wip [W.I.P.] (SP) Star Wars - Republic Intelligence

[Lazarus]

So as one of my projects, i started on a single player mod called: Republic Intelligence: Detection //
Latest update: 15th of September 2024

Background:
Thanks to the posted tutorials about making an SP mod, I got insight in a lot of things. Now since I been out of the mapping scene for quite some time, and recently (read. last week) installed GTK again, I went through some of my old projects and found one I was willing to revive. However, since my knowledge expanded greatly since I started that project, I just simply decided to redo all of it, including all brushwork and shaderwork. Also the story and the objectives will be different than my original concept. 
 
So I launched, read up on some script tutorials, and decided, that instead of the objectives first, I wanted to do the exterior part leading up to the entrance of the facility I am going to create. 

Textcrawl

Quote

 

Star Wars
Republic Intelligence

Even eight years after the battle of Endor,
IMPERIAL LOYALISTS are still trying
to get a foothold in the galaxy, using 
several planets as their base of operations.

To counter the attacks of the Imperials, the
SENATE has created a new organization
to gather information about the plans of the
IMPERIAL REMNANTS.

During these rough times, FORNAN KOTEY, an
agent for the NEW REPUBLIC INTELLIGENCE,
is send to the planet of ORD CANFRE, to investigate
Imperial activity there....

 

Storyline

As you read up in the textcrawl, you re in the model of Fornan Kotey, a human agent for the NRI. Your task is to find out what happened on the surface of RAGITH III as your first mission. This mission is spread out of two maps. Size wise, it wont be that long, but i want to split certain elements, so hence the idea of two maps. 

What will be in it?
I am trying to make a lot of new things for this. So far I can tel you:

• New textures
• New shaders
• New models
• Voice acting
• Cutscenes

When will it be finnished?

Thats a question i cant awnser, The first draft of this mod was back in 2012, It went through several itterations (and starts and tries in Radiant) before I settled on this idea and mark up. I actively started with this version in november 2017, and we are now in 2018 with only a slight part done.

Map 1: Cove (currently in progress, being remodelled) per 2023
Map 2: Imperial base (in concept) per 2023

Concept Art and W.I.P

-- see further in this topic --

[IrocJeff]

That looks really cool. Is it just patches put together for the terrain?

[Lazarus]

nope, its brushwork, its a technique called quad and tri-souping combined with dot2product shaders. It allows blending of textures together with the alpha channel. @@IrocJeff The smoothness is caused by something called Phong Shading. You add to a shader you want to smooth out the following lines.

	q3map_nonplanar
	q3map_shadeangle 120

The nonplanar bassically helps the compiler to understand that the triangles that are being made by the brush can be merged together with those that are not on the same plane. What happens is, that the hard edges are being merged and further being smoothed out thanks to a shade angle, which difusses the light,.. the higher the shadeangle value, the more smoothed it will be, but it also can cause unrealistic appearances, i always play with it between the values 90 and 125 at max, else its getting all weird.  This causes it in the end to look like what you think is patch work, but are just rough brushes. 

 

Further more, i changed the metal shader i wrote for it, and added an environmap to it as well, so it looks a bit more like polished metal at the moment. I ll hop tomorrow on the texture creating part and see if i can come up with a new console for the elevator.

 

 

 

 

Added a new shader to the metal and played with the environmap of it, together with some other shaders. (was more engrossed towards the tv this evening)

 

[IrocJeff]

It just looked like patches from the shot since you only saw the top of the terrain and the caulk brushes weren't drawn. 

[Merek]

Awesome

[Lazarus]

Okay tweaked today on some stuff, including as asked earlier behaviour of the dock workers, but I was more or less busy today on creating a texture needed for the conveyor belt.... I ended up actually using a texture from the base folder which i liked for it, wich was the hydraulic texture from bespin. Applied a scroll to it, and builded the belt itself. Have fun with the movie.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgFScCPoPrU&feature=youtu.be

 

 

As you noticed, I changed model, and he has no forcepowers. See this as a complete shoot and kill SP. Hence I had to noclip to show the converyor belt. Also as you might have noticed, the npc's are tougher, (non combatants have 100 health which is regular, however stormies go now to 300, thinking even applying them more, depending on how many I am going to put together) I gave them an increased healthpool, to make it more challenging.

[Lazarus]

So first things first, i turned the wall into a model and clipped it, not sure if i ll do this as well with the ground, but it will help later on with the vis stages during compile.

 

Played the last few days with the scripting arround for some kind of a puzzle. It basically involves the dock workers triggering an event which will trigger a checkpoint. Note that in the video the npc's are very weak, their health has to be fixed and that the door and forcefield still have to be placed, which need to be opeen / turned off by the script. Last but not least, an alarm sound will be heard with possible lights. Need to make all that still, but the principle idea is in place.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaOgmwk9-ws&feature=youtu.be

[z3filus]

U have talent for mapping, keep up the good work!

[Lazarus]

tiny update, i have been a bit occupied with my work so whenever I get the chance, I launch GTK. I came up with the idea, to build the base inside the mountain, so i started playing arround a bit with ideas (actually I removed a crane in the map earlier today, it wasn't practical and I need to think out another idea for the crate / explosive idea I have, since the crane was large and unpractical. However, I did some work on the inside and created a few new textures (ligths / metal panels). The lamp up there is a model I made earlier.

 

The door is still an issue for me, I cant find a suitable texture so I started with some brushwork.... still havent found the solution yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

before it confuses people, this is actually JKA, and not JO. My HUD is the HUD that was created for the Jedi Betrayal, since you play Kyle Katarn. We thought it would be smart to give Kyle his own HUD back from JKO.

[therfiles]

NIce work, @@Lazarus! This is some pretty incredible progress! I loved how you made the stormies come in and crouch/fan out, etc. I think with some more work, you could have them try to surround the player, run up to him (set the player as their leader) and attack, and make them even more tough. Very exciting!

[Lazarus]

The npc's have their issues too... not the stormies, but thevdock workers. Sometimes they dont trigger make it to the navgoal and the sequence wont start, but thats a debugging problem i guess, better placed waypoints and a few changes in their script.

 

Good point on the fanning out part or the running up part. I ll look into it.

[Merek]

Are there any tutorials on NPC scripting? If so, please point them in my direction!

[IrocJeff]

Are there any tutorials on NPC scripting? If so, please point them in my direction!

 

http://www.student.oulu.fi/~lvaarisk/tutorials/navgoaler.htm

 

This is a pretty good one for npc scripting movement and stuff.

I can send you some of my specific scripts I made for my project if you want to take a look at them.

[Lazarus]

Yep, I used Lassev's tutorials on making NPC's do what I want. Its a good start and if you get arround in Behaved, you see NPC's can do all kinds of stuff!

[Lazarus]

Due to work, i havent worked on it for a while, but I found today myself working on the damn ceiling of the facility thats build in the mountain. Now this will be converted into a model, to save on some brushes. I still need to work also on the lights there. In this spoiler is a TRIS shot, so you can see how many freaking brushes it are... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I updated the first post with the textcrawl and a bit of the story i am intending. 

[Lazarus]

Converted the rocky ceiling into a model (saves me a lot of compile time) and shielded it off with a clip brush, so player cant jump up and through the rock ceiling. Since you are not supposed to play with force powers its just an extra precaution. Dont want to ruin it. I placed some wiring further and fixed the tunnel leading outside. The crate procedure works (press a button and a crate moves from the lower belt up to the higher belt with a (still need to make) sort of crane. Outside it will be placed on the worker area, where I tie a part of a puzzle in.   

 

Used a treemodel outside (not completely happy with it, maybe I need to make a pine tree model or ask nicely if @@Szico VII has a spare one from his winter map) and started building on the tiefighter landing pads (will be a few more in that area, plus some tie fighter pilots) ... not sure yet what i ll do with the lower space further, I am maybe thinking of letting it slip out through another cave into a swoop track you ll have to do.. not sure yet. Oh forgot to mention I made the area a bit higher so it looks likes it tops off, instead of sloping inward.. which made it look ackward (which is also a model, because it saves a lot of compile time). 

 

Also started writing a dialogue between a prison warden and the player.

 

2 screenies for now/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eezstreet]

So first things first, i turned the wall into a model and clipped it, not sure if i ll do this as well with the ground, but it will help later on with the vis stages during compile.Played the last few days with the scripting arround for some kind of a puzzle. It basically involves the dock workers triggering an event which will trigger a checkpoint. Note that in the video the npc's are very weak, their health has to be fixed and that the door and forcefield still have to be placed, which need to be opeen / turned off by the script. Last but not least, an alarm sound will be heard with possible lights. Need to make all that still, but the principle idea is in place.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaOgmwk9-ws&feature=youtu.be

Instead of making the wall a model, make it a detail brush and use caulk brushes embedded into the wall as your structural. Repeat for the ground. This will make it easier to work with.

[Lazarus]

Instead of making the wall a model, make it a detail brush and use caulk brushes embedded into the wall as your structural. Repeat for the ground. This will make it easier to work with.

 

that was what it was originally, however, i converted it out of ease and because the compiling times are much quicker. I migth convert them back into brushes (got a seperate file with the walls in it where I converted them into models) if its worth it.

[Lazarus]

I put the outdoor area aside for now, and started on the landing area (spawning) area and place where you will leave the planet again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The downside is that the texture on the farend (the forcefield) is 1024 / 1024 atm, but still pretty low rezz, so i am either gonna go for 2048 or even 4096 on size, cause i can clearly count pixels when I am standing next to it.

[IrocJeff]

Got any more updates there?

[Lazarus]

I havent worked on it really to be honest, cause I got caught up with work. Coming week slows stuff down since my work goes through testing phase, meaning I have time to work on this when I have the chance.

 

I am looking at the moment for a new rock texture. The one i use is low rez and becomes very repetative (honestly, this one is 256 by 256). Anybody got some suggestions

[IrocJeff]

http://naldzgraphics.net/textures/free-high-resolution-rock-textures/

 

Check this place out. I don't think they are seamless which you or someone else will have to make ( depending on your design) but they are pretty cool and most go above 1024x1024.

[RAILBACK]

When I find the rock textures I have I will post them. ALL textures are my own at high rez as I took them at close range with very little to no sun. I was starting to tile them but then never finished any of them.

[AshuraDX]

Well here ya, go @@Lazarus

if you want further tweaks message me on skype , once everything is finalized i'll pass you the entire thing

 

there's room for an endless amount of variations which all tile in between each other but still look different for the most part

[Lazarus]

Yea I am trying to make progress at the moment, but struggling with the factor called time and work. Sorry. I ll try to work on this whenever I have the chance Thanks Ashura for working on the texture It will help alot i am sure!