JK2 [JAEnhanced] High Res Textures

[eezstreet]

ive really only made a map n some shaders in unreal so im pretty unfamiliar with it. i know for a fact that this is a dumb question... but why does jkas engine have so many limitations and is it as easy as just changine some lines as to how many verts/ etc can be rendered at once, or do u have to rewrite like every header  or whatever? guess im trying to get an idea of the amount of work needs to be done versus the benefits. 

It's because the engine is old and they used a lot of stupid static limits for things. Lots of old games have weird problems and JKA's limits on vertices is fairly meaningful. They did it for consoles mostly. I've heard of weirder things in older games though (ie in San Andreas, anything higher than about 40 FPS breaks the swimming mechanics completely)

 

Be grateful we have full source though, as Unreal doesn't. And it does suck to code for, trust me. You can't even fix those vertex issues in Unreal anyway.

 

@DT no idea, sorry. Try looking online?

[Syko]

Sorry, I still haven't finished this texture. I thought I would upload a progress shot anyway. It's about 80% done now. HOPEFULLY it will be done by tomorrow.

 

Old:

 

 

New (WIP)

 

 

Again, it's NOT done.

[RebelChum]

Appears that someone found the bump mapping button.

[eezstreet]

The blurring/noise on the metal looks pretty ugly. I suggest that it be changed a bit.

[Syko]

The blurring/noise on the metal looks pretty ugly. I suggest that it be changed a bit.

 

Once I add the grunge overlay it shouldn't be that bad.

 

Also, I aim to improve those 4 x 1 buttons in the middle. It's just that the amount of detail you have to pay attention to gets maddening over time. The good news is that a lot of this texture is already used as a base for a few other control panel textures, so I won't have to do all of those control panels from scratch. 

[Tempust85]

Adding noise to metal generally doesn't really look decent when trying to make metal textures.

 

Suggestions for any of your completed JO textures (I won't comment directly on your WIP texture):

 

- dial the size & amount of noise down a bit

- add some very minor rust (do not overkill this, you only need a hint of it)

- add some minor color variations (to simulate color fading)

- add a small amount of light randomised scratches

- add a bit of edge wear (only where it could be worn off realistically, ie don't put it on every edge)

 

For the finished product, ditch 'a little bit' of the simulated highlights or tone them down (leave shadowing in) and use a specular texture. Also, don't forget glow too. 

[ChalklYne]

i was bored

 

 

hey mini or corto or someone with xsi skillz.. can i rendermap me a ambient occlusion or something to let him overlay if i did something like this?

[Syko]

Did anyone else see this?

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/jedi-knight-2-hd-remake

 

This person is remaking it in the Unity engine. =_= That's literally the last engine I would ever have used.

[Syko]

BTW, 

 

ModDB page

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/jedi-outcast-high-resolution-texture-project

[minilogoguy18]

Did anyone else see this?

 

http://www.moddb.com/mods/jedi-knight-2-hd-remake

 

This person is remaking it in the Unity engine. =_= That's literally the last engine I would ever have used.

 

Raven can shut that down since it looks like they're reusing a lot of textures.

 

@ChalklYne, Ultimapper is your friend but xNormal is also a good stand alone render to texture generator, nice because if you have a super high poly model you don't have to worry about viewport lag while clicking on all your render settings since it has no interactive viewport. Just select the high res, low res, pick the settings you want and it spits out a texture. More info can be found on polycount.com.

[eezstreet]

Oh god Unity. :|

 

They aren't even using the -correct- textures either. Map doesn't even look anything like kejim_post.

[Corto]

I still don't understand what's the obsession with 2k and 4k textures. Not only it's overkill and the loading times are probably going to go to hell, it's not necessary at all. Texture size has to be decided in a case by case basis. Some textures may need doubling others even more depending of the space they're covering, but going straight to 2k or 4k without drawing finer or new detail in them (re imagining the textures), makes no sense at all. The guy "remaking" the game in Unity is going to have a hard time getting that out the door. Besides, what's the point of mentioning the release of the source code if you're using a completely different engine?

[Syko]

By the way, my high res texture mod is in ModDBs top 100 mods!

 

[Syko]

Is anyone legitimately interested in beginning to remake the Jedi Outcast maps? There's a person on ModDB who is a mapper and is interested in helping out some how.

 

It would be REALLY cool if @@Szico VII worked on it. I think my favorite custom JA map of all time is either Atlantica or BlueIce Twilight.

[Corto]

@@Syko, introduce that guy to this forum. If he's really willing to take that task seriously and see it through to the end (at least only one map, which is actually a very daunting task), I would like to make a proposal to him or any other mapper interested. If he doesn't, then nobody is holding his hand (or any's) to start doing it by himself. I can only say I would hate to see several parallel, uncoordinated efforts to give this game a facelift and see none of them come to a solid end.

[Barricade24]

Is anyone legitimately interested in beginning to remake the Jedi Outcast maps? There's a person on ModDB who is a mapper and is interested in helping out some how.

 

It would be REALLY cool if @@Szico VII worked on it. I think my favorite custom JA map of all time is either Atlantica or BlueIce Twilight.

The man does have great skill but I think it is a difficult task for any one person to take on alone. I would totally be interested of course but it wouldn't be easy for just on person.

[Corto]

The man does have great skill but I think it is a difficult task for any one person to take on alone. I would totally be interested of course but it wouldn't be easy for just on person.

 

That's why I wouldn't like to see the idea fail because of poorly planning. Besides, remaking an entire map not only would take a long time, but also there's a high chance of breaking the game and then the effort would go to waste. Most projects fail because the succumb under the weight of their own hype. If somebody is really willing to commit to something like this I would like to have a word with them.

[Syko]

That's why I wouldn't like to see the idea fail because of poorly planning. Besides, remaking an entire map not only would take a long time, but also there's a high chance of breaking the game and then the effort would go to waste. Most projects fail because the succumb under the weight of their own hype. If somebody is really willing to commit to something like this I would like to have a word with them.

 

I agree. If we're really going to go all-out with this, an entire team of some of the best modders here should do this. I'm very bad at mod planning and given my lack of free time in real life there's no way I could be the head of this. 

 

 

I think the key to something like this is dedication. I've learned this because of that Jedi Betrayal mod team. The mod is essentially dead, no one just wants to admit that, because no one actually did any work. It's been three years and they still haven't finished one level.

 

Why don't we gather some people and set a goal to finish one level: the Kejim level. Even if we can't remake the whole thing at least we could release it just to show what could be done with a 12 year old engine.

[Corto]

I agree. If we're really going to go all-out with this, an entire team of some of the best modders here should do this. I'm very bad at mod planning and given my lack of free time in real life there's no way I could be the head of this. 

 

Don't worry, the task you've already taken on is staggering. Just keep at it as long as you can and it will be invaluable. Just remember to keep the unflattened, source texture files you're working on so you can go back and rework some stuff should you need to. The best way to achieve your goal is to hit one problem at a time and don't waste brain cycles worrying about all that's left to do. Keep up, I know sometimes I sound overly critic, but so did Obi Wan, just don't turn to the dark side please.

[Darth_Bothersome]

I'd be willing to help map, but I honestly don't have the time. And like Corto said, rebuilding even just the Kejim mission is a huge task. If you want to completely remake JO (Which I wholeheartedly endorse and would love you forever if it happens), take it one level at a time. Get the textures for the two Kejim missions finished, then the map, and maybe get Ashura or someone to make some higher quality models. If Eez can get normalmaps working, that would be beautiful. I'll see if I can come up with anything, but like I said, I doubt I'll have time.

 

EDIT: I accidentally a letter.

[eezstreet]

Wait a minute, when did I become the person to add normalmaps? D:

[Corto]

Yeah, leave him alone. He has better things to work on.

[Pande]

@@eezstreet, when you said 'I'm working on it' in page 1

 

@everyone else. Please listen to Corto. He's really giving you good advise. I admire your diligence Syko I really do, but 2048x2048 =/= a better texture ingame. Your screens are better, yes, but they just go to show your skill level. The screens have no shading or complex shapes and so they came out looking like better versions of their original. The metal stuff though... it really is not an improvement. 

 

I just echo Corto's statement, I don't want to see people wasting time and this, I can guarantee you is a waste of time.

[Mr.Zz]

It's because the engine is old and they used a lot of stupid static limits for things. Lots of old games have weird problems and JKA's limits on vertices is fairly meaningful. They did it for consoles mostly. I've heard of weirder things in older games though (ie in San Andreas, anything higher than about 40 FPS breaks the swimming mechanics completely)

 

Be grateful we have full source though, as Unreal doesn't. And it does suck to code for, trust me. You can't even fix those vertex issues in Unreal anyway.

 

@DT no idea, sorry. Try looking online?

 

Another good example is a quite old game named Zanzarah, maybe someone here knows it. The engine is so Frickin limited: No level is allowed to use more than 12 MB in textures and the egnine only supports 1024 by 768. I tried modding that game - textures of course. First I searched the whole web for a extractor and repacker working with that engine. after about a week of excessive searching I found a program written by a italian modder. So i tried to replace atexture and then i read about the level-size limitations. so I stopped and turned towards JKA

[Mr.Zz]

I agree. If we're really going to go all-out with this, an entire team of some of the best modders here should do this. I'm very bad at mod planning and given my lack of free time in real life there's no way I could be the head of this. 

 

 

I think the key to something like this is dedication. I've learned this because of that Jedi Betrayal mod team. The mod is essentially dead, no one just wants to admit that, because no one actually did any work. It's been three years and they still haven't finished one level.

 

Why don't we gather some people and set a goal to finish one level: the Kejim level. Even if we can't remake the whole thing at least we could release it just to show what could be done with a 12 year old engine.

 

Oh and Syko I'm in. I think you missed my reply on Moddb. I will definitely help you with this texture mod. I'm quite comfortable with doing textures from scratch especially exterior stuff and rock and so on. I'm still not that good with metal but maybe you have a nice base i could use for these texture re-creations - some tips concerning filters/overlays and so on? I'm still finding out how to create realisitc metal textures without any lighting whatsoever applied from scratch.