Nov. 20, 2011: Weapon Upgrade (FINISHED!)

As previously posted, I've been doing some weapon model work, modifying flails and maces to open up more options.

The next hak update (I'm planning one in a week or so) will contain some new texture files that I'll be using to upgrade the models on a lot of existing weapons. Most needed are revamps of the base NWN weapons, which (besides a set of spears on the Vault) haven't really been touched since the game came out. I'm also planning to slightly modify many of the CEP weapon part models so they line up better with parts from the base game and Aenea haks.

Here's a little preview of the textures I'm going to be using for most of them. The wood and rust textures won't be shiny in-game, but all of the other ones will be. With the new textures, I'll be able to make some actual Teshian steel weapons that look right, and rusted metal weapons that actually look rusted (instead of just like dull copper).


Part of the reason for the weapon model work is so that I can throw a couple of Teshian steel weapons as treasure into a dangerous area I've got 99% built (it'll become accessible to PCs once the new hak is available).

So, it looks like there will soon be Teshian steel armor as well as weapons. I just figured out how to swap out a color in the metal color palette for armor.

That looks sweet! Great work as always

Neat!

Bah! Looks like the new color palette changes will require a player-side override. I hate to do that for something PW-specific, but at least it will only be something cosmetic for a few items instead of game-breaking.

For some reason the game engine will load altered color palettes for skin/hair/tattoo/cloth/leather/metal from the override folder, but not from a hak file.

I'll add the override files to the Vault download page once it's ready. For a preview of the changes, you can check the updated color palettes page.

Woohoo! Y'all know how I feel about overrides! The More the Merrier! Let's stuff 'em up, y'all!

Had to spend part of today adjusting my new textures to get rid of major seams.

Spend another part of the day making brand new heavy flail parts. So far I've got the tops done...16 that overwrite existing models (4 parts in 4 colors/metals), plus 6 more color/metal variations on each of those (so 40 new models), plus renumbering the 3 yet-to-be added bone top parts.

Tomorrow, I tackle the middles & bottoms of the heavy flails (handle and end cap).

After I finish with the heavy flails, the next up will be the light flails and morning stars. Yup, all the ones with chains so that I can use the chains I've already made to get rid of the chunky NWN chains and maker higher-polygon & retextured striking heads.

Here's a little preview for you.

Those are some sweet lookin' textures and flail parts! Woohoo! And all this just in time for 11-11-11!

355 model parts completed and tested in the toolset. Light flails, heavy flails, and morning stars.

Now I just need to make new inventory icons. 355 of them. I'm going to actually use toolset screenshots to build the icons from scratch, so everything actually matches up between icons and models.

After that, I'll be working on other weapon types. Some of the work will be upgrading default NWN weapons. Some of the work will be updating weapon parts from CEP.

So that explains where you've been!

Eric of Atrophy wrote:So that explains where you've been!

Actually, I've been busy with family stuff (shuttling kids to/from school, birthday parties, cleaning, house hunting, etc.). Kids and wife seem to be taking up more time lately. The model work is actually going a bit faster as my skills improve with practice.

Done with light flails, heavy flails, and morning stars.

Currently trying to decide if I want to put them into the aeneahak_updates.hak file or add a new hak file (aeneahak_p.hak) just for the weapon upgrades. On their own in a hak, the ones I've got done (with textures and matching inventory icons) make a hak that's 24 MB (about 1.5 MB compressed)...yup, that's just models, icons, and textures. Granted, the file size is a little bigger because I compiled the models, but that means they render faster in the game.

Sample image taken in the toolset:

I think putting them in their own separate hak would likely mean any future updates would be easier to handle... also split into a hak of their own would mean that IF someone wants they could empty that hak (still have it on their list for logging in, but have nothing in it)... this would mean they have the choice to use the new icons/textures/images/models if they want.....

I see no reason anyone would not want to use them though.... they look awesome... ... ...

True that! I vote for a separate hak! I don't mind the DLing more content!

I decided to place the new weapon models into the aeneahak_x.hak file. This file was relatively small compared to other Aenean haks, and doing it this way means players that haven't downloaded the update (available now, by the way) can still log in and play.

I will keep updating the "x" hak until I'm done with the weapon changes, but the upgraded chain weapons should be in-game for you as soon as you update your haks.

Next on the list: battle axes, hand axes, great axes, and dwarven war axes (which just use the battle axe models anyway, so no real extra work there).

170 models for battle axes and dwarven war axes done.
Now to make 170 new inventory icons for them.

Original models can take quite a while. Color variants of those finished models take between 30 and 60 seconds each.

After that, I dig into CEP to see what needs to be done to those axe models to make sure they line up right with the new models.

Battle axe testing. Today I decided to take a couple of screenshots after I made 6 new battle axe top models (these with glowing, shifting edge textures).

Battle axes (and other axes, once I get to work on them after Turkey Day) will be in a hak update sometime in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the preview.

468 axe models made (spread between battle/dwarven axes, hand axes, great axes, and double axes). Now I just have to slog through making 468 new inventory icons for them.

Oh, how I wish NWN's inventory icons could be generated automatically by the game engine based on the 3D models. Instead, Photoshop will be getting almost as much of a workout as gmax on these things.

Erm... regarding the new axes inventory icons... I seem to be getting most of them "upside down and 1-inventory square misaligned"....

D/l'ed the latest hak updates and still get the same thing...

Note that I can't recreate the problem in the toolset item icon preview box...
Also... double axe does not seem to be effected ...

Thanks, RustyDios. That's a problem that didn't show up on my machine when testing. Looks like I'll have to run those images through an image flipper before converting to .dds. Odd, since it looks like the updated flail icons seem to be working in the same format.

I appreciate the timely reporting. I should be able to fix those for the next hak update.

Yeah I haven't seen it with any of the flail/morningstar images... also notice the Orcbleeder in the first panel is still correct... and I spoke with "Raiden"(Belarric, I think) as they was on-line as well... they mentioned that they had seen the same thing BUT only with SOME of the axes icons... in my experience it was every axe icon (minus the doubleaxe, which I guess would look the same either way up!)... ...

Correct.
I checked the weapons held by the dwarf in Forge and it showed some axes upside down but a +1 axe right way up.
Both were dwarven axes

The only ones that might be affected are the ones that use default BioWare inventory icons, which I had to convert to .dds to use in Aenea's haks so that they would replace the default ones.

I updated the axe (and some magical staff) .dds icons on the Vault and WorldGate to fix the upside down issue. Not an essential download for everyone, but it's out there for those that want it right away (and for those that haven't downloaded the haks since before Dec. 15th).

Here's a toolset screenshot of the remade chain weapon parts (the basic four "colors" for each standard weapon part)...40% of the weapon models added during the Nov. 20th hak update. These are being released to the Vault this weekend (maybe in time for xmas), while the other 60% of the models stay exclusives for Aenea's players.



For those earning reward vouchers, these and the other 60% of the new chain weapon models (and all of the new axe models) are available now in the build module if your haks are updated.

Last night I started on the next batch of reforged weapons models. This time it's smashing weapons (clubs, hammers (light and war), maces (light and dire), and quarterstaves).

Last night and today I made 120 models for club parts. No Teshian steel for them, as I opted for at least one part of each model to be solid wood.

Next up is light hammers. After I get all the models done, then I'll tackle the inventory icons for them, after that they get added to the Aenea haks.

Still working on smashing weapons.

club: models completed, icons not done
light hammer: models completed, icons not done
warhammer: models completed, icons not done
mace: models started, icons not done
double (dire) mace: models not started, icons not done
quarterstaff: models not started, icons not done.

Here's a little work in progress screenshot taken in gmax (the free 3D modeling program I use). It's just comparing the new first mace model with the original.

Outstanding!

based on your podcast interview, to think that the left one is simply a many angled placeable to appear round is amazing! Great work here!

For that mace, instead of the handle having 4 sides, it has 12. The new head actually has 18 segments going around, and all the parts now have an option called "smoothing" set on them the helps disguise the polygon edges (which the BioWare models did not have set).

These are made from scratch, so it's not like I'm adding polygons to an existing model. That new mace is made up of 4 cylinders (the handle, the grip overlaying it, and the two rings at the top and bottom of the handle), 2 spheres (the head and the part holding the ring at the bottom), 1 cone (the point at the top), and 3 toruses (tori? the two top rings and the bottom ring) with some vertex manipulations done to get the final shapes.

I've been trying to make the new models pretty much look like the existing ones, but I'm going to probably break that for a couple of the mace parts, since I really don't like two of the four head shapes/options that don't look much like any pictures of maces I've ever seen. One or both of the ones I don't like may end up with various flanged mace appearances.

wow! really great work, !

Smashing weapons (maces, hammers, clubs, and quarterstaves) are in the latest hak update.

and they look really cool, too. i'd swear pin is getting higher prices from the shopkeepers when she goes to sell them...

One thing id like to see is the existing nwn sword and dagger models updated. When compared to the other stuff youve installed from haks they are lame Im not saying they need to be made to look like the custom item stuff...just some very simple looks that look more realistic and not like blocks with a 2x4 for a blade.

Default NWN swords and daggers will get the reforging treatment, too. They're later in the project list that some of the more "ignored" weapon types, just because I thought it'd be a nice enticement to use weapon types that often seem to be ignored purely in favor of stats.

Next up will be "reach weapons" (spears, halberds, tridents, and scythes). After that I'm planning "light blades" (daggers, kukris, shortswords, and rapiers), and after those will be "heavy blades" (the other swords). Following those will be the last two groups, "unusual weapons" (the rest of the melee weapons) and "ranged weapon" (bows, crossbows, and slings).

Yup, 8 groups of weapons total. 3 done so far, 5 to go.

A Dragon's work is never done, it seems!

Eric of Atrophy wrote:A Dragon's work is never done, it seems!

If I was a lottery winner (no need for getting more money), unmarried (no wife/significant other needing attention), childless (no offspring needing attention and care), and had no outside social life (wait, got this one mostly covered already), it would still take a couple of years to do everything I have planned and/or sketched out for Aenea.

I plan on updating the hak files tomorrow or the day after (depending on how much of my time the family takes up ). In the hak will be the reforged reach weapons I finally found time to complete.

Spears, tridents, halberds, and scythes. A few review pics:







Time to start working on some bladed weapons!

Ooooooooh yeah!

Along with everything else I've been working on, I've been working on "light blades" (daggers, kukris, short swords, and rapiers) models.

Here's a little work in progress image for some short sword weapon parts.

Ouch! Now that is an Assassin blade! Good job!

Looks good!

wow, looking good

Can't wait to see the final outcomes

I finished with the prototypes for the reforged light blades, so I'm taking the opportunity to make some new ones just for Aenea's elves (regular and drow). Since elves are, in my opinion, more suited to rapiers than longswords, they're getting rapiers.



The elven rapier is slightly curved, with an extra long grip and a narrow, twisted metal guard. Designed to look more graceful and a little exotic when wielded.

The drow rapier is a heavier looking weapon, sporting a wider blade with a cross-shaped profile, fang-shaped guard, and an extra blade at the close end of the hilt. Designed to look more dangerous and brutal when impaling foes.

Also, regular rapiers will be losing their curved blades, instead getting more traditional straight blades.

Nice looks.

Waiting with bated breath to see how the katanas come out

Coming to an Aenea in the near future... I've got only 144 more models to take screenshots for and turn into inventory icons (short swords), the ones for daggers, kukris, and rapiers are 99% done.

Wow they look amazing they should look great with some of the additional animation sets too!

Nice nice nice! Any chance of a screenie for the kukris?

They look pretty much the same, just with smoother curves and nicer textures. There's really not much for variety when it comes to a kukri.