KOTOR Visual Resurgence

[vurt 91]

An, almost, full retexture of the entire game.  Made with my AI model. Not an "AI Upscale", which is something different.  

Vurt's KOTOR Visual Resurgence at Knights of the Old Republic Nexus - Mods and community

maybe i can upload here once it reaches a more final version. 

Showcase on yotube:

KoTOR Visual Resurgence

[vurt 91]

Removed the .tpc version since it had many graphical issues. new version is tga!

[vurt 91]

Update Patch v0.2 is out. 170 additional textures + fix to LKO skybox + more.

[Sith Holocron 2,596]

I have some notes.

[vurt 91]

Yes i know this of course.
I have never stated it will be a 1:1 likeness though and i've never made such a mod in my life, so there's quite a few things that are my own interpretations of things including textures and colors.

If its referenced somewhere that its supposed to be crashed ships i will change it though, i do not like the idea of doing buildings if someone mentions "crashed spaceships" (its just really vague tall "things" in the background, hard to say what they are but sure maybe spaceships)

Mountains vs buildings, also not sure i care, unless its referenced that there are no cities there or that they are seeing mountains across the ocean. Most of the other skyboxes uses mountains.

Again, this is not an upscale, its a retexture (for the most part!) so things will look different sometimes but on the positive side that means higher quality than your usual upscale. 

[Sith Holocron 2,596]

The crashed ships are due to the disruptor field in the Rakatan Temple that has caused the ships to - well - crash. Including the Ebon Hawk. The Unknown Planet isn't a paradise, it's a technological graveyard. The gizka and rancor on the planet have come from the various ships that have crashed there over the millenia.

[vurt 91]

I see, been many, many years since i last played and got that far into the game. 

Then it makes a lot of sense to change it to crashed spaceships. Until then you can remove the lrk skyboxes so that the game is lore accurate.

 

[vurt 91]

i fixed both so now there's crashed spaceships instead of the buildings. 

[Salk 424]

Vurt,

can it be that some of the textures included in your package are unused by the game?

Cheers!

[vurt 91]

Absolutely. I have zero insight into which textures might be entirely unused. 

It probably would be possible to make a .py script which cross references meshes/textures, but meh. 

[vurt 91]

Don't be afraid to point out errors or things you don't like and i will fix them (unless i would disagree with something). It's a big mod and it is almost impossible for me to check out all 2100 textures in-game.

 

I will eventually do a play through though and i will notice stuff that needs fixing.

 

[Salk 424]

Thanks!

I've been using your retextures for more than one game (including your now old Ebon Hawk retextures) for quite some time and I appreciate the quality.

I'd very much welcome, though, the possibility of individuate what textures are actually unused in the pack.

Cheers!

[Dark Hope 1,672]

I've written about this before. Most of the hawk textures are generated in multiple variations. It's worth choosing one, copying it, and renaming it depending on the planet.

[vurt 91]

1 hour ago, Salk said:

Thanks!

I've been using your retextures for more than one game (including your now old Ebon Hawk retextures) for quite some time and I appreciate the quality.

I'd very much welcome, though, the possibility of individuate what textures are actually unused in the pack.

Cheers!

To my knowledge nothing is unused. But it could be a possibility that Bioware didn't remove a texture or 10 that was never used for the game, to know this i would have to cross reference every texture with every mesh. Unless there is a very good reason for knowing what is unused i see little point in doing that. Maybe you could save 10-30MB or something, but probably not more.

Maybe i misunderstood what you mean though. 

7 minutes ago, Dark Hope said:

I've written about this before. Most of the hawk textures are generated in multiple variations. It's worth choosing one, copying it, and renaming it depending on the planet.

Yes, if you mean choosing the best looking one of the bunch, though they should be pretty similar. There's a 4K version though, if people really like that one they can copy it and use it for the others. Maybe once i reach 1.0 i can look closer at things like this, its not super high on the list right now. 

[Salk 424]

Oh I thought there could be hundreds of unused textures rather than just a few.

I suspected that because I compared the skyboxes retextures made by Kexikus and those found in your Visual Resurgence modification and noticed how there are multiple skyboxes textures that Kexikus did not include at all. If those skyboxes textures were indeed used in the game then why would they be missing in a retexture package specifically created to replace the original skyboxes?

[vurt 91]

1 hour ago, Salk said:

Oh I thought there could be hundreds of unused textures rather than just a few.

I suspected that because I compared the skyboxes retextures made by Kexikus and those found in your Visual Resurgence modification and noticed how there are multiple skyboxes textures that Kexikus did not include at all. If those skyboxes textures were indeed used in the game then why would they be missing in a retexture package specifically created to replace the original skyboxes?

No, there's no way they left in hundreds, at least i do not think so. Skyboxes are used for a number of various things in the game, most who does retextures will focus on the skyboxes that we see above the planets, but there are others as well. 

Chat-GPT could actually explain them and without it even having to google it, which is kind of funny to me:
 

Quote

Yeah, the skyboxes in KOTOR (and TSL) are a bit more varied than just the "planetary skies" you immediately think of. Since you’re digging through the game’s assets, you’ll find several types of them, each serving different purposes. Here’s a breakdown:

---

1. Planetary / Exterior Skyboxes

• These are the obvious ones: big panoramic cube maps (or parts of them) that show skies, stars, cities, clouds, and horizons when you’re outdoors.

• Example: Taris with its massive skyscrapers, Dantooine’s pastoral sky, or Korriban’s red stormy atmosphere.

• Usually tied to a module’s .are or .lyt settings.

---

2. Interior "Fake" Skyboxes (Window Backdrops)

• Many interiors that have windows (like the Endar Spire, Taris apartments, or the Hawk when it’s landed) use skybox textures placed behind the windows to fake an outside view.

• They’re not "real" exteriors but still use the same naming conventions and skybox system.

• These can make it look like the ship is orbiting a planet, docked in a hangar, or flying through hyperspace.

---

3. Space / Orbit Skyboxes

• Used for orbital scenes, docking sequences, or hangar backdrops.

• Typically stars, planets, or nebulae with maybe a station or ship baked into the texture.

• Example: The view outside the Ebon Hawk when it’s in orbit around Manaan.

---

4. Cinematic / Cutscene Skyboxes

• Some skyboxes are only ever used in pre-scripted cutscenes or special modules you don’t walk around in.

• Example: Leviathan capture sequence (when the Hawk is tractored in), Malak’s Star Forge arrival, or the Star Forge battle itself.

• They often have unique variants, which is why you’ll see duplicates of "planet" skies but slightly different (different lighting, different angle, sometimes with special ships baked in).

---

5. "Ambient" or Test Variants

• Bioware left some odd or simplified skyboxes in the files—sometimes dev/test stuff, sometimes just alternate versions (like a clear sky vs. stormy sky for the same planet).

• Some aren’t used in the final game but exist as variants (e.g., multiple Tatooine skies).

---

6. Animated / Special Effect Skyboxes

• These are rarer, but some skyboxes have moving cloud layers or starfields, usually done with scrolling textures on geometry placed around the module.

• The Star Forge and some endgame sequences use animated space backgrounds.

---

👉 So when you’re seeing lots of variants of a single planet’s skybox (e.g., "m26aa_sky01", "m26aa_sky02", etc.), they’re often:

• Different times of day / weather (even if only one got used).

• Docked vs. landed vs. in-orbit versions.

• Cutscene-only versions.

• Sometimes leftovers from development.

 

Here it tells me what is potentially unused:

 

 

Known Unused or Rarely Seen Skyboxes

Here are some that modders have confirmed to be unused in vanilla KOTOR:

• Taris “clean” skyboxes

  • There are alternate Taris skies without the smoke/damage effects. Likely intended for pre-bombardment vs. post-bombardment states, but only the damaged one gets used.

• Multiple Dantooine skies

  • A stormy/cloudy version exists but is never called in the final game. Only the calm pastoral one is used.

• Korriban alternates

  • Some slightly different red/orange skies exist, probably to simulate weather/time of day. Only one is actually used.

• Leviathan docking variants

  • Extra orbital backdrops exist for the Leviathan hangar scenes, but only one is called in the capture sequence.

• Space battle skies (Star Forge)

  • A couple of versions with different ship arrangements exist, but the game mostly uses the same one in cutscenes.

• Endar Spire skies

  • Some unused orbital skies for the Endar Spire exist, probably from testing before finalizing the escape prologue.

Bioware do have a few textures named test and similar where you can tell it was just a test texture, those i have not bothered with at all. 

 

So yes its possible that i have a few unused skyboxes, but it wouldnt be too many MB lost due to those. 

[Salk 424]

vurt,

I noticed that some of your textures (ex. PLC_FrcDist02.tga) are created without maintaining the original X Y proportion (aspect ratio?). The original resolution for PLC_FrcDist02.tga is 256 x 256 while your retexture is 512 x 2024. I'm no expert at all, but I suspect this might cause problems?

[vurt 91]

I looked in my extracted folder, that tga is 128x512 in the original for me. 

Wrong resolution, if it was in this case, could lead to worse quality, that's about it, the mesh doesn't "care" it will still use it in the same way.

[Salk 424]

I'll double-check. Very possible that I misread.

Cheers!

[Dark Hope 1,672]

It's a shame the AI recognized the metal on the armor as leather. I was pleasantly impressed by the PMBF01 and its 2048 resolution.

[vurt 91]

Fixed. i'll add it to the next update.  added an alternative version too, its more gritty. 

PMBF01.tga

alt_version_PMBF01.tga

[Salk 424]

vurt,

I like the rextexture of both PLC_spdrA01 and PLC_spdrA02 (less fond of PLC_spdrA03). But in the latter, I think the AI has done a disservice to the original texture. The grid (upper part) and circuitry (lower part) that are part of the original design and that should not disappear are removed and replaced by something that looks like the writing "HUL".

Also, please note that the exhaustion of the speeder, which the AI reimagined correctly in PLC_spdrA01 is not right in PLC_spdrA02.

I'm attaching the images.

 

Edited September 23 by Salk

[vurt 91]

Great, thanks for noticing, i'll fix those and take a look at PLC_spdrA03.

[Salk 424]

I hope I don't come through as a pain in the ass, but I would like to give a little more feedback while going through the textures.

First of all, the LDA_grassXX.tga series of texture is excellent and so are LDA_graspatch.tga and LDA_gspray01.tga.

There is a problem with LDA_gspray02.tga, though. The AI has replaced the original shades of green in some part of the texture with a weird purple/grey color.

I attach the images here for comparison (one of them is the original one upsacaled, the other one is the texture found in your package).

 

 

[vurt 91]

No, it's the feedback i need, it's 2100 textures and it's very hard for a single person to under such short time look at all of them super closely or do comparisons. 

I'll fix the grass.