I'm back!

Haven't been to this site in ages. For those of you who don't remember me, I used to build Star Trek mods for MotS and released a MotS level called Liberating Cloud City back in 2002. I abandoned the MotS engine after finally getting frustrated with its antiquity and took a good 3 years off from modding.

I started back up again about a year and a half ago and started fooling around with the QIII engine. I've got two Star Trek mods for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force in production and recently decided to try my hand at modding for Jedi Outcast/Academy.

Anyway, here's a little teaser for you all to enjoy. I still have some detailing left to do, but you get the idea. I'm going for a very ANH feel to everything as far as detai accuracy is concerned, and am trying my best to ignore the Special Edition. Old-school Star Wars is much better.

All textures are either modified stock textures or textures I made from scratch. The model of the Falcon is of course stock JA, scaled up a bit and with the textures modified to have less color saturation. I still have to change the cargo containers scattered around to be more movie accurate, add some control surfaces to the recessed alcoves to the left and right, and some other stuff. I'll post more as I progress.

BSR glad to see your back man!!
Excellent design work and looking VERY accurate.

That Falcon model really bothers me. I know it's stock JA, but it just sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the level. Surely there's a better model out there that you could use?

wow... that is looking really sharp!
nice work.

Actually, I'm not even sure if I'm keeping the model in. Depending on what direction I'm going with this mod, I may have another ship there all together. Depends whether or not I want to develop my own story line or stick with the ANH story.

Wait, what happened to the band?

It broke up. Now BSR's joined some outfit called "JA" that only does covers of really cheesy Van Halen songs.


Just kidding, BSR, it looks great... but I have my doubts about the upper section of the hanger. Seems like it should have more detail.

I agree. The repetitive paneling is canon, but I'll add some details here and there to break it up.

Horray for BSR! Glad to see you back. Your ST levels were epic, even if all I could do was walk around in them. They were beautiful.

Glad to see more of your work. It always looks great!

Looks awesome!

Spent the last two days building movie accurate cargo containers, and this dreadfully detailed control panel alcove. I'm exhausted. "Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!"

I think I'm finally ready to move on. Just a few changes, mainly the tower hanging from the ceiling with the red beacons, plus movie accurate cargo containers.

Looks fantastic, BSR. I still think you should get a new Falcon model (check out this page for some free models to d/l) http://www.scifi3d.com/list.asp?intGenreID=10&intCatID=10 - specifically Falcon model #3 looks fantastic. I am not sure if it would be easy to import into JA, but having a better model would really make that hangar pop.

My vote is for recreating the interior.

Unfortunately, I was unable to import any of those models in Milkshape for conversion to md3 due to their high vertice count. I'm working on converting a md3 friendly model right now.

Looks like a great start!

Do you have a general layout in mind? I've seen several interpretations of the Death Star Map, so I'm curious how you would figure where the other recognizable locales would be be, relative to each other.

I'm not quite sure yet. I've wanted to do a detailed Death Star map since my MotS days, but didn't take it seriously until I recently watched ANH again for the first time in years. And now with blu-ray screencaps and a few other reference materials that I've ordered, I think I'll be able to build a super-detailed SP map for JA featuring the Death Star and it's famous locales.

I've played a few other Death Star maps out there, and one thing that bugs me is that no one has seemed to get the scale correct. No offense to anyone that has tried, but it seemed like all the other maps I've played featured rooms, doorways, etc that were way too big compared to NPCs and the player model, bringing me out of the experience. Hell, even Lucasarts got the scale all wrong on its Death Star map in Battlefronts II. I checked my map to some set blueprints I've ordered and I think I'm pretty close to the mark so far.

The layout will come after I've created more of the principle areas. Right now I'm working on creating all of the areas that were featured in ANH, and then will create other areas that were "unseen" in the movie (barracks, mess halls, locker rooms, etc). I do know this, I don't want to put everything too close together (e.g., the detention block corridor just down the corner from the hangar bay, as other maps seem to do). I want to give the impression you're actually on a vast, immense "small moon" rather than a small cramped outpost.

I'll probably acheive this goal by the use of turbolifts that seemingly take you deeper and deeper into the Death Star, given the limitations of the QIII engine.

Another factor that will determine layout will be the story. Right now, I haven't decided what the storyline will be. My ideas so far are as follows:

a) Give players an experience playing Luke, Han, and/or Obi Wan as they rescue Leia and deactivate the tractor beam. This option I feel will constrain me too much, as I'd worry about how authentic the experience is compared to the movie. For example, there won't be too much room to do more than what was seen in ANH.

b) Create a new Alliance character with an experience that is similar to the ANH scenario. This would allow me to give the experience of being captured, having to break out of the detention block, deactivate the tractor beam, have a saber battle with Vader, etc but also give more objectives for the player to complete, seeing that I wouldn't have to follow Luke and company's experience so close to the mark. This is probably the most desirable option since it gives me some creative license.

c) Through a stormtrooper's eyes. Have the player defend the Death Star from a Rebel attack or prison break. This option has been done in Battlefront II's campaign, so it's the least desirable.

The story I choose to follow will ultimately dictate the layout of the Death Star in my map. What does everyone else think? Or does anyone have any ideas on a story?

I know this is a stock JA, but it just sticks out like a sore thumb rest compared to the level:smith:

I've played other Deathstar maps too, but most of them were gameplay orientated. I thought the JO version was the weakest one, probably because of how compact it was made. I think a problem might arise is having the player get lost because it's easy to make the corridors all looked the same.

A rebel breakout would be interesting if you are the rebel operative. Because the vastness can be intimidating and hostile.

It's taken me days to build this console's textures. As accurate to the movie as possible. I'm very happy with the results.

Adjusted a few things. Here's a comparison:

Is the lighting finished? The only reason I ask is because it looks quite a bit dimmer in your take. Not necessarily a bad thing - just an observation.

I've noticed that as well. I do tend to use darker lighting in my maps for atmospheric effect, but I could tweak it a bit. Movie set lighting is also hard to replicate in a gaming engine since a lot of the light came from bright stage lamps off-camera.

Also, the brighter the light entities in Radiant, the harder it is to get nice, natural-looking gradated shading. One of the reasons I stick to dimmer lighting.

Have you tried -bounce when compiling? Maybe that would mimic more of the metal's reflective surface.

I forgot Q3Map2's more advanced lighting options because I haven't used it in awhile. I don't think -dirty would help. Play around with gamma values?

I noticed you have mirrored floors. Mind if you post the .shader data for that?

I use -dark, -dirty, -patchshadows, and -bounce 8. There are a few others I use as well, but I'm away from my computer at the moment. I remembered lowering the -gamma a few weeks ago to a lower value. Kicking that back up may help. I also set the world spawn's _lightmapscale to 0.25 to get crisper shadows.

In all honesty, I haven't fooled around with the lighting too much yet. Finished the console and wanted to get some screens up.

I'll post some shader info to my floor texture when I'm back at my PC.

ECHOMAN, here's the shader script for my floor texture seen above. If you would like DSfloor_mirror3.tga and gleam4.tga, just let me know and I can e-mail them to you.

textures/deathstar/DSfloor_mirror3
{
portal
{
map textures/deathstar/DSfloor_mirror3
blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_COLOR
depthWrite
}
{
map textures/deathstar/DSfloor_mirror3
blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
}
{
map $lightmap
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
rgbGen identity
}
{
map textures/detail/gleam4
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_SRC_COLOR
detail
rgbGen identity
tcGen environment
tcMod scale 3 3
}

}

The textures look great, fantastic work!

Typical BSR quality. Although you spend so much time on detail, I wonder if this will just be a recreation of a few sets or an actual playable level. Being a scifi nerd, I appreciate the former, but the gamer in me is really hoping for the later. It'd be awesome to run through this. Maybe make the character linger in a few areas (to solve puzzles) so they can really appreciate the quality.

MrRavenX: It'll be a single player map with a story and mission objectives. You'll be able to enjoy the detail along the way.

I'd love to play that map as a stormtrooper trying to stop Luke and Han.

This looks amazing, your screenshots don't look like JA at all.

To be movie accurate, will the door to the command room require you to duck?

Almost done with Detention Block AA-23. And yes, those are the numbers of the cells in Aurabesh above each door.

Look, sir! Droids!

Close the blast doors!

Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!

Forget it. It's Imperialtown.

Seven BSP holes. Seven!