Joraks Experiments [WIP]

[Malkior 476]

@Malkior: Thanks for your kind words

and yeah, im absolutely ok if your working on the same thing! In fact, i encourage you and am excited how you will do it...

 

But note, that a good program also makes a big difference - do you work with Photoshop? 

 

Yeah. I basically only use Photoshop. I tried the texture making utility you linked, but it took too much RAM, and also would cost me paying a subscription; which I cannot do right now... Also for some stubborn reason I refuse to use freely available textures. I may change that later, if I can manage it...

 

Thank you very much for the encouragement as well. I hope to reach or exceed your expectations.... However, ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

 

I look forward to your next update, and hope to finally install your K1 textures to see them in-game.

 

//aside//(Can't quite understand how to install them, since the readme doesn't explain enough for me....)

[Jorak Uln 458]

Yeah. I basically only use Photoshop. I tried the texture making utility you linked, but it took too much RAM, and also would cost me paying a subscription; which I cannot do right now... Also for some stubborn reason I refuse to use freely available textures. I may change that later, if I can manage it...

 

Thank you very much for the encouragement as well. I hope to reach or exceed your expectations.... However, ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

 

I look forward to your next update, and hope to finally install your K1 textures to see them in-game.

 

//aside//(Can't quite understand how to install them, since the readme doesn't explain enough for me....)

Installaton of my K1 mods is easy: 

 

1. Download XnView

2. just drag & drop all txi files into Override folder

3. Make a New Folder on Desktop

4. Unzip all my tga files into that folder

5. double-click on on tga to open it with XnView

6. click on File -> View

7. then just select all and press Ctrl + U 

8. and in the pop-up window select format TGA and Overwrite. 

9. press start. 

 

thats it! 

Xuul explains it in his videos as well.

[Kexikus 994]

Looks really cool (again^^).

 

Will the other forcefields in both games get a similar update?

[Jorak Uln 458]

Looks really cool (again^^).

 

Will the other forcefields in both games get a similar update?

If i find the textures...

In vanilla this is just a red window, but i changed it to plasma forcefield, to make the dangerous aspect of the deathtrap more obvious.

 

As you know, there are actually only blue forcefields in Kotor, and of course id like to do them as well.

Do you know by chance which name they listed at Telos Military Base? 

[Kexikus 994]

Sadly I have no idea :/

Maybe we should make a thread about hard to find textures where people could ask for them. And in the first post we'd have a list of stuff that's known to be hard to find.

[Malkior 476]

I believe they are fx or NAR textures, but I will have to double-check..

 

 

BTW, thanks for the step-by-step. I've wanted to test those Endar Spire textures from the moment I saw them on your thread a while ago.

[Jorak Uln 458]

When you watch the vanilla game closely, some  textures look horribly out of place.

 

Now regarding a vanilla Overhaul its debatable, if they should be fixed. 

I feel that in order to achieve a proper next gen look, i have to make some changes: 

 

 

Examples: 

 

Floor of Telos Appartements: 

 

Vanilla: 

 

 

Overhauled: 

 

 

Overhauled + fixed: 

 

 

 

Jekk-Jekk Tar Tunnel lights: 

 

Vanilla:

 

 

New lights: 

 

 

 

This would require hex editing though.

[Malkior 476]

Can't argue with the results.

 

It is a much too dark level, though, if I'm honest. (I mean in Vanilla; your textures look right at home)

 

I guess I really should look into the lightmaps.. What light colors do you think would work best? light greens? Yellows? Oranges? or would you rather it be a suprise?..

 

Also, JekkJekkTarr would look phenomenal with those light textures you added, provided the hex-editing are doable, of course...

[Kexikus 994]

If there's something that looks out of place in vanilla, you should definitely fix it. No point in overhauling The Game without fixing stuff.
And those lights look amazing!

[Jorak Uln 458]

Can't argue with the results.

 

It is a much too dark level, though, if I'm honest. (I mean in Vanilla; your textures look right at home)

 

I guess I really should look into the lightmaps.. What light colors do you think would work best? light greens? Yellows? Oranges? or would you rather it be a suprise?..

 

Also, JekkJekkTarr would look phenomenal with those light textures you added, provided the hex-editing are doable, of course...

Lightmap editing sounds fantastic

Here some thoughts on the lighting of Jekk Jekk Tar: 

 

Keep in mind that its a special club for alien races to use all kind of hallucinogens to get heavily drugged. That's their definition of enjoyment.

Now, if you want to dope yourself into coma, you won't like to do it in a bright room right?

 

The ambiance have to look right and i think the JJT lives from the heavy contrast between (very) bright lights and very dark shadows.

In the vanilla game, it looks way too bright:

 

 

 

It would be very fitting, if you could make only the areas near the lights bright and the rest totally dark for maximum contrast.

In that regard, note, that my light textures are cubemaps, -> they look best in dark rooms.

 

@Kexikus: 

 

Thanks! What do you think about the Telos Apartment floor? Should I use the fixed version/Vanilla redone?

[Kexikus 994]

I like the fixed version better but I feel like it could use some more details. Not as many as the vanilla version of course but right now it looks kinda boring^^ But then again, this might actually be a good thing while playing the game.

[LiliArch 115]

I'll chime in.

 

Overhauled + fixed would be a good way to go, but it would definitely need some improvement. The way it is now, or at least the way it seems to me now, is that the seams suddenly disappear into thin air, while the floor clearly is constructed with metal panels. You'd need huge equipment to build a metal panel big enough to form the whole room (apartment)... and I'm not sure that would even be reasonable (though that can be argued over, I'm sure... it's a space station after all, so, less seams may cause less stress to the structure - or more; I don't quite know the physics there).

 

What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that currently it looks like there's some seams in the floor that seem to serve no purpose, as they don't define a panel (they just look like someone would have decided to draw lines to the floor).

 

I hope I got it typed at least almost right... my keyboard seems to like eating letters today.

[Jorak Uln 458]

I'll chime in.

 

Overhauled + fixed would be a good way to go, but it would definitely need some improvement. The way it is now, or at least the way it seems to me now, is that the seams suddenly disappear into thin air, while the floor clearly is constructed with metal panels. You'd need huge equipment to build a metal panel big enough to form the whole room (apartment)... and I'm not sure that would even be reasonable (though that can be argued over, I'm sure... it's a space station after all, so, less seams may cause less stress to the structure - or more; I don't quite know the physics there).

 

What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that currently it looks like there's some seams in the floor that seem to serve no purpose, as they don't define a panel (they just look like someone would have decided to draw lines to the floor).

 

I hope I got it typed at least almost right... my keyboard seems to like eating letters today.

I know what you mean. 

The thing is, that the textures (the inner floor & the outer ring with the seams) are connected with the walls and using the same texture. That means they are totally patchworked and although hex edited now, i cannot make walls/ floor separately. So if i want it to be completely seamless, the walls would be blank.

[LiliArch 115]

Yes... that's a huge problem with Citadel Station (and some other areas, as well... think about Ebon Hawk's outside, ewww). It would require a complete remapping, which is easier said than done...

[Kexikus 994]

The main issue I currently see is that the hexagonal shape on the floor is missing one side. Maybe you could fix this by adding this side to the "fixed" texture in your Overhaul?

Or maybe change that texture to something like a carpet (or the Star Wars equivalent) so that it makes sense that this one side is missing.

[ChrisC26 12]

Haven't posted in a while, did you finish the K1 overhaul? Is there a place I can download it in one package? It's one of the few mods I've been waiting for to do a new playthrough of K1.

[Jorak Uln 458]

Haven't posted in a while, did you finish the K1 overhaul? Is there a place I can download it in one package? It's one of the few mods I've been waiting for to do a new playthrough of K1.

Well it certainly will take a while. Several planets are halfway-done, but i dont want to rush  them for release. 

Secondly, to keep my inspiration high, im doing an Overhaul for Kotor 2 now, and since its in the original style, i dont have to "bother" finding new designs - that saves me a lot of time...

 

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Now, some more screens from Saqueshs room at Nar Shaddaa, a place that totally reminds me of ME2 Freedoms Progress:

 

Regarding Vanilla/beautification keep an eye on the floor/ceiling:

 

Vanilla Redone: 

 

 

imho the black floor parts really hurt your eyes ingame, so here a more sophisticated interpretation:

 

Vanilla sophisticated:

 

 

whole scene ingame:

 

Original:

 

 

 

Vanilla Redone:

 

 

Vanilla sophisticated:

 

 

[Zhaboka 91]

Loving these retextures, keep up the sinuous work!

[Malkior 476]

After seeing your Nar Shadaa Saquesh's quarter room, I had a thought. Nar Shadaa is a grimy semi-humid cityscape covered in smog, but the Vanilla and all texture revisions thusfar are incredibly clean. So, I was thinking, would it be a cool or desirable idea to add grime and muck to the walls, such as blackened condensation (mold or dirt) running down the walls of the clearly cramped and humid Refugee quarters, or caked-on grime from the massive amount of foot-traffic of the impoverished citizens. Maybe also carbon scoring or scorch marks from the constant blaster violence.. There is a small muck texture, but I figure it's too underused. I also think the further toward the Refugee sector, the nastier it'd get.

[Jorak Uln 458]

After seeing your Nar Shadaa Saquesh's quarter room, I had a thought. Nar Shadaa is a grimy semi-humid cityscape covered in smog, but the Vanilla and all texture revisions thusfar are incredibly clean. So, I was thinking, would it be a cool or desirable idea to add grime and muck to the walls, such as blackened condensation (mold or dirt) running down the walls of the clearly cramped and humid Refugee quarters, or caked-on grime from the massive amount of foot-traffic of the impoverished citizens. Maybe also carbon scoring or scorch marks from the constant blaster violence.. There is a small muck texture, but I figure it's too underused. I also think the further toward the Refugee sector, the nastier it'd get.

Well, i see your point. I agree, that you should feel more that you're in the refugee sector, but I'm not quite sure if its the mud that defines the typical poor sector atmosphere. Maybe make the panels flicker like in Mass Effect to indicate low energy and adding some graffities (if possible) would be more effective - since the walls are already cubemapped and change noise when you turn the cam...-> they feel dirty)

 

You know, I always felt that Kotor Nar Shaddaa has something from ME3 Omega DLC. It's the same gritty, neon, violent atmosphere -  also, if you think of TSL Nar Shaddaa as some kind of suburbs:

 

 

[Malkior 476]

Well, i see your point. I agree, that you should feel more that you're in the refugee sector, but I'm not quite sure if its the mud that defines the typical poor sector atmosphere. Maybe make the panels flicker like in Mass Effect to indicate low energy and adding some graffities (if possible) would be more effective - since the walls are already cubemapped and change noise when you turn the cam...-> they feel dirty)

 

You know, I always felt that Kotor Nar Shaddaa has something from ME3 Omega DLC. It's the same gritty, neon, violent atmosphere - also, if you think of TSL Nar Shaddaa as some kind of suburbs:

 

MassEffect3 2015-11-28 12-22-21-367.jpg

 

MassEffect3 2015-11-21 02-36-05-594.jpg

Ah. By "mud/muck", I actually was referring to a thin layer of what can only be accurately describes as "grime". I believe it's caused naturally from oil tracked by people who walk in the street or from the car exhaust leaving carbon residue.

 

I like your idea of Omega as a basis, though. It's almost as if Bioware lifted some inspiration from Obsidian's Kotor 2. ..or Blade Runner....

[Jorak Uln 458]

Its really about time to update my old thread here - i havent had much time for modding lately, but now started again..

 

In the process, i developed a much different approach of doing animated panels:

Until now i used just glow & a chromatic filter for the screen information layer:

 

Old:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fFLMuVJ6XHw

 

I dont know if its visible well enough, but in the new version i basically made 2 changes:

1)

Simulated background glow

2)

Screen infos with "fluid" animation

& similar coloring like screen background:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mT8-S62gzSQ

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b0f4dkFof5E

 

So, would you guys prefer the new style in the upcoming Nar Shaddaa Overhaul?

Does it look more natural like a tech panel that way?

[Malkior 476]

For me, at least, the new version looks like it has more definition, and is overall less flat and/or fake looking. This is especially noticeable on the animating squares in the lower portion.

 

Personally, I can't wait to see what your ideas are for a smog-ridden and garish spectacle like Nar Shadaa.

[Mutilator57 140]

^^ I completely agree.

[Jorak Uln 458]

Planning on some lightsaber retex for SLM 2.0 from Kaidon Jorn in SWTOR style:

 

Some impressions of different color variants of the standard LS: