Malkior

Eh. It was worth a shot, anyway. I'm still much in a way of inexperienced at modding code and other parts to do with the module, so if I did anything at this point, I'd probably cause problems with K1R.. (I tried replacing the models and I ended up with a smaller scaled NPC with nothing but their head jutting out of the floor...) Would anyone be okay with me posting a "request" in the Request thread?

So I was fiddling with Kotor 1 for something I was working on, and I noticed that in some parts of the cities there are some severely low-rez NPCs. Not only are they low quality in terms of detail, but the characters aren't capable of facial or hand animations. I realize this could theoretically be changed through a smaller mod, but if that mod changes the module file, it would interfere with this mod. Is something like replacing the low rez NPCs with those of higher quality within K1R's scope? .. Perhaps a suggestion thread should be in order.

I appreciate it, man! I'm not necessarily suffering from withdraw...(okay, so a little), I've just had all of this stuff sitting on my HD that haven't been released because I like to release them as packs. Most of them aren't as polished as I would like them as well. The Handmaiden was edited in a few different ways, but I ... can't seem to find any changes done to her hair.. Strange how I thought the same, but after a few minutes of checking my PS files.. the hair was untouched. Anyway, I hope no one notices, but there's a fairly obvious seam on the chest of the handmaiden model (there are actually 2, I found out. 1 to make up a basic shape, and another to hide the cleavage. Odd how a T-rated game can't have PG content. I also thought it was strange how the upper part stuck to the inside of her ribcage like that.) Regardless, I am about as good 3d editing Kotor as a gibbon with a blowtorch, so if there's an easy way to either move or remove the vertices of the seam, I'm all ears. Otherwise, that stupid upper piece will have to be used whenever I release her with the skin edits. Also I still have all of the frames for the animated day/night skybox project in case someone can find a way to either implement it or teach me how to. (I say option 1 is easier ) I haven't forgotten about it. I'm also using my temporary new found freedom to spruce up the Vibrant Skies I did about a year ago. There were plenty of details left out and a lot of low rez graphic issues with the originals that have to be addressed. Oh yeah. Lastly, I'm thinking that I will upload my custom lightning and drain effects. These- (I may have to ask some people to test the sound effects since I'm still fairly new to audio editing) Speaking of audio, I altered nearly all of the grenade sounds to add a bass boost to (especially the thermal detonator) if you want to hear them... I also did this with the thunder sound effect...

Basically, I've been gone a while from DS due to my computer (which houses all of my files and Photoshop) being well, disabled. Anyway, it's finally back up, so time to get back to modding! Here are some of my current/unreleased projects- (note that some of these changes are difficult to see without a before and after slide, so some are included for that purpose) Also I ... dont' know how to add images at full size, so unfortunately each image has to be clicked to see it at full size. Artificial bumpmaps: I found out earlier this year that adding a high contrast line of light with a slightly offset line of dark creates a pretty convincing bumping of the affected texture. About half of the metal textures on the Telos Station later, and it makes the walls and floors look that much more realistic. Before- After- Before- After- I have done all but a few of the walls and floors of Entertainment Module 082 and the Habitation module, but I plan to do most of these textures throughout the game. Speaking of Telos Station, I sought to create something that more matched the cutscenes, so I made it overall darker with the tiny edgings of orange seen in them. I also made weird greenish windows in the background bluer and copied parts from the window texture to create detail in the far background. (signs from Sith Holocron's mod) Boma: I redid the Boma Beast to match the concept as closely as the 3d model would allow. I plan to include it in my next iteration of Aliens Redetailed unless I can get enough of the alien bestiary together to be worthy of a mod pack. Fun with Specular Shaders and some skin effects: A bit earlier than this year, I found out that if you mix the specular shader with some light noise, you can create a light reflectivity to all of the characters' skin. In about July, I had fully implemented this technique on all of the character models throughout the game. The only problems I've run into as far as releasing a mod is that in some cases, you have to go into the Appearance.2da and manually add the specular shaders or they won't work. For the Handmaiden, I've been experimenting with shaders and added noise to create what look like the dimples you see on real skin This effect is especially cool with dynamic lights I also used a similar process to create a realistic eye shine for every character and NPC that occurs only from certain angles rather than the painted-on ones Box Art: A very old project I've been working on forever. I researched a bunch of in-universe Star Wars companies that not only match the Kotor timeline, but also the products encountered in the game. I started with the disgustingly bland shelf placeable by adding decals to the boxes and things like tools and Pazzak cards to the upper portion (to look like there's something in them) For what it's worth, I put my most fervent effort into making the blurry Czerka boxes have a decent decal Nar Shadaa Lights: For this, I started by making the neon lights less dull by adding a few shaders and some tweaks in Photoshop. Recently I've been using them to light up the Nar Shadaa cityscape by making all of the lights brighter. The effect is actually quite cool. Still Nar Shadaa looks pretty bland in comparison, so I'm thinking of adding lighter textures to some of the city walls to match the contrast given by the lights. Robes with added contrast and cleaned up: The first thing I noticed when I started playing Kotor 2 was that the robes on the Onderon soldier and Republic officer had some rather tacky edges to them. I've been working for a bit to remedy this by removing the blackish lines on the neckline and making the lines of the robe match across the pattern. The robes still look pretty flat to me, so I added contrast in Photoshop and added a light cm_baremetal shader to the file. If time allows, I plan to fix up all of the necklines throughout the game and hopefully make most of the robes look a bit more dimensional.

I had a few issues with the shiny textures showing up transparent (specifically the mandalorians) and my solution was achieved by going into the appearance.2da with kotortool and changing the entries for the texture from ****** in the EnvMap column to CM_Baremetal or whatever the CM is supposed to be. I had a few problems with the file actually saving the changes (I can try to help if that happens), but once the appearance.2da was changed, it solved the issue.

Unless the site name was changed to "Innovation4" but seriously though, isn't the site Heading just an image with an alpha layer? If so, can we just replace the Heading image with a different one? It might look cool having "Deadlystream with the same font, but over any color background of your choice rather than just a green background. (or was that how it was originally, and I just never noticed???)

I definitely like your retextures! Is there any chance you could make a tutorial on the technique you use to get that realistic metal effect? Otherwise, it looks great!

I'm totally behind the inclusion of a new Battlefront game (finally!), but that was the least informative teaser trailer I have ever seen for E3. So, there will be a battle on Hoth... just like every single earlier installment; except this one showed significantly less gameplay/cinematics than the Battlefront 2 reveal. I only hope that they have a more detailed trailer or at least some gameplay later in the expo show. (although with DICE on the project, it should be an ambitious one indeed )

You know, I like the design, but I have a few reservations about "jazzing up" Mandalore. My chief concern is that in most game dialog, people only sort of notice he's wearing a unique mask and nothing else out of the ordinary. In the game setting, if Mandalore was wearing anything as royally conspicuous as a full-fledged kama and full regalia, he would be singled out as either a warlord or royal entourage. While personally I like the color scheme and how it perfectly matches his persona as the "Preserver", I just think his travelling attire would more likely reflect a mercenary sergeant or someone to that effect; if only to preserve the nature of how other Mandalorians approach him in his conversations with them. ...perhaps alternate options for his look?...

That reminds me. It would be GRAND if someone would redetail/ retexture all of the Republic Warships' exteriors. Does anyone know if this pack will include something like that?

I actually kept reading your thread over at LF in hopes of finding your download link for the mod. Glad to see it at last! (Incidentally, I remember you mentioning something about an HD retex of the Citadel Station skybox in the same aforementioned thread at LF. Was it referencing Quanon's, or have you made a different one? If you did make one, I'm interested in checking it out if you don't mind it)

Frankly this is disquieting news to me. EA has recently had a terrible track record for putting any care into the games they produce. They not only (lost/fired) their CEO who ran the company with the motto, "copy whatever is popular and use whatever license is at hand to sell it". Yet, the truly troubling part comes from the fact that after losing their CEO, there still has been no signs of them learning that this method of business not only stifles the creativity of games produced, but also has the very real possibility of eroding or utterly destroying the future of the aforementioned licensed property. Instead, recently there has only been arrogance and outright denial coming from what's left of the company. I am concerned that this trend will continue, and we'll end up with a cheap imitation of another game with a few of the same character and location names from the proceeding KOTOR games. However, just because their business has been rather lackluster, I don't necessarily think that no matter what happens, the game will be an abysmal failure. Many great titles have been created by this very same company, albeit with minimal control of the Development team. My chief concern is what Zbyl brought up. If they have "exclusive" rights, then they may never learn from their mistakes from Dead Space 3, Sim CIty, ....(and arguably TOR). They may take complete control of the product and proceed to remove everything that made the original product stand out as its own and then gouge the consumers who still held hope for the series.. Yet I still hope this doesn't happen, and that they learn to trust whichever developer they commision to create a significantly better product with what's left of their sizable assets. If they can do this, then I have no problem with the acquisition. After all, it was in a similar climate that Mass Effect 1 and Dead Space 1 were first created.

I further want to point out that the number of textures with this "condition" aren't limited to just a few signs. I counted all of the animals in the game (save two or three) as well as most of the droids and the shuttle from Dxun to Onderon (Actually a lower-res copy of Bastila's escape shuttle with a palette swap). They're pretty easy to fix or replace, but I figured it was worth pointing out. I suppose we could compose an exhaustive thread of every single asset with this problem(I found at least 40), but I feel that may be playing with fire...

It would probably be easier to use this handy chart to translate the text from the various Star Wars games independently (*To translate, just match the letter with its phonetic equivalent under the symbol IE Aurek=A Besh=B Cresh=C...etc) Edit_ I have this knack for not reading the previous text... I mean no condescension if that is what it sounded like; I see you already have some good examples.

Don't the links work? Rather, do you mean you want them hosted on DS?