Stormie's new/ported models

[Stormie97 253]

Hey everyone!

Back in late summer I made this thread as I needed help porting Toshi's Luke Jedi Robes model from Jedi Academy. Well, I kind of dropped the project for a while because of school but I really want to get this done soon, preferably before Christmas. The mod is actually near completion, but I wanted to make this seriously and so I took it a step further.

Here's the progress so far :

The original model has been scaled and reshaped where needed be, I used the hands from the PMBAM model as that method would make it easier for the skinning process. Speaking of which, skinning is done, or at least to at satisfactory level: there seems to be a fine line between looking good and OHMYGODWHYWOULDITBENDLIKETHAT. So there's still a bit of stretching going on in certain animations, but overall I think I wouldn't be able to make it much better.

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I also created an alternative robe item using textures from another mod (but I do think it needs some tweaks)

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Naturally, I used the only unoccupied spot for the item (PMBJM) and created two quick items with descriptions. Those are, however, kind of uninspired so if you have any ideas, feel free to throw them in.

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Here's the cool part. I wanted this mod to feel complete and that couldn't be possible if there was no female version for this. So I went ahead and completely remodeled the robes to fit the base female body model from TSL in Blender. It was finicky, tedious and frustrating, because I suck. But I came through, as you can see:

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I haven't finished the skinning process for the female model yet.

So that's it for now. I still don't quite know how to put these items into the world though, so I might need a bit of help on that matter further down the line.

This is my very first attempt at modding and there has been a steeeep learning curve to get here.

I should add that I have complete permissions from the original authors of those files, I can provide screenshots if requested.

Oh and as the title suggests, I have a few other ideas for models once this will be done, but I prefer to focus on the task at hand for now.

[Akris76 2]

They look pretty good man! Nice work.

[GPChannel 7]

Cant wait to try it 

[TT 0]

Stormie would you know how to extract a model from kotor and put into current 3DS MAx? 

[Stormie97 253]

The mod has now officially been released! It's been really difficult as I had to learn everything from scratch: from extracting models from KoTOR to even learn how to use Blender and 3DS max at all. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and I am not quite done with modding yet.

Here's a sneak peak of what I am working on next:

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EDIT: I'll release this version soon, I still have to test it in game to make sure the skinning is as good as possible. Speaking of which, this mod will use Hunter Run's Flowing Cape supermodel. The cape on my mod is much broader than the one of the Revan armor model. As a consequence, there is a bit of clipping and stretching going on in certain animations. Here's an imgur gallery where I uploaded a mix of renders of animations that look kinda good and the worst ones I could fine.

[JDub96 54]

Think you could make a version of this with brown robes and a red cape for K1? It would make an awesome Qel-Droma robe replacer.

[Stormie97 253]

On 10/31/2019 at 7:58 PM, JDub96 said:

Think you could make a version of this with brown robes and a red cape for K1? It would make an awesome Qel-Droma robe replacer.

Well there is a couple problems with this:

On K1, the supermodel for the flowing cape model is a bit different than the one on TSL meaning I'd have to redo a part of the skinning which is a tedious process. The cape is especially difficult to get right since it is much broader than the one on Revan's armor. Also, the Qel-Droma robes share the same model than any type of jedi robes. Player models like that are limited, if I'd have to replace the Qel-Droma with this model, it would also replace all other jedi robes. That would be weird. The alternative would be to replace the Revan Armor model so it stays unique. So it wouldn't replace the Qel-Droma robes per se but it would add a new item.

I'd have to play around with the textures a bit first to see if I can make it look good with the color scheme you mentionned. The thing is, I've moved on to new projects so it might be a while until I look into it. It's also possible that I release it with the same textures as before and leave it to others to create their own retextures.

 

[JDub96 54]

No pressure at all. I was just thinking out loud so there's no pressure to actually fulfill it.

[dmagicguess 4]

That outfit is clean, amazing work on it. That is going to become a new staple in my playthroughs... now if we only had a working Luke head to go with it lol.

[Stormie97 253]

On 11/4/2019 at 11:40 PM, JDub96 said:

No pressure at all. I was just thinking out loud so there's no pressure to actually fulfill it.

Sure. I just wanted to give you an idea of the work that would be involved.

9 hours ago, dmagicguess said:

That outfit is clean, amazing work on it. That is going to become a new staple in my playthroughs... now if we only had a working Luke head to go with it lol.

Thank you, I can hardly take any credit for the original model and texture, which were made by DT85 and Toshi over at JKHub. The female model is the result of some heavy editing on my part though.

Now that the cloaked version has been released, here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on next:

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Don't worry, she'll have two arms and two legs when she's ready 😋

This is a brand new model that I've created from scratch by using the female underwear model as a reference for the shape and proportions. The basic design is heavily inspired by this artwork by Jan-Wah Li.

The idea I had for this mod was to create a set of simple robes that the Jedi Exile would wear once his/her training with Kreia begins and that would evolve with the player just like the way the Exile's Crystal works: the higher the light side (or dark side) stat of the player, the better the buffs.

The outfit will also get a new color scheme as the player evolves: as the player tends to the dark side, the robes will get closer to black. Inversely, for light side players the robe will get a more colorful texture. I'm not decided on the colors yet but I might include a few versions as an option to chose from during installation (I'm open to suggestions).

All of that will of course involve a bunch of scripting which is really not my thing, but that's a problem for later.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

On 11/6/2019 at 10:20 AM, Stormie97 said:

All of that will of course involve a bunch of scripting

Also DLG editing presumably, assuming you want someone (or something - T3 often gets roped into this sort of thing) to handle the resetting/levelling up item switching in an interactive manner.

[Stormie97 253]

11 hours ago, DarthParametric said:

Also DLG editing presumably, assuming you want someone (or something - T3 often gets roped into this sort of thing) to handle the resetting/levelling up item switching in an interactive manner.

Yeah I thought of T3 for that. I don't know much about scripting so I'll take a look at how the game handles the levelling up of the Exile's Crystal through Kreia and try to imitate it. For the time being, I'll concentrate on getting the texture to look right: I try to stay as close as possible to Kotor's old school borderline cartoony look when it comes to clothing textures but it is though to do by hand. The wrinkles in the fabric are especially hard to nail.

[JDub96 54]

1 hour ago, Stormie97 said:

Yeah I thought of T3 for that. I don't know much about scripting so I'll take a look at how the game handles the levelling up of the Exile's Crystal through Kreia and try to imitate it. For the time being, I'll concentrate on getting the texture to look right: I try to stay as close as possible to Kotor's old school borderline cartoony look when it comes to clothing textures but it is though to do by hand. The wrinkles in the fabric are especially hard to nail.

What if you actually linked it to the same scripts as the crystal? So that whenever the crystal gets enhanced, the robes are also enhanced as like a... side effect of the resonance of the Force with the crystal to the user? Place the robes in the container aboard the Harbinger so they're always nabbed before the crystal. 

[Stormie97 253]

14 minutes ago, JDub96 said:

What if you actually linked it to the same scripts as the crystal? So that whenever the crystal gets enhanced, the robes are also enhanced as like a... side effect of the resonance of the Force with the crystal to the user? Place the robes in the container aboard the Harbinger so they're always nabbed before the crystal. 

Well for one thing, I don't wish to make the player end up being too overpowered. I mean the crystal alone gives crazy buffs once levelled enough, so combined with the robes it would be even worse.

Placing it inside the Exile's container in the Harbinger is too early in my opinion. At the beginning of the game, Kreia observes that the Exile looks like a Jedi, to which your answers basically are that you're a Jedi no more, or even at all. The Exile accepts that it is his/her destiny to use the Force and be a Jedi or a Sith - or whatever Kreia tries to teach the player - later into the game. That's where in my opinion it would make sense to acquire the robes.

As for the evolution of the crystal, it is in my intention to mirror the way the crystal works. From what I've found, the crystal can have 9 "levels". Those levels are determined by a simple formula: (Player LVL - 9)/3. So you'll get a level 9 crystal once you reach level 36 which is close to impossible. So I was thinking to dial it down a bit by giving the robes about 5 levels. For example I might look for a dialogue the player has around level 10 that matches the criteria above and determine the robes level by the following: (Player LVL - 5)/5 which would grant you a level 5 robes by player level 30. Just to give you an idea but nothing is set in stone, yet.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

6 hours ago, Stormie97 said:

I'll take a look at how the game handles the levelling up of the Exile's Crystal through Kreia

Should be a bunch of separate items as I recall. That's why she comes up with that "talk to me if you want to refocus it" crap. They need to destroy the one you have and give you a new one.

[Stormie97 253]

7 hours ago, DarthParametric said:

Should be a bunch of separate items as I recall. That's why she comes up with that "talk to me if you want to refocus it" crap. They need to destroy the one you have and give you a new one.

That’s exactly it. I found this handy article that details each single crystal and their buffs (section VI).

The crystal can be take on 9 levels and there are also 5 alignment levels that determine its stats, making a grand total of 45 different crystals.

I took a look at the items in Kotor tool but there were only 5 <FullName>’s Crystal, one for each alignment level. I assume this means the crystal’s level is handled via a script.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

There are 45 qcrystal_x_y UTIs.

[Stormie97 253]

2 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

There are 45 qcrystal_x_y UTIs.

Ah I didn’t see those, thanks.
So yeah, I’ll try to copy the way the crystal is handled by Kreia over to T3. In my case, 5 robes levels would bring it to 25 UTIs.

I’ll also take a moment to look the stats of the crystals in details in order to ensure the player won’t end up being OP but while still making it worthwhile to wear the robes other than just the looks. I want to keep it somewhat realistic as well, i.e. giving them a strength would be goofy. They are robes, not an exosuit or whatnot.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

TSL allows for upgrades like underlays. There might be some buffs in the upgrades you can't normally use for robes that you could add as base properties. Also look at what the other named robes do for ideas.

[Stormie97 253]

On 11/8/2019 at 12:45 PM, DarthParametric said:

TSL allows for upgrades like underlays. There might be some buffs in the upgrades you can't normally use for robes that you could add as base properties. Also look at what the other named robes do for ideas.

Good idea. I'll look into that once I'm done with the textures. Speaking of which, I finally managed to paint some textures that ressemble Kotor's art style:

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Once I finished painting it, a quick pixellisation filter on Photoshop should give it a nice final retro game touch. Also, I'll sprinkle it with just a bit of noise.

I have been quite busy these past couple days. I started working on a new project that I had in mind for almost a year since I stumbled on this incredible piece of art by Corbin Hunter. I've contacted the author via Reddit and got his permission to bring his art to game. Here's what I've been toying with:

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I've finished the basic modelling. The upper torso has been ripped from Juhani's underwear model and painted over in order to remove the underwear textures (the result is very convincing). I've also started texturing the new outfit. The torso/abdomen part is quite detailed so that's gonna take a while to get to look right, but I'm optimistic. You may notice the head is quite a bit different as well:

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It's crazy the difference a couple eyebrows can make. And a decent haircut, because I don't know what Bioware was thinking when they made.. whatever this is.

Feedback is welcome. I'm afraid she might look too angry, so I might lift her eyebrows a bit to make her look more friendlier.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

Make sure you look at other hair danglymeshes so you can add a bit of life to that topknot. I don't think her vanilla one uses it.

[ebmar 893]

9 hours ago, Stormie97 said:

...working on a new project that I had in mind for almost a year since I stumbled on this incredible piece of art by Corbin Hunter... Here's what I've been toying with... a decent haircut...

That looks astonishing! I'm a fan of the said artwork, and is looking very forwards to this particular project you made.

And yeah, that new haircut looks 🔥 on Juhani!

5 hours ago, DarthParametric said:

Make sure you look at other hair danglymeshes so you can add a bit of life to that topknot.

Second what DP had pointed-out there, that's a good one.

5 hours ago, DarthParametric said:

I don't think her vanilla one uses it.

Apparently it does. There is a (dangly) Hair meshes with Juhani's head model/p_juhanih. Her hair does dangly in game, though further improvement may have been required.

9 hours ago, Stormie97 said:

Feedback is welcome.

I like what I have seen so far, though you may as well have had aware of this that having her body texture a necklace collar [something slave Bastila/P_BastilaBAS01 has] seem to be a good idea to bridge the head with the torso. In addition to enhance the appearance [and to interpret CH's Juhani very closely] it would also cover the seam around her neck. Also having shadows and highlights on her pants would do nicely, but that is something for a closing-end.

Edited November 13, 2019 by ebmar
Changed "necklace" to "collar", a more suitable term for the thing

[Stormie97 253]

2 hours ago, ebmar said:

That looks astonishing! I'm a fan of the said artwork, and is looking very forwards to this particular project you made.

I like what I have seen so far, though you may as well have had aware of this that having her body texture a necklace collar [something slave Bastila/P_BastilaBAS01 has] seem to be a good idea to bridge the head with the torso. In addition to enhance the appearance [and to interpret CH's Juhani very closely] it would also cover the seam around her neck. Also having shadows and highlights on her pants would do nicely, but that is something for a closing-end.

Thank you! I appreciate it. Actually, everything below the waist are textures that haven't been worked on yet. So the pants, skirt and boots are just solid colors that I set ealry on to have a general feel of the end result. I'm working my way down from the top, getting the armor-y part of it right was crucial. I very much plan on adding the necklace, based on your feedback I'll try drawing it around the seam of her neck.

6 hours ago, DarthParametric said:

Make sure you look at other hair danglymeshes so you can add a bit of life to that topknot. I don't think her vanilla one uses it.

Yep, I took a look at a few female heads that feature ponytails. Haven't figured out how to parameter the Flex modifier to get the same result quite yet though.

[DarthParametric 3,782]

KOTORMax has a built-in tool for it, although as I recall it incorrectly sets a minimum weight of 1, whereas your anchor points need a weight of 0 to be static. I don't think there would be any practical way of doing it in Blender. Although it's ultimately just vertex painting, so you might be able paint it in Blender and then export it as an FBX or something to get it in to Max.

[Stormie97 253]

1 minute ago, DarthParametric said:

KOTORMax has a built-in tool for it, although as I recall it incorrectly sets a minimum weight of 1, whereas your anchor points need a weight of 0 to be static. I don't think there would be any practical way of doing it in Blender.

That's not an issue. Basically my workflow is: modelling and texturing in Blender -> export in .fbx -> skinning in 3DS Max. I did check that tool out yesterday very quickly. But what made me scratch my head is the "Edit constraints" button (original Juhani head):

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I assume those yellow boxes outline the constraints for the dangling of the ponytail. However, how are they generated? By simply setting up a Flex modifier (let's say I set up one that is identical to the original ponytail for the modified one) or are there additional steps?