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Jedi Academy turned 20 this year! We celebrated in a ton of different ways: mod contest, server event, podcast, etc. Thank you to all who have been a part of this game for the last two decades. Check out the anniversary content!

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This community is dedicated to the games Star Wars: Jedi Outcast (2002) and Jedi Academy (2003). We host over 3,000 mods created by passionate fans around the world, and thousands of threads of people showcasing their works in progress and asking for assistance. From mods to art to troubleshooting help, we probably have it. If we don't, request or contribute!

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This game turned 20 years old this year, and it is still one of the greatest Star Wars games of all time. If you're new or returning from a long hiatus, here are the basics of getting started with Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy in 2023.

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Creating Fake Bump Mapping in JKA


Things you need:

First, you need to make a texture. Heres the one I made, it does '''not''' have to be exactly like this to work.

wall3.jpg

 

Once you have the texture, and the Nvidia Normal map plugin installed, load up Photoshop (If it isn't already) And load your texture.

 

When your texture is loaded, go to Filter>Nvidia Tools> Normal map filter. This window should pop up.

nvidia1.jpg

 

There you have to play with some of the settings till you get a result you like. Note: With JKA you do not want a highly detailed normal map. Use the scale window to change how much depth it will have. 10-20 should be alright for now.

 

When you are done you should have something similar to this.

wall3_normalmap.jpg

 

Now before we go and try to compile this, we need a shader. Its very simple and easy to use, here ya go:

 

[i] textures/amace_leviathan/wall3
{
q3map_normalimage textures/amace_leviathan/wall3_normalmap
qer_editorimage textures/amace_leviathan/wall3
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 1x1
{
map $lightmap
rgbGen identity
}
{
map textures/amace_leviathan/wall3
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
}
}[/i]

The q3map_normalimage is of course your actual Normal map image file location. the Q3map_lightmapsamplesize is what quality it will be made during the compile, lower number = higher quality but more space on the BSP.

 

(Of course edit it for your own texture paths and other needs)

 

Now once you have the shader, the images, and the shader applied somewhere in your map close to a good lighting source you should get a good result, although it is very picky at times. (Once you compile)

How to apply Func_Groups in-editor to make your map less GFX intensive.

Here is how you should put this method into your maps. Select whichever brushes or patches you wish to have the normal map on. Right click on the grid and go to func> Func_Group in the menu.

 

Once that is done and you still have the brushes or patches selected hit N on your keyboard. patchproperties.jpg

Add these keys and values into the properties of the func_group.

Key: _lightmapscale

Value: .0125

The value number you may choose for yourself. The lower the number, the higher the quality. The High the number the lower the quality. (Default is 1)

This allows it to single the high lightmapscale to the one area rather than the whole map, making your map more optimized and better performing as well as taking less time to compile.

 

Now compile your level and go check it out!

 

Here is my result after getting it in-game.

shot0027-1.jpg

 

For those that are wondering in the comments, there are many ways to changing how the normal maps work. One of them is just using -patchshadows compile line in the Light stage of the compile. (That one you see above, with everything else the same)

 

Note: This only works when using your normal maps on Patches.

shot0052-1.jpg

 

Among that being one method to changing how your normal maps look, you can also use this line which you see in the shader above:

q3map_lightmapsamplesize 1x1

Increasing the numbers lessens the quality and amount of Light Data needed in the normal map.

-MaceMadunusus

 

===Mac notes===

Note that there is no mac-compatible Nvidia Normalmap Filter Plugin for PS. Normal Map Generator achieves pretty much the same thing.


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