My Review of Jedi Academy Enhanced 1.0.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

​First of all, I wanted to thank @@redsaurus for such a brilliant mod that SP players such as me were only DREAMING of until Raven Software released the Source Code for JK2 and JKA after LucasArts was shut down by Disney. (Which was a HORRIBLE move on their part, but I'm not here to rant about that.) And I'd like to thank @@eezstreet for promoting it and for the OpenJK mod that also made this possible as from what I understand, without OpenJK, Jedi Academy and Outcast Enhanced wouldn't have been possible even with the Source Code. (Correct me if I'm wrong on that part. I'm not really much of a coder, tbh. :3) This isn't gonna be an essay review, but it might be a little long anyways. So here we go.

What was great about the mod, but could use some improvements:

1. I'll get the BIG one out of the way first: The SFX Lightsaber Effects with the RGB Option. Holy S***, I CANNOT say how much I've been waiting for a mod such as JKE to come along and give me and others an option like this. For so long, JK2/A Machinima Makers had to resort to replacing the textures of a certain Lightsaber Blade color to give them a new Lightsaber color in the game. And unless you got rid of the trail glow, it would give off an awkward effect. (Such as a red Lightsaber color using a cyan lightsaber texture, but with a red trail effect and glow.) Now with this, Machinima Makers can (Hopefully.) come back from the dead, because that old texture replacement trick for "new" saber colors was getting as old as 10 year old stale bread. My only criticism and suggestion for you guys is hopefully you can add both a fully black color AND a negative Lightsaber color (Black line with white or other color glow.) in the future, like the black saber color in The Force Unleashed 1 and 2. If you can do that, then it would be PERFECT.

2. The ability to add NEW WEAPONS to the weapons files. I'm glad you guys thought ahead on this matter and made the Bryar Pistol, the Tusken Weapons (Correct me if I'm wrong on that.) and even the Noghri Stick Weapon as actual weapons for the player to use in the game. I'm also happy you guys put in a few weapons yourself, such as the Clone Blaster and the Battle Droid Blaster (Again, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm sure the latter is in the game.) to the weapons roster. It really adds a fresh coat of paint to the game, and I HOPE it allows for an endless amount of weapon possibilities to be added to the game or removed from the game as the modder chooses. It's also perfect for Machinima makers who want to be "lore-friendly" towards the part of the Star Wars timeline (ABY or BBY) their Machinima takes part in. Seeing an E-11 Blaster Rifle in an era that's 20,000 years before the blaster was canonically made in the series? Uhhh....No. That...would cause a paradox.

3. The addition of First Person Lightsaber Mode, Real First Person View Mode and the addition of holsters for Lightsabers. I CANNOT say how happy I am to actually be in First Person Mode in the game and actually see what my character sees such as his or her feet and body as well as the weapon he or she is holding. I also like how you guys added the holster ability to the game, as when you press the =/+ button in the vanilla, the character just puts it away and the saber vanishes. But here, it makes sense to put it on the character's belt instead of it just vanishing and then "miraculously" just appearing again when you press the 1 button. Adds in realism to the game and people would love that a lot.

4. The removal of the NPC and Poly Limit for the game. This is also a feature OpenJK has. In the past, so many players who had too much NPCs in their PK3s or a model such as DT's Kyle Katarn Model would be hit with a "Too many NPCS" message or a "This model has too many Polys" message in the vanilla game. With JK:E AND OpenJK, those limits are FINALLY removed from the game. And I gotta say, it's GREAT to get rid of those eyesore messages. They also allow higher poly models to be in the game, but with OpenJK being required for the higher poly textures to be displayed properly without crashing the game. But for every positive, there's a negative. That's how things work, after all.

5. New-Force-Powers. Oh My God, I was ECSTATIC about seeing those new powers in the game which SHOULD have been in JK2 and JKA IN THE FIRST PLACE. Deadly Sight, Destruction, Statis, Insanity, all these powers thanks to JKE now have their rightful places in these games. Though some things are left to be desired as since this is 1.0, there's still work on them to be done, and there's even some new ones that still aren't coded properly into the game yet and can only be seen by using the setforceall cheat in the console. But with 2.0 onwards, I'm positive they're going to be added with the new powers already included in 1.0 improved upon.

My criticisms/What bugs I found:

1. As Enhanced is made from the OpenJK engine, it includes the unfortunate ongoing issue with the GLM files, which is how the models in the game function to begin with. I cannot say how many times the game crashed on me because of either my character using Force Lighting on Stormtroopers on a specific map like kejim_post, or the game crashing when a Jedi NPC or Sith NPC does the rolling stab attack. I just hope that the GLM issue will be fixed in OpenJK AND JKEnhanced soon.

2. I pitched this before in a shorter review, but I'll post it again. With a mod like this and OpenJK, it could be possible for the JK2 and JKA animations to be combined together into one GLM file. I know that it is hard due to the fact that the JK2 skeleton has a few more "bones" than the JKA skeleton, but with all the stuff we have now, it should be possible. This is just my own personal criticism, and I know people have asked for this so much, every animator got tired of it real fast, but again with what we have now, even if there's only a SLIM chance, it's possible.

3. I've addressed this in another topic, but with 1.0, every sword weapon, with the exception of the Sith Sword for some strange reason, causes the game to crash as soon as an NPC draws it. I don't know if that's just on my end, but if it's also on everyone else's end, that's something that you guys should fix as adding NPCs with swords to give the player a better challenge is a given if the modder/player desires. I personally give swords to Imperial Officers because a small blaster pistol is just pathetic for them to use. Give them at least a slimer of a fighting chance. Unless you use the god/undying cheat.

So with that said, I'm glad this mod was made and I look forward to a 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 or however long this mod lasts version of Jedi Outcast/Academy Enhanced as this mod is something that Machinima Makers like me (Though I'm retired now, but I might get back into it thanks to this after I figure out the kinds in Enhanced) were waiting for ever since modders began migrating from Jedi Outcast to Jedi Academy in 2003. Thanks, you guys. Your hard work paid off and it will continue to do so the longer you keep at it.

[eezstreet]

This is a good review, and has lots of useful info, thanks for it.

 

What do you mean by Ghoul2 error though? Can you elaborate though? I'm working on finalizing Jedi Outcast Enhanced/Jedi Knight 2 Enhanced for an early prep release and want to make sure I have all my bases covered.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

This is a good review, and has lots of useful info, thanks for it.

 

What do you mean by Ghoul2 error though? Can you elaborate though? I'm working on finalizing Jedi Outcast Enhanced/Jedi Knight 2 Enhanced for an early prep release and want to make sure I have all my bases covered.

You're welcome, Eez. And from what I understood from seeing other people's feedback, OpenJK and JK Enhanced have an ongoing struggle with the Ghoul 2 model that the games have used since they were built by Raven Software and LucasArts. In my personal experiences, what was stated in the review above. I don't know if this is was just on my end with my own OpenJK and JKEnhanced experience and could be my own bases acting funny. (I can't tell you how many times I had to copy and past the main JKA Game Folder, rename it to my name of choice, and put everything back in to start over.)

 

I can elaborate on one thing: Whenever a Jedi or Sith NPC does a roll, then tries to do a rolling stab in response on an NPC such as a Rebel or a Stormtrooper, the game crashes. It's fine when I do a rolling stab on an NPC, but when an NPC does it to another, it crashes. :/ I don't know if it's just me or if there's a problem you guys didn't know about, but I'm glad I could bring it to your attention.

[eezstreet]

You're welcome, Eez. And from what I understood from seeing other people's feedback, OpenJK and JK Enhanced have an ongoing struggle with the Ghoul 2 model that the games have used since they were built by Raven Software and LucasArts. In my personal experiences, what was stated in the review above. I don't know if this is was just on my end with my own OpenJK and JKEnhanced experience and could be my own bases acting funny. (I can't tell you how many times I had to copy and past the main JKA Game Folder, rename it to my name of choice, and put everything back in to start over.)

 

I can elaborate on one thing: Whenever a Jedi or Sith NPC does a roll, then tries to do a rolling stab in response on an NPC such as a Rebel or a Stormtrooper, the game crashes. It's fine when I do a rolling stab on an NPC, but when an NPC does it to another, it crashes. :/ I don't know if it's just me or if there's a problem you guys didn't know about, but I'm glad I could bring it to your attention.

I haven't really encountered any Ghoul2-related issues on the Jedi Outcast codebase, so I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to. However the problem might have been fixed since redsaurus' codebase was last updated to the latest OpenJK, because mine is a bit newer. Since JK2 doesn't have rollstab though, I assure you there isn't a rollstab crash.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

I haven't really encountered any Ghoul2-related issues on the Jedi Outcast codebase, so I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to. However the problem might have been fixed since redsaurus' codebase was last updated to the latest OpenJK, because mine is a bit newer. Since JK2 doesn't have rollstab though, I assure you there isn't a rollstab crash.

Well, that's good, because the crash I was referring to was JKA specific. And do you have a link to redsaurus's codebase? If there's a chance I could fix it by downloading it, I'd gladly give it a try.

[eezstreet]

Well, that's good, because the crash I was referring to was JKA specific. And do you have a link to redsaurus's codebase? If there's a chance I could fix it by downloading it, I'd gladly give it a try.

By downloading what? You'd have to manually update his codebase using git and then recompile it in order to see if it gets fixed.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

By downloading what? You'd have to manually update his codebase using git and then recompile it in order to see if it gets fixed.

Oh. I've never done that before. Is it easy to do or are there steps I need to follow?

[eezstreet]

Oh. I've never done that before. Is it easy to do or are there steps I need to follow?

It's not exactly easy. To get started with this, you'll need Git, Visual Studio (assuming Windows), CMake and a mergetool like KDiff. Enter a command prompt (cmd.exe) and type in the following:

• git clone https://github.com/redsaurus/OpenJK
• git fetch
• git checkout custom
• git remote add upstream https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK
• git pull upstream master
• ((if there are conflicts)) git mergetool

An explanation as to what each step does:

• Grab the code from redsaurus' remote repository at Github
• Retrieve any extra data that we might have missed
• Switch to 'custom' branch (this is the one that has the JKA:Enhanced code)
• Add a remote titled 'upstream' which points to the main OpenJK repository
• Pull from that remote
• ((if there are conflicts)) resolve them.

After the conflicts are resolved, you'd need to compile the code using my tutorial here on JKHub. There should be pretty much no differences between that guide and what you do for redsaurus' code.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

It's not exactly easy. To get started with this, you'll need Git, Visual Studio (assuming Windows), CMake and a mergetool like KDiff. Enter a command prompt (cmd.exe) and type in the following:

• git clone https://github.com/redsaurus/OpenJK
• git fetch
• git checkout custom
• git remote add upstream https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK
• git pull upstream master
• ((if there are conflicts)) git mergetool

An explanation as to what each step does:

• Grab the code from redsaurus' remote repository at Github
• Retrieve any extra data that we might have missed
• Switch to 'custom' branch (this is the one that has the JKA:Enhanced code)
• Add a remote titled 'upstream' which points to the main OpenJK repository
• Pull from that remote
• ((if there are conflicts)) resolve them.

After the conflicts are resolved, you'd need to compile the code using my tutorial here on JKHub. There should be pretty much no differences between that guide and what you do for redsaurus' code.

Yikes....O.o

[TheWhitePhoenix]

Yeah....@@eezstreet, I don't think I can do that. As I've said, I'm not a coder, so I have NO IDEA where to even start. Maybe if someone made a video tutorial, I could try to follow along, but I don't know.

[eezstreet]

Yeah....@@eezstreet, I don't think I can do that. As I've said, I'm not a coder, so I have NO IDEA where to even start. Maybe if someone made a video tutorial, I could try to follow along, but I don't know.

I don't exactly blame you. It's a lot of stuff to acquire/do and the conflict resolution part will require some idea of what the code is actually doing. I'd wait for redsaurus to do it.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

I don't exactly blame you. It's a lot of stuff to acquire/do and the conflict resolution part will require some idea of what the code is actually doing. I'd wait for redsaurus to do it.

Yeah....But anyways, I'm glad I could give you guys feedback to make both OpenJK and JK2/JKA Enhanced better.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

@@eezstreet Well....I don't know how to say this, as I feel like a complete idiot for not noticing it....But that error I was talking about....The one where the animations and all caused the game to crash....it was because of a PK3 file....I used it for basically NPC and Model replacements....​THAT VERY PK3 was causing the game, on BOTH OpenJK and JA Enhanced to crash. I have a hunch that it too was also responsible for the sword glitch, but as of this comment, it's 2:10 in the morning, and I'm not willing to test anymore for the night....So it was all on me....So...yeah. Dunce moment for me....All that was caused by a bad PK3....I thought I should let you know anyways, because I don't wanna lead you or @@redsaurus on a while goose chase....So....I apologize, guys. Sorry about that....

Edit: Okay, thanks to @@Teancum, the sword glitch is legit. But the animation thing, that was on me because of the PK3. Sorry if I sounded like a downer when I wrote this, but like I said, it was 2:10 A.M in the morning and I felt like an idiot. I know I shouldn't beat myself up over that, but still.

[Teancum]

3. I've addressed this in another topic, but with 1.0, every sword weapon, with the exception of the Sith Sword for some strange reason, causes the game to crash as soon as an NPC draws it. I don't know if that's just on my end, but if it's also on everyone else's end, that's something that you guys should fix

I can confirm this bug.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

I can confirm this bug.

Well, that's reassuring to know it's not just me....

[Teancum]

I can't speak for everyone else on the saber turn-on bug, but in my case it was the Phase I Dark Troopers that caused it. They were set to CLASS_GALAK_MECH. Once I changed it to CLASS_SABER_DROID the crashing stopped. Perhaps this is an issue with non-jedi classes and the saber?

[TheWhitePhoenix]

I can't speak for everyone else on the saber turn-on bug, but in my case it was the Phase I Dark Troopers that caused it. They were set to CLASS_GALAK_MECH. Once I changed it to CLASS_SABER_DROID the crashing stopped. Perhaps this is an issue with non-jedi classes and the saber?

We might have to test it with different classes to say for sure. I guess it's time to dive into the fireworks, Tean. :/

[Teancum]

Probably the fastest way would be to set a bunch of enemies you usually use to CLASS_REBORN or CLASS_SABER_DROID and see what you come up with. On my end the issue is fixed now so I probably won't bother further. Good luck, though.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

Probably the fastest way would be to set a bunch of enemies you usually use to CLASS_REBORN or CLASS_SABER_DROID and see what you come up with. On my end the issue is fixed now so I probably won't bother further. Good luck, though.

I guess we just gave @@eezstreet and @@redsaurus more feedback, then. And thanks on my end. So far, with my custom NPCs, I've been experimenting one by one seeing what causes crashes or not. And I think I'm figuring out how to make things work.

[minilogoguy18]

@

 

OK, onto the animation deal since @@DT85 and myself were the ones working on this but not actually together in a sense but sort of communicating on what we had done.

 

The JO skeleton has more bones, the base JA models were actually weighed to the same skeleton with all of those bones with all the added animations BUT, the models did not get weighed to the extra bones and therefore when they were sent through carcass they were omitted. This means that even though in the original Softimage 2.x scene file the bones were there they had no envelope information so they never made it into the final compile. You can however import the dotXSI source files for say the staff special move which is JA specific and find that all the bones from JO are there too. So, to make the base models work they would ALL have to be reweighed to the JO skeleton AND all the base animations recompiled as well to include the bones. It's an absolutely ridiculous amount of work. Then, you'd have to recompile every model ever made to the JO skeleton to work, a workaround that DT had was to write some sort of table used by the game that would make the models work, just not take advantage of the bones as they wont have them in the GLM file.

 

The problem always has been that JO models work in JA but JA models don't work in JO so if you take the JO skeleton and apply all the added JA animations to it along with all the JO animations and compile to all into 1 massive GLA file only JO models will work with it unless recompiled.

 

Hope that answered your questions about that, I have over a decade of game modding under my belt and I can tell you that it's a shit ton of work.

 

I was working on a full _humanoid file that could be looked at in Softimage much like how to can play all the animations in ModView but that too was some crazy tedious work that no one really had much interest in.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

@

 

OK, onto the animation deal since @@DT85 and myself were the ones working on this but not actually together in a sense but sort of communicating on what we had done.

 

The JO skeleton has more bones, the base JA models were actually weighed to the same skeleton with all of those bones with all the added animations BUT, the models did not get weighed to the extra bones and therefore when they were sent through carcass they were omitted. This means that even though in the original Softimage 2.x scene file the bones were there they had no envelope information so they never made it into the final compile. You can however import the dotXSI source files for say the staff special move which is JA specific and find that all the bones from JO are there too. So, to make the base models work they would ALL have to be reweighed to the JO skeleton AND all the base animations recompiled as well to include the bones. It's an absolutely ridiculous amount of work. Then, you'd have to recompile every model ever made to the JO skeleton to work, a workaround that DT had was to write some sort of table used by the game that would make the models work, just not take advantage of the bones as they wont have them in the GLM file.

 

The problem always has been that JO models work in JA but JA models don't work in JO so if you take the JO skeleton and apply all the added JA animations to it along with all the JO animations and compile to all into 1 massive GLA file only JO models will work with it unless recompiled.

 

Hope that answered your questions about that, I have over a decade of game modding under my belt and I can tell you that it's a shit ton of work.

 

I was working on a full _humanoid file that could be looked at in Softimage much like how to can play all the animations in ModView but that too was some crazy tedious work that no one really had much interest in.

Wow, you and DT did a lot of work, Mini. So what I got from that is, the bones for the JO skeleton were there in the JKA skeleton, but when JA was made, when they imported things, it didn't go through because the model wasn't weighed right. I hope I got that right, and if I did, that just sucks. Of course, JKA was made only A YEAR after JKO came out, so...they had very little time to fully work on things because of a certain deadline....And that sucks even more.

 

And like I said, even if there is a slight chance of it happening, then it should be taken. But we have to find someone who is even willing to do that kind of work. And there's a very slim chance of that happening. But still....Can't give up, right? Things have happened in the past people never thought would happen before.

[eezstreet]

JA has a simplified skeleton. All of the models that are weighed for JKA therefore contain less skeleton information than in JK2. It's easy to toss out that data for a JK2 model to work in JKA, not so easy to go the other way around.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

JA has a simplified skeleton. All of the models that are weighed for JKA therefore contain less skeleton information than in JK2. It's easy to toss out that data for a JK2 model to work in JKA, not so easy to go the other way around.

Okay, that explains a bit more. Plus it makes sense that JKA can do it with a JK2 model easily, as we've all seen the text in the console "Converting JK2 Model *********" before. But of course, we can all imagine what such a GLM model with both skeleton's animations can do for both modders and animators.

[Tempust85]

I've already ported quite a few JO anims to JKA for use in JK enhanced. What I'd like to see is the full set of JO bones combined with JKA bones so you can once again have more detailed movement but allowing both left and right tag bones.

 

I'd like this new GLA become standard in jk enhanced and doing both JO & JKA model conversion to it.

[Archangel35757]

@@DT85 - that's the plan... the max8 JO/JA skeleton I uploaded has all the bones (color coded... even the SoF2 facial bones).