Chloe's WIP Thread - Jedi: Rising Order

[chloe]

After many years of downloading Jedi Academy mods, I've finally decided to start making my own! Right now I'm working on a UI overhaul that I'm tentatively calling Jedi: Rising Order. The aim is to modernise the UI and bring it more in line with what it would look like if Jedi Academy was released in the current canon, similar to the Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor games. 

 

So far I've released a splash screen replacer as a teaser, before moving on to the much bigger task of remaking all of the menus. 

 

Download link for the splash screen: 

 

[SpeedyJDFox95]

I like this! The Splash Screen looks great, I tested it out.

[Noodle]

Looks like a solid idea and very interesting for a HUD. Looking forward to it!

[chloe]

Thank you both, I appreciate the feedback!

June Update:

Since my last post I've been working on redesigning the menus. At the moment, these are just mockup designs and not functional, so I'm unsure how feasible they actually are to achieve at the moment. Any feedback would be appreciated! The main menu layout is mostly done too, however I'm still working on a background illustration that's taking longer than I'd like (painting Jedi Temple brickwork is tedious haha), so didn't make it into the June update.

 

 

[Noodle]

No way, it looks so much better than the base game. If this is doable it'll definetly become a must have in my mod list. 

[Circa]

This is absolutely stunning, I can't wait to see it ingame!

[Kitsu-NeshKaa]

Woah, great!
But you can already see things that can not be realized in vanilla game.

[GamerRedNeck]

Honestly makes me want to see this in a future remake/port for the game.  Looks pretty official.  

[DrXann]

That menu/ui  looks pretty neat looking.

[DarthValeria]

Looks beyond amazing! I will play Jedi Academy from scratch when mod is released!

[mjt]

Have you started looking in how the menus are build in JKA and what options can be used? There should be plenty of knowledge floating around the modding teams for Movie Duels and Galactic Legacy, as these mods have altered menus a lot. There is also the good old JK2 HD Menu revamp that could serve as a first glance at how things are done. Though JKA will have some differences for sure.

I hope you don't lose motivation for this - it's a big task but one that can make a big difference hopefully.

[Aldro Koon]

This is insane, hope you consider making it for MP too.

[MagSul]

I think it's a very uncluttered design and I appreciate it. I look forward to seeing more!

[chloe]

Thank you everyone for the feedback! I've finished the rest of the menu designs (mostly the datapad, but also the weapons selection), and also finished the first menu in game. At the moment, the main menu is fully functional in layout (though the background image is still a place holder), and the new game/select difficulty screen is 100% complete. I've hit my first roadblock in the character creator, trying to get the arrows to play nice with ITEM_TYPE_MULTI - at the moment, I'm looking into adding a new item type to fix the issue, but if it ends up being outside my scope I'll probably end up tweaking the original design. 

 

Progress is likely to slow down soon unfortunately, as my uni course is starting again next week, but I'll keep working on it in my spare time and provide updates where I can. 

[Westbam]

hey @chloe,  our team Solum is currently working over a year long on a JKA competitive remaster version for the multiplayer community. Its a huge project. Developers involved, map and modelmakers involved etc.
We are still in need of a cool modern UI. Are you willing to to help us out with the project and add a UI pk3  for jamp ?

Would be really cool
thanks and take care

[chloe]

12 hours ago, Westbam said:

hey @chloe,  our team Solum is currently working over a year long on a JKA competitive remaster version for the multiplayer community. Its a huge project. Developers involved, map and modelmakers involved etc.
We are still in need of a cool modern UI. Are you willing to to help us out with the project and add a UI pk3  for jamp ?

Would be really cool
thanks and take care

Hi, unfortunately I can't take on another project at the moment, between this mod and other commitments (both IRL and to another mod team) I can't take anything else on at the moment, sorry. I'd be interested otherwise, so if we can ever get the timing to work out, I'll keep your project in mind. 

[Westbam]

On 7/18/2024 at 7:37 AM, chloe said:

Hi, unfortunately I can't take on another project at the moment, between this mod and other commitments (both IRL and to another mod team) I can't take anything else on at the moment, sorry. I'd be interested otherwise, so if we can ever get the timing to work out, I'll keep your project in mind. 

cool thank you! no worries! whenever you can !

[chloe]

July Update:

I officially have menus working in game! So far I've got the main menu, difficulty selection, character creator, lightsaber creator, and load game menus fully functional. A few bugs to iron out here and there, but mostly minor things like text alignment. The only major bug so far is the sound which is firing way to often at the moment due to the amount of mouse events I've added - a problem I didn't realise I had until I recorded this video, as I've been working with the game muted so far haha. I'll also continue to tweak elements down the track, such as refining the colour options in the character creator.

The biggest update is that I've had to make engine modifications to accommodate my designs. These have been mostly minor so far, including new ITEM_TYPES and cvars, but may expand larger with time. I've forked Somaz's WIP build of rend2 as the basis for this, so when it releases it will have full rend2 support. 

 

Link to unlisted Youtube video to see the progress: 

 

 

 

 

 

[Noodle]

Incredible work, looking forward to this!

[Circa]

Amazing progress!

On 7/27/2024 at 11:19 AM, chloe said:

The biggest update is that I've had to make engine modifications to accommodate my designs. These have been mostly minor so far, including new ITEM_TYPES and cvars, but may expand larger with time. I've forked Somaz's WIP build of rend2 as the basis for this, so when it releases it will have full rend2 support. 

This is so much more than I expected you to do to accomplish all this, most people wouldn't! It's a bummer though that it wouldn't be compatible with things like JAEnhanced which at this point is what a lot of people are using for playing SP. Would love to see a compatible version with that be made at some point!

[chloe]

On 8/2/2024 at 12:09 AM, Circa said:

Amazing progress!

This is so much more than I expected you to do to accomplish all this, most people wouldn't! It's a bummer though that it wouldn't be compatible with things like JAEnhanced which at this point is what a lot of people are using for playing SP. Would love to see a compatible version with that be made at some point!

Thank you! I've been determined to get it done right, even though I have no c++ experience and have been mostly winging it haha. Compatibility is definitely something I would consider when the menus are finished, however I have vague plans of expanding the mod further, to eventually overhaul the entire SP experience. One step at a time at the moment though!

[chloe]

August Update:

Progress has slowed down this month with my uni course in full swing, however I'm still steadily working on it. The controls menu has been completed, and the settings menu is getting close - both of these have been straightforward, yet lengthy and repetitive, tasks that have taken longer than I'd like, but are nearing the end now. Hopefully next month I'll have some visible progress to show, but for now just wanted to pop in to reassure that I haven't abandoned the project and it's still steadily coming along.

[Noodle]

Good! Nothing worse than feeling modding burn out, but your project is so promising it'd be a pity to see it abandoned.  Good luck with University!

[chloe]

September/October/November Update

Hi everyone, just wanted to pop on here quickly and say this mod isn't dead! The last few months have been consumed by university study, but slow progress has still been made. I've finished hand-drawing a star chart for every planet out of the selectable missions, and will next move on to writing debriefs for each mission to fit with the new mission selection menu I've designed. I'm hoping that progress will pick up significantly in the new year!

 

Here's a sneak peek at two of the star charts, and the mission briefings that go along:

 

[Bart]

Elegant, with good looking fonts, some good, but not overdone effects, with consistent minimalistic (but not TOO minimalistic) stuff with consistent color palletes. Super well done so far!