KotOR II High-Res Icon Suite

[Nomnisang 23]

It's been years since I've played KotOR II, and like many, I came back to it after the update last month.  While I'm still very much in love with the game, some parts of it have not aged well.

 

One thing I've noticed in particular are the low resolution icons.  They are 32x32 pixels, and they tend to get fuzzy.

 

After a brief search, I've yet to find any mods that upscale that either raise the resolution for any UI elements, or remaster the icons.

 

Thus, I've started rebuilding some of the icons from KotOR II.  My goal is to get all the force powers, feats and other related icons upscaled, and to upscale them with a faithfulness to the original design.

 

I am not a modder.  My experience is mostly in graphic design, so I don't have the knowledge to get these images into the game yet.  

 

 

So far, I'm trying to make icons that will scale properly.  Some detail will be lost along the way, which is to be expected, but my goal is to have the icon remain faithful to the original.  The Heal icon in this example is not as faithful as I'd like it to be.  The Mandalorian Courage icon is less detailed, but far more faithful when scaled down.  The Lightsaber forms, which as the least complex of the icons I've made thus far, feel the most faithful.  These icons also have the most reuseable elements.  Given that there are 88 force powers and 180+ feats, having reuseable assets is going to be essential to this project.

 

The main challenges I'm going to hit will be technical execution, time management and graphic fidelity.  From what I've seen, I may need to edit all of the icon's width since the widescreen fixes in the last patch warped the UI.  I also do not know what optimal image size will be yet, but I'm currently hoping to make all of these between 128x and 512x.  Once I know how much detail I need, I'm sure that my workflow will improve.

 

Before I delve too far, I'm hoping to get some feedback in order to improve my asthetic before I venture too far.  Mandalorian Courage and the Lightsaber forms are the most accurate depictions of what I'm shooting for.

[tjsase 116]

Amazing work! Combined with a text enlargement mod, this could be a great GUI overhaul!

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Before I delve too far, I'm hoping to get some feedback in order to improve my asthetic before I venture too far.  Mandalorian Courage and the Lightsaber forms are the most accurate depictions of what I'm shooting for.

These actually quite good and I think the aesthetic would work quite well for TSL.

 

That said, for something like the Heal icon, how would it look with the white outlines? Personally, I feel like it would make the icon "pop" more

[Xuul 224]

Glad to see you here. As I said before... It looks great. If this can be put into the game that would be awesome.

[milestails 264]

I like this a lot!

[Nomnisang 23]

I've worked on some additional assets this evening.  I was picking feats with swords from my library, but I decided to knock out a complete feat chain.

 

 

Also, thank you Xuul for recomending this community.  I'm going to try not to spam posts while I make progress.

[Mutilator57 140]

Quality stuff here!

[Rinku 22]

Very nice stuff!

[scoutception 17]

I've worked on some additional assets this evening.  I was picking feats with swords from my library, but I decided to knock out a complete feat chain.

 

 

Also, thank you Xuul for recomending this community.  I'm going to try not to spam posts while I make progress.

That looks great. I always thought the improved flurry icon looked a bit weird. I'd say this is worth it.

[DarthParametric 3,767]

As a few people have pointed out in your post on /r/kotor, I'd suggest making the sides of the Heal icon straight. I'd also suggest making the highlights stronger, more like the Mandalorian Courage ones, so they are more readable at the res they appear in-game.

 

For the resolution, I'd probably output them at 512. If you convert them to DDS, they'll still be extremely light in terms of memory use. You can always release TGA versions as a modder's resource if you want people to be able to modify them. You won't be able to use 16:9 resolutions if you go that route though (DDS have to be square, powers of 2).

[Nomnisang 23]

For the resolution, I'd probably output them at 512. If you convert them to DDS, they'll still be extremely light in terms of memory use. You can always release TGA versions as a modder's resource if you want people to be able to modify them. You won't be able to use 16:9 resolutions if you go that route though (DDS have to be square, powers of 2).

 

In that case, what I might end up doing is getting the exact proportions that the game stretches the icons and slim them manually in photoshop.  That will mean that there will be blank margins, but the icons themselves should be rendered in the intended proportions.

 

As a few people have pointed out in your post on /r/kotor, I'd suggest making the sides of the Heal icon straight. I'd also suggest making the highlights stronger, more like the Mandalorian Courage ones, so they are more readable at the res they appear in-game.

 

I plan to come back to "Heal" when I have a few more icons done, so that I can try to keep the look consistent.  I'm taking all of the criticism's thus far and using them to build icons that are faithful to the game.  

My original intent with the Heal icon was to stylize it, like a skull on a bust.  Now that this has become a larger project, I'm focusing on fidelity.

 

[Edit] I've updated the thread's title because I noticed that the home page shows recent posts, along with the thread's full title.  My original title was kind of lengthy, and pushed too much of the content out of view.  I still welcome feedback while I get thing project going.

[DarthParametric 3,767]

In that case, what I might end up doing is getting the exact proportions that the game stretches the icons and slim them manually in photoshop.  That will mean that there will be blank margins, but the icons themselves should be rendered in the intended proportions.

Try making them at a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768 or 800x600, then non-uniform scaling them down to 512x512. In theory they should stretch properly at 16:9 resolutions like 1080.

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Try making them at a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768 or 800x600, then non-uniform scaling them down to 512x512. In theory they should stretch properly at 16:9 resolutions like 1080.

Whichever you do, it's preferred to save a version of the icons in their original, non-scaled dimensions. What we really should do is edit the GUI files so that textures like this aren't getting needlessly stretched

[Nomnisang 23]

Try making them at a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768 or 800x600, then non-uniform scaling them down to 512x512. In theory they should stretch properly at 16:9 resolutions like 1080.

 

That's brilliant.  I'm adding that to my notes.

 

Whichever you do, it's preferred to save a version of the icons in their original, non-scaled dimensions. What we really should do is edit the GUI files so that textures like this aren't getting needlessly stretched

 

Don't worry.  All of these are being saved with their Layers and smart objects in Photoshop as individual files.  This way, if I find a better way to render these images, I can go back and bring those older images back in line with the rest.

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

That's brilliant.  I'm adding that to my notes.

 

 

Don't worry.  All of these are being saved with their Layers and smart objects in Photoshop as individual files.  This way, if I find a better way to render these images, I can go back and bring those older images back in line with the rest.

Awesome. Also, I know you have no obligation to finish this project, but PLEASE DO. This is a great idea and the work is really high quality.

[DarthParametric 3,767]

What we really should do is edit the GUI files so that textures like this aren't getting needlessly stretched

What Aspyr should do/should have done. It might be worth posting on TSL's Steam forum and making the suggestion to them, if it hasn't been done already. They said there will be one final big patch, so now is the time to try and get any changes like that in.

[Vriff 21]

These look really good, nice work.

[Nomnisang 23]

I have no intention of abandoning the project.  However, if I do, I fully intend to leave a style guide, as well as documentation going over how I made these. I'll let you in on a secret right now:  This is all done using the shapes tool and thoughtful use of gradient overlays and gradient strokes.  The most complicated element thus far was making the blaster, which I used the pen tool for.  The only non-vector part of any of these was a motion blur used in Contention and Lightsaber Finesse.

 

 

I'll tell you this:  Once you have a basic element built, it's incredibly simple to build these. It's when you get into an element that will only show up once that time management becomes an issue.

 

Before too long, I should probably make the skill icons, since they're prominently featured on the level-up screen, and they each have their own feat.

 

Also, the finesse icons are a little wierd.  Are these right?  Because the lightsaber is a sword, and the melee finesse is a series of Blasters.

[DarthParametric 3,767]

The icons are just named 01 and 02, so I wouldn't worry too much. I'm pretty sure they show up properly in the game. I recall melee finesse correctly being the sword icon at least.

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Also, the finesse icons are a little wierd.  Are these right?  Because the lightsaber is a sword, and the melee finesse is a series of Blasters.

I do recall there is a mod that either fixes two mixed up icons or fixes an existing icon that uses the wrong graphics... I don't remember which it is. I think it's in the downloads section here...

[Nomnisang 23]

I do recall there is a mod that either fixes two mixed up icons or fixes an existing icon that uses the wrong graphics... I don't remember which it is. I think it's in the downloads section here...

I will make an effort to check the game later down the line.  Hopefully, I will address that in the project closer to release.  Unless, of course, Aspyr addresses it first.

 

I will give Aspyr credit:  Several years ago, I had them pegged as making mac ports on the cheap, but their port of KotOR II has been quite impressive.  I don't know if that's due to their diligence, or if it's due to the late Team Gizka and the TSLRCM teams efforts.

[DarthParametric 3,767]

Huh, I just checked and they are indeed switched, at least in existing feats screen. I was sure it was correct during level up...

[Nomnisang 23]

I don't remember them being switched back in the Xbox version, but I don't feel like digging the heavy thing out of storage to find out.

[Malkior 472]

I do recall there is a mod that either fixes two mixed up icons or fixes an existing icon that uses the wrong graphics... I don't remember which it is. I think it's in the downloads section here...

According to TSLRCM's most recent release, the Finesse Icon Fix is included in versions 1.8 and above

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/393-mod-compatibility-list-for-tslrcm-183.

[DarthParametric 3,767]

Ah, that must be why I thought it was ok. Last time I played it was with TSLRCM, just now I checked on a vanilla install. I can see if_finesse01 and 02 in TSLRCM's Override folder contents. 01 is a saber, 02 is a sword.