TSL Textures Remastered

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

It will probably end up being that for some I think. Means learning another program and I'm not sure how much you can do or get with the free version.

 

There are some pretty good panoramic (sphere map) textures out there. High def ones. I also found this program -- CubeTheSphere -- that allows you to take those and turn them into cube (skybox) maps. You'd still need to do more work on layering in elements and the like to suit the game setting. But it beats using one of those free low-rez skyboxes you can find that look like they were make for games like Unreal Tournament 2004.

 

Anyway It can wait I think, as people tend not to focus too much on the skybox as its more of a backdrop to everything else.

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

 

 

Here is the TGA version of the texture I was using as seen in-game:

 

Here is the same texture using Paint.NET's built in DDS support:

 

Here is the same TGA texture processed with the NWN tga to dds conversion tool -- not the artifacts and off coloring:

 

 

Interesting! (I like the textures BTW.) When I have done my textures, I don't recall seeing such a huge quality drop - I'll see what I can do.  I also love your snow texture, looks amazing.

[Zhaboka 91]

Yes, the snow is loads better than before. Bravo!

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Screens of the "Jedi" Academy in the Telos polar region...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've gone for a darker, colder and somewhat harsher color scheme this time to reflect the emptiness and darkness of the place.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Some more...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fair Strides 509]

Some more...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screens of the "Jedi" Academy in the Telos polar region...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've gone for a darker, colder and somewhat harsher color scheme this time to reflect the emptiness and darkness of the place.

 

 

Whoa! This is scarier than The Darker Peragus mod! VERY GOOD job.

 

(Which if I remember correctly was done by VarsityPuppet, right?)

[Malkior 476]

Some more...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you been messing with lightmaps?!

If so, I mean kudos to getting them better than the game, but still a lot of work. Do you do them manually or have some sort of program that makes it easier?

 

 

Whoa! This is scarier than The Darker Peragus mod! VERY GOOD job. 

 

(Which if I remember correctly was done by VarsityPuppet, right?)

 

Actually that mod was done by Canderis. I talked with him on LF about it.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Some more of Telos station with before and after comparative shots...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit hard to see some of the changes unless you see them in-game. Think I can improve some things a bit, like the cutout buildings in the distance; pretty sure I can make those lit windows shine brighter with some additional work. Should make them look less 2D by matching the 3D buildings in front of them.

 

@ Malkior: No, I haven't been editing lightmaps. What you're noticing is the use of environment maps for the textures as a way of adding more definition and "depth" in the way of dynamic highlights to the game textures. It needs a bit more tweaking, as the "shine" can be a bit too much and feel a bit plasticky or artificial; for lack of a better way of putting it as I'm kind of tired .

[L0ki194 82]

Yes. THIS is what I've been waiting for. Hey, do you think you MIGHT do this treatment to the textures for KOTOR 1?

[Zhaboka 91]

My one complaint is that the texture for the snow on top of the forcefield in the "Jedi" Academy hangar bay looks less realistic than before. Other than that, fantastic job.

[Ajax A128 1]

This is some fantastic work!

 

EDIT:

 

The new look for the Station looks a little too grungy for a Republic controlled area for, though. The brownish golden color doesn't really fit all that well compared to the default grey/silver. Just a thought.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

This is some fantastic work!

 

EDIT:

 

The new look for the Station looks a little too grungy for a Republic controlled area for, though. The brownish golden color doesn't really fit all that well compared to the default grey/silver. Just a thought.

 

Well, a lot of these textures are used all of the place on Telos. So, not just on the station but also the underground military facility and even the polar academy. Some of it needs to work for multiple purposes. Also, this is a used and lived-in commercial space station. It's going to get grungy after a while even if they keep it as clean and maintained as possible.

 

I quite like how it is now, as it is visually different from the old without being radically so, and think that it is an improvement over the old textures. So, I won't be changing them but I may tweak them a bit. But, you're more than welcome to create your own if you don't like .

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

es. THIS is what I've been waiting for. Hey, do you think you MIGHT do this treatment to the textures for KOTOR 1?

 

Probably not, though I think a lot of the TSL textures are from KOTOR.

 

It would have to wait for TSL to be done, anyways, but I picked TSL as I figured it has the more interesting mods that have been developed for it or are being developed for it on account of its better -- if more buggy -- game systems.

 

It's interesting that there is still so much active modding going on for it, too bad the same can't be said of tools to support such modding -- or even someone whipping up a new modified (1.0b) game exe that provides better widescreen support among other things.

 

My one complaint is that the texture for the snow on top of the forcefield in the "Jedi" Academy hangar bay looks less realistic than before. Other than that, fantastic job.

 

It uses the same texture as the snow on the outside. To improve it you have to make the snow outside look worse. It's one of the cases where being able to just change what texture is being used, would be a big help. Actually, there is one texture used in the academy that is used all over the place. Makes it real hard to improve it without making something else look bad. Not to mention all of the misaligned horribly stretched textures in this area that are easy enough to spot.

 

Anyway, it's all a trade off in the end. Plus, it was never clear to me before that it was meant to be snow resting on top of a force field before. When you're out side there is a depressed area to the surface you can walk on; you're actually walking on top of the snow that has fallen on top of this hangar force field.

[Zhaboka 91]

It uses the same texture as the snow on the outside. To improve it you have to make the snow outside look worse. It's one of the cases where being able to just change what texture is being used, would be a big help. Actually, there is one texture used in the academy that is used all over the place. Makes it real hard to improve it without making something else look bad. Not to mention all of the misaligned horribly stretched textures in this area that are easy enough to spot.

 

Anyway, it's all a trade off in the end. Plus, it was never clear to me before that it was meant to be snow resting on top of a force field before. When you're out side there is a depressed area to the surface you can walk on; you're actually walking on top of the snow that has fallen on top of this hangar force field.

 

I was afraid you'd say that. Well, that's too bad.

 

As to that second bit, that's really cool. I never knew that.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

My hunch about how to get the lit windows of the cutout buildings to appear brighter was right...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that might be my last post up on this for a while. Still stuff to do with Telos like redo some signage, recreate animated textures, etc. But realistically I think I need to also go back and do a pass of the Ebon Hawk, Peragus and Harbinger in order to release it as a teaser. As you would need to play up until Telos first before seeing the new textures -- unless you have old save games. And I don't think I'll get that done any time soon as I'm about to head off on a trip for a couple of weeks.

 

Should have my notebook so if I get bored, I might do some additional work on this. But I don't really see myself doing that as there will be plenty of other things that I can do instead  .

[Deathtoheaven 7]

Bravo! TSL really needs this, given the graphics cards and other games of today.

 

I especially approve of the fact that you are making the textures more atmospheric. The Telos Residential District fits with Citadel being on its last limbs so much of the time.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Wanted to see if there is any interest in me releasing just the Telos textures as a teaser... ?

 

You'd have to play from all the way from the start or have a prior save game just at the beginning of Telos to appreciate it all. That is if you want to see all of the Telos textures and not just those pertaining to the station -- as you can come back to it later once you get back the Ebon Hawk.

 

It's pretty much all the Telos environment textures plus some additional odds and ends that are used in Telos -- like one of the tree texture sets from Dantooine along with one dirt texture, and a generic grass texture. I'll spend some time completing a draft of a monitor texture along with maybe finishing off an animated texture that I started on but didn't finish. But apart from that and some other quick tweaks, that's all you'd get for now.

 

Chances are that I won't do any further work on this for a while -- perhaps a long while -- as other things will demand my attention; why I ask.

 

 

@ Deathtoheaven:

 

Thanks for the comment as it also helps explain why I personally like how it looks and why beyond some tweaks I'm not changing the color tone of the station textures .

 

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

You might as well release it so folks can beta test the textures.

Speaking of textures, I've something to point out regarding textures for the Ebon Hawk. I'll quote from my LucasForum thread about it.

The interiors of the Ebon Hawk in both KotOR and TSL suffer from both shader and UVW issues. Some examples follow:

Fallen Guardian also spotted a few issues.

The parts he circled in Red are basically parts that are just not there. You can see right through them. Like, they're there on the texture, but not on the model in-game.

Finally JCarter426 reported this one:

Not sure if you can see it in the picture, but there's a slight crack that's especially obvious when the ship is in hyperspace.


As any mod that wants to improve/alter the interiors of the Ebon Hawk will have to deal with this UVW mapping issue, I'm making a modding request to correct these graphical issues.

Might you be able to deal these issues in your Ebon Hawk textures?

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

I'll have to check, but there is at least 2 if not more versions of the Ebon Hawk -- damaged in space, and normal which may have a hyperspace variant and others for each time it is docked. So, some of these problems may not be applicable to all of them as some may have differing meshes.

 

I've noticed this one in particular on the version of the Ebon Hawk on route to Telos. A great big old plane of black as your screens capture as well. Not sure why it would be there either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I can find what texture is supposedly being used there and as long as it is not being used by anything else. Then it should be easily fixed by replacing it with a blank texture if any other solution as to how to fix it doesn't present itself. Though more than likely, it is simply an erroneous mesh that once had a purpose but now needs to be deleted.

 

Anyway, there are probably a number of factors beyond which "version" of the Ebon Hawk that has been loaded up for that part of the game. Like whether people had been alt-tabbing out of the game in order to do something, like check email, before tabbing back into the game. This will introduce graphical problems, as will updating too many graphic files of the game whilst out of the game whilst its still running. Another is what mods people have installed, especially those to do with the Ebon Hawk. These can create "false" reports of problems when there really isn't a problem, in that closing and starting the game and/or uninstalling a mod, will fix these.

 

nd then there is what graphics card and drivers people are using, which means that they and others may experience them but I and others, may not. I can't fix something like that as I have no way of testing it on my own. Not impossible to fix on your own, just very time consuming and somewhat frustrating -- I had a Fallout 3 script bug that has taken me a long while to discover what the problem with it was, as I and others with newer computers, simply never experienced it.

 

There are a lot of animated textures in use as well -- or more likely, there is one animated texture used all over the place. These in particular look bad and may also be the reason why certain panels have areas that look like they aren't there -- these are usually where the animated textures appear. So replacing these with better ones and a custom TXI file may do the trick -- especially if it turns out that a particular animated texture for that version of the Ebon Hawk is simply missing from the game.

 

However, this is a real pain as when you export animated textures from KOTOR Tool, they come out garbled. Basically, you have to rebuild them using elements of the original image before you can do any work on them. it also doesn't help that these "areas" are actually different meshes or parts of a mesh that have a completely different texture applied to them. It would have been better if these, especially animated screens, had multiple layers. A static background, an animated texture layer, and possibly, an effect layer -- like adding the look of an interlaced monitor over the top of these. There are probably problems with this to do with rendering, but, I think if they had used say "additive" for the animated layer and "decal" for the effect layer. Well, I think they wouldn't have any issues and the end result would have looked way better -- plus, if the animated layer wasn't rendered you'd still have the static background to fall back on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "cracks" that are especially visible in Hyper space, appear all over the place, especially around console panels. If it is a case of the texture having a great big old transparent area around the parts that aren't used. Then that is solved by filling them with black -- at its most basic. However, I doubt that is the case and this is more than likely the result of the mesh -- not actually the UV mapping at all. One mesh end that is butted up against the end of another. No matter what, there is a gap between the two that some engines will allow what is seen behind to bleed through -- especially if the mesh has no "depth" to its edges but is basically a plane. The best way to fix this is to edit the mesh so that one actually intersects the other, or, by adding an edge to these meshes so that they have something to but up against -- though, simply adding another simple mesh behind these with a black texture applied would probably also work. However, that means learning more 3D modelling that I have experience with currently, which is compounded by the fact that exporting and importing them into a game format is problematic as the tools are old and fairly basic.

 

A quicker short-term fix is to replace the hyperspace texture with something less bright and hideous along with a custom TXI file -- make it have an additive blend render so that the "black" of nothingness behind it will come through and mute it down some so that the bleed through isn't as bad. And that would be my first step as any mesh editing would have to wait until later .

[Deathtoheaven 7]

@cOMA: You're most welcome! Glad to help.

 

@cOMA and Sith Holocron: These corrections and the atmospheric textures will definitely help the game narrative. However, as a side note I do think that there is another problem with the game atmosphere: The music. A lot of the normal level music is fine, but the battle music in TSL is just horrible. It's not a question of the sound quality, I've already got better versions of the sound and music files. It's the music itself.

 

I just thought I'd mention that as long as this mod's effort is going into improving the game atmosphere. TSLRCM's restored content has already improved my experience in this regard, but there's still more that needs to be done to reach the "perfect TSL experience"...which will never be reached anyway! ;P

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

I am and most likely will replace that horrible cantina music. Not sure about the other music as I'm not much of a composer, but, I figure that I can get a bunch of free open-source samples and put something together in Audacity that is 10x better than what is present. Honestly, I am really getting sick of having to listen to that crap they have in-game .

 

I do experience a lot of "crack" sounds when sound begins to play or ends play. Not sure if there is a better sound download patch that I missed or something, but if there isn't one then I at least wanted to have a look at it some as I think that it might have something to do with the game being first optimized for Xbox -- as I don't recall the problem at all for KOTOR.

 

The problem with music is finding stuff that will match everything else, otherwise you have to replace ALL the music -- which is probably not possible as some of it will be part of a movie file. I think I came across 2 or 3 music sound mods but apart from listening to a few tracks, I never actually installed them. They didn't seem to support the atmosphere of the game nor was it totally Star Wars in style -- orchestral.

 

As I said, I'm also not much of a composer myself. So beyond simply improving the files so they don't crack every so often, I'm not sure how much I can do on my own in this department.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

I do experience a lot of "crack" sounds when sound begins to play or ends play. Not sure if there is a better sound download patch that I missed or something

You might want to try the official sound patch for a better music quality but it will be the same music.

 

The issue with replacing music is rather that one's likes of particular pieces is/are objective - what I might like isn't necessarily what someone else likes. However, replacing the music for the cantina scenes should be especially simple as it's a complete piece of music, rather than a song that has to be able to mix with another piece of music. I'd say the most obvious choices to replace it with are the cantina songs from the original trilogy or the cantina songs from The Old Republic game. I'd personally recommend using 40's big band instrumental songs - the Glenn Miller Band comes to mind. Due to copyright issues, that's something folks should do on their own. (No uploading of copyrighted music, please!)

 

sELFiNDUCEDcOMA: If it's sound effects rather than music causing an issue for you, might I suggest Shem's Ultimate Sound Mod?

 

OK, back on the real subject of this thread: textures!

This is more than likely the result of the mesh -- not actually the UV mapping at all. One mesh end that is butted up against the end of another. No matter what, there is a gap between the two that some engines will allow what is seen behind to bleed through -- especially if the mesh has no "depth" to its edges but is basically a plane. The best way to fix this is to edit the mesh so that one actually intersects the other, or, by adding an edge to these meshes so that they have something to but up against -- though, simply adding another simple mesh behind these with a black texture applied would probably also work. However, that means learning more 3D modelling that I have experience with currently, which is compounded by the fact that exporting and importing them into a game format is problematic as the tools are old and fairly basic.

I'm hoping you'll work on that mesh-editing once you've acquired more familiarity with 3d modeling. Those black areas are definitely an issue.

 

I still think the texture below (or rather, the lack thereof) is a UV mapping issue. There should be a texture there for the floor grating but it doesn't show up for some reason in other mods.

 

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Didn't actually get to do any extra work on the TSL Remastered Telos teaser, but I did manage to squeeze in uploading it to the site here. 

 

I'm tired, got stuff to do and still need to get some sleep before heading off to catch a plane. Will have notebook with me so as long as I can find decent free WiFi, then I will check in from time to time if I'm not busy having fun .

[InSidious 237]

First of all, welcome! The work you've posted so far is beautiful.

 

 

Probably not, though I think a lot of the TSL textures are from KOTOR.

 

It would have to wait for TSL to be done, anyways, but I picked TSL as I figured it has the more interesting mods that have been developed for it or are being developed for it on account of its better -- if more buggy -- game systems.

 

It's interesting that there is still so much active modding going on for it, too bad the same can't be said of tools to support such modding -- or even someone whipping up a new modified (1.0b) game exe that provides better widescreen support among other things.

 

 

It uses the same texture as the snow on the outside. To improve it you have to make the snow outside look worse. It's one of the cases where being able to just change what texture is being used, would be a big help. Actually, there is one texture used in the academy that is used all over the place. Makes it real hard to improve it without making something else look bad. Not to mention all of the misaligned horribly stretched textures in this area that are easy enough to spot.

 

Anyway, it's all a trade off in the end. Plus, it was never clear to me before that it was meant to be snow resting on top of a force field before. When you're out side there is a depressed area to the surface you can walk on; you're actually walking on top of the snow that has fallen on top of this hangar force field.

 

Some TSL textures are from K1 -  the ones for Dantooine and Korriban in part, of course - but there are a lot of new ones.

 

On modding - it was a lot more active until c. 2010. And the fact that the Filefront network has been paralysed since 2011 has rather put a damper on things. On tools - to be honest, there were never more than a handful who actually knew how the game engine(s) worked in any way, and most of them have long gone by now, unfortunately.
 

On the snow texture in 262TEL - you can swap that one specific one by hex-editing the relevant module .mdl file - though which one is the one used for the hangar bay, I'm not sure. There's some instructions on doing this in this tutorial at Holowan, if you're interested/need information on the topic.

 

 

The "cracks" that are especially visible in Hyper space, appear all over the place, especially around console panels. If it is a case of the texture having a great big old transparent area around the parts that aren't used. Then that is solved by filling them with black -- at its most basic. However, I doubt that is the case and this is more than likely the result of the mesh -- not actually the UV mapping at all. One mesh end that is butted up against the end of another. No matter what, there is a gap between the two that some engines will allow what is seen behind to bleed through -- especially if the mesh has no "depth" to its edges but is basically a plane. The best way to fix this is to edit the mesh so that one actually intersects the other, or, by adding an edge to these meshes so that they have something to but up against -- though, simply adding another simple mesh behind these with a black texture applied would probably also work. However, that means learning more 3D modelling that I have experience with currently, which is compounded by the fact that exporting and importing them into a game format is problematic as the tools are old and fairly basic.

 

A quicker short-term fix is to replace the hyperspace texture with something less bright and hideous along with a custom TXI file -- make it have an additive blend render so that the "black" of nothingness behind it will come through and mute it down some so that the bleed through isn't as bad. And that would be my first step as any mesh editing would have to wait until later .

 

I'm very out-of-date on modelling for these games, but as I recall, editing existing module models doesn't work, and just tends to crash the game, unfortunately.

[Salk 374]

The only thing I personally am not really fond of is the choice of a much darker tone for many textures.

 

In some cases (http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/2062-tsl-textures-remastered/?p=21172 and http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/2062-tsl-textures-remastered/?p=21173) it is really so much that it ends up thwarting the commendable intention to remain faithful to the original game visuals, delivering a much different atmosphere to the environments.

For the rest, great work.