Transparent Character Issues? Look Here.

[ratchet_owns88 3]

This topic is designed to help you cope with transparency issues in certain droids, armors, as well as weapons in KotOR:TSL.

 

The flaw is inherent in most laptop user’s gamplay, this is due to a insufficient VIDEO GRAPHICS CARD installed in the hardrive. This means that anything that is shiny or has a reflective surface will become clear and you will see right through them. Depending on how reflective the object is will determine how much of their actual form you will see, in short...

 

 

On Laptops: more reflective = less solid.

 

 

Other problems associated with the flaw are that you will not be able to see holograms or transmission in their regular translucent blue form; they will be solid and colored. Also, you will not be able to see active shields or the burst of speed effect, although they will be active, you will only see if they are working by the cyan arrows on your characters’ portraits. Another major drawback is you will never see from a camera / droid’s point of view (they are usually a hazy blue or red). The force sight ability will be also lost to you, meaning you will not be able to see a non playable character’s alignment (a shaded background with a bad red character, a good blue character, or a white neutral character).

 

 

Unfortunately, if you have this dilemma you cannot upgrade your card because it is built into your particular model, and while you can change the card, it is highly recommended you do not, because you will need to take apart the laptop and remove the mother board in order to do so. You can also just buy a gaming laptop or a PC tower with the proper card installed, but chances are slim you want to spend that kind of money if only for this one game.

 

 

This is a modder’s tip on how to inexpensively reduce the transparency issues only.

 

 

 

 

I have chosen an HK-50 using a DC-15A Rifle mod as an example.

 

 

If you have downloaded the ultimate appearance or just a particular reflective weapon mod, this will be much simpler, seeing as how I won’t go into how to extract the models, you’ll have to figure that out on your own.

 

 

To edit the appearance you will need the GIMP painting program.

 

 

NOTE: I must stress than you make duplicates of the files you plan to make changes to, in case you wish to undo the alterations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have downloaded the GIMP program, go into the object’s destination folder and locate their .TGA file, it’s a good possibility that it will be easy to find, with the characters name in the title.

 

 

 

 

After you have opened the .TGA, you will see the object’s skin on a flat 2d surface. From here, all you need to do is to click on the LAYERS tab on the top of the screen, and then again on the TRANSPARENCY tab, you must then select REMOVE ALPHA CHANNEL.

 

 

 

 

This takes the checkerboard surface off the skin.

 

 

 

 

Save the .TGA in the folder among the files it was originally found with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter your edited file, along with any other modifications you wish to go with the skin, into the OVERRIDE folder located within your KotOR:TSL destination folder, or just create one if not already there.

 

 

NOTE: Please make sure your game is not active while doing this, as this may corrupt the system in unforeseen consequences.

 

 

The scheme of the color and texture may seem unrealistic, even downgraded compared to other objects, but this is only in some cases, and most of the time the object will in fact look solid and well blended to the rest of the scene.

 

 

The weapon and facial processes are exactly the same as the armor alterations, as I have already done the same steps with the rifle HK-50 is holding.

 

 

 

 

Check your gameplay to view the results.

 

 

Congratulations, you now have a solid character / weapon / armor for your laptop’s KotOR:TSL gameplay.

[milestails 264]

Very useful guide!

[ratchet_owns88 3]

Thanks, I doubt many will use it, or give many responses. All the same though, I felt like it needed a place here, if only for the situation I found myself in at the start of my own modding process.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

I think it's pin worthy.

[JK JA's Jaden Korr 30]

I think this topic should be moved to the tutorials section, it's very helpful.

[ratchet_owns88 3]

Thanks. I was initially unsure where to place this, so I asked where to create the topic before starting; it was suggested to be put in this section. However, I won't object if it's moved.

[Malkior 476]

I'm not trying to be a thread necromancer, but I believe that some of the problems people are experiencing could be the work of the Appearance.2da not setting its envmap to CM_Baremetal (The texture used for shiny metallic effects)

 

I got the exact same problem when I added a mandalorian soldier texture that had an alpha layer and was set to use the CM_Baremetal texture by a .txi file. The way I solved it was to go into my Appearance.2da (in the override folder) with the KotorTool and change the envmap field from DEFAULT to CM_Baremetal. Hopefully this helps without having to dump all of the texture alpha data to see them properly.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

For our new members, could you explain how they can go about doing that using illustrations?

[djnugent 34]

I'm not trying to be a thread necromancer, but I believe that some of the problems people are experiencing could be the work of the Appearance.2da not setting its envmap to CM_Baremetal (The texture used for shiny metallic effects)

 

I got the exact same problem when I added a mandalorian soldier texture that had an alpha layer and was set to use the CM_Baremetal texture by a .txi file. The way I solved it was to go into my Appearance.2da (in the override folder) with the KotorTool and change the envmap field from DEFAULT to CM_Baremetal. Hopefully this helps without having to dump all of the texture alpha data to see them properly.

 

For our new members, could you explain how they can go about doing that using illustrations?

 

Has anybody made any headway on this? I just installed an NVidia GeForce GT 780 Ti (it's pretty awesome...). I was hoping one of the perks would be resolving this, but no go - It's only slightly less transparent now.

 

I was able to do the Photo Editor 'Remove ALPHA channel' fix, but it leaves them looking slightly flat and texture-less...

[djnugent 34]

 

I got the exact same problem when I added a mandalorian soldier texture that had an alpha layer and was set to use the CM_Baremetal texture by a .txi file. The way I solved it was to go into my Appearance.2da (in the override folder) with the KotorTool and change the envmap field from DEFAULT to CM_Baremetal. Hopefully this helps without having to dump all of the texture alpha data to see them properly.

 

IT WORKED!!! Took me a minute to realize it was 'Alien_Mandalorian1', 'Alien_Mandalorian2', & 'Alien_Mandalorian3' that I was trying to change. Once I changed the envmap from 'DEFAULT' to 'CM_Baremetal' all of the textures came through normally. I didn't realize that I was missing so much detail...

 

Thank you for the assist Malkor!

 

 

For our new members, could you explain how they can go about doing that using illustrations?

 

@ SH - I'll try to make a quick instructional doc with pics by tomorrow. Fairly straightforward, and the results are a lot better than removing the ALPHA channel.

 

 

Question: Is there a difference between CM_BAREMETAL, cm_baremetal, and CM_Baremetal? I saw all 3 being used in appearance.2da and I didn't know if it is case-sensitive.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

 

@ SH - I'll try to make a quick instructional doc with pics by tomorrow. Fairly straightforward, and the results are a lot better than removing the ALPHA channel.

Post in the tutorial section when you finish it.

[Malkior 476]

Thanks, djnugent I'm glad the issue was resolved for you! I also look forward to seeing the tutorial actually getting done, as I sort of dropped the ball on it.

 

and apologies, SH. I sort of got myself overwhelmed and a tutorial was getting set back over and over. Thanks for being patient with me, regardless. =D

[djnugent 34]

Post in the tutorial section when you finish it.

 

So... I made a complete tutorial last night (PST in U.S.) and posted to TUTORIALS section - It's not visible at all, even to me. Is this normal? I assume it's not visible because the moderators have to approve it before anybody can see it, including the tutorial creator.

 

Sorry, my first tutorial for KOTOR 

[Fair Strides 509]

So... I made a complete tutorial last night (PST in U.S.) and posted to TUTORIALS section - It's not visible at all, even to me. Is this normal? I assume it's not visible because the moderators have to approve it before anybody can see it, including the tutorial creator.

 

Sorry, my first tutorial for KOTOR 

Yeah, the moderators have to approve them. No worries, it's up now.

[djnugent 34]

Yeah, the moderators have to approve them. No worries, it's up now.

 

Thanks Fair Strides!!!

 

 

For our new members, could you explain how they can go about doing that using illustrations?

 

Tutorial posted HERE . 

 

 

TO ALL - Any pointers on ways to help make my future tutorials better or easier to understand would be awesome! 

 

 

I believe that some of the problems people are experiencing could be the work of the Appearance.2da not setting its envmap to CM_Baremetal (The texture used for shiny metallic effects)

 

I got the exact same problem when I added a mandalorian soldier texture that had an alpha layer and was set to use the CM_Baremetal texture by a .txi file. The way I solved it was to go into my Appearance.2da (in the override folder) with the KotorTool and change the envmap field from DEFAULT to CM_Baremetal. Hopefully this helps without having to dump all of the texture alpha data to see them properly.

 

Thank you all!!! Wouldn't have been able to do this without your insight.

[Palora 0]

 Sorry to necro this, but I'm running into the same transparency issues with TSL steam version and TSLRCM (from the steam workshop) on Windows 8. 
Specifically with the HK's and GOTO (although I've only seen him in the Nar Shaddaa arrival cutscene so far). I was about to modify their envmap in Appearance.2da but... it was already set to be CM_Baremetal. 
I could deal with the HK transparency, but GOTO looked awful, and I'm afraid there might be more cases of this problem poping up.  

 

Any other suggestions for fixing it?

Desktop PC / i5 / 64 bit operating system / AMD Radeon R9 200 Series 

I was running into transparencies issues with the TSF guards (the center plates on their unifrom), did a clean reinstall, didn't instal [TSL] NPC Overhaul Mod anymore and that seem to fix it the issue with the TSF.

 

 

These are all the mods i have installed atm, in case one of them might interfere :

(I've also noticed that none of the head replacers that use TSL patcher seem to work, only tried with Badass Bastila and TSL_Playable_Species_1_Humans)
 

(via workshop)

Remove the Menu Beeps from TSL

Fix Head Model Clipping

Canonical Jedi Exile 1.2

Visas HD Re-Skin

(English) The Sith Lords Restored Content Modification (TSLRCM)

Invisible Headgear for TSL

 

(via tsl patcher) 

Movement Animation Fix for KOTOR and TSL

TSL Loot & Immersion 2.0.7

TSL High_Quality_Blasters-919-1-0

TSL Playable_Species 1 Humans (none of the new heads show up, keeping it installed for the underwear)

Quarterstaff Replacement Pack

 

(manual installation)

Workbench Crystal Attunement A
Dark Harbinger: PMHC04 Reskin.

[TheRealBatuRem 0]

On 9/23/2012 at 8:30 AM, ratchet_owns88 said:

insufficient VIDEO GRAPHICS CARD installed in the hardrive. This means that anything that is shiny or has a reflective surface will become clear and you will see right thr

May the Force be with you friend