TFU 1.5 Mod Overview

[ChalklYne]

Unleashed 1.5 will be a *cough* T.C. mod. Much like all of it's deceased predecessors. I will cover a few main

objectives here, and post work throughout the process. I do have a finished storyline which I have kicked

around to a few people to see if it could be considered somewhat "cannon", and have had positive feedback so I

will not need to post the entire storyline here as that would kind of ruin the feel of the mod the first time you

play it, and will kill the twist at the end. Feel free to lend any suggestions, opinions, or crits you please.

Point #1. Who and When. I am working on this mod alone atm, but will not take entire credit for it on its

completion because my skills are a combination of everybodys knowledge and assistance. I have no idea when

it will be done, but will guess that I'm at about 20% right now. I am welcome to any help anybody feels like

lending.

Point#2. What I have and what I need. i have the maps figured out, playermodels, textures, anims decently, but

could use some assistance here and there with shaders and scripting the maps. The maps will be devised

mainly of map objects I create in Sofimage XSI, combined with some brushwork and scripting.

Point#3. Fail. Theres a curse on this mod. there always has been. Much like the movie Poltergeist. Nothing I

can really do about that. I will say that I don't really work on anything else but this mod, and i get a bit done

literally everyday. So even though it has a predetermined destiny to wind up oin the fail bucket, I will just

continute to work on it and hopefully outwork the curse.

 

This mod will not contain base models, textures, shaders, nor menus.

The mod will have main maps, as well as 2 sub maps. The maps, in order, are as follows...

Unknown Surgical Center (sub-map mainly used for cutscenes but will be playable at one point in the story)
Tie facility
Raxus prime
Felucia
Kamino
Dagobah
Rogue Shadow (the training room and a few other dynamics will be available in this sub-map, such as training

missions, costume changes, and lightsaber changes much like the Nintendo DS version of TFU)

the maps will not be cannon recreations of the tfu maps you are used to, but more like a reimagined version

for certain reasons pretaining to the storyline. The maps are meant to be different because the main

character is a clone with implanted memories of someone who was incredible with the force. So, things are a

bit fuzzy and the maps are storyline wise induced dreams. So it will be a dream of a memory of a clone u can't

clone. So expect the overall look and feel of the maps to be legit, but just a reimagined path. Different

passeges to reach your objective. The maps will also not be very long maybe 3 or 4 sections each seperated

by elevators and doors with loading screens because I plan on getting intense with some of the geometry here

and there.

I'm not considering any miltiplayer aspects of the mod as many of the skeles will be custom and cannot be

used in MP yet. But feel free to lend a hand or suggestion or two and maybe after it's all said and done I can

incorporate it and seperate a few nice MP maps and characters for it who knows. Right now not even

considering it.

The mod will have cutscenes rendered in xsi and converted to RoQ. One cutscene rig is almost complete, and

it is the main one for the storyline. Ive shown a few people a beta version and it is getting positive feedback as

well. Just like the storyline though, I would see it kind of lame to post the cutscenes. i have a big problem with

starkillers voice because I dont want to just use TFU sounds for the cutscenes and just have him repeating

himself. So his voice will be a problem, but, he only has a VERY small amount of dialogue if any at all. Anyways

most of his thoughts will be displayed in the maps alog the corridors and things kind of like Splinter Cell:

Conviction. So I can totally take his voice out of the picture and the mod would still make sense.

I wont put a time on it, but, to give a rough idea percentage wise, id say I hope to have it done or just rockin by

Xmas

Be patient. Be kind.

 

-Chalk

[katanamaru]

You already know I'll help out with a few things, but fyi I don't do cutscenes. Moving and fighting I get, but acting I do not.

[ChalklYne]

well... for cutscenes im getting decent at animating. still havent figured out the animation mixer to be honest. I have an already animated scene ill pm u real quick so u know what i mean by animating the cutscenes in xsi. they wont be modelled to traditional skeles in most cutscenes its just a robot sitting, vader standing, and u strapped to a table so most of the animation is all done in one rig im setting up. here ill just PM u the video of the beta version of how the camera and table will function.

 

see i was going to have it "unlock" new combos in between maps by a simple gla change. that way you can start off rather basic and each map progress. Im debating a side mission right now where proxy turns into grievous and tries to kill u in the training room. but im not sure its gunna be grievous. i wanted someone cool you havent fought on here yet like savage oppress, grievous, or maybe even plageuis but im still debating that aspect. might just make proxy swap to kevin bacon and do a footloose dance across the tie facility hangar floor. just seeing if yer still paying attention. It just wouldnt be tfu'esque without a bit of proxy problems.

 

if it were to be grievous tho,  i wouldnt want to reanimate an entire rig again like kazdans gunna have to be pretty much. instead maube id just model the character and top 2 arms to fit the jka skele, the make his other 2 arms a .veh filr with blasters in the hands. maybe script him to be in the "vehicle" while u fight him. that way his top 2 arms could give u saber combat while his bottom blasted at u. havent really thought on any of that yet

[eezstreet]

Why do you make so much mention of your mod failing? You need some more confidence, man. People aren't going to help you if you can't at least inspire them with some confidence that it's going to succeed.

[ChalklYne]

im just pointing out the curse of tfu tc's. it cant fail cuz im not depending on anyone else this time. i know as long as i keep at it, eventually, itll get done. im doing the mod mainly for myself and my own enjoyment of this community and the franchise. so im pretty motivated to finish it. ive already got plans on what im going to do after this as well... so the fires lit under my ass a bit so to speak. sorry if i came off as debbie downer in the overview, i was just pointing out the obvious main few points as a sort of FAQ i guess. 

[Tempust85]

The only thing I really hated about TFU 1 & 2 besides the storyline was the lack of MP. I recommend doing MP first, then SP after you gather more manpower. MP is a smaller undertaking, and once it's released you can use MP to grab people's attention for your SP project.

 

A question. Are you wanting this project to offer any enhancements over JKA's current code such as model/animation file-types (I say this due to the horrible animation compression Ghoul2 offers which would be noticeable in in-game cutscenes) & graphics (ie widescreen support, larger lightmaps, etc) ?

 

 

 

P.S

 

Star Wars Battlecry has a pretty good Vader voice guy. If this project gets enough steam, then I could ask him if he's interested for you.

[ChalklYne]

I dont have anyone coding at all, and was not really planning any coding. There will be no real in-game cutscenes besides maybe showing targets the cutscenes will be made in XSI. If i were to plan any coding, it would be in the SP game. So i would be waiting a while. I got my little brother to look at the single player code for me to see what he can do. He said it was way self explanatory, but does not currently have the time to help much if anything. MP is a cool idea and maybe I'll start a thread for it, but since I have everything all planned out already and know exactly what I need to do, and have uhh *cough* never played MP, I wouldnt even know where to start. All in due time though I guess. Badass about the Vader voice deal. You know what? I had no idea Witwer did so many voices for Star Wars.

 

I'm already considering a cool storyline for 2.5 since I read the book. So I plan to continue to add to the mod here and there over time so MP is totally not being omitted, just put on the back burner a while until I get an idea of what I can do in MP and what would be cool to incorporate. Plus I just have a ton to get caught up on first.

[katanamaru]

As the project moves along you may want to consider sp coding for force powers. Though JA did have decently powerful force powers against non-jedi characters.

[eezstreet]

I agree with what's been said above. You should focus on multiplayer first. There isn't a TFU multiplayer, while there is a TFU single player, and single player requires more resources anyway.

[ChalklYne]

Its just not time efficient for me to relearn everything right now and start fresh, 

It wouldn't seem right to take more than one suggestion and just shitcan your ideas though. So, I will say this... I am going to build the assets, maps, and menu system for a TFU mod. I have a storyline and cutscenes for the SP version all worked out as well as new gameplay dynamics without coding. If anybody skilled in modding MP maps wants to lend a hand in maybe making the maps Mp friendly it would be pretty schweeet. Just sayin. I personally am doing SP and thats just what it is for now. Not shunning the idea at all, just don't wanna consider it until I'm done with what I'm doing. Maybe I'll poke around and see what kind of freinds I have around here and maybe get someone skilled in coding to write a lil something for MP. Who knows. All speculation lol. Sorry to disappoint I just wanna make SP first. I have no idea what to do for Mp, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be too hard to make things MP freindly

[Tempust85]

For those of YOU who are reading this and know about modding for MP, then please think about helping out ol' Chalk. It's been a while since a decent TC has been released, so please help out to make this one. 

[ChalklYne]

Thanks man. That was cool.

 

Hey heres an idea... It would be cool to have a normal version of this mod, then maybe a cell shaded one, then maybe a kind of steampunk version of the textures n shaders. Maybe not steampunk, but like, a more Earth based materials version. With chrome and rusted metal on the TIE and what not. That would be ideal to be able to choose what version you want to play. Or perhaps download. Maybe just release it in 3 versions as to not kill DL time. Just some ideas. Maybe I can recruit a good reskinner.

 

OH! on another side not... I figured out Kazdan last night. I will be remodelling his arms, hands, legs, and feet first though.  I found a way to have him operate "correctly" and still not break MP compatibility. I was playing around with him last night, and rigged his mesh to a basic skele, the repositioned him to match the rancor skele. it was a pretty decent fit. So, since I can add tags to mesh and not break MP(like I did with rancors), I will rig his backpack to the jka skele with a bolt_driver in the correct spot. Compile, then create a .veh from it using the _humanoid animations.cfg and _humanoid.gla as the animations. All I would have to do is add in the rider anim commands to his animations.cfg for a swoop or something and rearrange the anim  frames to match _humanoid ones. Then I will rig kazdan to the rancor skele with r_hang and l_hang tags. Then I will add in commands to the rancor animations.cfg from the _humanoid animations.cfg so it has swoop riding anim slots and rearrange the animation frames accordingly. Script him to use the backpack as a .veh  MP compatible  Then I will only have to fix his anims for while hes riding the backpack. He wont really need any attack anims or anything he is too tiny to weild his big ass saber without the backpack. Even if you did want him to have non-backpacked attacks youd just add em into his animations.cfg then animate em merge the glas and yer good. First him and his backpack will go through a make-over. 

 

i have a sort of syllabus though, and I want the first cutscene, the menus, starkiller, and the tie facility done first. So I will have to wait a while for him. Right now I have 1 more map object I will most likely be building today, until I am at the hangar. Then i am deciding what to do with the lambda shuttle crash. It would be ideal to be able to as soon as you get to the hangar door, you see the lambda come in and crash through that window on your right via triggers, waypoints, and efx files. But Im not sure yet. Ill be designing the last map object up to the door and the door texture today most likely. 

*TIE Facility spoiler*

(I'll warn you if I'm about to spoil the storyline or anything)

 

 

The tie facility will take a different turn at the hangar as the doors will look welded shut. I wanted to just have a different experience to it. You will still have a hangar, a wing assembly corridor, The cockpit construction area, and a boss. It will not be Kota though as I want the map to end before that fight. Instead I was debating asking @@AshuraDX for his at-st pack and have a few of those variants (like the one with force grip) as bosses instead.

 

 

 

 

 

It would also be number 1 to get a piece from all of my main influences and friends in here. As I've stated Katanamaru, AshuraDX, are already contributing. Something as small as a saber or texture just to pay a lil homage to you guys and gals. Incorporated in the menu system will be a "Trophy" section where you can view models, as well as a "Gallery"  where you can see the progress of the mod's completion. I'm also going to have a Credits/Thank You portion for all the supporters.

The game will have an easy access pause menu about 1/4 of the size of the screen when you press esc that will have SAVE LOAD OPTIONS CHEATS EXTRAS QUIT.The EXTRAS menu will go back into the rogue shadow map as a menu for sabers, styles, costumes, cheats, etc. via various triggers placed around the ship which trigger cvar changes

[ChalklYne]

Only issue Ive ran into with having the EXTRAS menu be a map, is you will have to start from the last checkpoint when you go back to the game. Much like TFU lol

[Tempust85]

Lol, well that's a common feature in games today so many gamers shouldn't care IMO.

[eezstreet]

Why is the extras menu a map?

 

Also, please god no. We don't need arbitrary cell shading modes or steampunk modes for no reason. They don't contribute anything to a game.

[ChalklYne]

Ill be randomly posting all of the misc. help I need to complete the mod. Things I'm just not too sure where else to post. Things that might be holding me up from progressing

Today's topic;

 

When I export an .obj out of Softimage, it looks great. I can then import said model into Milkshape, Roadkill, ZBrush, etc. with no worries. When I import the .obj into milkshape, then export as MD3... sometimes I get a weird error where like 80% of the model will be correct, and the rest will be like, flopped to the other side or completely backwards? Seems like a transform freezing issue or something right? But how can I be getting these issues just randomly? How do the transform issues don't show in Milkshape or ZBrush or Roadkill but in Radiant and ingame the MD3's are sometimes wonky? Any ideas? It causes me to rebuild like... I dunno a few models. Not that bad, but still... ill make 5 models and have to fully rebuild 1 because of this. Any ideas? I center the model back at 0 0 0 in 3d space before I export.

 

 

 

 

Transforms all froze and modelling froze at 0,0,0 before initial export of .obj from Softimage. Imported into Milkshape, connected with texture file, generated .qc file, renamed the 2 paths, then exported MD#. Imported the MD3 into Pakscape, saved that, opened Radiant and this is what I get

 

[minilogoguy18]

So polygons are essentially being flipped? In Softimage try to keep the option of backface culling on in the display settings which can help avoid you drawing polygons with the vertex's in the wrong order.

 

A transform issue will only cause all polygons to be flipped or the backfaces facing out, which of course games do not render backfaces unless told to via shaders in the instance of JA. You can see this by giving your model negative scaling values.

 

My best advice would be to keep backface culling enabled and if you draw a polygon oddly causing it to not face out with all the others around it you can easily spot it, select it and use the tool "invert polygons" in the model>modify>polymesh menu.

 

Freezing the objects construction history and transforms will not fix polygons that are individually inverted.

[ChalklYne]

@@minilogoguy18 I uploaded a pic to my previous post.. it's not inverted, like.. smashed into itself. And it's probably the third I've encountered like this so far maybe 4th. 

[ChalklYne]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jlb656ye69jdys/ext_corridor.obj

 

see what it looks like to you?

[minilogoguy18]

Host the model and post a link to it in this thread and maybe I can tell you what's wrong with it or if it's something caused by being put through multiple formats which can happen.

[ChalklYne]

Just did

[minilogoguy18]

I can see why things are getting messed up, the model is a total mess. There are literally tons of edges, polygons and vertex's that are not contributing to the overall shape and volume of the model.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8h5d1ssw8xa81f1/ext_corridor.obj

 

Import that, compare it with yours and notice the differences as well as the lower polygon count without loss of detail.

 

Your topology was to blame for the errors.

[ChalklYne]

you're going to have to post some pics

 

here's what i get on the wireframe

 

I see nothing wasted

[minilogoguy18]

So you don't see those intersecting edges that do not add any volume? Or that edgeloop going around the outside of those squareish shapes that run in parallel with the boundary (lt blue) edges?

 

I posted a link to the OBJ, trust me, if you look at them both in the same scene you WILL see a huge difference. Make sure you have the scene stats turned on for selected and unselected objects to see the difference in polycounts.

 

Currently it sits at a mere 142 vertex's and 212 triangles without any loss of volume or detail. Previous numbers were 225 vertex's and 365 triangles.

[ChalklYne]

I did notice somehow the extra edge loops on those weird shapes. I was having troube building those weird shapes with very few tris. you killed that though man good work there. This is a rebuild because I've had to build this peice 3 times now because of that weird error. no wonder now that i look at it. I was just confused about that weird shape and am not really sure how I ended up with that result as compared to your edit. Awesome stuff tho.