My Projects In the Pipeline (mostly texture related)

[Malkior 476]

Okay. Backed-up all of my files onto an external HD. The only other option I can see is to use dropbox, which I'm pretty sure has a limit to about 10 gigs.. Thanks for the advice, though, SH.

[Bas Qui-Xoi 6]

Wow! that looks great.

[Fair Strides 509]

Okay. Backed-up all of my files onto an external HD. The only other option I can see is to use dropbox, which I'm pretty sure has a limit to about 10 gigs.. Thanks for the advice, though, SH.

Speaking as a user of Dropbox, the free setup has a limit of 2 GB, though you get 500 MB for every friend and yourself who installs the desktop app...

[Malkior 476]

Wow! that looks great.

Thanks, Bas!

 

I'm really digging that avatar, btw.

 

 

Speaking as a user of Dropbox, the free setup has a limit of 2 GB, though you get 500 MB for every friend and yourself who installs the desktop app... 

 

Ah, so that explains why my game group had to use multiple accounts to hold all of our stuff, and still managed to fill them up..

[Xedii 17]

I like the atton wear...nice

[Aeliren 5]

Wow. That looks amazing!

[djnugent 34]

DAMN. Speechless. Those skyboxes are gorgeous. 

[Zhaboka 91]

Ughhh your skyboxes are so amazing. I love the Telos one, with the polluted-looking clouds and then the blue sky above. Korriban one almost made me cry (true fact). Onderon's looking gorgeous - makes it seem much more like late afternoon than the old one.

[Jorak Uln 458]

Nice to see your project continue! Personally i like your Telos and Dantooine skybox most, they really mirror the atmosphere of the planets..

Onderon look great, although the resolution seems to be a bit low. Would it be possible to turn it up?

Anyway, great job and cant wait for the next one!

[Malkior 476]

Thank you soo much for your kind words, all of you

 

Additionally, I am excited to reveal yet more things that I've been running with, lately.

 

 

Ironically, I was only playing through Dxun to the beginning of Onderon, so a lot of my focus has been on that specific planet's textures.

 

Grass:

Before 

 

After 

 

 

 

 

(Note: I also used FairStride's WalkSwitch editor to change the grass texture in the first module to "swamp" tiles, so now the ground splashes water when you run on it)

 

 

 

 

 

I also changed the Onderon Planet backdrop from the Tobin cutscene which appears after you finish the first part of the jungle.

 

Before

 

 

 

After

  

 

 

I also plan to use this texture to change the planets in the turret minigame, and am also hard at work in adding the ships in its backdrop to have more detail than the blobs that are currently used in its background.

 

Wildlife:

 

The Boma is fully done. I will be adding them to my Aliens Redetailed update when I finally release it. Just a few more things to address, and that'll also be uploaded. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Maalras have also gotten a similar visual update, but I still want to find a way to make them look "spikier", like the concept art of them. 

 

 

 

 

Concept art: http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9496/nighthunterk2promo.jpg I also plan to have a variant of them as a "nighthunter" or similar with a red color scheme and yellow eyes, like their original look http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/b/b2/Nighthunter.jpg

 

 

And finally, I have the ship fully fleshed-out.

 

 

 

 

I plan to add fine details and texture to the individual panels, as well.

 

 

Anyway, that's it for pics for now. 

As far as upcoming projects go, there's a few notable ones, but I am mostly hard at work on getting the skyboxes to proper levels of quality. I am currently working on Dantooine, but am still in the very preliminary phases. Once all of the skyboxes are done, I will release my Dxun sky update at long last which I've had in my pics for quite some time.

 

Another task I will be doing in the near future, is uploading the update to the lightning retexture that I did with my Effect Retextures once I get those pesky conjure animations colored to match

 

Also, before I forget,  Onderon will be another project in itself. I've done all I could with terragen, but if the resolution remains as low as it appears, I may have to either change my render or find a trick in Photohop to fix it.

 

I have a few more mods that I'll be working on, so I'll add the pics when I have them ready. 

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Yaasss! Looking good!

[Jorak Uln 458]

The boma looks absurdly good! Especially the small reptilian features make you almost sniff the stench of that creature    

No seriously ,i like how you take care of the little details in the world, also the water splatter when stepping on the grass... 

and on the boma/maalraas etc. - i wonder if its possible to give them a wet look like the selkath?

[Kexikus 995]

Amazing work. I love the water splashes and the bomba texture. Really really well done. Can't wait to see what comes next

[Ninko 64]

Excellet job Malkior!!! Truly great skill you have with this! I cannot wait to see others creations that you make!

[Red Hessian 9]

Good work on the shuttle. That low res texture has been bugging me for ages.

[Squall Lionhart 81]

The shuttle looks brand new! I like this, as I can't stand where the textures look really high def and then you see the shuttle and it looks like the texture settings aren't even turned up all the way.

[Malkior 476]

Okay, a quick mini-update. I've been working for a while, and with several iterations, but I feel I'm close to getting the Onderon box to where I need it to be. I cracked open Terragen, and ran a few tests for a while, until I got the clouds at a level I'm happy with.

 

 

 

 

 

It's basic for now, as I'm still determining what clouds to add into it, or whether I should be giving the background mountains and hills more color or more fine detail. Otherwise, I hope to continue on to Dantooine K2, as that's almost a pet project at this point.

 

Next up should be the rest of the alien creature textures and also other various things that I will announce at a later time.

 

Anyway, I do hope you guys like where this is going. As ever, thank you very much for your kind words and feedback, as they make this work that much more worth it.

 

>// 

 

Expect further screenshots when I have more things done. Next up should be the next step of any of my three main projects.

 

Additionally, any feedback on how I can do this better or more effectively is greatly appreciated, as I'm working my hardest to get these projects to the caliber they need to be.

[Jorak Uln 458]

@Malkior:

 

I'm glad to see you modding again!  

 

About the clouds, I will be honest: the intention is good, but they look a bit low res to me - so may I ask which version of Terragen do you use?

Kexikus had that problem as well but seemed to get his hands on a more advanced version of the program - and also with the possibility to add 3d objects...

So what do you think? Could you guys share some knowledge/opinions about it?

[Ninko 64]

I think higher res clouds is a must, I guess these are just for testing??? Also having some finer details on the mountains and hills would be cool.

[Kexikus 995]

I like the terrain and the clouds. The resolution is indeed a bit low and there seem to be some seams where the lighting wasn't rendered exactly the same for different camera angles but the landscape and the general feeling of the skybox is great.

One thing I'd do however is lower the horizon a bit. Right now the perspective looks wrong, especially in the first screenshot. To do so I'd just stretch the texture a bit for a lower horizon. That worked wonders on some of my skyboxes^^

Some other thing I'd consider is adding trees to the valleys. That's obviously a design choice but I think it could give some more life to the skybox and IIRC there are some forests on Onderon in the comics (and in TCW).

[Malkior 476]

Alright, so I might be a little um.. dumb. Turns out that I was using Terragen 2, since Terragen 3 is capped at 8 pixels per inch (Which apparently still works?) and at first it looked like I couldn't convert it to TGA. However, I opened and rendered with it yesterday, and it looks like I was wrong.. So now I can upgrade my resolution from 600x600 to 900x900 with minimal loss. Here are a few screens I rendered yesterday.

 

 

 

 

:/ So there's that...

 

Also I agree that Onderon has some trees and even forests, but Iziz itself is on a massive mountain in the middle of a desert location, according to this shot from Tales:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, are these the quality you're referring to? What filter do you think makes the best cloud forms in Terragen? I aim to improve with this powerful tool, but there aren't any real forums or FAQs on Terra-sky-rendering that I can find.Thank you very much for the feedback, and honestly I think that someone should make a thread or forum with tips and tricks to make cool looking renders look phenomenal.

[Red Hessian 9]

Looks good to me

[Sithspecter 909]

One thing I'd do however is lower the horizon a bit. Right now the perspective looks wrong, especially in the first screenshot.

I agree with this statement. The texture in itself looks quite nice, but the perspective is off. A good rule for landscape painting is to use thirds, and never halves. What this means is that two thirds should be devoted to the sky or the ground, never one half. In this case, I figure you've used half for the ground. I know KotOR is a bit different and has many exceptions to this rule, but I think your perspective will benefit a lot from a lower horizon.

 

Still looks amazing though.

[Kexikus 995]

Alright, so I might be a little um.. dumb. Turns out that I was using Terragen 2, since Terragen 3 is capped at 8 pixels per inch (Which apparently still works?) and at first it looked like I couldn't convert it to TGA. However, I opened and rendered with it yesterday, and it looks like I was wrong.. So now I can upgrade my resolution from 600x600 to 900x900 with minimal loss. Here are a few screens I rendered yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

:/ So there's that...

 

Also I agree that Onderon has some trees and even forests, but Iziz itself is on a massive mountain in the middle of a desert location, according to this shot from Tales:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, are these the quality you're referring to? What filter do you think makes the best cloud forms in Terragen? I aim to improve with this powerful tool, but there aren't any real forums or FAQs on Terra-sky-rendering that I can find.Thank you very much for the feedback, and honestly I think that someone should make a thread or forum with tips and tricks to make cool looking renders look phenomenal.

 

That looks much better already with the higher resolution.

About the trees: In that case I'd also go with mountains as you did^^

 

And the clouds are really just trial and error :/ This wiki article has some good comparison pics to help understanding what each setting in the cloud layer does but in the end you'll still have to try until you get what you want.

http://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Cloud_Layer_v2

[Malkior 476]

A pretty quick update this time. I have finally gotten the default Ithorian to the level of quality I aim to deliver for the Aliens Redetailed Version 2. The second set are the Duros standard which I will employ for the rest of the species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step will be to go over the rest of the alien species from the previous Aliens Redetailed mod, including the new Gamorrean and Boma textures. 

 

After that, I plan to have a few more key species including a new Rodian texture, and then will start working all all of their respective variations. 

 

Also, I didn't forget about the skybox for Dantooine (In order to finish the full list of TSL Skyboxes, excluding Malachor V, which is being already done by other modders and not something I wish to interfere with) I have just run into yet another difficulty with the rendering cameras for some reason...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Issue: 

 

 

 

No idea what's causing it to duplicate like that, so I am now at the point where I may have to start over with the same settings and colors to hopefully get it working again..

 

Anyway, that's a brief look at what I'm working with right now.

 

Thanks so much for all of the honest feedback and positive responses. I hope to have more interesting things soon. I will update when I have more ready.