DP's Droid Foundry v2.0

[DarthParametric 3,782]

 

 

 

Being a continuation/reboot of a formerly failed endeavour.

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Edit: Now that they have finally broken cover, I can say very special thanks to bead-v for KOTORmax and MDLedit, without which getting these models into the game would not be possible, and ndix UR for TGA2TPC, which allows for the creation of functional tangent space normal maps.

[superSzym 155]

Oh, great! Both droids are beautiful! Also, I'm going to ask about one thing: do the astromech droids follow vanilla UVW mapping? It would be nice to have them with HQ reskins.

 

It's probably too early for this, but may I recommend you to keep the vanilla models and give the new ones new filenames, change astromech entries in appearance.2da to use your new models and create new entry for red-yellow astromech droid for T3-H8 and 3C-FD? They were pieces of junk, so they have to look like junk, and rest of the astromechs would use new models.

 

And what are you planning for B4-D4? Perhaps a C2-N2 model with gold-black paintings and Czerka logo on the chest?

[Guest]

Incredible work!

[Todd Hellid 16]

Awesome!

[DeadMan 103]

That picture of a gravestone... I love it!

But it raises a question: if MDLOps is dead, how you compiled models?

[DarthParametric 3,782]

do the astromech droids follow vanilla UVW mapping? It would be nice to have them with HQ reskins.

This is all completely custom. All new meshes, all new textures. There's nothing from the original models aside from the animations and a few hidden joints (i.e. bones) in the protocol droid.

 

It's probably too early for this, but may I recommend you to keep the vanilla models and give the new ones new filenames, change astromech entries in appearance.2da to use your new models and create new entry for red-yellow astromech droid for T3-H8 and 3C-FD? They were pieces of junk, so they have to look like junk, and rest of the astromechs would use new models.

The original is untouched in both cases because it is used as the supermodel (supplies the animations). Back years ago when I made the first attempt to do this, I had planned for a couple of variants for the astromechs via simple head swaps. Here are the ones in TOR:

 

 

They all use the same body, so adding some extra heads is fairly easy.

 

And what are you planning for B4-D4? Perhaps a C2-N2 model with gold-black paintings and Czerka logo on the chest?

I don't have any specific plans at this point. Various tinted versions of the base texture are easy enough, gold, silver, etc. To be honest I'd rather palm off the texturing altogether to someone else and just focus on making new models, but I can't really make a bunch of physical variants if I am the one stuck texturing them.

 

 

That picture of a gravestone... I love it!

But it raises a question: if MDLOps is dead, how you compiled models?

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Love the work DP, but I'm not sure I understand the memes..,

 

Did you use something other than mdlops to compile these models?

[DarthParametric 3,782]

Yes, I am beta testing a new compiler. I'm not at liberty to divulge more at this stage. I'm sure all will be revealed in due course.

 

What I can say is this. A couple of years back I spent months repeatedly smashing my head against first MDLOps and then KAurora trying to compile working versions of these models. I spent hours hex editing the binary models to try and fix them, only to get in game and either freeze on loading, crash after a few seconds, or just have monstrosities filling the screen with exploded parts. This new solution worked straight out of the box.

[Kexikus 995]

The Hype is real!

[DarthParametric 3,782]

Starting to add in the detail for the high poly bakes:

 

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Starting to add in the detail for the high poly bakes:

 

 

Teach me your ways!

[DarthParametric 3,782]

Lesson 1: Don't do it like me, lol. Actual artists use something like ZBrush to do this sort of thing properly. I never could get the hang of that sort of thing though, my brain is not wired for that interface. This is ghetto style projecting splines onto the mesh and running some sweep extrusions along them. Nasty, but it gets the job done.

 

Edit: Leaving aside the specifics of the method, the end result is basically the same, more or less, regardless of the route taken to get there. Here are quick example AO and normal bakes from just the above:

 

 

 

There are a few artefacts that need cleaning up, but you get the idea.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

This will make SH happy:

 

 

 

I finally figured out a problem I had 2 years ago messing with these. Turns out you need an entry in droiddischarge.2da for custom droid models (except for T3) with incorporated weapons in order for them to generate blaster bolts.

 

Also, while not strictly a droid, I guess magic glowing robotic arms do kind of fall under the droid foundry's purview:

 

 

 

It looks like his fat neck will require a custom head model to mate cleanly with standard bodies (this was just a quick test, so I just repositioned the headhook to hide the worst of it).

 

Also, he really needs a console there so he isn't just mime-typing.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

Also, he really needs a console there so he isn't just mime-typing.

He is supposed to be repairing the broken part of the ship

[Domino5555 119]

Wow, was DP able to have Bao-Dur wear Jedi robes and still have his cybernetic arm?

[DarthParametric 3,782]

Yes. VFX emitters are a work in progress in the compiler I am beta testing.

[superSzym 155]

Interesting, though I always told myself that Bao-Dur isn't capable of wearing Jedi robes because the mechanical arm would ignite fire on them when he puts them on. Also, I love the SWTOR battle droid!

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

This will make SH happy:

[Domino5555 119]

How was this supposed to make you happy, again?

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

Because I asked him about this droid before. Privately.

[Mephiles550 227]

This will make SH happy:

How are you not in the Kotor modding hall of fame yet? You just keep continuing to amaze me more and more with your mods.

[Canderis 180]

How are you not in the Kotor modding hall of fame yet? You just keep continuing to amaze me more and more with your mods.

 

The only reason would be that there really isn't one. They don't come much more talented than DP.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

[JCarter426 1,214]

Wow, I thought the droids looked nice but new models for Bao-Dur? I didn't think that had been resolved. I haven't really taken a good look at the new compiler yet myself. Nice work.

 

I had noticed Bao-Dur's head was off when I tried putting him on non-dismembered models in the past. I'm not sure what happened there but I know I'm going to have to edit his head for a project eventually so that's going on my lengthy to-do list, assuming you or someone else doesn't beat me to it (please beat me to it).

[DarthParametric 3,782]

please beat me to it

 

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/5441-downloadbao-dur-head-model-neck-fix/