Quanons many projects.

[Fair Strides 509]

The issues here arise from MDLOps not writing default values for the emitter pieces and NWMax expecting some more than "" as a setting when importing the emitters. Because the info isn't imported, it can't be exported, much less anything to do with animations of emitters.

[JCarter426 1,214]

But since I can't get a good ASCII to look at in 3Ds Max, I'm sort of stuck, with experimenting blindly... 

If there are more techy folks here, who also understand the Binary format; do you think it's possible to tell me how the animations go?

If you open the ASCII in Notepad and search for newanim you'll be able to see all the animation names as well as their durations and so on. v_superbike has a bunch: Gear0, BankL_06, downthrust, etc.

 

I also don't know the "class" the Aurorabase belongs to: is it an item? character? or just Other?

 

It's Effect. I don't think this really matters, though. In NWMax it determines some things, such as which animations are in the dropdown list, but I don't know of any purpose this has in the game. I've messed about with replacing different models of different types before, and they generally work anyway.

 

To my suprise the swoop bike track gets loaded on Manaan. But it looks wrong, the GUI is not OK, neither does my swoop bike move.

 

The countdown works, but then nothing happens. Hitting esc just pauses the game. So it's task manager to quit

It would seem the animations are important to get the swoop to work like it should.

 

I'm don't know why you wouldn't be able to move. I've replaced the swoop bike model before, in the second game. And the model I used had no animations on it at all. But it still moved.

 

The issues here arise from MDLOps not writing default values for the emitter pieces and NWMax expecting some more than "" as a setting when importing the emitters. Because the info isn't imported, it can't be exported, much less anything to do with animations of emitters.

If the emitters are the problem, then it may be possible to edit them out of the ASCII before importing, and then in theory everything else would import correctly.

[Quanon 263]

Well, I'm testing  Mdl-edit tool by Bead-V. Also some improved 3Ds Max scripts for NWmax. Which has given me a lot of insight into the swoopbike model.

I've did another test, I started to add in a list of the animations and all the "keys" it needs.

 

5 anims for switching gears up

5 to switch gears down

About 10 anims for turning left and 10 for turning right

1 for boosting

1 for taking damage

1 for Gear 0, idle... etc...

 

It's more then I thought

 

Tried to stay as close as possible to the orginal setup, so the aurorabase is set to effect. I can add the list of animations, but they don't get exported.

Somehow it only exports out one animation, labeled "on".

 

It might be the type of aurorabase, the effect one, doesn't list a box of animations in its options. So I might change it to other or something.

I've no idea if the game is just being picky or not. But I'll see how it goes.

 

So far the result remained the same. The swoop track loads, but, nothing happens; no movement. 

[Quanon 263]

Taking a minor break from the portrait rendering today. As I didn't have much time to do some modding; I decided to do some color tests for Mission.

As I mentioned those when I started this whole reskin the party business

 

Just a very basic test for how strong the color should be for her skin. Eyes and eyebrows need extra work, plus each color might need some tweaks on contrast/ highlights. Clothing will remain the same for now.

So far I've got a green, red and white/ ivory version in the cooker. Mind this is just for pure fun.

 

I've got lots of things in the running, this is just something for whenever I feel like it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Revanator 60]

You should release those in a pack. They look fantastic.

[Quanon 263]

You should release those in a pack. They look fantastic.

 

No worries, I will release them. I just want to do a few extra colors

 

Meanwhile, I've been testing KotorMax and MDLedit. An updated version of NWmax and MDLops, which was the tool I used for about everything 3D related.

I now have used the tool for a first serious attempt at getting a new area in the game. The experience has been great.

 

Things work pretty good from the go. I only had to correct a few bothersome meshes; still have a few left. Looks like the rescaling I did on some of my machines got lost on the exporting or compiling.

Walk-mesh creating has been a blast as well. I don't think I ever got a good result from the very first test.

 

Camera gets blocked of as well; which used to be an annoying affair to get corrected. Often meaning things got broken beyond repair sometimes.

I do still have some issues, with my Light maps. It looks like UVs got destroyed. I might have done to many 3D meshes in one go for the tools to handle.

 

So I cheated a bit. I just turned all of my light maps in a neutral grey. Which at least made my area visible for inspection.

 

This is an updated model for my Scrapyard mod. It's the landing bay. So far only the Ebon Hawk and Barracuda, use their proper Light maps; all the other stuff has the "cheating" lightmap applied

 

MIND, this is sort of an alpha or beta build. I'm very aware of the faults!

 

 

 

 

 

[Zhaboka 91]

Looks pretty awesome and cavernous!

[LDR 234]

That's beautiful. Always loved the Scrapyard.

[Quanon 263]

After seeing Dark Hope's excellent update on my Canderous skin; I felt that I just did a very sub-par job on the hair.

Dark Hope also has a nice looking contrast on the skin of the characters; while my versions have a softer look to that part.

 

I must admit that the higher contrast does 'pop' better in the game. I always get fooled by the looks of things in Photoshop.

And I haven't really nailed down how to get a same effect in Photoshop.

 

Ahum, but the skin thing is besides the point... I'm now experimenting on getting better looking hair on the characters.

First test was done on Bastila and I like it so far. Coloring might be worked on; contrast thingies; but it looks better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sith Holocron 2,472]

Once you have it all worked out, I suppose I'll need a new render for the Portrait mod. In the mean time: in your pictures above, it seems the skin has a few issues. There's something strange going on in the outer corners of Bastila's eyes in the left half of your picture. On the right half of the picture, some of Bastila's hear is invisible so you can see Tatooine through it.

[Quanon 263]

Once you have it all worked out, I suppose I'll need a new render for the Portrait mod. In the mean time: in your pictures above, it seems the skin has a few issues. There's something strange going on in the outer corners of Bastila's eyes in the left half of your picture. On the right half of the picture, some of Bastila's hear is invisible so you can see Tatooine through it.

 

Yes, that's because of the alpha channel. My PC doesn't handle the graphics correctly. I have the same issue with the grass on Dantooine. It clips through the models.

It should just be transparent and work OK on other PCs.

 

Plus I can easly provide a skin without the alpha channel.

[superSzym 155]

Yes, that's because of the alpha channel. My PC doesn't handle the graphics correctly. I have the same issue with the grass on Dantooine. It clips through the models.

It should just be transparent and work OK on other PCs.

 

Plus I can easly provide a skin without the alpha channel.

GLOverride worked for me, you should try it too.

[Quanon 263]

GLOverride worked for me, you should try it too.

 

Thanks for that! I'll try it out

 

Bastila is now in full redux status. I redid most of the skin. It needs some fixes around the mouth. Things get more stretched then I thought. It looks a bit funny now

I haven't changed the hue/ color of the skin it self. It's how the photo model looked like, rendered in Kotor engine. So it's a bit more tanned then I think Bastila would be.

 

I only applied a soft layer of the old Bastila skin on top. I'll play around a bit more. Then get back to do the hair. It's moving along a lot quicker, since I've already did this once before.

Less searching on how or what I should do.

 

 

 

upload pic

 

 

 

Tried your GLOverride, SuperSzym, but it didn't help. I keep having the same issue, bit of a shame. But; it doesn't bother me to much.

Kept tweaking Bastila. Getting closer to what I want. If I can, I'll release a multi color hair pack.

 

Should be fun, if anyone wanted to play with a blond or redhead Bastila

 

 

 

 

image uploader

 

 

 

[HK-47 84]

Bastila looks really good. I agree about the face though. Even the second image, while looking much better than the one above it, she looks aged more than she should be. I would say the wrinkles at the sides of the mouth are what's doing it. Or at least a big part of it.

[DarthParametric 3,777]

It's a genetic condition of the Shan family. It's treatable:

 

[Quanon 263]

Kept working on Bastila some more. Minor tweaks to the face. Main focus was getting the hair to look good this time.

Spend more time to make sure the hair flows a bit a better. The test before the direction of the hair didn't work good on the model.

 

Also spend time to get the hair color ok looking. I'll release a pack. So far I've got a good 'dark' brown. 'Light' ( stronger contrast) brown and a blonde Bastila.

Which looks really weird; but that's just because I'm used to seeing her as a brunette

 

Preview of 'light' brown and blondy (which just needs better fitting make up):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HK-47 84]

Looks really good. Have you considered anything for her forehead. It just occurred to me that, as far as I can remember, she's the only one with a smooth forehead. There's not a wrinkle or anything there. It fits the vanilla face, but not really one that has more defined features. That might actually make the previous face setup work well. Personally I'd need to see them side by side for comparison.

[Quanon 263]

After updating Bastilas hair, I decided Carth couldn't be left behind.

I've got mixed results... The UVmap on  Carth badly stretches parts of his skin.

 

And all the nice detail I had gets a bit lost. It all gets a very soft look; the details aren't as sharp.

It just looks odd. Certainly when I did a test in the game. On my preview renders it's a bit less.

 

But; perhaps the hair samples I used where to long. Though I alway thought Carth had a bit more flow to his hair;

say compared to Canderous. But it seems I can't get that look across.

 

Bioware certainly did a very poor job on the unwrapping of the UVmaps of the main characters.

I don't understand all the cuts they've made across the model. It just makes the whole skinning process difficult.

 

Anyhow, here's what I've got so far on this:

 

 

 

 

upload image

 

 

 

 

EDIT1:

Forgot to add, the other 'sexy' stuff:

 

 

 

upload pic

 

 

 

 

Edit2:

Kept on tweaking; to get flow of the hair to match up better on each part of his UVmap and figured out how to get a nice color on it. That at least comes a bit closer to his vanilla look.

I'll keep the blondy Carth as an extra option for the pack. I guess I might also include a black haired Carth.

 

What eye colors would match up best for those?

Onwards to a quick preview in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Revanator 60]

Incredible work.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

 

No worries, I will release them. I just want to do a few extra colors

 

Meanwhile, I've been testing KotorMax and MDLedit. An updated version of NWmax and MDLops, which was the tool I used for about everything 3D related.

I now have used the tool for a first serious attempt at getting a new area in the game. The experience has been great.

 

Things work pretty good from the go. I only had to correct a few bothersome meshes; still have a few left. Looks like the rescaling I did on some of my machines got lost on the exporting or compiling.

Walk-mesh creating has been a blast as well. I don't think I ever got a good result from the very first test.

 

Camera gets blocked of as well; which used to be an annoying affair to get corrected. Often meaning things got broken beyond repair sometimes.

I do still have some issues, with my Light maps. It looks like UVs got destroyed. I might have done to many 3D meshes in one go for the tools to handle.

 

So I cheated a bit. I just turned all of my light maps in a neutral grey. Which at least made my area visible for inspection.

 

This is an updated model for my Scrapyard mod. It's the landing bay. So far only the Ebon Hawk and Barracuda, use their proper Light maps; all the other stuff has the "cheating" lightmap applied

 

MIND, this is sort of an alpha or beta build. I'm very aware of the faults!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice work! Good to see that there is more progress being made with making new areas with updated tools.

 

Would be interested in playing around with those when they're released.

[N-DReW25 1,319]

Out of curiosity do you (Quanon) know how to add "collisions" to the walls of custom modules so the Camera doesn't clip through walls and to prevent the player from getting stuck on the wall when they walk into it? If so perhaps you could go back and fix up the Brotherhood of Shadow Modules you made a while back (At least, I think you made them)