[WIP] High quality skyboxes

[KnifeMaster]

I'm currently using the stock skyboxes and none of them look too stylistically different to me. Korriban might have been the only real exception, at least for K1. I've noticed that the stock Unknown World sky is a bit darker, but yours looks so much better.

[Kexikus]

Milestone reached: All K1 skyboxes, backdrops and models are finished or in short: Everything for vanilla (!) K1 is done

Before you get your hopes up though, that does not mean that the release is imminent! The current plan is to release the mods for both games simultaneously, although that might change. However, I want to have the addons for K1 ready at least before I release it. That's mostly BOS:SR support which includes a Taris skybox that will probably take a while to do.

The reason for why getting K1 actually done was that I had to do some tweaks to Kashyyyk and the Tatooine buildings, but mostly I iterated through dozens and dozens of iterations of improving Manaan as I wasn't really happy with the old version. The sky was too dark for instance and there were issues with K1s terrible bloom effect. But after several weeks I finally reached a result that I really like. Sadly I don't have a screenshot, so you'll have to wait for closer to the release to see it.

Another thing that kept me busy was M4-78 which is now pretty much done. You've seen most of it before so it was mostly busywork of adding backdrops to all modules, tweaking fog, etc. But it also included the irradiated skybox:

Certainly looks unhealthy, doesn't it?

[Malkior]

That skybox really sells the effect well. I had no idea there was an irradiated version. Does that mean it will change once you send the droids to vent the area?

Also am looking forward to the next set of screens.

[Sith Holocron]

2 hours ago, Kexikus said:

 

Certainly looks unhealthy, doesn't it?

Sure does! Congratulations on reaching your milestone. 

Can I see the non-irradiated M4-78 skybox?

[Salk]

Excellent news, Kexikus!

Congratulations for completing the original K1 skyboxes. Just out of curiosity, what's the reason for wanting both K1 and K2 skyboxes released simultaneously?

[Jango32]

There's no way we could get the original K1 textures only right now, is there?

[Kexikus]

9 hours ago, Malkior said:

That skybox really sells the effect well. I had no idea there was an irradiated version. Does that mean it will change once you send the droids to vent the area?

Also am looking forward to the next set of screens.

There is no irradiated skybox in the original M4-78 but I changed the models so that there is now. And yes, it will change once the radiation is cleared.

7 hours ago, Sith Holocron said:

Sure does! Congratulations on reaching your milestone. 

Can I see the non-irradiated M4-78 skybox?

Sure thing. Here's an example. You can also see some more screenshots in other posts I made over the last months or so.

On 6/22/2020 at 10:57 PM, Kexikus said:

 

 

As to the questions of why I'm not releasing K1 yet. There's no specific reason for why I want to release them simultaneously, but that's the route I want to go. One reason is that I still need to make screenshots and stuff like that that will take some time and I'd rather focus on getting all skyboxes done first before I go down this rabbithole so that I can then make all screenshots for both games at the same time. Depending on how long finishing TSL takes I might decide to release K1 earlier but not before I've finished the add-ons like BOS:SR and I haven't even started those. With the exception of Taris that I mentioned before, they shouldn't take too long though.

I'll keep you guys posted. We'll see how it goes. Rest assured though, it won't be long now (at least compared to the 3+ years this project has been in the work now... )

[tjsase]

Wow, this is looking pretty good! I'm interested in including these in my M4-78 Ebon Hawk movies if I do another version.

[Kexikus]

3 hours ago, tjsase said:

Wow, this is looking pretty good! I'm interested in including these in my M4-78 Ebon Hawk movies if I do another version.

You're welcome to do so once they're fully done

[Zhaboka]

YESSS!! The lack of an irradiated skybox always bugged the heck out of me during my M4-78 playthroughs haha. As always, you're doing the lord's work.

[Kexikus]

Thanks!

Work has been continuing with the first TSL skyboxes being rendered in their full glory. As an example, here's one of the Onderon skyboxes including holes in the turret gun barrels:

At the same time, I'm also working on the mod skyboxes. So far M4-78 and Coruscant are done designwise but still need to be rendered.

That brings me to a question for all of you though. Is there any mod that I should include, i.e. make a skybox for, that is not already part of my plans?

So far I want to make skyboxes for:

• M4-78 EP (TSL)
• Coruscant Jedi Temple (TSL)
• BOS:SR (K1)
• Green Grass for Dantooine (K1) Maybe. I'm not sure about that one yet, so let me know if that's something you're interested in. It wouldn't be a lot of work so I'll probably do it anyway, but knowing what the community actually wants would help.

I'm also considering Yavin IV and Ord Mantell for K1. I haven't played either of those, so I can't say how good or popular they are. So please let me know if that's something you're interested in.

Are there any other mods that I should include? Please let me know.

[Salk]

I personally don't think there is any other modification out there with the exception of Sleheyron.

Godspeed!

[DarthParametric]

There's still a few decades before that comes out, plenty of time.

[Pramod Marlon]

I would be very interested in a Yavin IV skybox

[Zhaboka]

M4-78 for sure, Coruscant and BoS:SR would be cool. Couldn't care less about Yavin or Ord Mantell (no offense to their talented creators, whose skills far exceed my own).

[Kexikus]

Progress has been going somewhat slow but still steady lately. But I figured I might as well show some of the stuff that has happened.

Let's start with the full quality Coruscant skybox, shown here as part of the Coruscant mod, but it's the same that's also used in vanilla:

Next up we have one of the three Korriban skyboxes used in BoS:SR. This one is the same as the TSL Korriban skybox. One of the others is the K1 vanilla Korriban skybox and the last one is unique to BoS:SR but I haven't started that one yet.

And finally a screenshot of what I'm currently working on (apart from rendering the TSL skyboxes): BoS:SR Taris

The lighting of all these layers doesn't quite match yet but I'm getting there.

And as a final note for today: I'm pretty sure that I want to make skyboxes for Yavin IV and Ord Mantell. But I have to look at their modules first to see if that's possible with the quality goal I have in mind. If it is, both of them shouldn't take very long.

[DarthParametric]

4 minutes ago, Kexikus said:

Let's start with the full quality Coruscant skybox, shown here as part of the Coruscant mod, but it's the same that's also used in vanilla

Not sure if it would be required for vanilla, but it looks like the mod could use a bunch more traffic. You might be able to swipe something from TOR. Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa, and Zakuul all have movie-style traffic streams. All the close stuff is 3D, but I think they also have some sprites for distant objects.

[Kexikus]

16 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

Not sure if it would be required for vanilla, but it looks like the mod could use a bunch more traffic. You might be able to swipe something from TOR. Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa, and Zakuul all have movie-style traffic streams. All the close stuff is 3D, but I think they also have some sprites for distant objects.

I did a quick check through my SWTOR archive but only found 3d models. Honestly though, I also don't think that adding them would be worth the effort for one tiny module in a mod that not many people even use (compared to vanilla TSL). In the vanilla Coruscant module you would only barely see them as well.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I might have to keep that in mind for Nar Shaddaa.

[DarthParametric]

Looking for "traffic" in \resources\art\fx\texture\sky\ should get you some strip textures you can animate via scrolling UVs.

[Zhaboka]

Coruscant is gorgeous.

[Kexikus]

After a long fight against the Korriban wastes module I finally finished the last BoSSR skybox:

That leaves two mod skyboxes to do. I think those shouldn't take long but then again I thought the same of the skybox above... I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime I also changed my mind and added some traffic to all Coruscant skyboxes:

I'll do the same for Nar Shaddaa and probably Taris as well to better sell the cityscape of those planets.

[KnifeMaster]

Coruscant looks even better than I expected o.O The clouds are beautiful and the traffic looks pretty convincing.

Maybe I'm going overboard with the lore, but I would consider leaving Taris as is, since it's described as "rapidly decaying" and "now obsolete" with respect to trade.

[Kexikus]

8 hours ago, KnifeMaster said:

Coruscant looks even better than I expected o.O The clouds are beautiful and the traffic looks pretty convincing.

Maybe I'm going overboard with the lore, but I would consider leaving Taris as is, since it's described as "rapidly decaying" and "now obsolete" with respect to trade.

Even if it's rapidly decaying, there would still be normal street traffic of people driving to work or something. But I will add far less traffic than on Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa the latter of which you can see in this video btw:

 

[Jango32]

Now I am having real trouble deciding between this Nar Shaddaa skybox and Sharen Thrawn's.

[Natural Law]

Hold off the Kotor II replay... Hold off the Kotor II replay...