Saber Mod SLM - More COLORS?

[Jorak Uln 458]

Hi there, 

 

some guys and me are working on a mod that includes the SLM 2.0 saber mod from Kaidon Jorn as a ressource:

 

http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/551-schematic-lightsaber-mod-slm/

 

this mods adds different lightsaber "classes" like Coruscant Battlemaster saber etc.  - every of these classes has its sabers in the 9? vanilla colors. Additionally there are unique LS for the 

Party Members and unique enemies. 

 

Now the optical flaw of this mod is: 

 

Regardless if you have a Dxun Veteran LS in green or Coruscant Battlemaster green or anything else in green - the bladecolors dont change.

e.g. you have ~ 100 sabers and 12 colors or so. 

 

Now i want to give every saber a different color - how can i do that?

[Kexikus 995]

Hex edit The Model to Change it's blade texture to something unique and create a blade texture named The Same way

[Jorak Uln 458]

Hex edit The Model to Change it's blade texture to something unique and create a blade texture named The Same way

Thanks. I'll try that method then.

 

EDIT: One problem solved - the next one arrives:

 

Some colors, like black or dark colors are not really managable on sabers - so my idea is:

 

Is it possible to (edit some 2da lines etc.) to change the lightsaber blade model to sth. else (=Kotor 2 doesnt recognise it as a lightsaber) for example to use  cubemaps? 

[Kexikus 995]

There is no lightsaber blade model, it's one model that has both the hilt and the blade as well as the animation for activation and deactivation. And that model definetly supports cubemaps in general since hilt textures use them succesfully.

 

You could probably either edit that model to fully support cubemaps? (I don't know) or you could make an entirely new model that has cubemaps for the blade texture and then use that model for the sabers that need them. Since every saber variant is a unique model anyway, there'd be no need to edit 2da files as far as I can tell.

[Fair Strides 509]

The main issue with the lightsabers for any of the fabled black colors is that there is a setting in the trimesh/saber meshes that sets the "alpha" of the texture. It's the same with emitters in a way. The game uses black as the invisible color, which is why a lightsaber blade's texture is a circle of white, followed by a color, and then everything surrounded by black.

 

If you wanted to make the blade thinner, you'd make the black section bigger. Vice-versa if you wanted thicker blades. But this feature also prevents you from doing a true black saber at the same time.

[Jorak Uln 458]

The main issue with the lightsabers for any of the fabled black colors is that there is a setting in the trimesh/saber meshes that sets the "alpha" of the texture. It's the same with emitters in a way. The game uses black as the invisible color, which is why a lightsaber blade's texture is a circle of white, followed by a color, and then everything surrounded by black.

 

If you wanted to make the blade thinner, you'd make the black section bigger. Vice-versa if you wanted thicker blades. But this feature also prevents you from doing a true black saber at the same time.

Lightsabers with visible black cores are possible i found out - theres a significant difference if you attach a .txi to the tga. Now Kotor 2 seems to recognise black as solid black color:

 

 

however, as you see there are (still) flaws:

 

 

My suggestion would be to reduce the LS blade to 1 plane, which turns with player movement...

Possible? 

[JCarter426 1,215]

It's not possible. Currently, anyway. The only visual effect that functions the way you want is the particle system. I ran into this problem when I was trying to make my own weather. The end result of that was I got SS to teach me how to use the particle system.

 

Lightsabers don't use particles. Instead they have a rather hacked method of two planes perpendicular to each other, with some trickery with the alpha channels. Even if we could add particle emitter support for lightsaber models - which they currently do not have - I don't believe there's any existing emitter that creates a single, stationary particle... nor am I sure you could get the blade to retract properly.

[Jorak Uln 458]

JCarter:

 

but at least its now possible to assign a black texture to the blade, which then turns out pitch black instead of transparent.

 

i would call that progress.

So i dont know about how particles/emitters work in K2, but could you think of any way to make only 1 plane visible or perhaps assigning a new model to it to solve that ?

 

For example DeadMan made some vibroswords replacements by assigning new sword models with a flickering animated blade.

[JCarter426 1,215]

No, as I said that's the only element in the rendering engine that functions that way. Models are 3D objects that have texture applied across the whole geometry and that texture is visible (or not visible) from any angle. Only particles have variant rendering.

[KTP the King 0]

Hi everyone, I'm a complete noob in modding. The maximum I did was to make a minimum edit to an NPC's skin, so please don't write about too complicated things.

My problem is this: I have tried to create a custom lightsaber by duplicating an existent purple one and giving it new textures, but in-game it keeps looking purple, even though I deleted every reference to the purple TGA file. Also, I have created custom icons, but the game keeps showing purple ones. What may I do?

[Fair Strides 509]

Hi everyone, I'm a complete noob in modding. The maximum I did was to make a minimum edit to an NPC's skin, so please don't write about too complicated things.

My problem is this: I have tried to create a custom lightsaber by duplicating an existent purple one and giving it new textures, but in-game it keeps looking purple, even though I deleted every reference to the purple TGA file. Also, I have created custom icons, but the game keeps showing purple ones. What may I do?

Is the blade itself purple or is the icon purple?

 

If it's the blade itself, how many purple texture references did you find in the .mdl file (I assume this was a single-blade saber)?

 

If it's the icon, what is the name of your custom icon and what is the model variation in the lightsaber's .uti file?

[KTP the King 0]

Both the icon and the blade were purple; in the saber mdl I found 3 or 4 references to the texture and changed them all (I also tried searching with the text editor's function, it found no more). About the icon, I just changed the number at the end of the file name and the denomination in the uti. I put the same number (...-shortsbr-048 or sthg like that) for uti, mdl and icon. Did I do anything wrong? Anyway, thank you.

[Fair Strides 509]

I can think of one or two things that might have gone wrong, but can you package the .uti, .mdl, .mdx, and all the textures up and PM them to me? You can package them into a .zip or .7z and attach them to a PM.

[KTP the King 0]

I can think of one or two things that might have gone wrong, but can you package the .uti, .mdl, .mdx, and all the textures up and PM them to me? You can package them into a .zip or .7z and attach them to a PM.

 

 

048 is the one I edited, 249 the purple one. If sthg is missing, tell me

shortsbr048.zip

shortsbr249.zip

[Fair Strides 509]

I can see nothing wrong with the model or .uti file, but I'm unable to test in-game because this laptop can't run the games. Are you just cheating the lightsaber in, or are you acquiring it through the workbench?

 

If the second one, then can you attach the saber crystal .uti files and the upcrystals.2da file, please?

[KTP the King 0]

I can see nothing wrong with the model or .uti file, but I'm unable to test in-game because this laptop can't run the games. Are you just cheating the lightsaber in, or are you acquiring it through the workbench?

 

If the second one, then can you attach the saber crystal .uti files and the upcrystals.2da file, please?

The first you have said.  The saber crystals should already be into the zips. Now I have also edited the .2da file. Anyway, thx a lot.

upcrystals.zip

[KTP the King 0]

I solved the problem. I simply had to change the "model variation" index in the .uti crystal and saber files giving an unused number (in my case 48). It works well now. 

I've also created a black saber. It's not perfect, but it is difficult for me to do better. If someone is interested I can share the necessary files.