Dantooine Jedi Enclave Landscaping

[DarthParametric 3,785]

I've been spending a bit of time in K1's Jedi Enclave of late. Running back and forth around the landing pad and inner courtyard reminded me of how much I hated those empty troughs, and how much better TSL's overgrown ponds looked by comparison. I figured I'd try and spruce up the K1 version a bit to create a bit more visual continuity between the two games. I've got some basic ponds set up:

 

 

But I'm not super happy how they turned out. I'm going to redo the water lilies, taking a different approach (the way I did it seemed like a good idea at the time, but was kind of stupid). I need to darken the water texture a tad, and tone down the UV jitter. It's a bit too animated at the moment for what should be fairly still water.

 

After that I figured I'd add a few vertical elements. Some reeds, maybe some water lily flowers. Possibly some water fountain VFX?

 

Once the ponds are done, I thought a little bit of extra shrubbery here and there wouldn't go astray. I'm open to suggestions for other improvements.

[Mellowtron11 180]

I've been spending a bit of time in K1's Jedi Enclave of late. Running back and forth around the landing pad and inner courtyard reminded me of how much I hated those empty troughs, and how much better TSL's overgrown ponds looked by comparison. I figured I'd try and spruce up the K1 version a bit to create a bit more visual continuity between the two games. I've got some basic ponds set up:

 

 

After that I figured I'd add a few vertical elements. Some reeds, maybe some water lily flowers. Possibly some water fountain VFX?

 

Once the ponds are done, I thought a little bit of extra shrubbery here and there wouldn't go astray. I'm open to suggestions for other improvements.

I really like this idea about trying to emulate TSL's overgrown ponds! If you don't mind me asking, how are you able to edit landscapes inside the game's modules? Do you still use KOTOR tool?

 

Although I will admit, if you're trying to match TSL's ponds, the water should be very light in color.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

if you're trying to match TSL's ponds, the water should be very light in color.

TSL's ponds are meant to be overgrown and stagnant. They are kind of brownish. My water is basically clear at the moment, as I am currently just using one of the vanilla water textures, but I intend to make it darker (although not to the extent in TSL).

 

If you don't mind me asking, how are you able to edit landscapes inside the game's modules? Do you still use KOTOR tool?

 

There are a couple of ways to go about this sort of thing. Typically you'd edit the level model, although when I tried that I got some errors that I need to chase down the cause of. For now, I'm just adding them as placeables. KTool is one of many tools involved in the process, but it's not the primary tool, no.

[Mellowtron11 180]

TSL's ponds are meant to be overgrown and stagnant. They are kind of brownish. My water is basically clear at the moment, as I am currently just using one of the vanilla water textures, but I intend to make it darker (although not to the extent in TSL).

 

 

There are a couple of ways to go about this sort of thing. Typically you'd edit the level model, although when I tried that I got some errors that I need to chase down the cause of. For now, I'm just adding them as placeables. KTool is one of many tools involved in the process, but it's not the primary tool, no.

So what would the primary tool for level modeling then?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Any modelling program can do the actual modelling, but for the game setup and export you are mostly limited to Max/GMax, although work is continuing on Blender support (I'm not sure if the currently available scripts for it extend to level model support).

 

Edit: Revised the water lilies. I'm much happier with this version, and they are far more efficient geometry-wise to boot.

 

 

I changed the water texture, but it still seems too transparent, despite lowering the opacity from the vanilla version. I'll have to tweak that. I also need to figure out the level model issues I encountered so I can go that route rather than using placeables. They really need to be lightmapped.

[JCarter426 1,215]

Nice idea.

 

I also need to figure out the level model issues I encountered so I can go that route rather than using placeables. They really need to be lightmapped.

 

Editing the area models is definitely preferable, but just so you know you actually can lightmap placeables. You can lightmap any model, really - it's just an extra texture applied to the model. It's just not usually done because a placeables are usually meant to be placed in a variety of lighting conditions and thus lack lightmaps themselves, but it can be done.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

I tried it with the kolto tanks and the game didn't use the lightmaps when they were placeables. They were pulled out of the same room model so I just kept the existing lightmaps they already had with some tweaks to the lightmap UVs (which is what they used when I ended up integrating them into the room model).

[JCarter426 1,215]

Huh, I could swear I have had placeables that were lightmapped (or rather, kept their existing lightmaps). This was in K2, so maybe that makes a difference, or it could've been a trick of the light...

[Kexikus 995]

Great idea!

 

The waterlilies still seem somewhat out of place to me though. I think their texture is too uniform/flat compared to the style of other textures around them.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Yeah, that's why they need to be lightmapped.

[Mellowtron11 180]

Any modelling program can do the actual modelling, but for the game setup and export you are mostly limited to Max/GMax, although work is continuing on Blender support (I'm not sure if the currently available scripts for it extend to level model support).

How do you get Max/Gmax then?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

You can still get GMax for free from TurboSquid. But this is not the thread to be discussing it in.

[Mellowtron11 180]

You can still get GMax for free from TurboSquid. But this is not the thread to be discussing it in.

Sorry, I thought it was either a program with Kotor tool or some software that you could purchase.

[Malkior 476]

Great idea!

 

The waterlilies still seem somewhat out of place to me though. I think their texture is too uniform/flat compared to the style of other textures around them.

Hopefully this proves at least somewhat helpful..

 

I took a few photos of a pond I was landscaping IRL where the leaves sank to the bottom of the water and froze. I can attach them, if you want ideas/examples for textures.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

I'm revisiting this now that porting is all fine and dandy. I have played around with various incarnations of TSL's ponds, with the addition of some flowers (derived from that giant Ithorian one).

         

The TSL version has some trees behind the ponds, so I was thinking of adding some of those for a bit more consistency as well.

[LDR 234]

Definitely looks a lot more dynamic than your previous two iterations. Fantastic job.

[ebmar 893]

With those lilies in them ponds- I'd rather stay in the Enclave to continue my training instead of finding the 2nd Star Map!

Edit: Canderous really knows how to match his clothes....

Edited December 2, 2018 by ebmar

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Added the extra trees from TSL in (interestingly they aren't lightmapped, they just use a grey self-illum). I'm not sure about them just being plonked on the grass though. Maybe they need more of a garden bed around them.

I also swapped the leaf texture for one that is higher res and brighter green. It always struck me as odd that Dantooine is so brown, at least in the K1 version. Especially in and around the enclave. I always thought things should be much more green and vibrant there, as a contrast to everything there being dead and brown in TSL.

[N-DReW25 1,337]

21 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

Added the extra trees from TSL in (interestingly they aren't lightmapped, they just use a grey self-illum). I'm not sure about them just being plonked on the grass though. Maybe they need more of a garden bed around them.

I also swapped the leaf texture for one that is higher res and brighter green. It always struck me as odd that Dantooine is so brown, at least in the K1 version. Especially in and around the enclave. I always thought things should be much more green and vibrant there, as a contrast to everything there being dead and brown in TSL.

I believe the lore behind those trees that appear in TSL and not K1 was that the trees grew over the course of 5 years because the Jedi had long since abandoned the enclave meaning "mother nature can reclaim what's hers", the trees in the K1 enclave (mainly the one in the centre of the round-about) were subjected to the bombing which you can see in TSL as these trees are now just stumps. 

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Only the biggest central one is a stump in TSL. And I find it hard to believe the side trees could have grown that large in the space of a such a short span on what is a temperate world. Maybe on a jungle world, but not Dantooine.

[Mutilator57 140]

1 hour ago, N-DReW25 said:

I believe the lore behind those trees that appear in TSL and not K1 was that the trees grew over the course of 5 years because the Jedi had long since abandoned the enclave meaning "mother nature can reclaim what's hers", the trees in the K1 enclave (mainly the one in the centre of the round-about) were subjected to the bombing which you can see in TSL as these trees are now just stumps. 

This was always my assumption as well.

[Salk 374]

The extra trees do not really look good there, in my opinion.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

I noticed none of the trees in the interior module have moving branches, unlike the ones outside, so I swapped the static ones out for the danglymesh ones from the exterior trees:

 

[ebmar 893]

11 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

I noticed none of the trees in the interior module have moving branches, unlike the ones outside, so I swapped the static ones out for the danglymesh ones from the exterior trees:

Spoiler

 

Awesome! That particular area looks more lively now- well, aside of Belaya wandering around which makes it two.

Anyway, is that a custom LDA_Leafxx? I can't find the exact green version inside the game files; it looks natural!

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Yes, that's an upscaled and recoloured leaf texture with a new clean alpha.

The grass ground textures are also recoloured and the grass planes have all been replaced with new textures.