Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Remastered and various WIPs

[Ivanael]

Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Remastered and various WIPs

 

Greetings Jedi Knight modding community,

I am a longtime JK player aswell as part-time modder and lurker on these forums, and have recently begun working on remastering these games which we all hold dear, and this thread will be dedicated to this project, aswell as to hosting my various WIP projects I might be working on.

I intend to remaster these games from the ground up and eventually replace all of the important aspects with higher quality ones, from models, textures, to graphical and sound effects, to the renderer, maybe also revamping the combat system, compiling the very best the modding community and myself have to offer, while attempting to stay true to the original design and feel of the games as close as possible unless I feel an alternative might be superior in a given case. Thanks to the amazing work of the modding community over the years, much of the work is already done, but I've recently stumbled upon some walls my limited modding skills prevent me to climb over by myself and which would require the help of the community. My skills include model kitbashing and texture editing. Any further contribution from the community is welcome, and of course, nothing containing the work of other modders will be released without the permission of the mods' authors and crediting them.

This first post will be reserved to document the progress made and hopefully eventually hold the links to the completed remasters and my various other WIPs in the future.
 

[Ivanael]

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Remastered

 

Since Jedi Academy is the most (relatively) recent installment of the series and the one I play the most, I will begin with this one before tackling on the others, using it and the Jedi Knight Enhanced mod as a base.

I'll first start with explaining what I intend to do and what I have done already in order of priority, and get to the specifics later on:

- Getting rid of all the outdated blocky models and replacing them all, player, NPCs, weapons and vehicles alike, with high quality ones as close to the originals in design as possible, preferably using models made by the community, kitbashed new ones or ports of more recent games such as the cancelled Battlefront 3 game, The Force Unleashed and Force Arena, aswell as adding many new models and characters for the multiplayer part, mainly all the main characters depicted in the movies. (Thanks to the many high-quality models which have been either made from scratch, kitbashed or ported from various games, we have some replacements and many elements to kitbash new models with already, but I especially need help with this part, since while I am a decent kitbasher, I am unable to make models from scratch or to port them, and some members of the community which are more knowledgeable and competent than I am in these areas could speed up the process significantly)

- Replacing all of the textures with either new high quality ones or AI upscaled ones. (Mostly done already, I've combined some from Mr.Zz's Texture Overhaul with original ones which have been AI upscaled by myself using Gigapixel, but there are some problems with a few of the upscaled textures such as blacked out ones for some reason which still eludes me, although the vast majority display just fine)

- Replacing the graphical and sound effects (Mostly done already, JKE comes with SFX saber blades, and I've combined various effect enhancements from various mods, such as TFA Live Blades+Effects, Ultimate Weapons and various other effect and sound packs)

- Replacing the renderer with Rend2 and it's singleplayer counterpart GL2, and reworking the maps and textures to make use of it's enhanced lightning, PBR material and shader capabilities.

This is an approximate of the end result I am aiming for - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X28W6N8US5Y

- Maybe reworking some of the map modelling, as some outside areas look very unnatural, blocky and outdated and could do with a smoothening of the edges, maybe also replacing some models such as trees, plants and rocks, aswell as making some additions such as some more objects and NPCs to make the game more lively and less empty, although that isn't a priority at the moment.
 

[Ivanael]

So, first things first, I would like to replace the player and main character models, aswell as kitbashing many new alien races for the playercharacter customization. I would like to eventually replace all of the Jedi and Reborn bodymodels with Jedi robed ones similar to the ones in the movies, and although Hapslash's and Toshi's models are excellent, they are a bit outdated nowadays. I have been tinkering with their Jedi models and replaced their hands, legs and boots with higher detail ones from other models, and I intended to replace the textures with ones from TFU or the newer Battlefront games, but ideally, I would like to replace the Jedi and Reborn bodymodels with ports of the robeless TFU Obi-Wan and Anakin models entirely, so if anyone would be willing to do that or has any of them already ported laying around, I would be much grateful. Otherwise, my kitbashes will have to do. I intend to use DT's Kyle Katarn's head for Kyle, and Punisher's ported BF Luke head with it's customized texture would be optimal for Luke, but it hasn't been released, so if anyone could help me with that, that would be much appreciated. 

These are the main hurdles I am facing at the moment, once the main character models have been dealt with, the rest is pretty much straightforward due to all the various models and ports we have already. We have decent rebel soldiers, pilots and Snowtroopers ported from TFU and BF3, and I was thinking of using a retextured Scerendo's General Hux bodymodel to replace the Hapslash imperial officer bodymodel, and there are already many high-quality models I could kitbash remakes of the other NPCs with, although we could do with a new higher quality replacement of Hapslash's Stormtrooper model, maybe a port from the newer Battlefront games as the TFU ones are not very detailed.

[Devoted]

If you need someone to help you accomplish that, I would be really happy to get into the team, I've played JKA since 2007, have made many models, many of them are unfortunately lost. Also made a few maps, one of it is on mr. Wonko's page. I've worked as a modeller/animator for some years, then texture artist, after that switched to studying music in the high school. So I can do relatively a lot of different tasks. 

Really looking forward to seeing this mod being developed!

[Ivanael]

Thanks Devoted, any help is appreciated. Due to the scope of the project, I am reluctant in forming a team, since I have no ETA and I wouldn't want to put anybody under pressure, but everybody is welcome to contribute as they are able to, and if I need help with a particular subject asides from the ones mentioned already, I'll make sure to let the community know.

[ByRoT]

Hy, the Jedi Academy Remastered idea is te best idea in the year!

I dont know that you know, the JAE have a 1.06 version by Rendsaurus. (find his Topic)

As example, in old JAE (like in the HuB) the AI dont throw lightsabers, but 1.06 AI can throw again thnaks to Rendsaurus.

Just 1.06 dont support the JAE renderer, I dont know is this problem for you.

I dont know that you know the 1.06, it is just an info

Thanks for your work in future!

[Ivanael]

Thanks for the tip ByRoT, I'll keep that in mind. I'd ideally use the Rend2 and GL2 renderers once they are completed, maybe we could get a version compatible with the updated JAE by Rendsaurus, but replacing the renderer is not very high on the priority list as of now.

Until the player and main characters have been completed, hopefully using the ported Jedi bodies from TFU, here's something else I am working on; a new Vader model, using Toshi's Vader as a base and outfitted with Backflip's ported BF3 Vader parts. While we have many good Vader models already, the ported BF3 helmet, mask, neckchain, chest armor, pauldrons, control boxes and shinguards are more detailed than what we have already, but due to their overall high poly count, they weren't usable in the game without causing it to crash, so I've used Blender's decimate tool to reduce their vertices count without compromising the quality noticeably. The finished model will be included as a multiplayer character in the finished remaster and also released separately with singleplayer support, but while it is already playable, it isn't completed yet and I'll need some help to finish him, as the BF3 chest armor doesn't match Toshi's Vader body and one can see trough the model at some angles and during certain animations.

 

 

As you can see, Toshi didn't bother modelling the upper part of the torso, since he didn't need to as his chest armor filled up the gap:

 

 

This is the ported BF3 chest armor which is causing the problems:

 

 

The gaps in the neck, shoulder areas and the bottom are causing one to see through the model in some poses.

This is Toshi's chest armor which came with the original model:

 

 

Toshi didn't need to model the upper torso since he closed the gaps in the shoulder area and the bottom of his chestpiece.

I would need somebody to help me with filling the gaps in the neck, shoulder and bottom area of the BF3 chestpiece similar to the Toshi one, as that seems like the most simple and efficient solution to me, rather than modeling the upper torso on Toshi's bodymodel. The BF3 pauldrons don't need to be 'filled' like Toshi's, the BF3 pauldrons are fine as they come, I don't really know why Toshi felt the need to do that on his pauldrons, seems unnecessary to me, only the chestpiece would need it's gaps fixed. Texturing of the gap fillers doesn't have to be elaborate, Toshi just made them black on his original model since those areas aren't very visible during regular gameplay. If anybody could that, it would be much appreciated. Once that done, the model would be basically good to go, although I might work on the texturing and shaders a bit further.

[Ivanael]

Update on the Vader model:

 

 

 

 

 

Looks much better in game with the shaders, gave the chest control box and the shinguards a nice shiny look also, although one can't see it on the pictures, but the chestarmor/torso issue still isn't fixed though, one can still see through the gaps and through the model at certain angles. I've tried several things, such as merging the BF chestarmor with Toshi's one whose top portion has been deleted by joining them in Blender, but since the meshes aren't attached, they still move independently of one another, causing clipping and other issues. The BF chest armor would need to be attached to Toshi's torso mesh and the gaps closed, if anybody is interested in doing that, please PM me and I'll send you the model.

As to the playermodels for the remaster, I'm still working on it. I have come up with a couple of kitbashes, but none of which were very satisfactory. I would still rather use ported TFU Obi-Wan and Anakin models ideally, but I don't actually need the full models, just Obi-Wan's torso, and both their arms and boots. Don't need the heads, hands, or legs. If anybody can help me with that too, please PM me also.