My Projects In the Pipeline (mostly texture related)

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Oh yeah, that's what I'm taking bout.

[Malkior 476]

Back and with more updates.

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Dxun is nearly done. I've added the other noticeable mountain hill and a more detailed moon to the outer corner. It's still a bit squashed, but just requires a bit of tweaking. 

 

The same moon has been added onto the temple module and that module can finally have a unique skybox, so I made it look a bit darker/ more like night. 

 

<on a sidenote, a family member actually told me that the moon would make sense to be directly above the sith tomb, since in the mayan culture it was common practice with temples and the like. Since the tomb/ temple rather looks like it's Mayan in design, and since the sith on Onderon had many similarities to these cultures, I think it makes sense.>

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After much appreciated assistance from SIC, (and finding out that I had a hex editor already in the Notepad ++ I downloaded earlier) I have gotten the Harbinger to be its own separate entity from the rest of the Hammerhead class ships. 

 

I also got the light texture in Narshadaa to stop duplicating onto the lit tables, and they will instead have their own higher resolution texture applied to them. I kept the light texture on the countertop in the Pazaak den, since I think it looks good.

 

On the topic of that, I updated the food texures to a higher level of color fidelity, since it was frankly sticking out to me whenever I would run through Narshadaa levels.

 

 

The light texture would also duplicate onto the windows outside the cantina and Pazaak den, but depending on people's opinion, I can either keep it the same, or make a unique texture for them.

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I FINALLY got the new spark texture I've been working on to stop showing up when the "kick" animation is used. (so that it no longer looks like they're taking an arc welder to the face ...)

 

A side effect of this makes it so that lightsaber and melee strikes will use an entirely different spark type.

In my tests, it looks kind of like a small red explosion whenever you score a melee hit, but I'm thinking of just relegating that to blaster hits, and instead using a more neutral color for melee.

 

My spark mod should be available to download soon.

 

(The accompanying unique weapon visuals in which each weapontype IE, charric, blaster, Ion are different looking visually)

 is nearly completed with the exception of what color to use for the bowcaster. It's a question of whether to keep with most video games and use bright green or movie canon where it's an orange-ish color <or something entirely different since this is the time of the Old Republic  >)

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And lastly, a few Korriban skybox shots of my current attempt to get rid of the banding in the texture; I'm thinking the clouds may need a resolution boost later as well.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Very nice Malkior.

 

Those weapon FX screens reminds me that I still have to finish off my own .

[Malkior 476]

@SIC Wow. We really do think alike.

 

I tried to get the charric to look unique, but to keep it in line with the descriptions from Zahn's Visions of the Future.

I'm thinking of giving the bowcaster a unique sound effect which is more in line with say, jedi outcast and more of a ball of condensed energy instead of a blaster bolt. Do you think the energy ball design is too much of a diversion from the OT?

I guess the color isn't too much of an issue, since I can change that with a few seconds in PS.

 

BTW, the third screen is an ion weapon/electrical bolt; not that of the disruptor/charric.

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I am also interested in whether the impact sprites look too much like blood for the melee sprites. I want it to have a visually dynamic effect, but I NEVER want to even infer that lightsabers draw blood.. -they cauterize.. I was thinking that since the swords and lightsabers share the same animation file, a good neutral ground would be a bright effect with no color. (or perhaps more of a shockwave looking effect instead of sparks) Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

@SIC Wow. We really do think alike.

 

I tried to get the charric to look unique, but to keep it in line with the descriptions from Zahn's Visions of the Future.

I'm thinking of giving the bowcaster a unique sound effect which is more in line with say, jedi outcast and more of a ball of condensed energy instead of a blaster bolt. Do you think the energy ball design is too much of a diversion from the OT?

I guess the color isn't too much of an issue, since I can change that with a few seconds in PS.

 

BTW, the third screen is an ion weapon/electrical bolt; not that of the disruptor/charric.

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I've never read that particular SW novel; actually, haven't read that many beyond the Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn. I find most of them to be formulaic and rushed in order to meet the market needs of the publisher or circumstances. Like Drew's Revan novel which really should have been a trilogy of books rather than one condensed book created for SW:TOR -- Revan as a character and the corner stone as it were to the Old Republic era of the SW universe, really demanded more than one underwhelming book. As it is, it's a failure in my opinion.

 

So I really can't comment on the Charric effect. Bowcasters I think traditionally -- perhaps not in all SW sources but on average -- has a greenish effect. But, I think it should be whatever you like in the end; plus, "lore" changes quite a bit and is often based on things like art direction more than any logical reason -- that is beyond technical issues as to why Luke Skywalker has a green-bladed lightsabre in ROTJ. Though it's probably not a good idea to stray too far from canon, I do also think that some people take canon a little too seriously .

[Malkior 476]

Visions of the Future actually takes place 10 years after the Original Trilogy, written back before books had to canonically justify marketing decisions about video games. (my opinion on the matter notwithstanding)

 

I'd suggest to at least check out Zahn's work. So far he's my favorite author who not only keeps an obsessive amount of Star Wars details/nomenclature in his writing, but also cares enough to flesh out even his minor characters while keeping the story interesting. He's also one of the few authors who can keep some level of mystery in his writing until the very end where upon the reveal, it makes sense to have happened that way. He also created Mara Jade who is one of the more fleshed-out characters (later dumbed down by other writers..) as well as, Grand Admiral Thrawn: an alien master strategist  who uses deductive reasoning not unlike Sherlock Holmes to command the imperial fleet.

 

It is ironic that bowcaster bolts are only green in "canon" because the designer for Dark Forces wanted to give it a unique appearance..

[MrPhil 58]

Timothy Zahn is actually the reason there is an expanded universe. He is the first one to have written books in the expanded universe setting; the trilogy of Thrawn. It was so much succesful that it enabled all the other ones to get a shot, but without him, who knows if there would have been an expanded universe. Karpyshyn's good, but the writing is not the same. As Malkior said, Zahn has a knack for details and his story is very interesting and on a star wars level, pretty realistic (when compared to novels like The Dark Saber, Jedi Academy Trilogy, everything that's Barbara Hambly, the Tales of... series and the Dark Empire comics). If I had a top 5 of star wars author, it would go Zahn on top and then, in no particular order: Michael Reaves, Drew Karpyshyn, Michael Stackpole and Steve Perry.

Edited November 26, 2013 by MrPhil

[Malkior 476]

I had no idea he was technically the founder of the EU.

 

It is also truly a pity what they did to Mara (his own character that HE created). I'm of course referring to what they did in the game "Mysteries of the Force"

In which they strip any level of dimensionality from her character and instead give her a low IQ and a minimal amount of combat experience; this is in spite of the fact that she was THE EMPEROR'S HAND and made a living off of infiltrating highly armed compounds (typically by outmanuevering and outgunning the inhabitants) and then assassinating extremely wealthy and powerful targets.. but no! she can't fight off a few guards without Kyle Katarn: an amateur jedi knight who learns from Luke.. and Luke was defeated by Mara in a lightsaber duel!.. eh.. anyway.. yeah. I didn't like that game or how Mara was portrayed in it. Unfortunately she is treated this way from that game on to the point that I had that misconception of her when I first read the first book she was even mentioned in..

Indeed, it turns out that they *the unnamed club that writes Star Wars novels* made their decision regarding Mara

what with the killing her

for the NJO series without his consent or prior knowledge.. However, that's another conversation for perhaps another topic.
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Aaanyway..

 

As per my update of things what I'm working on, I've been cleaning up the foliage on Dxun.

 
I cleaned up the Alpha for the grass texture in the Dxun jungle since its pixelated low quality bugs me so much, and did a few contrast and color corrections to the treeline to make it look less like a floral divider.
 
The difference may be difficult to see, but trust me, it's better.
 
For comparison..
 
Here's before:
 
Here's After:
 
Of course now that I've fixed the grass, the floor texture looks blurry beside it and the top of the treeline needs to be finessed to look less "blocky".
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Korriban's taking on a new stage of work since basically the skybox is far too smudged in its default state, so I'm repainting all of the clouds.. Here's the reference I'll be using: 

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Additionally, I'm working through the preliminary stages of the Mandalorian shuttle to see which parts affect what on the UVW. 
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So, my work's mostly cloud painting for now so that I can get it done before the often laborious process of edge cleaning.. 
 
In the meantime of that, I'll work on some neat designs for the bowcaster quarrel and show them here when I can..

[MrPhil 58]

If you want better example of Mara's true capacities, Why not read these novels by Zahn?; Allegiance, Choices of One.

 

Grass looks better on Dxun.

 

Nice Skybox sample. Hey, a few years ago, I took this picture of a crazy sunset I had at home. Feels just about right. Not sure you could use-it, but if you can, why the hell not... Can't seem to upload the photo here, so this link might work:

 

Nice Tron shuttle you got there

[Malkior 476]

So the Korriban Skybox was taking forever to adapt the original color palette to get anything even remotely looking like a real sunset. To take my mind off of it, I retextured the raindrop texture to look as realistic as I could since the original rain was 1px by 1px blobs.

When paused, battles look more like the Matrix.     ... which is cool.

 

If only the game engine would allow me to increase the speed the rain particles travel, so it looks more like a downpour and less like a drizzle. 

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It's take .. erm, 3 on getting this cloud structure to look right.

Here's what I have so far. 

I think they're decent, but not as good as I'm aiming for.. 

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And, some in progress shots of the Onderon Backdrop.

I think the sky's too dark still, though..

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@ Mr Phil 

 

I actually bought a copy of the Choices of One and even got to meet Timothy Zahn where he signed it and my copy of Outbound Flight (another really great one) One has to read Allegiance to understand the characters and set up of the Choices of One, but I prefer the latter just for how cool Mara is in it. Heh, all of his Star Wars novels are connected, so one really has to read them all to get the full scope. (I have high hopes for Scoundrels.)

 

..BTW if you're interested, I have also read Zahn's Quadrail series, and it is phenomenal. (The premise is basically a Noir set in the backdrop of an intergalactic supertrain run by .. ehm giant robotic spiders.. The details get even crazier, but it's still highly believable and abundantly interesting.)  In my opinion, his independent writing is just as good if not better than his Star Wars material.

 

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Does the grass also fixes the issue ATI users (like me) have with Grass?

 

Currently using Jcarter's fix for that, but wondering if yours would do similar...

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Does the grass also fixes the issue ATI users (like me) have with Grass?

 

Currently using Jcarter's fix for that, but wondering if yours would do similar...

 

Checking out the problem / fix, well, if that's the issue why grass in particular has issues appearing in-game then that is so easy to fix it's not funny -- you can do it with one or two effects filters if you can't be bothered using your eraser to clean it up.

 

Not the best thread for this, but, kinda wondering whether anyone had issues with my Telos grass textures, as it has a bit of the "not so invisible" pixels as part of that texture as well. Which is not surprising as it was like the first texture I created for TSL and was still learning how to use various tools. Wondering if so as I'd like to make sure that all the grass / plant textures show up nicely in-game and all.

 

FYI: A year or so ago I had to re-install everything when my SSD died, which meant updating all the drivers and such for my graphics card. Prior to this it didn't work for me, after, the grass showed up perfectly -- still doesn't for KOTOR though. Might be worth checking to see whether everything is up to date with your system. If you're like me, you'll do this once and then leave it be so as not to be hassled beyond generic Windows updates .

[Malkior 476]

@ Hassat Hunter

 

Well, all I did was edit the alpha mask a bit. From what you're saying it seems to be more of a driver glitch in using the proper transparencies. I would be extremely glad if adding more pixel data to the layer mask (by making the grass parts of the texture more opaque) fixes the glitch as well, but I can't say for sure, since I've never had any issues with the default grass showing up since I upgraded my card about 10 years ago. However, there is an option to turn the grass off in the menu. Is it possible that something isn't switching on when it's checked to visible. (That's my best guess. I haven't had driver issues with it, so I have no idea, really. )

 

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... Well after actually reading the solution, it seems pretty simple. If darkening the background fixes the grass, I can run a couple of contrast filters on top of my texture if it helps.

 

@Self Induced Coma

 

Was your grass the same in your texture pack as of March 2013?

 

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One other question, do you know where the hints (displayed during loading screens) are found to be edited? I see a couple of grammatical errors and minor redundancies I want to correct.

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Also, what do you guys think about the rain? I thought it was too big, but if I make it any smaller, it looks more like a trickle and I want it to look like a downpour. Second to that, is there a simple way to make the rain effect animate faster without breaking everything?

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

 

@SelfInducedComa

 

Was your grass the same in your texture pack as of March 2013?

 

Yep, that's the one.

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Well, it's been a problem for ATI cards for YEARS, so updating drivers wont help. And downgrading 3 years back? Yeah, bad idea.

 

So was hoping if you had a grass that was working proper I might add it to TSLRCM to fix it for all ATI users (without affecting Nvidia users with worse looking grass like JCarter's fix). If it infacts looks worse, don't have a nvidia anymore.

 

If you could send just the grass I could check it? Using jcarter's now for my own install (yeah, I know, keeping the game pure, but here's an exception . Also for various modding tools like wherami of course XD)...

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Well, it's been a problem for ATI cards for YEARS, so updating drivers wont help. And downgrading 3 years back? Yeah, bad idea.

 

So was hoping if you had a grass that was working proper I might add it to TSLRCM to fix it for all ATI users (without affecting Nvidia users with worse looking grass like JCarter's fix). If it infacts looks worse, don't have a nvidia anymore.

 

If you could send just the grass I could check it? Using jcarter's now for my own install (yeah, I know, keeping the game pure, but here's an exception . Also for various modding tools like wherami of course XD)...

 

Sent a couple of  versions of the grass to you to try out.

 

Yeah, I still use an ATI card for the (aging) dev rig; think it was perhaps a Catalyst driver update that did it. All I know is that it didn't work before but does know; I also always assumed it was due to ATI's OpenGL support specifically that was the issue, especially considering that KOTOR still has the problem for me.

 

About the only thing I know for certain is that I will never buy an ATI graphics card again nor an Asus motherboard and AMD CPU... Too many "issues" that I've had to fix or put up with.

[Hassat Hunter 571]

I ... have pretty much all of those, and no issues... :?

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

I ... have pretty much all of those, and no issues... :?

 

New games tend to have a visual stutter to them. I think all graphics cards do, but in particular, for ATI cards its much worse. That's one example I can think of that I can do without .

 

What the hell, two more: 1) AMD chips run hotter requiring more cooling which also means more noise; 2) my ASUS motherboard when I put my PC to sleep, sometimes, doesn't come back out of sleep requiring me to manually turn it off and then re-start of everything -- though it's a hassle as you then have to reload everything, it probably also helps move my system towards being corrupted and needing a clean re-install; possibly even permanent damage to hardware from a forced restart.

[Malkior 476]

So, are we good on the grass? Do you want me to send you a copy of what I've got and see if it doesn't fix that graphics problem in addition to the visual changes it already does?

--

Oh, and I have an Nvidia on my PC as well. I got sick of the research that comes necessary with running the drivers on different games, and I still suspect it being responsible for murdering two of my monitors; which was never proven. (..Of course my Nvidia has its own problems running anything better than Kotor, but I have an older system with only four gigs of ram, so it could be more complicated than just my GPU)

[Malkior 476]

And so a return to progress. 
 
A few screens on how the bowcaster shot is looking.

(normal shot)
 
                                                 

(power blast)
 
I'm not fully satisfied with the look, but I think with a few size adjustments, it should start looking more along the lines of what I want. I also intend to do a recolor in orange for the purists among us.
 
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A great distraction I've been working on for much of the time I've been modding has been to get the Gammoreans up at least close to the quality level of the human NPCs.

 
Over the next couple of days/weeks I plan to clean up the muscles on the thighs (yes I notice they look a bit..off.) and add more texture to the legs. The clothing and armor could also do with a quality improvement, but I'm thinking that will probably take place later. My ultimate goal is something looking between the appearance on Return of the Jedi, and this incredible statue. 
This as well as quality renovated Ithorian textures (which I'm working on soon afterward.) will be included in the next phase of my Aliens Redetailed Pack (although, I may rename it in the future?..)

 

I know that the Ithorian texture is technically slightly better in Kotor 1, but I aim to take the appearance used on this model image I found as well as several concept images, to make them look significantly closer to what they would look like in "reality". My ultimate goal is to make all of the ported Kotor 2 alien assets look as good or slightly better than the original Kotor 1 ones, so A: the user won't have to port all of their own assets to make Kotor 2 look as good as it should have been considering what it was made from, and B: so that Kotor 2 will have a unique visual identity even though 8/10ths of it is recycled from Kotor 1.

 

I included this in the spoiler tag, because I don't want to look like I actively want people to port assets from 1 and 2 since it's technically frowned on for this community, even though the textures from Kotor 1 are clearly better looking. So I am letting the user do that at their own discretion in much a similar way they decide to read this wall of text

 

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After another round of working on the Korriban skybox, I've come the the astounding conclusion that, after removing the clouds, it looks much higher quality. 

 

 

 

Therefore, I will redraw the whole thing with the refs I've got. (most significantly the image Mr Phil provided; many thanks, btw )

 

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Aside

 

I also slightly darkened the rain texture I altered so that it looks less monochromatic.

 

 

For those who like it, would you be interested in an effect texture pack with the altered lightning, drain, and flame effects?

 

 

Also, any feedback you have is extremely appreciated. I want all of this to be of the right quality, but also I want it to be something you guys like.

[Zhaboka 91]

Can we see a video of the rain texture in animated action?

[Malkior 476]

Here you go!

 

 

I've never uploaded a recorded video before, so hopefully it works well.

 

....   So the embed code ain't working... I'll just have to post links to the video unless I just don't know how to properly embed video on this site...  

 

Link 1

 

Link 2

 

(mentioned in the video, but important to note nonetheless; I had to cut the audio since FRAPS decided to record ... oddly. It sounds almost like it recorded from my microphone or just didn't like the Kotor audio. If anyone knows how to record kotor footage with FRAPS-free version, I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong..)

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Looks good man, but I'd maybe change the drop so it's a little thinner. They look like gigantic drops.

 

Can you control the density of the rain? I'd make the rain smaller and try to add more of it.

[Malkior 476]

The rain spawns so many particles that it is only viable to up the texture size to 32 px. The rain itself is about 4 to 5 pixels across. I've tried numerous approaches, but I'll see what I can do.

 

I can't control the rain spawn itself, since it's (I believe) coded into the game for the spawn number and particle size. I, knowing very little on how to code, don't know how to change it.

[Malkior 476]

The rain spawns so many particles that it is only viable to up the texture size to 32 px. The rain itself is about 4 to 5 pixels across. I've tried numerous approaches, but I'll see what I can do.

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Alright now that I'm more fully awake, I'll tell you the real reason that I made them so big. I tried a smaller size, but the spawn amount is just too minimal, so it looked like dribbling rather than full-on rainfall. Since I don't know how to change the spawn amount, the slightly larger size gave the same visual effect of a torrential downpour which I was trying to accomplish. 

 

Since you do have an accurate argument, (they are a bit too big) when I can work on it, I will try a few slightly larger sizes than 32 px, but any larger and the aforementioned "dribble" effect will take hold.

 

That said, the engine really does start to strain after 64 px is exceeded, so I can't go too big.

 

The below paragraph still (unfortunately) applies...

 

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I can't control the rain spawn itself, since it's (I believe) coded into the game for the spawn number and particle size. I, knowing very little on how to code, don't know how to change it.