Canonical Qel-Droma Robes?

[Prince of Pomp 9]

One thing that has always bugged me about KotOR as a long-time fan of Star Wars is, despite the fact that the game includes all sorts of callbacks to Tales of the Jedi, they rarely end up looking the way they should. For example, the Qel-Droma Robe, otherwise known as the best robe available until you reach the Star Forge. Being the only example of a unique robe for the majority of the game, and the only unique standard robe, it stands to reason that it should have, at the very least, a unique color scheme, if not a unique texture. However, in the base game, it merely is the same brown color of the default Jedi robes. For reference, this is how the robes appear canonically, as worn by their original owner, Cay Qel-Droma: 

Note the red cloak and golden tunic, as well as the bandolier and shoulder pauldron. Of course, the prosthetic can and should be ignored, but compared to the in-game item, there is a marked difference.

Now, I would correct this myself if I could texture worth a damn. However, I cannot. My graphical skills end with basic recoloration, and whole textures are beyond me. That being said, I am currently using the resources provided by JC to make my own improvised texture for the robe that is compatible with his Cloaked Jedi Robes mod. However, if anyone wants to go ahead and make a more accurate rendition, I can see either the use of that model or perhaps the Revan/Star Forge robes as a base. 

[Stormie97 253]

This is quite tricky. The reason the Qel-Droma robes in-game look like any other Jedi robes is because they all share the same 3D body model. There is only a small number of body models that can be used in KOTOR, ranging from Model A (being the underwear model) to Model J (the Star Forge robes model), which are determined in appearance.2da as columns. While it's possible to add appearance rows in appearance.2da, the number of model columns is hardcoded. In practical terms, this implies that if one were to replace the Qel-Droma robe model, they'd end up replacing the entire batch of Jedi robes in the game.

Now typically there are two workaround for this: either replacing the Star Forge robes model or introduce a new model as a disguise. The latter is ideal for stuff that also covers the head of the wearer, but when the character's head is meant to be visible, then it gets tricky because you'd have to create a new row in appearance.2da for each of the playable heads. Yikes.

Besides, a mere retexture, however well-made it may be, won't cut it if you want to achieve the look on those pictures, simply because the robes models don't quite look like on the pictures.

Depending on the direction you'll want to take for this I'd gladly create a new model quite close to the one in your pics. However, as I'm already working on several projects at the time and because of IRL stuff, I won't create the texture for it. Someone else would have to join in and do that.

[Prince of Pomp 9]

That's completely understandable. I personally don't feel that a new model is actually required, as there are two quite workable ones I mentioned: The ported TSL robe models that are used in JC's Robe mod, which (I assume) considering it's position in the recommended mod build on r/KOTOR are ubiquitous enough that a disclaimer would likely be all it needs. The Model J robes likely would work as well, although I foresee the need to use a modified one that still displays the player head.

I was trying to aim for maximum compatibility, but if you feel a new model is needed, that's completely fine.

[Kexikus 994]

I would say that even with the default Jedi robe you could get quite close to this. You couldn't have the cloak and probably not all of the leather pouches but apart from that it could work pretty well and would be something I'm also very interested in.

[Prince of Pomp 9]

10 hours ago, Kexikus said:

I would say that even with the default Jedi robe you could get quite close to this. You couldn't have the cloak and probably not all of the leather pouches but apart from that it could work pretty well and would be something I'm also very interested in.

Like I said, you get even closer using JC's Cloaked Robes supermodel, which I'm 99% everyone uses on account of how ugly the default robes are. And since he made it a publicly available modder's resource, it could even be released publicly.

[AntarcticGorilla 0]

Did this ever get anywhere?  I was quite disappointed when these robes looked the same...

[Prince of Pomp 9]

On 2/22/2021 at 2:59 PM, AntarcticGorilla said:

Did this ever get anywhere?  I was quite disappointed when these robes looked the same...

Unfortunately, my attempt to retexture them (mostly a recolor of JC's  Master Robes with elements lifted from some of the TSL robes) ended up getting lost in a hard-drive crash. I've been meaning to give it another go, but i've been extremely busy since then.

[constantinople33 16]

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