AngelModder

One of the most notable thing's that will be different in this one as I've mentioned will be the texture's used. Here is an example of a window texture I just completed. took about an hour in Photoshop to retrace the design etc, but it came out nicely. (I had to trace Park's Stephenson work as to use his actual photo would have caused copyright issues). These will be seen in the area shown in picture two. Im actually about to begin replacing the decking texture's as well as the steel used on the superstructure, this will allow me to condense down using markers to figure out where windows will be rather then cutting the brushes for each window. A cleaver trick I learned ages ago but it's time consuming to apply. But in this case with it currently sitting at around 10k brushes I think theirs room for improvement. All i can say is, get ready in the next couple of days to see some DRASTIC changes, in these shot's you will notice the world around it has been erased, the original while effective was ugly imo I never had the time to go in and polish it up. Another technique I will be adjusting for the final cut.

I just want every one to know this project is NOT dead, just been going through some major overhauls. I thought it time to finally share some of the techniques I'll be incoperating into it to help the FPS issues as well as accuracy.

Fixes - 1 : The first and foremost was to condense several brushed areas into larger pieces using singular textures. A good example of this would be the deck/floors of the boat deck and A deck. You will notice as you ran around on the previous version that there was a darker wooden trim next to the deck housing (walls) etc, this originally was done with separate brushes, now it is done with 1 brush per 50X93.5 ft (25 for angling near the engines).

Fixes - 2 : Allot of work is being put into working the vis on this map, I'm no expert so I would ask for help if any will offer who feel they could take on the technical task this presents. what "I've" been doing for the moment is to go through and detail/structural brush every thing from bow to stern.

Fixes - 3 : After the death of my former computer I was forced to DE-compile my previous work to retrieve it. This sadly means we've lost the interior I had designed. However depending on the situation of the VIS I may rebuild some of it. Or at-least the Iconic Grand stair case and dinning room. Luckily since allot of the detailed structure was made of patches not allot of texture re-allighntment has to be done, still quiet a bit though.

Fixes - 4 : At the moment I am replacing allot of the old textures with new realistic HD ones. I always felt the old ones just screamed bland. Hopefully in the next day or so I should have a a few photos of this. This includes a new hull texture, which believe me when you see the difference you'll shite your self. LOL

Fixes - 5 : With the release of Titanic Honor and Glory hanging over my head I felt it necessary in the time this will have any lime light to let it provide as much as possible. in the final phase you will be able to select certain objects all over the ship and be told details about the. Originally I was going to do this as "Print" however I've decided it will be done sort of like a toggable hologram. Now I want to say I do not knock the Honor and Glory team nor there work, im acctually VERY excited about it. just disapointed I wasn't ever able to do the same I guess.

Fixes - 6 : Brushes every where are being fixed and cleaned up. This will be a ongoing effort till the very end, I know my brush work, but we're ever learning right? Especially with a complex structure like this were only 80 feet of it are level the rest angles in some way shape or form.

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The planned release date for the final cut is April 10th 2015.

If any one is insterested in getting involved please hit me up on here with some references to your work/skill. Let's show them one last time what JKA can do!

Ah ok so it was _remap0# thanks dude!

Alright back in the day working with Darth G he taught me the basic _remap command, however he mentioned there where other stages to this for models using multiple textures. In this case it is the models/map_objects/korriban/guard01.md3 that I am trying to remap. 
So heres what I did. I bassically just wanted it in a grey stone rather than tan so that was a easy black and white adjustment in photoshop for both textures the model uses, next gave them there own directory in my pk3, no problems. Went in and set it up, testing one stage at a time... First _remap was " *;textures/Dromuund-Kass/statue_guard01 " worked fine, ofcourse the other bits were off that need the second texture. So I added the line (from what I thought I remembered him saying _remap2 with a value of "*;textures/Dromuund-Kass/statue_guard02".

Now the second one worked fine as well HOWEVER... 1 went and tweaked up, as if it was now trying to use the second one for all of it... 

heres the entity window in gtk 

As you can see it is just f'ed up... This probably falls on me not doing the commands right, but in all fairness I never came into a situation where I acctually need to remap based on the acctual textures for the models. 

Also if any one knows where I can find Darth G's MP entity definition file could you please PM me a link, or post it here?

You will ALL have to wait till Christmas!

Any one who gets it early some how will insure it will NEVER comes out for everyone else... 

So as I've seen 2 people in game running around with it that I did not give this too... Be warned your ruining this for other people if I find out who leaked it. 

It's all prepared guys , it just has to be made public

Thank you

You want to release slightly before as admins need to approve it first, to make sure there are no viruses, nasty things, etc. Perhaps release it before, but ask for it to be first available on Christmas morning.

Right Ill go ahead and get it out of the way now. 

EDIT I just submitted it, lets hope they pay attention and don't release it early!

Its finished actually. I'll release it Christmas morning.

i know dat feel

 

Nice Vader skin by the way. But I do find the difference in detail between the head (very highly detailed) and the body (more of a watercolor/pastel style in comparison) to be a bit too jarring.

Well I did try as you see in the latest pics to really bring the sute to life. It is a vast improvment over any other version, but still this game can only do so much. Ive been toying around with it and the new spec maps in game really have done wonders to accentuate the materials etc. Following the pro tuts really paid off. When your walking etc you notice vaders lether now has that pale blue shine it always shows in puctures his helmet almost at times seems to reflect some golden lighting.. I stood there for any hour last night just rotating him and watching what happened under different lighting schemes.

To be fair skinning was never really my cup of tea, I never really did more then a few friendly skins here and there. Most my time In Photoshop has been making textures for maps etc.Thats where I learned to blend textures together. when you wanna try defeating dot product and pcx maps with good old school Photoshop skills, you learn quick.

AngelModder 

Wow these look amazing guys. Deviance I think the horns could use to be just an inch longer ontop if I may suggest and a bit of curve to them rather then straight up cone like shapes.
Cant wait to see these skinned!

its alright I  figured it out.

 Thanks guys. Hes all done, just gotto throw together icons and yea...

Ok guys any one knew where I can find like good clear pics of vaders cyrbernetics, and not just his ep 3 arm...

It is hotter then two rats fornicating in gym sock!

Well after allot of work, I finally am happy, COMPLETELY happy with how it looks! Tell me what you think.

What is Soul Calibur...? You sh**ing me...? It's one of the best fighters of all time.

I dont really play games like that, I checked it out on youtube. XD Seems alright just not my thing. Im a PC only person, To me its BS that games are built on PC's but only come out for X-Box's and PS's... yet 2/3rds of the world own a PC, and 1/4 own a up to date console...

I know...

 

I'll get pics, in a few hours.

You guys crack me up XD!

New result was much better! I wish only that I could add some bump mapping  !

After following the tutorial for spec mapping leather, I took there advise and also added a touch of color to it, allot of times when I've sen vader his leather/armor has a very faint touch of blue to them... So I mimicked this in the spec map. 

Well a bit of an update, I just read a few tutorials on specular maps, about to go test in game right now to see if the tutorial results are better!

WTF is this? That is the most hidious Darth Vader I've ever seen, Infact if I see my skin redone in this manor I will personally beat who ever does it up XD LOL! And wtf is soul caliber any ways? 

EDIT : : Btw those parts are not white, there just OVERLY saturated trying to pool of the specular feel his jumpsuite and gloves have. The whole thing from top to bottom is WAY to light! 

its not hard to edit Toshi's skin to have a back to the chest plate, just look at the textures... Where the chest plate is, also has an area where the back of it goes. he left it blank as in his version you couldnt take off the cape like mine does, so there was no need for a detailed texture.

Well after about 12 hours of work, I finally finished the HD Body texture. This is twice the resolution of the original toshi created,. at 2048  it makes a huge difference esspecially in game. This was a from scratch peace. Whilst is hsares some elements from the previous versions IE the chest plate and groind, those were already double the original res from when I created them. So on this they were normal sized XD! I think Ive finall captured the feel on the jumpsute I was looking for. NOW to edit it to hell and turn it into the other versions. 

I went back through all the torso files that Omicron was cool enough to type up. I put them in a bit more organized of a manner, which makes looking for what you want easier! Everything's grouped together.

Their was a lot of small canon corrections, a good but small example of this would be that the chest box now has the straps it hung from, the chest also has highlighting where musvles of whats left of his body appear. The original actor playing the role of Vader was a body builder of his time. I wanted to reflect this, as it also reminds you Vader is still human despite everything. Canonly its a rather true tribute to Darth Vader, Hauling around heavy cybernetic limbs would keep any one fit while your hunting Jedi. The muscle definition is again apparent in the legs and arms especially as you walk around. 

Many will probably rebuttal and say that the jumpsuit was rather baggy, we are not going by the pics seen in the joke that is Episode III. Theirs so many things wrong with that Vader, it makes me sick. I tried to stick true to two sources. TFU2 Pics I found and Episode 5, as both of these are highly accurate and are in many folks eyes the perfect combination for Vader. The only thing that is a reminder of the begging is the Episode 4 gloves he adorns in this skin. A tribute I felt to "A New Hope" and the begging of many nerd fantasies... XD  

On a note of Ep 3, I love how you can just look at the Jumpsuit and tell its pleather, not even real leather... 

 

AngelModder 

Beautiful, my good man. Just beautiful!

 

 

Angel, can I use this to make a blue-skin Soul Calibur IV Vader? I could do that and just let you put it in your Vader pack if you want. If not, I understand.

What does it look like?

I will be using Gir's Darth Revan btw. and yes your ported Revan is still very much in circulation. As are all the other KOTOR and KOTOR II models.

Im almost done, just creating Icons for the species and trying to get the string file to work to display the name... Then its just throw together the mode defaults, add some new sounds and wallah shes done. Next will be Darth Revan...

P.S. I will be changing out the shin guard texture tomorrow. 

Finally got the chest plate and other details just the way I wanted them.... 
Also we tried spankies shader, that works great for holograms, but this is a ghost not a holo. Besides his shader did some thing weird in game where parts of the model would disapear.

This is the final result we will be sticking with.  

Can't wait!

Well it wont be too much longer!

Omicon and myself have been working hard to finish this up. Hes been taking care of all the technical stuff for the species and special tricks like the light saber. We added a hilt from Revans light saber pack off Jk2files  http://jediknight3.filefront.com/file/Revan_Dark_Star_Wars_Hilts;46744 they are a very beautiful collection of hilts! this by far had the most accurate and detailed Vader hilt we could find. The hilt we have included will overwrite Single_3 which is a hideous default hilt any ways so who cares. When you use it it has some pretty cool touches. 

1 - We created a new sound set for it, including ignition/turn off and hum with a much more clearer Darth vVader breathing mixed in. The original idea of this from Jk2files had very quiet sounds as well the ignition and turn off sounds for Darth Vader's lightsaber were inaccurate.

2 - New blocking sounds ( we really like the idea of Vader having his own unique touches in a duel, this really adds to the feel of it) the sounds are replica's of the episode 5 duel Vs Luke Skywalker.

3 - Custom stationary stance. When Vader fights you he doesn't betray what style he will use nor really make any sort of movement generally, he just turns it on... We've replicated this. Now when you turn on the light saber blade or even when using different styles it is the normal standing there animation. Very classical feel to it. Plus when fighting Vader it now adds that touch of mystery as to wth is this guy got in store for me XD!

Any ways here is the pictures! 

Force Ghost Darth Vader (Please dont ask me to make this white...I will slap you, that is just retarded!)

This is one of the variants of the species pack, it has normal TFU and then a EP3 variant of TFU effect. Meaning it has a more raw burnt up skin tone, this is still a WIP as is the TFU vader in general. P.S. This pictures did no have the TFU mask on.

This last picture was really just to give an example of how the new hilt makes you look when its turned on.

::EDIT::

Yea dont worry guys this is still going, weve added species suppouyrt, so far theirs 360 different combos. Plus weve alters the default overwrite saber to overwrite the training blade so u wont have to sacrifice you single_1-9  or w/e. Also weve given it NEW sounds, for many different animations, and given it its own stance... It now (much like vader does) when you have your saber on its your normal standing animation with the blade on. animation "Both_1".

Ill have some pics later today of some default variations, Thanks yo omicron the skin now has a species set up, ravz helped me get the string file working so his name displays properly.

An upcoming variant is Force Ghost Darth Vader. 

AngelModder