A more in depth graphics mod

[Basil Bonehead]

First of all: yes, the title sounds weird because you’re thinking to yourself “Query: what do you mean by ‘more in depth graphics mod’”

Here’s what I mean by that: I’m curious to know if there’s a graphics mod that adds additional features and not just adding HD textures on blocky old level geometry. I’m curious if anyone knows about a graphics mod for Jedi academy that adds things like normal and/or bump mapping and ambient occlusion to the game. Has that been done before? Is it possible? Or is not possible due to how old the engine is (20 years to be specific)? I’m sure a graphics mod like that exist that’s not the aforementioned putting HD textures to replace the vanilla textures while still looking flat-ish or messing with the lighting and make everything look obnoxiously dark. I did see a mod that adds bump maps onto the weapons https://mrwonko.de/jk3files/Jedi Academy/Mods/Weapons/75949/ and it’s been done with character models and some maps (i think) but has anyone tried doing that for the textures for the base games used in the campaign and MP maps?

[Ramikad]

The mod you posted actually uses specular maps applied to the weapon textures to simulate bump mapping. Proper bump mapping is actually available in base Jedi Academy, but only for map textures - you can add normal maps to the textures, but from what I understand it's a good looking but static effect, and with the disadvantage that you have to compile the map with the bump map shader for it to take effect. Mace posted a tutorial about this.

@SomaZ worked a lot on a modified Rend2 version, and posted several videos showcasing the new effects, like proper real time normal maps and shadows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYS4NVuiXZk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABamsOcV4lk

As well as water:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JwbRBxvNn4

Though obviously it wouldn't work on base maps without proper shaders and textures.

The Star Wars: Warzone mod also has its own renderer which more or less automatically affects the base maps graphics, as showed in some of their screenshots.

[Basil Bonehead]

weird, we can change the textures but not incorporate other elements to the vanilla maps. custom maps for obvious reasons but not vanilla maps. how much work would be done to get it to work with the base game maps?

I tried warzone, it's so weird especially since it's hard to tell what does what and on top of that from my experience with it, whatever graphical mumbo jumbo was done in that mod just made the game look blurry (and i was at max settings) and have obnoxious bloom that i couldnt get of no matter how much i messed around with the graphical settings

[Ramikad]

In theory, if you wanted the base game maps (and characters too, really) in GL2, you'd have to at least add normal maps and RMO/SG textures, according to which workflow you choose (respectively roughness / metallic / ambient occlusion, or specular / gloss). Also, modifying the original textures from diffuse to albedo (basically "flattening"  the texture to remove shadows) to work properly with the new renderer would probably make the effect better. Ultimately it's just theory though - there's no guarantee that it would look right in practice. SomaZ's experimental video of Vjun seems at least promising, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X28W6N8US5Y

[Basil Bonehead]

is there a download for it?

[Basil Bonehead]

14 hours ago, Ramikad said:

In theory, if you wanted the base game maps (and characters too, really) in GL2, you'd have to at least add normal maps and RMO/SG textures, according to which workflow you choose (respectively roughness / metallic / ambient occlusion, or specular / gloss). Also, modifying the original textures from diffuse to albedo (basically "flattening"  the texture to remove shadows) to work properly with the new renderer would probably make the effect better. Ultimately it's just theory though - there's no guarantee that it would look right in practice. SomaZ's experimental video of Vjun seems at least promising, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X28W6N8US5Y

I was able to find it but i want to ask: wil it work with the latest version of openjk? This version is over a year old hence my concern

[SomaZ]

If you are talking about rend2 which is mp only btw, it's completely compatible with the latest openjk version afaik. Gl2 which is the sp fork of rend2 I'm working on is not compatible with openjk because I needed to alter the rendering api to get some stuff working like hdr image loading. I made compatible gl2 versions for jk2:enhanced (credits to eezstreet who started the port) and jk:enhanced. Theres no public build available for now.

[Basil Bonehead]

Soooo i guess i’ll wait for a new build for a MP/SP openjk version