My Projects In the Pipeline (mostly texture related)

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Nope, no changes on our account, you might have used VP's mod then.

[Malkior 476]

Hey that's cool then. I definitely prefer it, personally. would it be likely to be implemented in TSLRCM, or is that less restoring and more changing?

 

I'll also try to talk with some people about implementing unique character models for em'.. with VP's permission, of course.

[MrPhil 58]

That would be great!

[Fair Strides 508]

 If someone with more coding knowledge than I can manage to do that, I'd be more than happy to make unique bodies for all of them. In fact, I've wanted to do that for years..

 

Well, I can script them in, if that's what you mean. I can't model them, however...

[Malkior 476]

Well, I can script them in, if that's what you mean. I can't model them, however...

 

Yeah, I can't imagine having to remodel them. Scripting in renamed versions of the miner model files that are directed to different textures should do the trick. 

[MrPhil 58]

Heh, would be fun to have Miners with different morphs to them though (while we are at-it). Some fat guys and some douchbag/beef guys would be fitting, instead of all same size. Some little and bigger miners too.

Edited January 11, 2014 by MrPhil

[Malkior 476]

Would be fun, but the entire game uses the same build for pretty much every person. You would have to rebuild the entire game in order for Peragus to fit around it. (I also personally believe that Peragus is perhaps one of the deadlier places to work, and due to the strain, I would think most miners would stay physically fit; now if you were talking about Citadel Station...  )

 

All in all, fun times.

 

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And an update.

 

Over the weekend, I was able to significantly increase the quality of the consoles found pretty much everywhere throughout Kotor 2. Here are a few of the best screens.

 

Peragus:

 

 

 

Dxun:

 

 

 

Polar Complex:

 

 

 

 

Ebon Hawk:

 

 

 

 

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Additionally, as per SH's valid point, here is the Nebula with the Vanilla Peragus II backdrop.

 

 

 

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And lastly, I am all to overjoyed to have found at least a temporary solution to the eye gratingly see-through holgram people

 

Examples:

1

Before:

 

After:

 

2

Before:

 

After:

 

 

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Oh yeah, and I spent all day trying to fix the super overblurred Ebon Hawk in the prologue by painstakingly adding panel details to a 1820 X 1820 px texture.

 I hope it's at least an improvement..

 

  I'm still not sure whether to call it a success or "experiment with potential"..

 

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I've got a couple more things in the works, but the number of images will have a limit it to another post..

 

 

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I'm thinking I should probably start releasing this stuff into the download section soon.

 

I've nearly gotten all of the skyboxes finished for my newest version of More Vibrant Skies:the mod, and I'm all but done with retexturing Peragus into a higher definition. 

 

Which leaves me with Peragus and Telos nearly retextured while Dxun is pretty much a done pack. I'm thinking of dabbling with some of the features on Dantooine, but not sure if I'll have the time to do so.

 

As far as other mods go, I'm refocusing my efforts soon on a revision of Redetailed Aliens with the inclusion of a full Gamorean retexture and hopefully a much better level of detail on the Ithorian NPCs. I will also include the Boma retex as an added beast to the mod. 

 

I'll probably have a separate mod for some of the little fixes on miscellaneous things such as the boxes, sign, and spacesuit retex.

 

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A side idea I had...:I'm looking into finding a way to make mines more.. mine like: IE undetectable if running. It just looks so hokey to me when a level loads, and you end up with a bunch of glowing spheres with enough awareness stat, no matter how careless you are. It warns you in-game not to run when trying to find them, but it doesn't seems to matter whether walking or running. I was thinking either to increase the cost of awareness while running, or to find the texture that creates "detected" mines and make it more transparent so as to not immediately see it..

[Fair Strides 508]

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A side idea I had...:I'm looking into finding a way to make mines more.. mine like: IE undetectable if running. It just looks so hokey to me when a level loads, and you end up with a bunch of glowing spheres with enough awareness stat, no matter how careless you are. It warns you in-game not to run when trying to find them, but it doesn't seems to matter whether walking or running. I was thinking either to increase the cost of awareness while running, or to find the texture that creates "detected" mines and make it more transparent so as to not immediately see it..

 

Well...

 

The whole running thing is true. Your awareness takes a 2 or 3 point penalty while running. Not much, but eh.

 

As to the texture, after a half hour of digging, here's what I got:

 

The texture should be fx_static.

The .txi info for the texture is:

blending additive

decal 1

compresstexture 0

 

If you open the .tga, you'll find this:

 

 

 

 

The Alpha layer is this:

 

 

 

 

From what I see, if you color the squares marked white to gray on the alpha, you should be okay without screwing it up. And don't forge the .txi info, otherwise the results could be...unexpected...

 

Wish ya luck!

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

A side idea I had...:I'm looking into finding a way to make mines more.. mine like: IE undetectable if running. It just looks so hokey to me when a level loads, and you end up with a bunch of glowing spheres with enough awareness stat, no matter how careless you are. It warns you in-game not to run when trying to find them, but it doesn't seems to matter whether walking or running. I was thinking either to increase the cost of awareness while running, or to find the texture that creates "detected" mines and make it more transparent so as to not immediately see it..

 

 

An easy way to accomplish this is by simply changing the DC values for each mine. They significantly lowered these values from k1 to k2 so it could almost be considered a bug.

[MrPhil 58]

Wow, these consoles looks way better!

 

But what gets my eye even more is the holo fix you did. Jeez, nice work! This always bothered me and nobody seemed to want to take the time to fix-it... This is a wonderful idea you've had right there!

 

The prologue Ebon Hawk looks unbelievable! Much better looking!

[Malkior 476]

@Fair Strides

 

Thank you sooo much for providing me with the texture name! Most of my time has been devoted to tracking down texture names, and I wasn't sure there was a way I could ever find it. I'll see what I can do.

 

BTW, which .2da controls what awareness you lose while running? I've got some ideas of how this could work..

 

@Varsity Puppet

 

I had no idea they actually tweaked the value from K1 to K2.. Although, I kind of wondered why in the Prologue, the mines would instantly show up on the Hawk http://lparchive.org/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-II/Update%201/img-24.JPG (immersion breaking for me from the first time I played it IMO) I'm glad it's addressable, but now I have to find a way to make it realistic yet playable: IE if you go running into a field, it's doubtful you'll see them, but not frustrating to the point of breaking the flow of gameplay.. Er.. playtesting could also be an option, perhaps.. :\ ..

 

@Mr Phil

 

Thanks. I hoped the consoles would be noticeable without comparison screenshots. 

 

The holos were something I had wanted fixed from day one, but I'm glad others shared this belief. Hopefully the rest of them are as simple to fix..

 

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A couple more things.

 

I have a few sound edits for the glass breaking in the Harbinger and the spacesuit breathing sound. I'll give it another shot with FRAPS to see if it can finally capture sound, but in lieu of that, I'll upload the files here if it doesn't work. 

 

I have.. yet another project with the effect files in order to make the splash effect have a more localized appearance. Comparison:

Before

 

 

After

 

 

(By "localized" I mean less of a spray of water in all directions, and more of a jet of water from where your boots hit.) *pay no attention to the man-skirt...

 

More stuff as I can update on it...

[MrPhil 58]

Never actually noticed this splash being misplaced. Nice that it'S gonna be fixed though!

[Malkior 476]

Never actually noticed this splash being misplaced. Nice that it'S gonna be fixed though!

 Ulp.. no that's the screenshot's fault. The ocean's geometry actually starts at ground level. The splashes can show up in random places due to this.. I guess it's my fault for not getting a better comparison shot. Fixed, but on further inspection, the shots look danged near identical... it's really, really subtle since I edited the the effect texture and not the alpha.. and editing the alpha seems to make it worse..

Gonna need some work..   Sorry about that..

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

 

BTW, which .2da controls what awareness you lose while running? I've got some ideas of how this could work..

 

@Varsity Puppet

 

I had no idea they actually tweaked the value from K1 to K2.. Although, I kind of wondered why in the Prologue, the mines would instantly show up on the Hawk http://lparchive.org/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-II/Update%201/img-24.JPG (immersion breaking for me from the first time I played it IMO) I'm glad it's addressable, but now I have to find a way to make it realistic yet playable: IE if you go running into a field, it's doubtful you'll see them, but not frustrating to the point of breaking the flow of gameplay.. Er.. playtesting could also be an option, perhaps.. :\ ..

 

I believe the 2da is called traps.2da.  If you compare the traps.2da from k1 and k2 side by side and go from there, it actually yields pretty interesting results. For instance, this makes all of the mines in Peragus only appear if you are walking (I actually ran into some my first playthrough because they didn't appear).

 

Additionally, the mines can only be recovered if you bolster up your demoltions skill. Otherwise, at best, you can disarm them only.

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Do note trapdifficulty is adjusted by the difficulty setting.

Don't think it was that way in KOTOR1.

[Malkior 476]

I believe the 2da is called traps.2da.  If you compare the traps.2da from k1 and k2 side by side and go from there, it actually yields pretty interesting results. For instance, this makes all of the mines in Peragus only appear if you are walking (I actually ran into some my first playthrough because they didn't appear).

 

Additionally, the mines can only be recovered if you bolster up your demoltions skill. Otherwise, at best, you can disarm them only.

 

Heh.. So if I change the DC of mines, it also effects the recoverability?.. Also strange that intelligence doesn't factor into that equation and that there's no saving throws with dexterity when disarming them.. I guess I'm nit-picking at that point though..

Do note trapdifficulty is adjusted by the difficulty setting.

Don't think it was that way in KOTOR1.

 

Fascinating.. I guess K1 developers figured that players would expect mines to be brutal no matter what difficulty level.

 

Still hilarious that NPCs always fall for mines whenever I drop them behind me.

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Heh.. So if I change the DC of mines, it also effects the recoverability?.. Also strange that intelligence doesn't factor into that equation and that there's no saving throws with dexterity when disarming them.. I guess I'm nit-picking at that point though..

 

Fascinating.. I guess K1 developers figured that players would expect mines to be brutal no matter what difficulty level.

 

I think Intelligence skill applies to the overall demolition skill.

[Malkior 476]

Yeah, I think intelligence is just used as a skill-point pool of sorts. Just a strange inquiry as to why they didn't use it differently..

 

Also what awareness did your character have in order to see them when walking, but not running? My character either sees them both ways or not at all.. :| I'm trying to make walking a viable strategy instead of just a visual choice.. 

 

BTW, you can actually see mines sticking out of the ground if you look closely enough. (even when your character can't see them)

 

 

 

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And it turns out that after looking at the feedback panel in-game, running seems to have no penalty on awareness checks...

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

I'm fairly positive it works, even if it's not reported in the feedback panel. How else would I have run into one and then when I stopped, they all showed up? I suppose it only shows up based on movement in general. I don't know. I should check, but I'm way too tired.

[Malkior 476]

Hmm.. I can't say whether the code actually runs or not since I don't even know where to look, but I have a literal 1 point difference between detecting mines and not; and regardless of whether I walk or run into the area, they are detected. The only way for my character to not notice them is by increasing the check by 5, which then makes it impossible to detect no matter what.

 

BTW, I have one version of a retex for the mines out

 

If you have any alternatives you'd like to see, I'm open to any ideas. Just bear in mind that the texture has to rotate forward all the time, so not all will be feasible..

 

 

Footage of it in action on my Youtube account.

(linkage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPVlHwPs--4&feature=youtu.be)

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Looks cool!

But yes, it makes them harder to spot. Although based on your vid description, that was kinda the goal anyway (not that I don't have all mines memorised by now )

[Zhaboka 91]

Yeah, the mines are waaaaay too easy to see. The character's awareness should make them just visible, not giant opaque bubbles on the ground. I really like what you did there, Malkior! Is there any way to have them get progressively more opaque as the PC's awareness increases?

[Malkior 476]

Yeah, the mines are waaaaay too easy to see. The character's awareness should make them just visible, not giant opaque bubbles on the ground. I really like what you did there, Malkior! Is there any way to have them get progressively more opaque as the PC's awareness increases?

Hmm.. That would require adding code to check for awareness stat and change the texture as it increases.. I would probably require help from people who regularly use script with the engine, so that I wouldn't break anything

 

That said, I definitely like the idea

 

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BTW, Speaking of the mines, did you know that there are unique models for each different type?

 

 

 Sonic:  

 

 Frag:

 

 

(there are others, but I don't want to overburden this page with images :|)

 

Interesting to note that someone actually went through the trouble to model and skin them yet it was impossible to see them.

 

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I'm working on the screens for the next progress update, and will have it up as soon as I can.

[milestails 264]

Never knew about the different models of mines!

 

I agree that the "bubbles" should be significantly altered in some way.

[Malkior 476]

Never knew about the different models of mines!

 

I agree that the "bubbles" should be significantly altered in some way.

 

Fun Fact: There are fully textured models for Stimpacks, Belts, Armbands/Gauntlets, and even Security Spikes/Medpacks in the Kotor2 game files. It seems to me that they were planning on making armbands and usable items actually appear in-game, but either scrapped the idea due to difficulty implementing it, or ran out of time.

 

I'd rather like to see them as a part of gameplay (I feel the options to customize your appearance would be nearly endless, and it'd be cool if the "give item" animation actually showed datapads and credits; Oh, yeah I forgot to mention that those were also in the files :]...), but I'm sure it would be a huge project in and of itself to actually make them work. 

 

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And an update as well.

 

Gamorreans.

 

Before:

  

 

 

After:

  

 

 

I'm planning on adding a bit more detail to the clothing on the Gamorrean Boss (Top picture in each list) to denote him as a leader type, and will be probably tweaking the muscle definition as well. I also have to get the metal on the gauntlets to look much more realistic since their weapons actually use the creature's texture.

 

Please let me know if anything is off or needs work as this will be included in the Aliens Redetailed resubmission.