Captain Hair Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Greetings chaps, I remember reading a while ago someone said the skins for guns in kotor were pretty low quality. Well, I went and had a look only to find that they were at teeny tiny 64 x 64 resoloution. So I thought'd I'd have a crack at sorting something a bit nicer out. This is the before/after shot of the Disruptor Rifle 02. Sorry I couldn't get a greatly clearer picture, atton doesn't like to stand where I want him to... anyway, as you can see the new texture looks of better quality (granted, some of the texturing stands out a bit too much, I'm still fiddling with it). But basicly, my idea is: Re-texture all the weapons to 128x128 or 256x256 to make them look better. BUT while still staying true to the original design, for example this rifle still retains its yellow hue and doesn't look too "earth-weapon-ey". And.. well thats about it, given that theres only a handful of different textures for weapons (its mostly re-colourings using the same models, thus same texture layout). Has this been done by anyone before and I missed it, or any other reason I shouldn't continue? Again, the whole point of this isn't to make a "check out the cool weapons i made" type mod, its more of a "fix" to make original designs look better. If I can get the 3d models working correctly I might also create a Higher-poly version of certain weapons. Nothing too fancy, just something to make them a little smoother. Anyways, opinions, ideas, and criticism are welcome, thanks for looking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos K Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Nice work. Will this be for just TSL or K1 as well? Either way really nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanir Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Nice work mate, a couple of guns really are sort of annoying in their low res poor detail look, even though shape isn't too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hair Posted June 5, 2009 Author Share Posted June 5, 2009 More than likley just K2, seeing as theres already some overhaul mods for k1 in the mix. The more I think about it, the more I change me mind from wanting to simpley retexutre them, to wanting to re-model them. Hmm... I think i'll look up old republic weapon designs over the weekend, see if i can dig out some old concept art perhaps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos K Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Also are you working on this mod on your own or do you have a team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hair Posted June 8, 2009 Author Share Posted June 8, 2009 Nah, it would just be myself. Which really should be enough. Since theres only a handful of models, just lots of re-coloured skins. Been looking up as much concept art as I can, inclding some stuff from TOR. I can definatly do the texturing and the modeling (albiet I havn't done 3d in a couple of years now), the thing i stuggle with every time is the UV mapping. But hopefuly unwrapping a gun will be simple enough for me to grasp. I'll do some more work on this and post some pics of the general idea when I actually have more content EDIT: huh, i just realised that although weapons use the same model, each weapon has a unique model file. Which could mean unique gun models... I'm going to delve a little deeper, see how big of a project this would be. I might end up just doing re-textures afterall. I'll see how far the rabbit hole takes me Proper Edit: Whelp, in a couple of hours I managed to make this. Basic blaster, no fancy jazz on it, shape similar enough to its Icon, so its still on track with what I wanted. UV unwrapping though, jeez... I spent 3 hours trying to do the box part of it, then Gmax threw a hissey fit and reset all its mappings. Sigh. I'm yet to find a usable method for UV mapping/unwrapping, but I'll keep at it, I love the modeling/texture side, but UV mapping is where I lose it completley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hair Posted June 14, 2009 Author Share Posted June 14, 2009 Apologies for the double post - but I've actually learnt how to UV map! (and learnt of the restreictions within the aurora engine, bleh). So yes, this is what I have so far. The idea as I said before, is to keep the pistols looking similar to their in-game counterparts, only more detailed. This first pistol for example is still a close match with its inventory icon. I need to work more on my use of textures however, I've just noticed there are faaar too man rivets used! Its kinda hard adding detail via the textures, guns are often such bland things. The muzzle and sheild though look pretty much spot on, so I'm pretty happy with how things are progressing. *Fancy modeling jargon* Now, this is actually kinda neat to work with. You arn't just looking at blaster001 as a single model file, its actually about 7 seperate models. This way I can use seperate UV maps and textures for each part of the pistol. It also means that, say for example, I wish to use the same muzzle guard on another blaster, I can simpley un-hide the model I want for the screen, then drop its required texture into override with it. A "modular" pistol, so to speak. Once I have various models created I can simply tick the box for the accessoris I want each pistol to have. This won't have any real in-game effects, but it means that I no longer have to create brand new models for each pistol (and thus face constant re-mapping!), so it makes it vastly more managable for a one-man job. *end fancy modeling jargon* As far as this being a viable project and getting finished? Well I'll be honest, this is a big job and it will likley taken longer than it would for most people. But I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far and plan to keep going. All comments/criticism welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan7 Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Great work CH, this is a great idea; and the first Gun looks great, keep up the good work Great work on the fixing Kreia's robe and green glow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JediMaster76 Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I like the second gun; it resembles Han Solo's blaster, imo. Keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hair Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 Cheers guys Hope nobody minds me updating this occasinally, theres still no real meat of anything to comment on though. And to be honest, there won't be quite yet seeing as I'm making weapons in order of appearence the "boring" blasters have to be done first. Started from scratch again 2 days ago and have made this puppy, I'm very pleased with how its turned out. My previous attemps I was never quite happy with (inefficient UV mapping makes me cringe, this new one is much better). My previous attempts also taught me you cannot always use textures to make up for bland 3d models. So this new version has had lots of little details added to help spruce it up. For example the vents in the muzzle are now in 3D rather then just a texture. Theres also a couple of added details which I'll be honest, I had to take a creative license with. I know this seems like a step backwars, remodeling something and no longer have it textured for in-game use, but this model is vastly superior to my last one. Granted it does come at a steep price of uh, well, around 1.5k polys (tri's). As much as I'd like to make this availible to the vast majority I fear it might bog the game down a tad at the lower end of PC's. Anywhoo, I'll probly update again in a few days with (at a rough guess) a textured version of this first blaster. I sure am looking forward to being able to start work on some of the more intresting weapons (especially some of the mandalorian ones). Adios for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hair Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 Whelp, sorry to double-post and bump this, but I have some more content again, hurrah! The first picture is comparing it to a standard ingame blaster (republic blaster). Its actually darn near completion now, only minor niggles like the pivot point to adjust. And here is a pic showing it compared to the icon art, I've made it a few shades too dark, which I'll most likley go back and correct. But for the most part its done. Anywhoo I stuck up a tester on rapidshare incase anyone wants to DL it and see what they think of it in-game http://rapidshare.com/files/247781165/CH_Weapon_Overhaul_Preview.rar.html I think I'm about done with this blaster now, so I'll be doing, uhh... *consults list* either the Ion Blaster, or the Republic Blaster. Now, the Ion Blaster is an entirley different model, so it would take a while to do. The Republic Blaster would be almost entirley a re-skin of my first blaster, so it makes more sense to do that first I guess. Anyway, enough of my words! Let me know if you have any thoughts, comments and critisism welcome as always. Ta-ta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Vader Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Awesome! Make more please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demongo Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I can't find words for that. Brilliant work! Keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zbyl2 Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Wow. It's SO much better than standard blaster. Truly amazing work! Guess I just found another mod to look forward to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hair Posted June 26, 2009 Author Share Posted June 26, 2009 Cheers guys, I'll try and keep updated as I go. Let me tell you what... obsidian/bioware are messy, messy people, tsh... One part of the games files names "ion blaster" as w_blstrpstl_009, for example. BUT, thats a lie, for that is actually one of the bith band's instruments! Theres quite a bit of mis-labeling going on depending on whereabout in the files you are. Sigh... Anywhoo, to try and keep things simple I just moved over to w_blsterpstl_002, which turned out to be the republic blaster. My word, this thing by default has the ugliest colour sceme, dark grungy blue with a wierd brown/orange the republic seem to love. Anyway, I had a go at it and this is what I've got thus far. I managed to find myself a nice image of the Old Republic's (kotor era, not TOR era (allegedly)) symbol, which works nicely at branding the side of the pistol body. I took a little artistic license and gave the blaster a deep blue hue as its main colour. The standard texture with the game was a mix of blue, brown, white and black. I don't think its possible for me to give it that same colour scheme and have look nice at all. I'll have another go, since i'm trying to keep this true to the ingame appearence. Oh, and for those curious, the text on the blaster reads "Property of The Republic" in aurebesh. And while I was at it, I had a pop at the Systech Static/Electric Blaster. In-game the static blaster and the electric blaster, albiet seperate weapons, use the same model/texture file, a slight oddity. It can only be assumed that the differences between the two are internal and not obvious by simpley looking at them (wow, I'm reading far too much into all of this...). But anyways, I'm pretty happy with it. Its mostly just a hue-shift at the moment, but I'll keep working on its textures to try and replicate the nice golden tones its supposed to have. And finally an in-game shot of the two (yes, i'm STILL trying to get them aligned to match all the animations, its tricky). Standard game Icons match pretty well with the new models I think. And just as a final note for now, these two blasters still need more texture work to make them more unique, especially on the energy cartridge. The republic blaster has its own muzzle too, but aside from that the 3d side of things are the same. Thanks for looking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Payne Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Wow, those look very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Holocron Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 New link to the model shown above - courtesy of ajlbibak: http://www.mediafire.com/?xgn358at3n7fmdh Here's what Captain Hair had to say about the subject of this thread recently. Feel free to let the thread know I'm not working on it with you wish. Any files and stuff of mine anyone can dig up are fair game, in case anyone wants to use them for anything. Since most of the blasters are re-skins it wouldn't actually be too hard to turn it into a pack. Just a case of changing the model file to use the correct textures for each remap. I wish I had the time to restart this project actually, since your first message I've been getting the modding itch. Unfortunately I only get an hour or so a day at the PC, back when I was doing the weapons I could easily spend several hours just troubleshooting bugs with the pivots. I remember when I first imported my model into KOTOR. All of the pivots were somehow set to random numbers, so it ended up that each section of the weapon (scope, muzzle, cartridge, etc.) pointed in a completely different direction. Hell . . . even better then that was when I tried to import a car model I'd done into GTA, somehow the "scale" setting was off. Way off. When the car spawned it actually encompassed the entire world, it was as if the earth was sat between the seats of a colossal car. I tried a couple of my hard drives but no cigar, I'm really hoping I can find the one with my mod folder in. I'd documented every damn thing about making those weapons, probably enough to make a decent FAQ about all the little things like Pivot Points, UV mapping withing KOTOR restrictions, effects you can add on. Loads of stuff. Really doesn't seem like it was a year and a half ago I started that mod. I think that was 2 house moves ago actually! Vurt's textures look really great, it is a good idea for people to release what they've done so far if its being abandoned. I wish I'd kept the stuff I'd done safe, might have even restarted it myself if I could get hold of my old files. To ajlbibak, CH has this message: I really appreciate you digging up a copy of it, thanks very much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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