Search the Community

Xuul's Ultimate Kotor 2 guide Step by step guide to installing, modding and fixing Kotor 2 for the PC Topics covered in this guide Introduction Installing the Game Installing TSLRCM/M4-78 Widescreen resolutions HD/ Widescreen Cutscenes (movies) Installing other mods Recommended mods Troubleshooting Introduction With the advent of the new patch for the STEAM version much of this guide is out of date and not needed in regards to STEAM VERSION Hi there, welcome to my ultimate guide to Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2. This guide is intended to be the ultimate tutorial on everything from getting the base game running, to installing mods and changing to a custom resolution. Throughout the guide there will be links to various video tutorials that cover each of the steps in much greater detail. Before we begin I will introduce myself. I’m Xuul, I make Youtube videos about gaming, modding and tech. For over a year now I have been making video tutorials and spotlights to help people get into the Kotor modding community; so if you think this guide was helpful please consider checking out my Youtube Channel With that out of the way it is time to begin setting up Kotor. Installation The first thing you need to do is install Kotor 2. If you have already installed it and attempted to mod/change the files in any way I would recommend that you do a fresh install. (Uninstall the game, delete all files, and then reinstall). This will help prevent any problems that may arise from residual files. After that you need to determine two things: What version of Kotor 2 do you have? There are several different versions of Kotor 2 and each has its own problems and advantages. As of writing this guide the most common versions of the game are the 4 Disk Retail Version (Retail), Steam Version, & GoG Version The main differences in these files are that the Steam Version has an encrypted executable making the widescreen hacks not work correctly, while the retail version requires downloading and installing of several patches before it works. What version of windows do you have? This really comes down to two things (or really 3) What version of windows are you using and if the OS is 32 bit or 64 bit While the installation of the game itself should be simple it is important to test the game by launching it, creating a new character and entering the world once before continuing. This will help isolate if and crashing / errors that occur later are a result of a mod or from the game itself. TSLRCM & M4-78EP I do NOT recommend playing Kotor 2 without using TSLRCM. The game is an unfinished mess without the mod so do yourself a favor and install it. Just remember that some mods will not work with TSLRCM (see the Compatibility List for more info) M4-78EP (Droid Planet Mod) is optional although I would recommend you give it a try at least once. The mod is not without its flaws and some people prefer to play the game without it. You can take a look at my video review below if you are having trouble deciding. Due to the fact that TSLRCM and M4-78 have several custom movie files I recommend installing them before using any widescreen fixes. Download TSLRCM >>Link Run the .exe file Select the folder where Kotor 2 is installed and click next, then follow the prompts Launch Kotor 2 to confirm if the mod is working Download M4-78 EP >>Link Select the folder where Kotor 2 is installed and click next then follow the prompts If you are having installation issues check out the following videos. Each is very detailed and tailored to specific setups: Retail/GoG version: Steam version: Widescreen Resolution By default Kotor 2 will only run at a 4:3 resolution. Even if the game appears to fill your entire screen it is highly likely that is it merely stretching to fit your monitor. The method that I recommend requires two files Universal Widescreen (UniWS) and the UI Fixes. Depending on the version of the game you are using you may need to download the Editable .Exe File . This is a copy of the file that launches the game that is not encrypted, and allows hex editing. Download this file and If you are using the Steam version of the game I recommend clicking HERE for more information. Download all of the required files Set the ingame resolution to the second highest available resolution (Ex: 1280*960 on a 16:9 monitor) Run UniWS, Under the game dropdown menu select "Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords" Click find it for me** Set the width and height fields in the patcher to match your monitor (Ex: 1920 & 1080) Click Patch Go to your Kotor 2 installation folder and open the swkotor2.ini Find the entries under [Display options Find the width and height and set them to your resolution of choice Go to the area called [Graphics options in the .ini file and again change the width and height Set V-Sync=1 Extract the Hud Fix that matches your resolution to the override folder of the game Launch the game and enjoy widescreen **If this step fails something is wrong with your .exe file for Kotor 2. Search for the file manually. If it still fails to work check out the video below for troubleshooting. HERE is the video I made regarding Kotor 2 in widescreen It is important to note that if you do NOT see the option for the 1280X960 resolution in your list then simply use the SECOND LARGEST available resolution in its place. Widescreen Movies One problem with changing the game to run at widescreen is that it will cause all of the prerendered movies to play at a very small resolution. This not only looks bad but can actually result in crashes and errors that may cause cutscenes to not work. This method is based off of THIS post over on the lucasforums. All credit goes to the author of said post In order to fix this we are going to use a HeX editor and video conversion tools to both resize and upscale the movies to fit your screen. You may also need this Hexadecimal converter There are several different steps that need to be taken depending on what version of the game you own: Steam- Due to the encryption of the Kotor 2 .exe in the steam version you will be unable to edit the Hex values. An alternative method is outlined in the video >>Here Retail- This a complicated process. I would Highly recommend following this video guide as it is much more detailed and will walk you through the steps in detail. Make sure you download the HQ Movies Patch so you have the higher quality movies Ensure TSLRCM and M4-78 EP are installed Download the HQ movie patches found >>Here Install all of the HQ movies into the \Movies folder. This will overwrite many of your movie files with higher quality ones Use the video conversion tools to convert all of the .bik movies into the desired resolution. Convert all of the movies. There will be ~70 with TSLRCM and M4-78 EP installed. Select all the movies then click "Bink it!" in the lower left corner of the RAD Video Tools window. Then under "Browse" select an empty folder to output into the desktop Under "Input video settings," enter your desired resolutions. Ensure compress audio is selected (unchecking this *may* result in no audio on some configurations) Wait for the movies to convert. Install the HeX Editor Open the swkotor2.exe with the editor Find the following hex values and edit them to match your desired resolution (use crtl + F to find the values) Follow the steps below Ensure the .ini file is correctly set to your desired resolution The following Hex Strings need to be edited: 80 02 00 00 75 15 81 3D E8 C1 80 00 E0 01 & 80 02 00 00 C7 44 24 10 E0 01 The bold HeX values correspond with the width and height respectively. The pairs need to be flipped before they are converted into decimal. Use this Hexadecimal converter to find the values you need. For example in order to convert the movies into 1920x1080 I would change the following values: 80 02 00 00 75 15 81 3D E8 C1 80 00 E0 01 >>> 80 07 00 00 75 15 81 3D E8 C1 80 00 38 04 80 02 00 00 C7 44 24 10 E0 01 >>> 80 07 00 00 C7 44 24 10 38 04 Open the Hex calculator and type 1920 (Or any width) in the Decimal field Write down the Hexadecimal value as a pair adding 0 to the start as necessary (Ex. 780 >> 0780 >> 07 80) Flip the pair (Ex. 07 80 >> 80 70) Replace the blue value listed above (The width values) with the new width value (Ex. 80 02 >> 80 07) Open the Hex calculator and type 1080 (Or any height) in the Decimal field Write down the Hexadecimal value as a pair adding 0 to the start as necessary (Ex. 438 >> 0438 >> 04 38) Flip the pair (Ex. 04 38 >> 38 04) Replace the red value listed above (The height values) with the new width value (Ex. E0 01 >> 38 04) Installing other mods If you have followed the guide so far you have reached a point where you have a stable “base game”. At this point you can go ahead and play the game with no problems. Before you begin please read the Compatibility List to ensure that you do not have any conflicts. If you are like me, you probably want to check out many of the other awesome mods for kotor 2. These mods install differently than the others we have looked at thus far. While it is best to always read the description and follow the authors instructions there is really three main ways to install mods for kotor 2 that I will quickly outline now. The headers link to videos on the topics that are under 2 min long. If you are curious it will only take 90 seconds to see how it is done. Override mods These mods will come in a .zip or .rar archive. Use a tool like WinRar or 7Zip to extract the files into a folder. Drag the contents of the folder (NOT the folder itself) into the "Override" folder located in your Kotor 2 directory XNView override This method is identical to an override installation; it is often used for texture mods that have flipped textures. If you installed a mod via override and the textures look weird: Use XNVeiw. Extract the mod onto your desktop using 7Zip. Open the folder using XnView and select all of the files. Click batch process. Set the output directory to your override folder and set the filetype to TGA. Set the overwrite to replace. Then press go. After that the textures should work properly. TSL Patcher Unlike what the name suggests the TSL patcher is a tool for installing mods for Kotor and Kotor 2. It is preferable to use the patcher instead of copying a mod's files to the Override, since the Patcher can merge most files. Simply click the TSLpatcher.exe and set the directory to your Kotor 2 directory. It is still important to read all the directions put forth by mod authors but these instructions should help you if you run into trouble. Before installing any mods make sure you read the description and ensure that there are no incompatibilities and/or conflicts.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Deadlystream. The past few months have been eventful. The one topic that has out-shined all the others is a little project called “Apeiron” (A Greek word for "unlimited," or "infinite"). This controversial project will be the main topic of today’s post. So YES, I have heard about it. You can stop telling me about it now. As always, leave a comment to let me know what you think of this. What is Apeiron? To start off with we need to explain exactly WHAT Kotor: Apeiron actually is. Kotor Apeiron describes itself as a “Kotor Reboot”. The description on the site also uses the words “remake” and “remaster”. Put simply, this intrepid group of developers known as “Poem Studios” are planning to remake the original Knights of the Old Republic from the ground up. In this case the plan is to develop the game in a fully modern game engine, with HD graphics, updated gameplay and much, much more. Using the Unreal Engine (Think of games like Arkham City and Bioshock Infinite) the team will need to rebuild every planet, weapon, character and… well everything. Needless to say, this is most certainly a massive undertaking that is likely an order of magnitude above even TSLRCM. Sounds great! A brand new Kotor remake all for free! Well, not really. I know there are a lot of people who are very excited about this project but it important to realize that there are some very obvious problems with this remake. What are the problems with Apeiron? The problems with Apeiron that I am going to discuss come in 3 main categories. Scope Direction Legality Scope This is the biggest problem with all fan project s (and modding projects) the developers bite off far more than they can chew, over-promise and under deliver. Projects like this rarely pan out; they often require years and years of work to get right and even then can often have many limitations and problems. A clear example of this is the many attempts to restore content to KOTOR 2. While we now have TSLRCM there were several failed attempts before this to create a mod that restored many of the lost files from the game. These projects were big, but not nearly as massive as recreating an entire game in a new engine. A project this big will take a long time and a lot of people. This all costs money. Since the developers cannot take donations for this project. Having, ostensibly, a full time job while also developing an entire game with a limited team can lead to burnout. Direction Even if this project somehow manages to keep on track with its massive scale and delivers what it has promised this might not be enough. One of the main complaints from the many veterans of the Kotor community (the people STILL playing or STILL modding to this day) is that the project looks nothing like Kotor. I would have to agree with this, it looks like a Sci-Fi FPS and not the RPG that many people fell in love with. There have been concerns as to how the combat (particularly the melee combat) would transfer over to a new engine. One also needs to look at the models used in the current demos. Many of them look like pre-made models (that may not be used with the proper permissions). Overall, this won’t be a problem for everyone, but if you want to see more issues people have with the direction, then just take a look at THIS THREAD. Legal issues This is the big one. The law is complicated. So I did a lot of research and talked to a few experts to see just where exactly this project falls in terms of legality. I emailed Ryan Morris (the video game attorney), known for his crusade against Candy Crush creators King and its attempts to crackdown on usage of the word ‘Candy’ in video game titles & for leading the charge against the Fine Brothers attempts to trademark the word "React". He is a real attorney who specializes in IP and in particular video games (esports). He was kind enough to confirm some previous research I had compiled together and gave me a straight answer on the exact nature of this project , in terms of the law. He had this to say on the topic: “Fan projects are not "okay" or "absolutely" legal. They are quite the opposite, and there's a near zero percent chance this project sees the light of day. It's frustrating seeing people like this saying they want to take donations, yet basing their entire backing on nonsensical legal beliefs. For example, Black Mesa Source is a game made by a client of mine who has a license to make it.” Ryan put it in fairly plain words that he thinks this project will be taken down, and soon. The contrasts sharply with the initial disclaimer for the project that stated it was 100% legal. The developers of Apeiron are at the very least ignorant of how the law works. This lack of understanding is the biggest threat to this project. To put it frankly- this project is not legal. The developers are violating the Trademarks for Star Wars and Knights of the Old Republic. They are also violating the copyright for the game. Disney/EA has every single legal right to take the game down. While Ryan is an expert I felt he was being mildly disingenuous with his criticisms. While it is true that Black Mesa was done with permission, this permission was gotten AFTER the project had started. This is something that is technically still possible, but I still think the project will be taken down. Still not convinced the project will be taken down? This isn’t even the first time something like this has happened. A few years back there was a project called Kotor: Remastered. It originally was a retexture/remodeling project that morphed over time into an attempt to port Kotor over to the Unity Engine. Unsurprisingly, the project was given a takedown notice and ceased production. So there is very good evidence that this project will be taken down. In fact many people, Ryan Morris included, seem to think that a takedown is INEVITABLE. But it gets even more complicated than that. While the law is clear on this project, until the rights holders (Disney/EA/Lucasarts) actually issue a takedown notice this project will continue. There is also a (slim) possibility that the developers will get permission to release their project (with some specific restrictions). Overall I could talk about this for several more pages. I have already written and rewritten this section at least ten times, so I will leave it at that. Here is some further reading on the legality of fan projects if you are still unsure of my analysis. Legal FAQ Research Article Other things of note This topic took a lot of time to research and write. I actually had an article 2-3 times longer but cut it down so that people would bother reading it. Due to all the writing I had less time to round up links for you to enjoy but here are a few great ones. The Kotor subreddit is creating a compendium of fixes, tips, suggestions and general support questions. If you want to help with this or NEED help, check it out. Kotor might be canon again Want 100% compatible mod builds for kotor 1 and 2? HERE Sith Holocron is looking for help with a project. Read about it here. You can of course check out my Youtube channel. I am live-streaming mod testing every Friday. Watch my Twitter and Deadlystream Status for updates. If you like SWTOR, Shoelace has been playing it over on my channel as well. You can watch it here. Sith Holocron also has a SWTOR LP. Check it out on his channel. Here is a great list of other videomakers for Kotor stuff. I am sure you will like at least a few of them. Anyways, that is all I have today. Thanks for reading. As always, I have been Xuul. Have an excellent day. *I reached out to the Aperion Team who declined to comment*

Xuul has got birthday to day, so let's wish him happy birthday! I wish you to have a nice year, happy family life, and of course many great mods to review! None of us all was as helpful for newbies and geeks as you. Thanks to you, I found many great mods that I happily use now! None of us all was as helpful to modders as you - in fact, everything needs a kind of advertisement and that's where KotOR modders and generally whole Deadly Stream community needs you. Maybe Sith Holocron M4-78 is going to sing Xuul "Happy Birthday" in 1.3?

File Name: GLIntercept: Freecam in Kotor File Submitter: Xuul File Submitted: 15 May 2016 File Category: Modding Tools Ever want to have freecam in Kotor? Now you can. This program is a free and open-source OpenGL function call interceptor providing a replacement wrapper (opengl32.dll) that exports all OpenGL entry points. When an OpenGL call is made, the GLIntercept wrapper processes it before passing the call onto the real OpenGL system. In plain English this means that using this program you can enable free-cam and wire-frame in KOTOR or KOTOR 2. This upload includes several preset camera speeds for ease of installation. A full tutorial on how to use this program will be available at https://www.youtube.com/c/xuul =====Installation======= 1) Install GLIntercept via GLIntercept_1_3_3.exe 2) Go to the folder where GLIntercept is installed 3) Copy the OpenGL32.dll to the Kotor Directory 4) Copy gliConfig_FreeCam.ini to the Kotor Directory 5) Rename "gliConfig_FreeCam.ini" to "gliConfig.ini" 6) Open a Camera Speed Preset folder 7) Copy the config to "[install Directory]\GLIntercept_1_3_3\Plugins\GLFreeCam" =====Controls======= Press CTRL+SHIFT+C when in game to toggle freecam Press CTRL+SHIFT+W when in game to toggle wireframe O to reset Camera tilt P to reset Camera position If using a preset use the arrow keys to move the camera. =====Limitations======= You can only "see" areas that are in the frontward line of site of current PC character. =====Disclaimer======= Presets and instructions compiled by Xuul. www.youtube.com/c/Xuul GLIntercept from version 1.0+ uses the MIT License : Copyright © 2014 Damian Trebilco Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. Click here to download this file

Hi, everyone, i'm Xuul. If you didn't know, I've been making YouTube videos about Kotor mods for nearly a year now. Lately I've been getting many requests across various platforms for videos so I'm making this thread in the hope that people will post their requests here. I usually release a video weekly so if demand is high your video could take a while. I will make, spotlights, comparisons, installation, teaser videos.. ect. I am willing to make other videos as well upon request. If the video is about a mod I need the following information: Mod Title- A link to the mod- Required mods- Is a new game required? (If you are unsure just say so) TSLRCM Compatible? (If you are unsure just say so) Any additional information about the mod would be greatly appreciated. In particular if you are able to provide any of the following: Item Codes- To spawn in armour, weapons, & items. This will save me time and get the video made faster. Locations- Where is the content? What point in the game do I need to be? Showcase areas- Is there a particular area or part of the mod where one can easily see the effects. Is there a really "Cool" to show off the mod? Is it a WIP? I will only cover a WIP mod if there is enough content to justify the work of making a video. I will add a disclaimer to the video mentioning it is a WIP and will create a "Finished" mod showcase at a later date (time permitting) Other information- Anything significant pertaining to the mod that you think i should know. If you are a mod author and you have any other projects you would like to cover you can also PM on this site and I can normally respond in a day. Sorry for the wall of text. Hopefully people actually post here instead of just spamming the comments section on Youtube. Thank you much, and may the force be with you.

This is a small trailer for my "Let's Play" of KOTOR 1 using the K1 Restoration Beta. In March of 2014 some of my subscribers requested that I play KOTOR. Although I was not very farmilar or comfortable with Let's Playing games I thought I would give it a shot since I needed to play through Taris to cover the available content of the K! Restoration Beta. The project itself evolved well beyond what it was initially and Jack Star was born. There series is both fun to make and very popular leading me to consider creating a second chapter in the saga. Through the time making this series I learned much about presenting, recording, video making and many other thing and thus the series progressively improves. I just thought I would share it for those who are interested. For those who are not, you can always check out my KOTOR mod coverage. Thank you for your time and I hope you have an excellent day