TSL Textures Remastered

[VarsityPuppet 1,086]

Fountain textures are looking good. Good call on the switcheroo too.

[Vriff 21]

Beautiful textures, keep up the good work man. The way this looks it'll be one of those "forever" mods that you just can't play TSL without.

[It's_a_trap 0]

Sweet baby Jesus these textures look awesome! I've never been interested in downloading texture mods before, always been a stickler for not getting them (I can't explain why). But after seeing this work I pretty sure I've changed my mind. I can't wait for the finished product.

[MrPhil 58]

Along with tweaked textures, the below shot has a big change that I'm not gonna point out

 

 

 

 

Well, here's for comparison:

Here's what I got: Floor changed, overall texture change, ship changed (duh), ceiling's darker, screen's changed, Peragus Nebula added, space has changed, the windows looks changed too, without the ugly bars at the lowest part... Hitting any close to mark or what?

Edited January 20, 2014 by MrPhil

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Beautiful textures, keep up the good work man. The way this looks it'll be one of those "forever" mods that you just can't play TSL without.

 

Thanks. It would be nice if it were.

 

Sweet baby Jesus these textures look awesome! I've never been interested in downloading texture mods before, always been a stickler for not getting them (I can't explain why). But after seeing this work I pretty sure I've changed my mind. I can't wait for the finished product.

 

Thanks, nice to see that my work can change people's minds -- really need to see if I can change the title of this thread, though, as it won't just be texture work in the end.

 

 

Here's what I got: Floor changed, overall texture change, ship changed (duh), ceiling's darker, screen's changed, Peragus Nebula added, space has changed, the windows looks changed too, without the ugly bars at the lowest part... Hitting any close to mark or what?

 

 

Nicely spotted. Specifically it is Peragus that now has a nebula, asteroids floating in front of it, and, the correct Peragus artwork that matches all other instances of when it is seen -- I decided to use the one replaced as the basis for the corporate-art floor mosaic. It's not perfect as I'm limited to the mesh that's in place, but still, it is the small details that can end up making a big difference.

 

Probably shouldn't of made a point of it on hindsight, as it is a distinct fix, perhaps not as stand-out as others, but one that makes my mod unique. Doubt it will remain "exclusive" to my mod for very long, though .

[Taki17 5]

Hey sic, are you still working on this project? It's been a while since the last update and your textures are far too amazing to be just abandoned.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

No, it's not quite abandoned yet.

 

Had an injury a while back which left me unable / unwilling to use a computer for a long while until it got better. Since then I've been playing catch up with work along with placing my focus on other projects I've wanted to get done for a long while now.

 

 

 

 

One is a new normal map plugin for the image editing program I prefer to use for textures -- you all might now them as "bump maps" though these days they're called normal maps.

 

 

• None: means there is no normal map so the diffuse is lit up in game bright.
• Neutral: means that there is one but it is an even flat texture -- no details so it gets lit and appears flat in detail.
• Classic: is the old RGB method of normal maps that it can do as well.
• Height: is my new method of doing the RGB component of normal maps to overcome some old issues.

 

I still have to do the A component so that it becomes also an diffuse to RGBA normal map tool; the A is the alpha channel which modern game engines use as well to hold things like a specular map or ambient occlusion map.

 

 

 

 

Though I did do some work on textures before the injury, it was just some placeable work for models that really need NEW models to make any improvement at all. Realistically I've hit a bottleneck on how quickly I can make progress now and I have to decide what I'm prepared to do if I want to move ahead with this mod at all. Especially as initially there will be a lot of work with little to show and I have to weigh up what benefit there is to me in doing so, when I could be doing other things that I may not prefer to be doing, but, do pay the bills -- or are more likely to help on that front in the short-term to mid-term.

[milestails 264]

Glad to hear you're better.

[Hunters Run 57]

Out of curiosity what placeables needs new models?

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Pieces of crap like this one that refuse to look better no matter what texturing tricks I use:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't have a compiled list or anything, but generally they are K1 ones that weren't used all that much in K1 and aren't used at all in K2; like the generic kiosk types that look like they were done by an intern. You can see from that example that not only is it low poly, but also the texture is poorly mapped.

 

I'd change it but it seems like there are issues with replacing placeable meshes, in that if the camera moves over them, you will see them pop out of game existence. Not sure is there is a setting or something I've missed for Max or MDLOPS, but from what I tried I hadn't been able to make them stay put. Though, I'm pretty sure I can get them to stay in place based on the work I did with updating the Czerka sign placeable mesh. However, I think that solution in certain situations, may cause problems :/.

 

Still, I think it's worth updating these regardless, as like other K1 placeables that aren't used in K2 that I've already updated:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If they aren't already used anywhere, then they won't affect anything. So when they are placed, you can make sure to place them where they won't cause a problem -- I think. That way I can make use of them, or, they can be made use of by others as a modder's resource if this mod is installed.

[Hunters Run 57]

The problem with the camera is caused by what I believe to be an incorrect walkmesh. If you put  in a custom walkmesh then you will have problems. if you use the old walkmesh you won't. At least that is what i figure because I think I  had the same problem and it went away when I used one of obsidians walkmeshes.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

I don't recollect doing anything to the walkmesh at all, it may have been "lost" due to the export / import process. I'd have to have a look at it all again to see if that may have been the issue or not. Do recall trying to simply replace / update the static mesh of the mdl file rather than using than generating a new one from the Max export, not sure if I accidentally also tried to update the walkmesh as well.

 

As I said, have to look at it all again as it has been a while -- means figuring out some processes again -- but it would be nice if it ends up being that simple .

[VarsityPuppet 1,086]

I don't recollect doing anything to the walkmesh at all, it may have been "lost" due to the export / import process. I'd have to have a look at it all again to see if that may have been the issue or not.

 

Having played with this very issue several times, I'm convinced that's what it is. We've tried moving one the dummies on the model (don't remember which one) and that seems to have a minor effect, but still it's not a real solution.

 

One thing I'd suggest trying. Instead of recompiling the whole model, use the replacer function in mdlops. That basically allows you replace one trimesh in the binary model based off an ascii export. That might be your best bet trying to preserve that collision data for the camera.

[Hunters Run 57]

I'm unclear on one point- did you import the old walkmesh? Kotor models don't import with their walkmeshes. You have to import them after you import the model. Apologies if you already did so.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

I'm unclear on one point- did you import the old walkmesh? Kotor models don't import with their walkmeshes. You have to import them after you import the model. Apologies if you already did so.

 

I was going to test this all out to be certain but I just don't have the time at the moment to get into it -- as I have to familiarize myself where I saved the different versions of the mdl files to test it all out with to begin with. All I can say is that I also tried what VP said, in that I tried to update an existing mdl file's mesh(es) with MDLOPS, but, can't recollect if I did this for the walkmesh as well by mistake; don't recall all the meshes being named meaningful names, so it could of been easy to do .

 

When I'm ready to revisit the problem, I'll give it another shot before looking at an alternative solution; but at the moment any spare time I have I'm using for something else I'm working on and want to get out of the way before moving on to something else. It's a bit difficult juggling tasks when those tasks aren't at all alike .

[VarsityPuppet 1,086]

I was going to test this all out to be certain but I just don't have the time at the moment to get into it -- as I have to familiarize myself where I saved the different versions of the mdl files to test it all out with to begin with. All I can say is that I also tried what VP said, in that I tried to update an existing mdl file's mesh(es) with MDLOPS, but, can't recollect if I did this for the walkmesh as well by mistake; don't recall all the meshes being named meaningful names, so it could of been easy to do .

 

When I'm ready to revisit the problem, I'll give it another shot before looking at an alternative solution; but at the moment any spare time I have I'm using for something else I'm working on and want to get out of the way before moving on to something else. It's a bit difficult juggling tasks when those tasks aren't at all alike .

 

I'll test my theory and let you know what happens. I've done it with a door before and it worked, but I'll doublecheck.

[Taki17 5]

How's progress on this project? It's been a long time since we've heard something new, this mod looks too promising to be abandoned for good...

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Not much that I can show you to be frank; most of it has been research in how I'm going to solve various bottlenecks along with research for quests I want to add eventually.

 

 

Every now and then I look at this screenshot in particular, and against my better judgement, I start to think about what I want to do next. As disappointing as it is to some, it is still focused around Peragus, as it and the Harbinger represents a part of the game that once the player is finished with it, they never return to again -- so it's kind of self contained that way, along with being very linear. It's kind of a nice big test-case for me to see what I can and can't do; currently most of the "can't" has to do with models as what I can do in that respect is very slow work -- it's very poor as far as "pipeline" is concerned, with much not being possible.

 

Apart from that it is things like getting "generic" things like effects, armor, weapon and placeable models done as this affects the entire game, and not any one planet. None of which I've touched in a long while as I tend to find something pops up that is more pressing for me to focus on -- that or something like an injury occurs or a computer hardware problem occurs that eats into my productive time.

 

But, I figure I should at least complete the things I've started before I decide to abandon it .

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Recently I adopted a 1920x1080 resolution monitor and wanted to setup TSL in order to take some screenshots in order to set one as my desktop when I noticed the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which is not the only difference I noticed in that with others visual errors were pretty much fixed due to the new resolution -- not sure went wrong there, would need to check it to see who I implemented the change. Anyway, I was wondering what resolution people were playing the game in, old box monitor or something more widescreen / HD..?

 

Anyway, some more screenshots taken at the higher resolution if people want to see the difference:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following one with the old resolution would of had an issue with the nebula around Peragus at this angle, with there being a very serated / pixelated border; at this resolution it is barely perceptible:

 

 

Not sure if the following are too dark from some, all I know is that in game it was too bright -- I'll have to check the current brightness settings of the game and monitor I think:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Some more higher rez screens:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI: All the Telos textures that I did for the initial release are going to be tweaked to update them with the remaining ones missing done -- along with eventually certain ones hex edited to others.

 

 

 

 

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Another set, probably the last set of high rez shots of things I've already shown...

 

 

 

 

Wow, I thought that these initial textures I did were pretty good, now I think they're butt-ugly! Especially those skybox textures I have yet to replace :-/

 

 

The only shot of the outdoors that I like -- I really want to hex edit the hell out of the outdoors, maybe some more placeables like better trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly some Nar Shaddaa aliens:

 

 

 

 

 

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Wait, found a few more I forgot about...

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn't quite as sure before but know I'm certain that those weird splotches are supposed to be LucasArts TM PG blood...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[milestails 264]

Salivating...

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Thanks as always Milestails!

 

Some stuff I started working on after doing those screens...

 

 

 

 

My desktop rig uses an ATI based card, so, I tend to have issues with foliage but luckily so far I've been able to see things like grass. However, I noticed when I was working on the placeable textures that there was a weird shader problem to do with leaves:

 

 

 

If you look around the leave edges when the bark is directly behind them, you'll notice that the bark texture is erased exposing the wall behind them -- though the edges of the leaves are much smoother / anti-aliased. My fix below is a workaround for ATI cards that I came up with last time:

 

 

 

Though the problem is "solved" it does result in the edges of the leaves themselves to be more jagged / pixelated due to what appears to be a lack of anti-aliasing. Though it's not as bad as before due to the higher rez, it is still apparent, in particular, as seen from a distance -- making them feel more like paper cutouts.

 

The newer tweaked version is much like the my previous version, but, seems better as seen from a distance:

 

 

 

The difference is that the leaves are all lit the same brightness whereas the screens above show some to be darkened due to lighting and position. It's not a big issue I think as most probably wouldn't of noticed it if I hadn't pointed it out, however, I do think that they tend to look less artificial (cutout) as seen from a distance.

 

Still not sure which option to provide people with.

 

 

 

 

I've also started to improve the structural texture as seen from Telos station looking out:

 

 

Previous version:

 

 

I want to see whether I can hex edit it so that the upper mesh and lower mesh can use different textures; but, I'm guessing that they have been linked together as they use the same texture, and I'll need to get it to work by using the one texture only.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Telos outer structure and planet texture set -- unlikely to change much...

 

 

 

 

 

The struts is a large 2048x2048 texture with a decent amount of variation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an issue though, in that other game areas use a different model with differing mesh settings:

 

 

That will take some time to resolve, especially as I a custom tex and txi file will look on the crap side.