Looking for particular models

[xander2077 80]

Hi guys and gals. I have a bunch of extracted mdls in a folder and can’t seem to remember what the names are for the ships of KotOR.im mainly looking for any transport or shuttle craft that were in the first game. So the KT-400, Ministry class, or anything like it. It is related to a couple mods I want to do and build on later. Lethisk is not necessary because that was already put up as modder resource, and I won’t need to do anything to it but a texture.

 

Not really looking for fighters, or capital ships of any kind.

[Malkior 476]

As in shuttle, do you mean the GWing? plc_gwing

 

Alternatively, were you meaning the shuttles that take off and land randomly? they're just called "Freight" or "freighter" in Kotortool.

 

However, if you were looking for the "Official" Legendary names, I can look those up as well.

[xander2077 80]

No, just the model names. I know the legendary names, but I can’t seem to find the ship models in my extracted files. I looked through all the placeables and found nothing - unless I moved them. But could be I did not even extract them.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

Most ships are meshes within various level models.

[xander2077 80]

That is what I feared. So I have to figure out which ones are hangars and then try and get them out of those. I definitely do not want to open the space battle level models.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

I posted OBJs of the 3 freighter models from the battle above Onderon for someone else a few months back. That included the KT-400 it would seem:

https://www.darthparametric.com/files/kotor/misc/Onderon_Freighters.7z

[xander2077 80]

Well that would be a huge help - especially the KT-400. However, I could go ahead and revamp the others as well for one of my projects.

 

For the larger ones, I can’t really remember how they are placed in Onderon, but if they are on the ground it would be cool. If they are just the ones in space battles then might as well fix them up for that too.

 

Any idea what else is out there? I want to say the Ministry Shuttle but I may be thinking K2. I know about the other Sith shuttle (Star Forge one) but I have yet to find that. G-Wing is already extracted.

[xander2077 80]

First "ship" of the series. Thanks for the help. I was able to find a pack of already extracted ships from KotOR online and they will all have to be overhauled. This one has added details and new UVs

[Malkior 476]

Awesome! I have been looking for a way to fix that escape pod's appearance for quite a while now.

 

Especially considering it is one of the first things new players see, which due to its current state could give people a very negative impression of the game's visuals.

[xander2077 80]

After fixing the mesh and adding some details I started to texture the pod over the old vanilla one in gimp. So now I have a bit of it done and I am basically just looking for some special brushes to make this a more damaged looking vehicle. After all crashing through the atmosphere and getting friction burns would make it look a lot more charred and damaged than the game originally portrayed the pods. I may have to look in the modules themselves for the exact pod orientation and parts because this seems to be missing some stuff in the file. I think the guy just ripped them and made them into props for something else, but the main model was there untouched, so it was a 1:1 of the original. But I modified the geometry to smooth it out and then had to change the UVs after that. Same basic technique I used for the masks.

 

Now the geometry is changed, with more panel details and some hollowed out thrusters etc. and I think I like the new texture so far.

 

I am basically adding layers over top of the vanilla texture and then exporting it so it shows up in blender once I refresh it.

[Malkior 476]

Did you want any advice on how to add the friction damage? I have Photoshop knowledge primarily, but I can help out if you have Gimp as well (just not as detailed)

[xander2077 80]

I have the brushes now that I was looking for, and I also have a cool site I use for decals, so that is going to be nailed with a combination of everything.

 

The site I go to for decals that I can modify easily because they are a mask is textures.com

 

They have all kinds of cool stuff.

 

Sometimes I get my own decals from close-ups of creative commons texture reference. Also the details I am adding are all coming from close-ups of the star wars plastic model parts I found in Google image search. Just recolor them and add some grunge and they are good.

 

For the burnt metal with streaks on the thruster cones, I just used a circle gradient and then smudged it a bit with some grunge and it looks pretty good.

 

Of course some of the details are missing so I have to custom make those, but they are easy enough with some handy plugins and brushes.

 

Do you have a technique you like to use for damage and char?

[Malkior 476]

Personally, I've found the sponge brushes to be great for adding a very realistic char and carbon burn if set to a Burn or Overlay layer. You can even use a brush with a lot of small dots across the surface to indicate a sharp upward burn you commonly see on objects re-entering the atmosphere.

 

For added flair, I will also create solid beams underneath or masked in and run an emboss (in Overlay, generally) to "peak out" from underneath the burn damage.

 

Lastly, running a few light undercoatings of a burn set to a low hardness along the frame gaps with whichever brush looks best can be used to indicate where heat collected on the underside of metallic pieces.

[xander2077 80]

Sounds like a good way to do it.

 

I’m fairly familiar with what you are talking about, but don’t usually do this to models, since most of them don’t have charring on them.

 

By solid beams, do you mean lines of the correct color?  Something that is supposed to mimic the seams in the hull plates following the contours of the details? I can do that two ways, and usually one works better than the other, depending on the thickness of the beams, if they are thicker then usually bevel works if it is set right, but for finer details emboss works good, and especially in this case since there is supposed to be damage. I just don’t like using it on a larger portion than a thin line.

[Malkior 476]

Yeah, I use emboss for a lot more than I likely should, but I've got its tweaking down almost to a science. I have less experience with Bevel, but I would assume it works essentially for the same purpose.

 

I was actually referring to when metal is burnt so far that the original unpainted steel shows through where the outer layer burnt away. It's kind of excessive for a simple burn job, but any detail can add character to whatever texture you're working on.

[xander2077 80]

That makes sense. I was thinking maybe that could be used in conjunction with displacement so that it sticks through the char a bit. I still have not gotten that far. I was having UV issues so I had to rebuild the entire middle section. Now I am trying to salvage the alignment of everything so that I have it all lined up pretty much where it was before. The problem is it wants to unwrap in a curve and I can usually try forcing it, but this time it is being stubborn. So some of the geometry will have to be tweaked to fit the texture in places. I’m going to have to chunk it as well anyway so might as well do that now too.

 

But until I get this ironed out I have to put the texture on hold. it looked ok with the low res vanilla texture, but the new one made all the UV issues stand out badly in the middle, right where all the doors and exposed panels are. Oh well, I can build the whole thing from scratch if I want to. But since I want to keep it roughly the same size and same texture, this is the way to go.

 

Ok rebuilt the middle of it and redid the UVs finally. What a headache but it is done. And this is it so far.

 

I am going to take cues from the pictures of the Shenzhou 8 space capsule that recently landed in china for distress and damage. So far this is not bad but I noticed that the metal or tiles on spacecraft seem to turn rusty red or copper almost as if it oxidizes from the heat. Since these things fell uncontrolled it should not matter what side the damage is on as long as a lot of it is on the front.

 

Edit: SO is this what you are talking about Malkior?

 

I think the last thing I need to do is add some carbon scoring from it hitting things as it fell. Kind of like laser scoring.

 

 

For comparison here is a capsule with the charred metal near the top of it.

 

I also found a few pics of the pods with open doors so yes I will have to still dig open the upper city Taris and Under City modules and replace the models. Open hatch, and interior textures need to be done.

[xander2077 80]

OK, got the correct Upper City Taris module loaded in blender with errors but it at least loaded, so I was able to see the new texture on the old model and then figure out how to open the hatch just right and create the new interior. The issue is I will have to inject the new model somehow into the module without destroying anything in the module. Not quite to that stage yet, but when I get there I need to know how to go about it.

 

Just need to make better texture islands for the interior and it will be almost ready, then check scale, and finally try and place it in the module.

 

Luckily this won’t include recreating the walkmesh.

 

Here’s a new screen of the model before the new interior textures are complete.

[Malkior 476]

That makes sense. I was thinking maybe that could be used in conjunction with displacement so that it sticks through the char a bit. I still have not gotten that far. I was having UV issues so I had to rebuild the entire middle section. Now I am trying to salvage the alignment of everything so that I have it all lined up pretty much where it was before. The problem is it wants to unwrap in a curve and I can usually try forcing it, but this time it is being stubborn. So some of the geometry will have to be tweaked to fit the texture in places. I’m going to have to chunk it as well anyway so might as well do that now too.

 

But until I get this ironed out I have to put the texture on hold. it looked ok with the low res vanilla texture, but the new one made all the UV issues stand out badly in the middle, right where all the doors and exposed panels are. Oh well, I can build the whole thing from scratch if I want to. But since I want to keep it roughly the same size and same texture, this is the way to go.

 

Ok rebuilt the middle of it and redid the UVs finally. What a headache but it is done. And this is it so far.

 

I am going to take cues from the pictures of the Shenzhou 8 space capsule that recently landed in china for distress and damage. So far this is not bad but I noticed that the metal or tiles on spacecraft seem to turn rusty red or copper almost as if it oxidizes from the heat. Since these things fell uncontrolled it should not matter what side the damage is on as long as a lot of it is on the front.

 

Edit: SO is this what you are talking about Malkior?

 

I think the last thing I need to do is add some carbon scoring from it hitting things as it fell. Kind of like laser scoring.

 

 

For comparison here is a capsule with the charred metal near the top of it.

 

I also found a few pics of the pods with open doors so yes I will have to still dig open the upper city Taris and Under City modules and replace the models. Open hatch, and interior textures need to be done.

Absolutely. That is some fantastic weathering you have there! I especially like the carbon texture near the top where it looks like the metal actually bubbled a bit.

 

I have a small question, though (and I hope this isn't a huge criticism) but the escape pod in game is sideways in the ground, while your detail clearly shows the damage toward the top; would it be possible for you to either move the weathering layers 90 degrees or perhaps just rotate the model in Taris with a more vertical angle?

 

Either way, it's looking great so far!!

[xander2077 80]

Well the upper city model is pretty much the way I have it in blender now, and I still have to see exactly how it is oriented in the under city, but that is similar.

 

The reason the details are toward the top side and diminish on the underside is because the seam is down there and usually hidden by the other stuff in the scene.

 

I tried to add some there but the seam was pronounced instead of hidden when I did that, so a simpler texture there was required. I can certainly arrange the pod any way I want to in the scene but at the same time it won’t really dictate the damage. The pods are armored and have thrusters to decrease the impact a bit.

 

The reason the damage is up front is because as it free falls, it usually is top heavy, so the wider end faces the planet until it hits the ground and either gets buried or skips off of things and lands.

 

The Soyuz and Shenzhou capsules both get more heat damage on whatever side is hitting the atmosphere first, usually the top side. American rocket capsules got more damage on the bottom since they were bell shaped instead of egg shaped.

 

I still have to change the interior textures a bit, and then it should be ready to try and place in the two module parts that need it.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

Looks like the player's escape pod in Upper City and Bastila's pod in Undercity both use the same mesh, albeit both are part of their respective level models. Screwing with level models is kind of dicey IMO, to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. You could try editing the original texture and use the alpha to make it transparent, then spawn your new model as a placeable over the top of it. I'm not sure how well that would work out, but it would probably be advisable to start with that at least, and only contemplate physically altering the level model if that fails.

[xander2077 80]

Looks like the player's escape pod in Upper City and Bastila's pod in Undercity both use the same mesh, albeit both are part of their respective level models. Screwing with level models is kind of dicey IMO, to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. You could try editing the original texture and use the alpha to make it transparent, then spawn your new model as a placeable over the top of it. I'm not sure how well that would work out, but it would probably be advisable to start with that at least, and only contemplate physically altering the level model if that fails.

 

Yep, I asked Quanon about it, I would like to just replace the mesh somehow, but I’m not sure if that is possible with any of the current tools outside of a 3d program. There are some model replacer programs and of course the module editors that don’t need 3d. But I’m not sure of the capabilities or if those will even work right. if there was a way to shrink the existing model in the module editor that would help hide the vanilla mesh and make it less likely to ghost or create artifacts from intersecting faces, invisible texture or not. That is my biggest worry about it, if even though I use a transparent texture as a replacer, would it still cause issues.

 

the one thing I am learning over again about these modules (been a while since I saw one in max or blender) is just how small of a chunk the vanilla module is in the overall area in game compared to some of the other modules I have seen created by modders. I’m not sure if that is due to issues when trying to cut them up into smaller parts or what, but I did notice they all have their pivot in the same coordinates. I think perhaps the best way to do that in blender when creating a new module is to separate the different parts into workspace layers, and then export each workspace as a different module. That would keep the same pivot and orientation without having too large of a module file.

 

Walkmeshes are entirely something else that kind of boggles me just yet, but I’m not that far into modding to worry about it.

 

Another thing I noticed is there is plenty of open space in each planet to add new modules in the same naming convention; in fact they skip over whole module sequence alpha numeric names so there are gaps that can be filled in with expansions of the existing modules with a little creativity.

 

Anyway, back to the pod.

 

I still have to redo the walls with pipes. I was going to follow the design of the old model there, but I think I want to replace that island with something a little more like 5 point safety harness and some padding with a fold down seat sort of texture.

 

This may be a way to do it but I am not sure, perhaps adding hidden doors or something. Or spawning a new door in the old area can open up some possibilities. Still not sure on that though. I imagine that is quite a task because in some cases one might want to add a new bridge in and that would take some creativity and a new walk mesh spawning too. So limitations may be a hassle. Perhaps the door on an empty wall would be better, or maybe a turbo lift sticking through the edge of the skywalks is a better solution. After all they are only doors instead of a bridge or new walkmesh so that is one less hassle to worry about.

 

EDIT:

 

After opening the modules in blender, I found both the parts that have the pods in them in both upper and under city Taris. The orientation for both is slightly different. One has the door open from one side, and the other has it hinged on the other side. now technically I could use the same model for both replacers and just rotate the one so it mimics the angle of the under city model, but in this case I think I may have to use two models as placeables with the changes reflecting in each one, and they just share the same new texture.

 

Now this also means that I can just take the door off and lean it up against the pod for the under city model, and that will mimic the vanilla orientation.

 

Considering how these pods are supposed to work, the hatch should blow off, but if any of the door locks don’t disengage, that would logically explain why it would hinge on two opposite sides.

 

Also making it as a placeable and releasing it as a modders resource will open up other possibilities for any expansion mods.

 

I remember one of the modders wanted to make an expansion of the under city ruins by using unused doors or perhaps making a door where there was not one before, and with all the little huts nestled in archways, there are endless possibilities for that. But these pods could be added into something like that, anywhere, and be additional content, act as triggers for new battles, and even provide a logical waypoint for clues.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

I played around with removing the original capsule from the level for a while. I tried a few different mesh alterations, bashing my head against all the usual MDLOps issues, and not fairing any better with KAurora or Taina's Replacer. Then I hit on a much simpler solution. Simply change the capsule mesh's render flag from 1 to 0. It's a simple single byte hex edit. Observe:

Now you see it.

Now you don't.

Here's the edited level model if you want to check it out for yourself:

https://www.darthparametric.com/files/kotor/k1/[K1]_m02ac_02b_Invisible_Capsule.7z

Note you'll need a save before entering the area for the first time. If needs be, check out ChAiNz.2da's collection of Taris saves for one right outside the door before the first transition to that area (Tar-UpperCity1st).

I haven't edited the model for the Undercity level with Bastila's capsule yet, as that is way more of a pain in the ass to test. Also, I suspect that the collision mesh may prove problematic when trying to spawn in the new capsule as a placeable. I've had problems with that before.

[xander2077 80]

I played around with removing the original capsule from the level for a while. I tried a few different mesh alterations, bashing my head against all the usual MDLOps issues, and not fairing any better with KAurora or Taina's Replacer. Then I hit on a much simpler solution. Simply change the capsule mesh's render flag from 1 to 0. It's a simple single byte hex edit. Observe:

 

Now you see it.

 

Now you don't.

 

Here's the edited level model if you want to check it out for yourself:

 

http://dpmods.wheb.org/files/kotor/k1/%5BK1%5D_m02ac_02b_Invisible_Capsule.7z

 

Note you'll need a save before entering the area for the first time. If needs be, check out ChAiNz.2da's collection of Taris saves for one right outside the door before the first transition to that area (Tar-UpperCity1st).

 

I haven't edited the model for the Undercity level with Bastila's capsule yet, as that is way more of a pain in the ass to test. Also, I suspect that the collision mesh may prove problematic when trying to spawn in the new capsule as a placeable. I've had problems with that before.

 

Regardless, this is fabulous news! I’m impressed with the solution you came up with and that is elegant but very, very effective. A simple 1 to 0. I like.

 

I’m not sure about the collision either, but both have one in both module parts. If you want to test out the model then I’m fine with that. I just have to do a few more things before conversion.

 

Perhaps the solution is altering the location of it slightly so the new pod would need its own collision, but that could break any quests tied to the location triggers if there are any. It depends on how they can be placed using what tool.

 

I am finished with the model and have to convert it, but before I do I want to make two of them, one for each location due to the difference in the door.

 

Here it is with the finished texture.

 

I also found that most of the models I wanted to make look better actually don’t look half bad already, coming from a geometry standpoint, but some of the texture replacers are too busy with inappropriate distressing and hull panel mismatch for the scale, so I think a simple texture replacer for most of them will do. Now any of the freighters in K1 and K2 will have to be redone, since they are so blocky they make me face palm. And that makes the stick out compared to the military ships.

 

But that should not be too hard to pull off. I can add details to things like that.

[DarthParametric 3,783]

The issue I've had in the past with collision is that placeables respect collision the same as a player would, so trying to spawn one in right on top of some collision will result in it shifting to one side. It's probably not a big issue for the Upper City one, as it's just a static bit of scenery, so it doesn't matter if it moves a bit. Bastila's though I seem to recall has a cutscene that shows the capsule is empty. I could be mistaken, but if that is the case then it could be more problematic.

Edit: OK, it turns out Bastila's pod wasn't too difficult to check. Loading a save right before Mission joins was sufficient. I didn't get a cutscene or even any journal update on approaching it though, so maybe I was imagining things? It seems like this is purely set dressing as well.

 

Here's the hex edited level model:

https://www.darthparametric.com/files/kotor/k1/[K1]_m04aa_04f_Invisible_Capsule.7z

[xander2077 80]

Thank you very much. That is a huge help DP. Now I just have to finish up the placeables and see what happens next. It will probably be late tonight if I can stay awake.

 

I thought there was a cutscene as well, but maybe not or maybe something else has to trigger first? If it is just a set proper then perhaps it is there to give credence to the search and destroy party being down there when you encounter Canderous in the Under City.