Z-3R0 - A new Statement in Luxury Robotics

[Double_Zecha]

 

Meet Z-3R0
A collaboration between Baktoid and LeisureMecha Enterprises

 

Partly Droid, Partly Real
Z-3R0 boasts a streamlined combat endoskeleton coated in a transluscent warm jelly, caressed by a reinforced plasteel mesh, giving clear view of the power of the machine

A Thinking Machine
Z-3R0 is created to serve and will go beyond its program to thrill you

Consciously Engineered
Z-3R0 is designed for your best lifestyle: the tradition of Baktoid combat engineering and LeisureMecha elegance
A machine with a Pulse


 

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Alright, Kayfabe off, I put Mega Man Zero (his design from the Mega Man Zero spinoff series) into Jedi Academy. I first played Jedi Academy ... probably back in 2022(?) and loved it. Dabbled a little bit with mods. Got the itch to reinstall about two months ago. It was a lot more fun a second time around having already figured out how to set up the game and get mods installed: I could play more and configure less. Mods were fun. Realized I wanted more specific changes. Started editing .pk3s of existing mods. Fast forward to about 2-3 weeks ago: I was teaching myself both blender and the specifics of Jedi Academy modding.

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Fiction:

I wanted to put Mega Man Zero into the game, I love the character, but I wanted to do a Star Wars interpretation of Zero, so he wouldn't look out of place with the rest of Jedi Academy's aesthetic. I got to brainstorming and headcannoning, and Z-3R0 was born. My story for this guy: he was designed as a luxury combat/security droid, marketed to wealthy clientele, royalty, executives, and the like. Once he hit the market, he became an underworld favorite, a status symbol for wealthy crimelords. I mostly made this mod for myself for single player, and so headcannon for how Z-3R0 becomes a Jedi: the Z-3R0 droids are partly organic, with neurons and various tissues sourced from clones. The Jaden Z-3R0 model mysteriously developed a high midichlorian count in his organic tissue. Combined with its owner neglecting memory wipes and eventually dumping the droid in the streets, the Jaden model finds its way to Luke's Jedi Academy...

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Some notes:

The model is a kitbash from several mods. Before I upload it I'll try to get permission from the relevant modders who have not already given permission.
Making this player model has been tough. As I said I've taught myself both Blender and Jedi Academy modding in the process of making this bad boy. It's been exhausting at times, but as I'm nearing the finish line it's starting to feel worth it. I've learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, and have a feeling this'll be easier the next time I decide to make something.
Unfortunately...

The model currently crashes the game in combat. It's the "adjust the gl2_mine_heap size" error. I've been reading about this and created an LOD for the model, which helped, it's playable now against unmodded enemies, but it crashes the game usually whenever Zero encounters another complex playermodel mod. I'm still learning about LODs, it's possible i've set mine up incorrectly, but the model itself has a bit over 14,000 verticies, which I know is probably a lot. I hope I'll be able to get it working. Gonna ganbatte my best

 

[Double_Zecha]

A progress update

I've made some improvements to the model: first of all, with textures and shaders. The model now has 9 different animated surfaces.
Light's pulsate up Zero's spine, the protocol droid-y panel on his back has blinking LED lights, his eyes glow and flicker, and there are constantly pumping pistons on his inner arm and leg bones.

As I mentioned in the original post, the model was at over 14,000 vertices. and would tend to crash the game by going over the  "gl2 mine heap size"
I attempted to optimize the model. As I'm both new at Blender and limited in how much I can put into this project at the moment, I consider the optimization to be rough, and not really up to my personal standards for quality. I managed to get the model down to something like 8,000 vertices, by heavily using the Decimate modifier and adjusting stuff manually where I thought I should.
It looks ok, but there are basically a lot of small holes in the model created by the decimate tool, which are visible up close. I don't have it in me to try and fix them all.
However, it looks ok at a distance, and plays a lot better in single player against complex character models from other mods.
 

When I release the model, I plan to release both the original HQ version and the optimized version. Personally, I plan to use the HQ version for cutscenes, and the optimized version for gameplay. I'll include both files as stand alones, and make a replacer PK3 to make it easy to drag and drop if others want to do that cutscene/in-game dichotomy setup.

 

I am happy enough with the model to say I will be able to release it Soon™
I know I want to do some final weight painting touch ups and some minor detail work, but it's almost ready. Shooting for upload early next week.

[Noodle]

This is an awesome project, I have always been a fan of the megaman series.