Rooxon

I would need a really lit-up map (with lots of strong lights) to do screenshots in for playermodels and weapons, but it would be great if on this same map also a dark room or something in the shade would be availible. Do you have anything like that? I'd prefer a really sunny exterior map with at least 1 interior room also, I'm just bored with the originals.

@, please use the edit button on the post and don't multi-post like that, it's against the forum rules, also it's a waste of posts.. You may get warned by the staff or even punished in some way...

Thanks, I appreciate you liking my work! And it seems to me like you haven't been doing mods for a long time, am I right? Well I could point you towards some people who could answer your questions better than me, I use gmax and for now I haven't even tried any other program yet.

For basic modeling I think gmax is a good starting program and for basic skinning try gimp, it's a free counterpart of the famous Adobe Photoshop. If you're gonna do playermodels, than I'd prefer 3ds max or Cinema4D, but I think you schould rather learn Softimage or the likes. For model viewing when I texture them I use either Noesis or ModView (from the JKA SDK)

Well I'll give you an advice @ I also always wanted to make the whole JKA high detailed or at least, less blocky and looking nicer, I'll call it Rooxon's JKA HD. That's my main goal I want to achieve on this comeback to the modding scene, I relize it's going to take my years as I'm going to work all by myself all the way through, with a little test help and such things from other members. (actually it's not little help, it's what's the most important to me and I really appreciate all the help).

But here comes the important part. For such a huge idea you need to go step by step. I started with the weapons... I joined the community in the second part of april this year, and I'm already done modeling and texturing most saber weapons, including the scepter and sword. Now sometime after this I'm starting on gun weapons and I'll basically have a big part done already. After that I'm thinking about going into placeables and such things, or maybe even playermodels but I have to think how the limitations border me accordingly, as I'm doing everything detailed as it can be now.

I think you SCHOULD start working on this project, but try to learn everything you need here and do it yourself, you can get really quick and good help on JKHub. Partnering up is also fine, but it could prove difficult, especially looking as everyone can come from anywhere from the world, so there are time differences, other obligations people have and so on. It's hard to come together. Also if nothing else, even if something comes up you can't do, I'm sure someone here on the forum would be glad to help you out, I mean, that's why we're all here. To be part of this community.

For instance, I was 14 and modded JKA for 2 years when I did my own little SP campaign containing 4 or 5 levels also and I learned to mod roughly through tutorials on the internet and later brushed out my skills through repetative use over and over. It wasn't voiced and I used mostly entities already ingame.

But hey, I hope you'll start this, I'd like to see what comes of it, It's quite an interesting idea you have for the story.

Wow Circa I REALLY appreciate your work! It's also quite fast, I mean, I uploaded the pack, and went to sleep. So yes I'm going to fix most of those things, like size and maybe put the parent tags a bit higher (so the sabers will also be held a bit higher) and fix the stinger's blade tag. I just woke up and actually have time today

Also, you do realize this misc sabers pack is some..way.. an evolution of my mod making, kinda, I mean to say I did not have my skills brushed out enough to do such things. Now it's kinda easy but with the lack of time I have, this is the best I could do for now, but OK I'll fix it soon. Already started, actually. The single sabers pack is going to get a nice 1.0 version update with probably all models made the same way as now Kyle's and Stinger.

I need to ask, what do you think about the specmap on the stinger? For one, some may say it's hideous, I think it's kinda... cool..

Regarding the models size, I use the classic katarn's saber, I noticed this sabers is quite thin and long, the SP sabers are mostly shorter and a little bit wider. Also, to look ok in hand, it's even TOO thin I thought and sized my models accordingly.

and regarding the tag placement on the stinger, I see it's a bit to the side, I'll fix that. But the height of the placement is OK I think, is it not? try to take a look with my HD saber blades, it look's ok and not.. cut away at the bottom like your mod

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I'm busy over my ears, even... I barely find the time to relax a bit in the evening, I either work or learn nonstop so until this rush is over, I'll take a break from modding for a little while. I'm still checking back daily and when I find the time, I'll correct those little things and release the packs I've already done.

EDIT: Misc. Sabers pack is already uplaoded, now I'm working on the Dual Sabers pack! Tomorrow I'm free and will probably use the day to finish it. With those finished, my sabers pack bundle will be complete for now, what still stays after that is retouching the models/textures to make them to your liking, regarding the feedback I am going to get. After that it's pistol/blaster/gun time, whatever you prefer  I will also upload a small "Rooxon's WeaponsHD Menu integration" mod later on, which will be usable only with all three packs at the same time! It will enable the added sabers as chooseable sabers in SP (I'm thinking on adding a script or some file that makes dual saber brakes more common) ... and with that in mind, I'll add Luke's saber, stinger and desann's to the SP menu, together with 3 single saber counterparts from the dual sabers (the best ones, which sums up the number of sabers chooseable to 15, which I think is the limit). I'll make the names appear correctly and delete the added effects to the ext_data files, so the sabers are still gonna balance out the gameplay, they won't be any stronger than others. I'll get around this with separate .sab files.

That said, I schould probably also mention the saber battles in SP were always too easy. So I modified all of the existing .sab files for all sabers to make them stronger, with stronger parry bonuses, damage, knocback, return damage and more. I took my time and still made it all balanced out though, opponents aren't gods now, though it's much more of a challenge. To give you an example, all reborns damage is 1.5x it was before and the droid's training saber is 0.5x the original damage. Tavion's final saber does 3x the damage done before, kyle 1x5 and kyle_boss 2x more, and so on... What's more, all sabers have return damage enabled, but not all sabers have added bonuses or other additions except the return damage. So don't worry, I think you may now actually have fun battling in SP especially thanks to more difficult saber throw evasions, maybe an addon or even separate mod with new NPC files, which make them much stronger and better fighters, would be a good idea, just to make SP a bit more appealing. I mean including gun npcs.

Regarding blasters @@AshuraDX or @@Circa, one of you two would probably know... other than making the blaster and rigging it like the originals, is there anything else I schould be aware of when making them? To be honest I've done blaster models before but I've never compiled them myself.

K will do, Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it. I'd love to always get to hear your wishes, so I can do the sabers as you want them, after all the released mods are made for you. I do play with a little bit altered textures to my liking, I gotta admit.

will do. Also I've fixed the lightning a bit, when I took a look at it today, I realized I played with the levels too much. The "black" parts have less visible shadows while the "blue" parts now have more visible lights. I have to go to work now, I realized I still haven't made the md3 files for the scepter to work in all cutscenes... I'll try to do that in the evening and upload the pack then.

Oh I will this still isn't the texture I'm gonna release, I'm always touching up textures a few times before I'm satisfied.

Well you're free to use the first one, as I'm gonna keep it in the MISC pack as an alternative to this one I like this one way more. Now that I think about it, yes, it may be off from the original. But hey, try to imagine, the original was made and textured in spite of being low-detail. I considered possible real-time parts that could be parts of the saber, and build the hilt accordingly. I'm also gonna do the concepts for the new sabers that are underway and post them all in the concepts section.

Oh if that's the case, then allright, I'll focus on my original plan also and just do my own remakes, though you can still use any of them once they're done if you decide so. And yes please, send it to me! I'd be grateful! 

Thank you very much, a totaly new bunch is in the making right now even cooler ones.

EDIT:

Katarn's saber 2.0

At this part, I think it's time to do what I thought of some time today, I'd like to thank @@Circa for being with me from the start. As I'm right now I've got 200% better grisp at modeling and texturing as I had when I started doing this mod. @ for being my first friend here in the community and my mod tester.  Various others, including @@DT85, @@AshuraDX, @@eezstreet, @@Barricade24 that gave me tips or excelent feedback to help me grasp this skills. And everyone for encouraging me in any way. From now on, I'm really gonna stun you all, gonna do my best.

Ohh, sorry to everyone else I haven't tagged but you know who you are. I'm talking about the people that I've also made friends with here, or something like that. You all together are the reason I'm gonna come back here even more!

hahaha you're way offtopic @@JAWSFreelao but I'll let it slide haha bubble boner, hilarious

How's the progress going, Circa? I'm thinking about touching up a few more sabers and go what I wanted to do for a while now, play SP through from start to finish. I'd very much love to try out your mod Also as soon as I finish the sabers, I'm starting on the weapons, if you have any suggestion, for example if you want me to do an E-11 or something, then tell me beforehand

ooh as soon as I looked at this pic, I got an urge to blow bubbles hahah Yeah I have actually given it quite a cool map already, though I may try those colors.

Yeah well captain, I use gmax. I don't run it at the moment, gotta try it out later.

okay I know what you mean and I'll try to take this into account in the future everyone else, what do you think of the new reborn saber?

Well the base texture is sized to 512x512 while the specmap shows those beautiful scratches, and is at 1024x1024 resolution. Though I may consider leaving the base textures also at 1024x1024 to bring this crispy look like in this screenie

Thank you! Here's some ingame shots:

Well, this is the result. I like this detailed modeling I decided on doing, actually:

Reborn saber a.k.a. The Stinger 3.0

Yeah.. well actually I've done another model already, and if you don't mind @@DT85 I have a few questions, I need a tip or two. I'll make screenshots so you'll understand better what I wanna know.

Here's a screenie of the poly model:

and here one of the mesh model

Okay, so one thing I'm curious about is the way I model. I did the center part of the hilt (dark green) first like you see it. Than I detached the upper and bottom polygons, and made the bottom and upper part respectively. After that I selected half the polygons on the upper side, detached, and modeled the "shield" as I called it at the top (dark cyan), I also detached the "inner" cylinder polygons (this step wasn't needed probably, but I split my models for the sake of easier UVW mapping as some need the gizmo set so I get the left perspective picture, sometimes the top).

Now, tell me if what I've done with this model is okay. Another question is, see that part around the parent tag? the part I extruded into the hilt? I feel like this could have been done a better way, but I'm not sure. Also, it's okay that I try to keep the object count I use to a minimum, right? or doesn't it matter if the hilt is say like, from a cylinder, box, some cones.. you know, like that? I do realize though I need to delete unseen polygons. I always do that.
 

and the last question is what you think of my models overall. you can take a quick look at any of my releases, but if you want I can do some quick pictures from gmax. I never really heard any opinions about my modeling skills.


This is something I'm MAYBE going to try, I started working some drafts on a newer detailed reborn saber that's actually cool. Well I'll keep working with @@CaptainCrazy and see how far I can come.

I've even went on with my sketching, I'll upload the pictures and some others later to the concepts section. Aaanyway, that's what I've done in the end: 

No, I tried it... I've done another model and in gmax, with editable poly I get a little over 600 faces, with mesh 2x as much. which means it counts what ever you made it.

Yeah, I've got to check out these mods too! I always liked Stargate but I know little of it. But anyhow @ don't worry, I'm sure there's plenty of other modders out there just waiting to discover this website, like I needed to. Maybe playtime has decreased but after a while being here I reckon this community is pretty much VERY alive.

k will do, thank you! gotta try em out.


@@Circa @@AshuraDX I've uploaded Zayne's saber to this site for download already, try it out, I've done it to Ashura's favor, with a 12 sided cylinder as the 18 sided one had too many verts (1015 to be exact) so I've left that saber behind me and did a new one. I might try to go with a 14 sided one, but this looks pretty neat already too. Surely more like I want it too but still not totaly like that.

Here's some quick pics if you don't wanna waste time downloading it:

@@DT85 and @@AshuraDX Well if Circa forwarded you here to this topic, you have to be a very good modelers. I might need a tip or two for those sabers, as now I'm sure I'm gonna do even more detailed versions of all the JKA hilts, so if you want to say anything to me that would make this pack and my models better, I'd be very happy and appreciate it.


And this is a message to everyone: I might take a break from my personal project and do some things together with @@CaptainCrazy, which varies from tutorials to sabers made from his concepts, even I might take my try at concepting after a long time, I'm very much looking forward to working with him. For the time that we will have plans, I just won't continue my project as it can be a distraction, I'd rather focus on one work at a time.

@@AshuraDX yes I've heard of it.. though I haven't yet considered getting it and I don't know where. Also, what version is free for students? does it have the needed plugins availible? I so or so thought already that gmax is a bit old and that I schould at least try another program

@@AshuraDX you're right but it's still too boxy sometimes. 18 makes it seem like it's actually rounded. Also I don't use 3ds max, newer versions because of a lack of working plugins... and i'd also have to get an original version, I'm not really into downloading programs from torrents, mostly I just pumped my computer with viruses. The older versions though had plugins, but gave me a headache each time I exported models... either they crashed in modView or didn't export correctly at all. Gmax seems to work a lot nicer regarding that, though I wouldn't model a playermodel in gmax, it just lacks the said functions regardin vertex connecting, edge spliting and creation and so on.

Though maybe I'll go and try to use less sides. It's just the look is important to me.