The Jedi Masters (TSL Total Conversion Mod) ported to KOTOR 1

[JediArchivist 70]

@Trex

It would be awesome if someone would help me port Trex's brilliant The Jedi Masters mod to work with KOTOR 1 instead or TSL!*

You can find out more about it and download it here: http://www.the-jedi-masters.com

The reason for this is that I want to attempt to run The Jedi Masters with the Mobile (Android / IOS) version of KOTOR 1, so that would be pretty cool...almost like a new KOTOR game.

I have already tried installing The Jedi Masters mod onto the PC version of KOTOR 1, the game launches, when I start a new game the custom loading screeen appears, but then the game crashes!

If anyone could provide some help or find the time to port the mod for me (if it is easy to do and does not take too much time / effort), I would greatly appreciate it!

 

UPDATE 1:

Progress: 15%

Results: Got the game to load a savegame from the first level of the mod without crashing. Managed to get the level to partially (just a very little part of it) load (HUD, doors, characters, text above characters / objects). Can warp to modules using the console, most levels only display a black screen. Loading screens seem to work fine.

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I experimented with The Jedi Masters, I manually installed it (copied all files to neccesary folders) onto a copy of KOTOR 1 (obviously, on purpose), then I selected all the .mdl files in the Override folder, ran them through the K2 to K1 porting process with MDLEdit, batch renamed them then put the converted / ported files back to Override. I basically followed the porting procedure described in Thor110's K1 to K2 level porting tutorial, but in reverse (in MDLEdit open .mdl as K2 file -> convert to ASCII -> open the resulting ASCII file as K1 file -> convert back to Binary). The .mod files from the Modules folder should already be compatible I figured...

Progress: now the game loads a save from The Jedi Masters instead of crashing the game. It also shows elements like the doors and characters, with their corresponding label / text above them! My character cannot move unfortunately. The game crashes when starting a new game, just like before porting the .mdl files.

I am definately making some progress here! I wonder why the game won't load the other elements like textures though, as far as I know they should work without porting them, only the .mdl files require porting.

 

UPDATE 2:

Progress: 70%

Results: Got the game to properly load a savegame from the mod. The level loads completly, all loading screens, maps, textures, characters, journal entries, map, dialogues and most interactions seem to work! I can also now move freely through the game. My character model is displayed without the head, i managed to get around that by changing my appearance to Dustil using Kotor Savegame Editor.

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After the last attepmt when I ported all .mdl files to K1 format, now I also copied all the ported K2 modules and files (textures, models, characters, maps, etc.) that I made for my KOTOR II Mobile porting attempt.

Progress: Now the game loads the entire level, not just the doors and characters. I can walk around the level and interact with NPC's, open doors and containers, have proper conversation, even the journal and map work! When starting a new game it starts a new KOTOR 1 game instead of crashing like it did before.

I also copied the files over to an iPad running the Mobile version of KOTOR 1 (I installed / copied the files like a mod)! 

Some pictures (notice the KOTOR 1 Mobile HUD):

 

*For my personal use only, no files will be published or uploaded without the original modder's (Trex) clear and explicit consent, as all work related to the mod belongs to him!

[Thor110 494]

This wouldn't be possible... I mean it would, but by the sounds of it ( I havent played ) its a total conversion mod with a storyline, the amount of work would be insurmountable, you would be recreating the total conversion.

I have currently been looking into and working on porting maps from K1 to K2 but the very concept of porting a total conversion from one game to the other is, crazy, I don't understand why you would want to do this? For what reason?

The biggest project I have personally thought about is porting either K1 or K2 to the opposing engine after lengthy stress testing of both engines, factoring in, documenting and understanding the differences in the engine, though once again, the size of the task is ridiculous and I would be better off putting the time and effort into improving one engine over the other or both to a comparable standard.

I am not entirely sure you understand the process, I don't like to be the "do you know how to mod" guy, but it seems like you don't understand the development process very well and though I am pretty sure what you are talking about is actually possible, it is just ridiculous, potentially a lot of work ( depending on the size of the mod ) and wouldn't work because the games are different and might feature or need a planet that isn't in one or the other.

Again depending on what the mod is all about, I will look it up quick, having looked it up I understand what it is, a total conversion mod for K2, in order to do this, you would have to re-create the mod from scratch to work for KotOR or understand all the differences between K1 & K2 so well that you could edit them on the go to match up everything with the way K1 works, but its potentially too big a task to be worth undertaking and also completely pointless ( from my personal perspective / opinion ) you may as well just play the mod on K2 as it is meant to be, rather than trying to mess around with it.

Oh yeah and you actually installed the mod to the KotOR directory when it is a K2 mod and just expected it to work?

The lack of understanding is real, yes it would be possible, but it would be too much work and there is no reason nor need to do so, I also heavily doubt anyone would spend so much time porting a mod, just for you / with no release.

Though I just wasted a lot of time typing this out / trying to make sure I am nice as I get the feeling you are not from a computer background / don't really understand what is going on.

Off-Topic - is the mod any good?

Oh I have just re-read your message and seen your reason for wanting to port it, which I guess I kind of understand, but is there not a K2 mobile version? If not then again, a hell of a lot of work would be needed to make this happen and I don't see it being feasable.

Best place to start would be the size of the mod, what it does to the game, what does it add, is there an entirely new storyline or does it just make some changes? What does it actually do, as I haven't played it I don't understand but from reading it, it's an entirely new game, so making it work for K1 from the get go is impossible, ultimately what you would want to do is look to the developer or author of the mod and ask them to either work on a K1 version for mobiles, which I again doubt they would be interested in, or asking them for the source / files they used to prepare the mod so you could port it into K1, but I doubt they would give you the files, they may not even have them anymore, these things happen, you could also go about extracting everything and remaking it, but this honestly seems like too much hassle to even think about.

I've typed this much out because I think reading your post hurt my head.

[DarthTyren 103]

Mainly, you would be missing a lot of the functionality that exists in TSL in order to make TJM work the way it does. It would make a lot more sense to port content from KotOR to TSL than the other way around simply because of those added functionalities.

[JediArchivist 70]

@Thor110 @Trex

I know this is a next to impossible, lots of work, very hard, useless endevour. I am only doing it for fun and educational purposes, and personal use only. I am not even hoping to get the mod working perfectly with K1, I am only hoping for some partial functionality...

 

I experimented with The Jedi Masters, I manually installed it (copied all files to neccesary folders) onto a copy of KOTOR 1 (obviously, on purpose), then I selected all the .mdl files in the Override folder, ran them through the K2 to K1 porting process with MDLEdit, batch renamed them then put the converted / ported files back to Override. I basically followed the porting procedure described in Thor110's K1 to K2 level porting tutorial, but in reverse (in MDLEdit open .mdl as K2 file -> convert to ASCII -> open the resulting ASCII file as K1 file -> convert back to Binary). The .mod files from the Modules folder should already be compatible i figured...

Progress: now the game loads a save from The Jedi Masters instead of crashing the game. It also shows elements lile the doors and characters, with their corresponding label / text above them! My character cannot move unfortunately. The game crashes when starting a new game, just like before porting the .mdl files.

I am definately making some progress here! I wonder why the game won't load the other elements like textures though, as far as I know they should work without porting them, only the .mdl files require porting. Should I dissasemble and reassemble the .mod files...would that have any influence at all?

 

UPDATE:

After the last attempt when I ported all .mdl files to K1 format, now I also copied all the ported K2 modules and files (textures, models, characters, maps, etc.) that I made for my KOTOR II Mobile porting attempt.

Making progress! Now the game loads the entire level, not just the doors and characters. I can walk around the level and interact with NPC's, open doors and containers, have proper conversation, even the journal and map work! When starting a new game it starts a new KOTOR 1 game instead of crashing like it did before.

I also copied the files over to an iPad running the Mobile version of KOTOR 1 (I installed / copied the files like a mod)! 

I updated and posted some pictures at the end of the first post!

 

My work so far proves that porting The Jedi Masters to Mobile KOTOR 1 should be possible!

A bit of help with continuing this endevour would be very much appreciated!

[Thor110 494]

On 1/16/2019 at 10:58 PM, JediArchivist said:

My work so far proves that porting The Jedi Masters to Mobile KOTOR 1 should be possible!

A bit of help with continuing this endevour would be very much appreciated!

Possible, sure, likely? No, it will face the same problems as a K2 to K1 port, which is that most if not all of the games scripts will need rewriting, including any from TSL that are used by TJM.

As for loading a save, are you taking a save from K2 and putting it into K1? that sounds like a bad idea to me, there will be all sorts of missing variables.

It sounds like either the models broke during the conversion or you don't have all the textures, it could also be missing walkmesh files, though it sounds like when .vis / .lyt files arent working or are missing and the character doesnt spawn in correctly, cant move and their head is off their shoulders.

Are you just using the modules directly from TJM into K1 mobile? Rebuilding them might help but will only reveal more problems.

It's definitely a good way to learn about kotor modding though, that's why I wrote a tutorial on the porting process.

Talking of TJM I need to try it out at some point, I haven't yet.

[Sith Holocron 2,477]

4 hours ago, Thor110 said:

Talking of TJM I need to try it out at some point, I haven't yet.

It's on this very site now.