[kotor] Visual Enhancement 2012

[Xarwarz]

New links up now

[shadow0]

Woohoo!

 

Thanks thanks thanks a gazzilion thanks!!

[daftshadow]

Overall I like the new textures but the transparent computer and monitor terminals are kinda weird.

[Crabapple]

The links say that they are are dead again- do you have to be signed into Megaupload for them to work? Or does it only work in the US?

[R2-X2]

It makes me happy to see that there's still some activity in the KotOR modding scene. Apart from that, I like most of our skins (all except Taris and Manaan), but because I don't play KotOR anymore (fault of my computer that doesn't want the game to work), I don't think I'll ever use them.

Anyway, keep going! This game mustn't die!

[Xarwarz]

The links say that they are are dead again- do you have to be signed into Megaupload for them to work? Or does it only work in the US?

 

mega upload is beginning to be crap now..so use the mod db link

 

It makes me happy to see that there's still some activity in the KotOR modding scene. Apart from that, I like most of our skins (all except Taris and Manaan), but because I don't play KotOR anymore (fault of my computer that doesn't want the game to work), I don't think I'll ever use them.

Anyway, keep going! This game mustn't die!

 

Well im taking a break till next year....which then ill finish up my final mods in 2012....and then ill be retired for good after which there will be nothing more i could offer.

[Crabapple]

mega upload is beginning to be crap now..so use the mod db link

 

Sorry if I sound ignorant, but what is and where can I find the mod db link? Thanks in advance

[Phildevil]

Mega upload is a website where one can upload just about anything. But using-it for free is crap. moddb is a modding site famous enough that google may find-it.

 

http://www.moddb.com/

 

http://www.moddb.com/games/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-ii

http://www.moddb.com/games/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic

[Crabapple]

Thanks Phildevil for the links.

 

There is no Tatooine mod there, though

[Phildevil]

Granted, couldn't find 'em either...

[ganoesparan06]

Hey Xarwarz.

 

Just wanted to ask a few questions...

 

First lemme say I like these skins for the most part. But I am having some issues.

 

Okay so downloaded all the parts and installed everything; and on my game everything was so bright and shiney that it was painful to the eyes. Literally.

Reckoned it was the part of the "mod" that adds shine to the textures; so I uninstalled those files and it sorted out the brightness problem but gave me another problem.

 

Namely a lot of the textures are transparent; like I can literally see through the walls and whatnot. It's most odd.

 

So I guess what I am asking is either how can I turn down the shine/brightness of the textures so they arent so painful on my eyes (I am quite sensitive to light cos being from Scotland we don't get much of it lol.) or make it so I can't actually see through the walls, so that they appear as they do in the pictures?

 

EDIT:

Reinstalling may have done the trick...

 

I reinstalled it and on Leviathan and it appears to have solved the problem with the brightness and transparent textures. Though perhaps the brightness was simply Manaan? Cos thats where I was when i installed the mod...

 

EDIT2:

Spoke too soon.

 

Got to Leviathan bridge and the consoles are all now see thru/transparent/not there except for the screen outlights and selection highlight.

With the PLC part installed.

 

Plasteel containers too...

 

:-(

[Xarwarz]

Hey Xarwarz.

 

Just wanted to ask a few questions...

 

First lemme say I like these skins for the most part. But I am having some issues.

 

Okay so downloaded all the parts and installed everything; and on my game everything was so bright and shiney that it was painful to the eyes. Literally.

Reckoned it was the part of the "mod" that adds shine to the textures; so I uninstalled those files and it sorted out the brightness problem but gave me another problem.

 

Namely a lot of the textures are transparent; like I can literally see through the walls and whatnot. It's most odd.

 

So I guess what I am asking is either how can I turn down the shine/brightness of the textures so they arent so painful on my eyes (I am quite sensitive to light cos being from Scotland we don't get much of it lol.) or make it so I can't actually see through the walls, so that they appear as they do in the pictures?

 

EDIT:

Reinstalling may have done the trick...

 

I reinstalled it and on Leviathan and it appears to have solved the problem with the brightness and transparent textures. Though perhaps the brightness was simply Manaan? Cos thats where I was when i installed the mod...

 

EDIT2:

Spoke too soon.

 

Got to Leviathan bridge and the consoles are all now see thru/transparent/not there except for the screen outlights and selection highlight.

With the PLC part installed.

 

Plasteel containers too...

 

:-(

 

Well most likely your seeing transparent textures because the PLC files aren't all in your override folder or got changed some how. In order for the plc files to work i had to make certain textures transparent. Another issue is what i ran into is another mod that changes textures or a texture can somehow disrupt how the game responds to everything. Try re installing the plc files and check what mods you have in override.

 

I purposely made the consoles see-thru no error there..

 

Those looking for the mod--

 

MOD DB LINK ON FIRST PAGE AT TOP POST

[Toasty Fresh]

I have been looking at this thread every now and then to see what's going on with this mod, and I have a few things to say, as this is basically the only mod around that seems to be doing a full-scale texture pack.

 

For starters, some of your textures seem to be off to a good start. However a lot of them are lacking detail/quality and a lot of the buildings and metal materials don't have a lot of visual appeal. I'm going to go through and do a mini-review of each section of this mod's retextures to see if you can grasp my meaning.

 

I'm only going off the screenshots at this stage.

 

TARIS:

 

The real problem here is that most of the textures look far too bland. They're too clean, or they lack too much detail. As the Taris upper city is a very clean environment by default this is difficult to get around, but perhaps you could alter the reflection maps used by the metal textures to try and increase detail? Another big problem I can see here is the door. That door in the first pic needs a lot of work. For one, the deep blue colour does not fit. Secondly, it looks too much like it is made from plastic, probably because of the single-tone colours used in the texture. It's a heavy, machine-operated industrial door, so it needs a bit more filth and could use some scratches and wear around the areas where it rubs against the edge of the door.

 

The picture in the Sith base seems to have most of the same problems. The tiling is way too clean. Also, the door in the Sith base doesn't really fit in my opinion. It is just a matter of opinion but in that kind of area I think you should have stuck with the original style. The desk in the same picture, however, looks great. I like the blue glow and such.

 

Overall, the lack of detail on the textures doesn't really help with the low-polygon models (which aren't your fault by the way).

 

UNKNOWN WORLD

 

Now, this is more like it. The stone textures and ground textures really look great here. However I think there should be a bit more contrast, it doesn't really stand out very well. Also I think maybe the resolution for these maps could go up a bit higher maybe. Otherwise, it looks fantastic.

 

MANAAN

 

Again, your environments are just too clean. You would have had to scrub for a day to get those tiles that clean. There's absolutely nothing on them at all! Add a bit more detail into them. You should add some subtle scratches and stains and such. The actual colour selection looks quite nice, however.

 

KORRIBAN

 

Looking quite good. The pillar looks mostly good however the yellower part also needs more detail. This is a rock material so you can get right into it, add cracks and small dents and flaws in the rock, and then it'll look fine.

 

KASHYYK

 

Looks good, aside from the fact that the textures seem a little too small. Make them a higher resolution if you can.

 

TATTOOINE

 

Again, looks pretty good, however I think you should change the green on the rooftops, maybe to a lighter orange.

 

DANTOOINE

 

Looks pretty good, the ground texture is a bit too clean though and could use a bit of wear.

 

THE REST

 

All of the other pictures really just suffer from the same problems as Manaan and Taris, the metals and walls are really just too bland. More wear n' tear needs to be added to them, or just more aesthetic details. Scratches around edges where a metal would come in contact with other materials are needed, and the reflection maps should also be done again.

 

With the limitations of KoTOR's aging engine some of these are difficult to implement and look good without current-gen shaders, but it should be possible to get these environments looking somewhat good.

 

If you get time, check this out http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photoshop/how-to-hand-paint-convincing-metal-textures/ taught me a lot about bare metal textures, especially in scifi environments, just like Star Wars. You'll probably learn more than a few things from that tutorial.

 

This is all just some constructive criticism as like I said, this mod has a lot of great potential as KoTOR is sorely in need of a facelift, however some of your stuff needs some work before it gets to a stage where it's a fully-fledged improvement over the standard game.

 

Good work!

 

EDIT: Also, where are the majority of these KoTOR 1 textures stored in the archives? I know how to find them in KOTOR 2, but I can't find them in KoTOR 1. I'd like to do some retexturing myself.

[Xarwarz]

Hello Toasty Fresh--Thank you for that in-depth review feedback has helped me construct my visual enhancement mods from wtf to ok i can try this. You pointed out to many clean and plain looking textures. The reasoning for this is that kotor and tsl both share textures in different areas. Taris i decided to make clean because of the games problem with repeating tiles. I could have added dirty scraped up textures but you would have noticed an annoying pattern going in a strait line. Ill agree the taris door needs work the sith base door was me changing the feel of the level. This isnt my first attempt at this mod if you seen my old kotor mod you would have said why is there so much happening. Thanks for the mini review but one cant judge on pictures alone you have to actually try it to see what looks well and what doesn't fit well Thanks again

[Kelvin]

I agree with ToastyFresh.

 

I must say that. I love the effort you, and others are putting into every you do and you post here for free, for everybody to download.

I think these textures are nice, but they miss something that in my opinion is necessary. They are too perfect, they don't seem to be used. There's no erosion sometimes.

 

I will expose here every or almost everything i didnt like here.

 

Taris:

The orange lights don't seem to glow, they seem to have been painted instead of being a light. The walls and the floors are too shiny, i think there should be less shine, and smoother shine, specially on the floor, where people walk and shine disappears. The blue door look like plastic, maybe you should also try with a black and or dark grey color for the doors, i don't really get used to the blue and the purple together, maybe is just me.

It seems to have been taken out of the wrapping

 

http://images.wikia.com/kotor/es/images/6/62/Cantina_de_Ciudad_Alta.JPG

 

Taris' Sith Base:

 

This is nice, i almost have nothing to say about it, and what i have to say, it's personal taste. The illumination of your base sith is just nicer than the old one, congratulations.

 

Unknown World:

 

The bricks seem to be painted on the model. They don't seem to come out.

The walls, are made up of bones... and, not alien bones... Human bones!!

The fact of having walls made up of bones doesn't make me happy, even less happy if i see they are human bones and that planet is supposed to be unknown.

The new colors you have used are ok.

 

Manaan:

 

Very shiny, too shiny. I know manaan is known as one of the most beautiful planets, in fact you can comment something about it in the game . But well, it feels sometimes unnatural.

 

Korriban:

 

It's odd.

 

Kashyyyk:

 

Kashyyyk is in a forest, mostly like a jungle, it doesn't feel humid enough, not a single leaf on the floor, or moss on the edges of things... You know, some natural effects, to put you in context.

 

Tatooine:

 

Is too white, Tatooine has lots of sandstorms and so. It doesn't feel polished, but it feels clean, too much than it should. In fact when you walk inside the city you see dust moving along with the wind. It should have more dirt on it.

 

Dantooine:

 

Mmmmm, floor made up of grass? There is already grass textures that come out of the ground, you could make more ground like texture for the ground and use green herbs for the grass, or something like that.

 

Star forge:

 

Too much shine again.

The floor is odd, i dont know if you fixed that already, anyways i say it again.

 

Endar spire:

 

Guess what. Shine again xD. Maybe some minor details here and there would do the trick.

 

Ebon Hawk:

 

Very new, it is supposed to be recently stolen from a mercenary.

 

Before and After pics:

 

The new design you have done is alright but it still looks like plastic.

 

 

I must say i did download and use most of your texture mods, thank you for your efforts. I hope this comment doesn't offend you, i just pretend to help you on your mods with these kind of comments. Sorry if it was so.

 

Good luck with your mods!!!

[Xarwarz]

I agree with ToastyFresh.

 

I must say that. I love the effort you, and others are putting into every you do and you post here for free, for everybody to download.

I think these textures are nice, but they miss something that in my opinion is necessary. They are too perfect, they don't seem to be used. There's no erosion sometimes.

 

I will expose here every or almost everything i didnt like here.

 

Taris:

The orange lights don't seem to glow, they seem to have been painted instead of being a light. The walls and the floors are too shiny, i think there should be less shine, and smoother shine, specially on the floor, where people walk and shine disappears. The blue door look like plastic, maybe you should also try with a black and or dark grey color for the doors, i don't really get used to the blue and the purple together, maybe is just me.

It seems to have been taken out of the wrapping

 

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The taris door yes i haven't gotten around to changing that yet i'll see what i can come up with. As far as the shine well i tried to balance it out by adding the dark blue with no shine to give balance

 

http://images.wikia.com/kotor/es/images/6/62/Cantina_de_Ciudad_Alta.JPG

 

Taris' Sith Base:

 

This is nice, i almost have nothing to say about it, and what i have to say, it's personal taste. The illumination of your base sith is just nicer than the old one, congratulations.

 

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Thanks just tried something different

 

Unknown World:

 

The bricks seem to be painted on the model. They don't seem to come out.

The walls, are made up of bones... and, not alien bones... Human bones!!

The fact of having walls made up of bones doesn't make me happy, even less happy if i see they are human bones and that planet is supposed to be unknown.

The new colors you have used are ok.

 

Manaan:

 

Very shiny, too shiny. I know manaan is known as one of the most beautiful planets, in fact you can comment something about it in the game . But well, it feels sometimes unnatural.

 

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Many people have told me that it dont have enough shine ah well i think its a persons prefrence

 

Korriban:

 

It's odd.

 

Kashyyyk:

 

Kashyyyk is in a forest, mostly like a jungle, it doesn't feel humid enough, not a single leaf on the floor, or moss on the edges of things... You know, some natural effects, to put you in context.

 

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Not sure how i would ad a separate leaf to the floor textures or a vine. I do believe this planet has huge trees with huge leaves so i dont think tiny leaves apply here

 

Tatooine:

 

Is too white, Tatooine has lots of sandstorms and so. It doesn't feel polished, but it feels clean, too much than it should. In fact when you walk inside the city you see dust moving along with the wind. It should have more dirt on it.

 

Dantooine:

 

Mmmmm, floor made up of grass? There is already grass textures that come out of the ground, you could make more ground like texture for the ground and use green herbs for the grass, or something like that.

 

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Not shure what you mean by floor made of grass uless you mean the grass along the entire plains. I believe this would be the correct look for this planet

 

Star forge:

 

Too much shine again.

The floor is odd, i dont know if you fixed that already, anyways i say it again.

 

Endar spire:

 

Guess what. Shine again xD. Maybe some minor details here and there would do the trick.

 

Show spoiler

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Unfortunately due to the engine sharing textures i had to make it the way it is. I always wanted to make it a little more ship looking but didnt look right in some areas

 

Ebon Hawk:

 

Very new, it is supposed to be recently stolen from a mercenary.

 

Before and After pics:

 

The new design you have done is alright but it still looks like plastic.

 

 

I must say i did download and use most of your texture mods, thank you for your efforts. I hope this comment doesn't offend you, i just pretend to help you on your mods with these kind of comments. Sorry if it was so.

 

Good luck with your mods!!!

 

Thanks for the comments..No it dont offend me in fact comments help me realize mistakes in my old mods. I believe this is one of my better mods than in the past but limitation of what can be done with this game has hindered some things....Thanks again

[Kelvin]

Thanks for the comments..No it dont offend me in fact comments help me realize mistakes in my old mods. I believe this is one of my better mods than in the past but limitation of what can be done with this game has hindered some things....Thanks again

 

Yeah, i know what you mean... But we can all dream anyways xD.

[NovaClaymore]

Ughhh those ****ing sopa are blocking our sites!!! We can't get those anymore ****

[Xarwarz]

Megaupload is finished but moddb link works fine.....click that link

[Asajj Ventress]

I have a problem. In the areas you have added extra shine such as Taris. I asume you used CM_baremetal. I can see right through the textures, they are transparent.

 

Never mind. However different question. What file controls the texture for the chairs on Taris. The large grey chairs with the white light?

[Isaac Clarke]

I am a fan of the OT, so naturally I don't particularly like the Tatooine tex. IMO, it doesn't look like the OT at all, mostly because the rock the buildings are made of are too... Grainy. Taris also, no offense, looks bad. Too clean, bland, and monotone. Maybe adding more contrast and 'dirt' would help. After all, it IS a highly populated city. Otherwise, everything looks excellent, especially Dantooine, really gives it that green plains look. Very good job. Definitely a download.

[Xarwarz]

I am a fan of the OT, so naturally I don't particularly like the Tatooine tex. IMO, it doesn't look like the OT at all, mostly because the rock the buildings are made of are too... Grainy. Taris also, no offense, looks bad. Too clean, bland, and monotone. Maybe adding more contrast and 'dirt' would help. After all, it IS a highly populated city. Otherwise, everything looks excellent, especially Dantooine, really gives it that green plains look. Very good job. Definitely a download.

 

Thanks for comments.....Well what many people dont understand is that textures are shared through the level and in one area. So if i make one texture dirty then all textures are dirty or you get a dirty texture in a spot that should be clean.....Taris under city is i made dirty be sure to check it out

[Matten]

Xarwarrz, Please Upload somewhere the Tatooine add-on We Can't find it Anywhere.

[UltimateHK47]

Is there a link for all the files in one?

[Fallen Guardian]

Hey, Xawarz, seeing as megaupload has been completely butchered, and moddb seems to be missing Tatooine, do you think you could re-upload it?