Rooxon

Thank you but I've decided I'm gonna take a shot at the droids with new models, once I've finalized my packs. I won't need any help up to the point where it needs to be rigged and animated, that's where I'm weak as I haven't done too many animations in my modding time. I'll join the discussion there once I get this far.

Tried it out, holsters look good, though using Rooxon's hilts with the new tags would be great. Would it be possible to add those new tags to the default hilts? With Blender, maybe? Also, you said that you can set where they are holstered, hips/back/none, but what about the sides of the hips? Like if we wanted the saber to be on the left side instead of the right (I think that's the typical Jedi practice, on the left)?

 

Also, every time I do a vid_restart, it crashes.

I'm working on adding the holsters and tags to all my publicized models. Today I've just uploaded Zayne Carrick's hilt, more to come in due time but very soon! All of them will have holsters, though. Normal maps too but I won't pack them with the mod files just yet, I'll wait for rend2 sp and then just update all my mods.

If any of you need, I know a few different ways to make normal maps and a dozen tricks how you can easily create normal map illusions using either filters or plugins in Photoshop. I know you can come across various tutorials on google, I'm proposing I'd share the best of what I could find during these two years of skyrim modding.

Looking forward to the completed SP port, seems I can slowly start making normal maps for my hilts.

Yes but actually, I saw such ring holsters in Sword Art Online, to be honest and in some other movies/animes with laser swords. This holstering system is somewhat unique to Star Wars, isn't it? I could do this button you showed me from Kenobi's hilt for each of mine OR if the rings are really cool, for those which would look odd otherwise. Though I've got a lot of thoughts about the physics you mentioned... is it even possible in JKA to animate a saber? I confess, I have not yet witnessed that with my own eyes.

Anyway, finished Zefilus's design of the Stinger, this time around I decided I'd reveal my texture-creation progression, so I made a screenshot everytime I loaded the texture in ModView:

First two are just the base texture. Later I added lights, after that two screenshots of both lightning tone fix, then I added the lines and some other small details around the box, lights and emitter. Last but not least, I tackled the dust and scratches, and for the last picture on the far right, you'll notice I did various opacity fixes, added three different cloud filters with different complementary color pairs to create this illusion of being something else than plain gray and last but not least, a black/white cloud overlay with 10% noise at 5% opacity to give it realism. The various filters help keep nice edges and a crispy gorgeous texture. Sometimes I copy the finished texture and add an emboss mask to it, which further creates realistic looks. Given the fact that I'm meticulous and like having things done only the right way, it took me 1 whole evening yesterday and 2 hours today to finish the texture. A lot, yes, but keep in mind I started with a blank new file and I'm using mouse and keyboard, a lot of backstepping and redoing most steps.

I'm sharing that because honestly, I'm creating my own textures, not baking them. Every single detail. Before I had some similiar logic behind it, but in the last year, I evolved this routine to the max, I think. That's why I'm telling others in hope it would help somebody in their own work. Now it's Kyle and Luke's turn!


ANYWAY, important decision: I think I'll let my first version of the stinger fall into Rosh's hands and take up the place of the Training saber/Rosh's Jedi saber. Any objections? Just asking because I'll be finished with the finalized pack by this tuesday, hopefully.

That's something worth considering, I've also seen like such a ring with a small separation being just "hanged" on a piece of cloth. Guess I schould keep what you said in mind.

I'm working on adding some holsters for the holstering addon on which @@redsaurus is working on separately, if I'm not mistaken. Here's a quick screenshot, I'm positioning them on the left side at this point, we'll work out the correct position when you've got the time:

@@Circa It's a very simple ring holster, I could leave it like that or I'm also thinking, that it wouldn't hurt to make a small separation on either the left or right side, making it actually possible to holster it to something, if we're concerned about such small realism details, otherwise I'll just leave it like that and merge it with other hilts. What do you think?

The Revenger (I'm finishing up on the texture work, now there's just a bunch of colors and filters missing to make everything more realistic [LOOK AT THE HILT INSIDE THE WHITE BORDERS]):

I'm trying to make it look pretty used up. Just for the sake of logic; Tavion would have probably scratched it up pretty bad in all the events she was part of. Is it allright like that? Any comments, people?

On the contrary to Alora's hilts, this one won't come with a fancy chrome shader. Well I'm just about satisfied with the textures, I just need to fade out the scratches a bit (I think I went a bit overboard) and to make a few disappear. Other than that, there's some tone fixes I need to attend to and also maybe a nice noise overlay for the whole texture. I dunno but all that matters to me is the in-game look anyhow. This time around, I'll try changing the material layer around a bit, so that when the spec map shows the metal reflections that are dark on the diffuse map, schould appear inverted - white, thus making an illusion of the reflection actually happening real-time.

EDIT: Done.
The Revenger:

The last bits of editing were done with Photoshop CC 2014. I gotta say, it brought great quality regarding it's filters and effects. Most things are easier to do now, too (or at least quicker). I look forward to working with it! Having said that, I'll start another hilt right away, if I'm not mistaken, there's only the Stinger from Zefilus's design left to do and something easy for the training saber/Rosh. Or I think I'm gonna tackle the original models's texture from my Misc. Sabers Pack to finalize it, at long last.

of course, that's what I was thinking about first off, seeing stormtroopers having their guns pulled away by a jedi, it would be realistic, fitting and immersive all at the same time, don't you think? Let's make it real!

@@JAWSFreelao actually you gave me another idea, based on yours. Force pull level 2 (sometimes) and level 3 (always) schould dissarm enemies! What do you guys think about that? Is it possible, is it a good idea?

My priorities right now are to first finish all models, I'll add holster rings to all of them afterwards. First I need to work out the correct position of it, so it'll work good with the holster system and then apply this same position to each other hilt. I'll download this mod, to see what I can make out, or even collaborating with @@redsaurus regarding that would be nice.

well pretty much all other hilts are named after a certain person... why not name everyone like that. I read somewhere that kyle's hilt is the outcast?

well I'm only curious if Revenger is a grammatically correct word, then I'll go with it. Why not? Or maybe the Seeker, as she seeked other's powers (Ragnos, Desann). But I don't know, I'm kinda brainstorming here, trying to find something that would fit her. Any ideas, anyone?

It's already taken, buddy Bek in the hiding By this fella, the left one

Tavion's saber; I think I'll call it the Revenger, as the main thoughts driving Tavion are getting revenge at Kyle for letting her live in JKJO. Is "Revenger" the correct word? I'm not sure... anyway, here is the model:

I'd like to point out that I'm working practically every day on my project, but not fast. As soon as I'd start doing a quick job out of the things I'm creating, they'd start to become full of flaws. It's just there's a lot still to do to bring my packs to a finalized version, which is what I intend to do soon. After that, it's time I start doing some other things like weapons, map objects and playermodels. Not to mention weapons for The Dark Pastime mod and a bunch of other stuff I promised to help with. @Mr. Zz and I will join forces and tackle his Texture Overhaul to make it complete as well. Those two things are two I look forward to the most.

haha, well I think life itself leaves every posibility out there somewhere to happen. Just tell what you honestly think, because that's what matters to me, not if it's a good criticism or a bad one. Both count the same to me, if it's good, I know I need to evolve in the same light, if it's bad, I know I've been doing something wrong and I schould fix it, if I agree with the opinion, of course. I've got a rather unique way of thinking, I think. Sometimes it's the most fair one, sometimes it's the most unexplainable one.

Finished Alora's hilts:

The rest of the magic will be shader-made. Now it's Tavion's turn.

Well I thought that i'd let others know of the progress that's happening. Right now, as things stand, my packs are moving along nicely and also, I'm already working on the additional hilts. Right now I want to equip Alora, Tavion, Rosh and so on, later I've got some concepts from zefilus ready...and here and there I'll start on new other weapon models already, first off I'm gonna tackle the throwables, after I finish all my sabers of course. And I think that ChalklYne also started doing some models... not sure, though.

I've been doing some refilterings on droid models, however. I saw we were talking about this too, is there a thread about them here on JKHub? I'd like to post you some pictures, so you can tell me what you think, they're all 1024 res textures. I've done custom shaders for all of them, too.

Alora's hilts:

There's a total of 2 mistakes on these two models. First, two UV map errors came through or rather, two circles I forgot to map separately, seems I repositioned them to have no map at all. Second, I'm thinking about adding an emitter inside the upper part, it looks dull without one. Or rather, as a toy  And of course, this is just the base map + some scratches, dust and a noise overlay, to make it seem more realistic. There's still certain small details missing, like the shining light on the buttons, the text and so on. One more hour or so and I'll be done, I'm going to keep you posted, as always.

We'll see how it turns out when finished. Right now, I think I'm gonna leave it like it is. If nothing else, I'm gonna do such a version simply with alpha channels just for you zefilus, so you can have your own unique hilt in your base.

That's exactly how I imagined them in my head. I will try to come up with some more designs as soon as possible.

 

I have an idea for the Veteran; A glowing chamber where the blade starts from, making it hollow could allow the saber color to glow trough nicely, here's a quick photo-shop:

 

 

 

 

It's a bit of additional work for me to create the right poly shapes around the inner circle, deleting them and making it "transparent"... And the smoothing might look ugly, I wouldn't go into that. But I could try a trick later on with shaders, I might still get it to work!

Alora's dual hilts:

And the Veteran is also starting to take shape, keeping it very low poly for now, I'm gonna make the hilt look nicer after I finish all basic parts and calculate the vertices a bit:

EDIT: Well this is the shape I'm gonna go with. I've made some rendered pictures, to show you all the smooth surfaces better. In addition to what you see on the previous picture, it's now a tad longer, a few more details are modeled in, I've fixed some smoothing group problems and resized certain parts of the model to make it look realistic. Now it isn't exactly as the drawn design, but a realistic version of the hilt:

Now, just FYI, I've finished these three models and from this point onwards, I'm gonna leave the Veteran for some time and focus on Alora's, Tavion's, Rosh's and the training saber hilts. After that I need to fix Katarn's hilt so much, I'm probably gonna do it from scratch (the same applies to Luke's saber). The sith weapons are fine I think, I'll just need to work on their textures a bit more, maybe do completely new ones. I don't know, but the point is, I'm now working on finalizing the Misc Sabers pack, as I got enough information and feedback on all those hilts to know what yet needs to be done. After that it's the singles (hopefully @ manages to finish yet 5 more single hilt designs by then).

There's one more concept I've decided to work on for the Dual Sabers Pack, and that's an Arbiter look-alike. I'm probably gonna temper with the colors a bit, because the design might not look appealing at first to some people. Anyway, here it is, I give you the masculine version of the Arbiter, The Arbitrator (dual_7):

Allright, in any case, I will use this thread for any future questions I may have regarding mod creations for Rend2.

That's exactly what I needed, the .dll and the shaders explanation. I'll check everything else in the readme. Thank you very much for your help, all of you!

Sorry for double posting, but it's quite another matter what I've noticed; I went to scp_chaos1's profile site. In spanish, he's telling people he looks for a modeler, a shader-file maker and a group of mappers to help him finish his project. Oh, and that he doesn't want any offensive comments regarding his work. If he's asking for this, he probably already got some, so let's save him the trouble here, guys. Let's support him, at least I will. If you need help with the shaders or models, I could do something but I'm very busy cocnerning projects these days.