're finished. With this project still open, go to File -> Merge and import everything from your head template project (mine was Head Template Male). Select necklwr_g and link it to torsoUpr_g with the Select and Link tool. Now it should look like this. Next, select the head geometry and the Aurora base (here, P_AttonH). Link them using the Fast Linker tool in NWMax. Now save this as a new project. There's a point to all these separate files, I assure you.