[KotOR / TSL] Ebon Hawk revamp

[Salk 374]

Hello!

While testing some of the latest (and great) improvement made by @PapaZinos to the Ebon Hawk I happened to notice how some textures and models needed deeper intervention. Unfortunately I do not have the skills required to do what @Sith Holocroncalled "frames". These two great modders would lend their talent when it comes to working with models and with texture but with doing frames we hit a snag.

I am opening this topic just to check if we could find some kind (and talented) soul who could help us finalize this small project. All I can do is to try and explain in better detail what it is about here.

In short, despite the geometry and texture improvements, there are still some ugliness left in our beloved spaceship. Since images are worth more than words I attach two here which are taken from K1's Ebon Hawk cockpit:

 

As PapaZinos put it "Yes, unfortunately it really just comes down to the original textures not being made with the actual models in mind. A lot of those dark areas are the edges of a texture that were not made to be in the middle of a panel. The best solution would be new textures made for those specific models that replicate the original look but are properly organized for the size and dimensions of those panels. The model could then be altered to use those textures. I am not sure if anyone is interested in that work, perhaps you could ask Sith Holocron about it."

Sith Holocron could not unfortunately tackle the task after checking what needed to be done.

So... what needs to be done? I will quote again our resident Ebon Hawk architect PapaZinos, answering SH's questions "Can you make it so they are newly mapped for differently named textures? And if so, what sizes would they need to be?" :

"Yes, I can swap out the old texture for a newly-named done, as well as remap them. They could be any size, it would just be a matter of the portion of a texture intended for that panel being the shape of said panel. If it is not already the same shape, it will be warped to the same shape so as to fit the model, which is when you get messed-up textures that are squeezed, stretched, or otherwise misshapen-looking. The large rectangular panel on the left side wall behind the co-pilot's chair, for instance, is about 1.8m tall and 2.033m across. The large rectangular panel to the right of the galaxy map is about 1.71m tall and 1.915 across. The panel above it is fairly unique so I just drew up the measurements for it. A texture made for those panels would ideally contain a relevant section for that panel of roughly those proportions so as to match the model shape and avoid getting warped."

Example:

And here's PapaZinos' instructions about how to do things right, providing a template as well (attachment below):

"Assuming one texture per each of the three main panels, I would recommend naming new textures as in the included screenshot: LEH_cp01 for the large rectangular panel behind the co-pilot's chair, LEH_cp02 for the more uniquely-shaped panel to the right of the galaxy map, and LEH_cp03  for the large rectangular panel below. I have included below a 7z containing the cockpit model (a version with the animation fix, and a version without, use whichever you prefer for testing) with those panels set to use textures by those names, which may be used as a template for testing purposes. The LEH_cp01 panel is mapped at the same size to the top left corner of the texture, LEH_cp02 to the bottom left, and the LEH_cp03 panel has been resized and mapped to the top left of its texture.

I will also include a .tpc of the original LEH_scre02 texture as well, though it is up to whomever is willing to take this on to decide what version of that texture to use as the basis for the new ones. The original could be used, or Salk's upscaled version, or Dark Hope's take as well, as long as permission is given. The final version needed here can be as simple as a reorganization of computer panel elements from some version of LEH_scre02 designed to fit that model. This would involve taking the disparate elements of LEH_scre02 used, for instance, on the LEH_cp01 panel and creating a new texture which places them all together in the texture such that there are no awkward cutoffs either in the middle of nor at the edges of the model. Those cutoffs and strange spacing issues are the main issue here, and using elements from some version of LEH_scre02 will make it much easier to fit to the model dimensions."

This was a very long post. Thanks for patiently reading all the way through here.

If any of you who did that can also help creating the necessary assets, please just reply to this topic and either myself, PapaZinos or Sith Holocron will try to coordinate efforts. What is particularly beneficial is the fact that this would benefit both KotOR and TSL equally much since both games use the same resources in this case.

Cheers!

EDIT: Forgot to attach the file...

m12aa_01p_template.7z

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

10 hours ago, Salk said:

Unfortunately I do not have the skills required to do what @Sith Holocroncalled "frames".

We're all in trouble the day that I have to consider making an official tutorial.  Doubly so, when it's the second person expressing confusion to me about this topic within a week. 

Until I do get around to writing up something like that, I hope this page on the Czerka Corp. R & D Wiki may be of some use.