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Does there exist a mod or set of mods that will simply replace/enhance the textures? I am playing this game at 1920×1080 on a 50″ Bravia with the best settings, and the game is crisp and smooth, but the textures are extremely dated and quite honestly, distracting.
There was someone who once played around with procedural planet textures and different backgrounds, but he hasn’t been around for a while. Most of the textures are in .iff format, which is really hard to work with. I don’t think such a mod has been created, but it may be possible.
See here:
https://www.i-war2.com/forum/torn-stars/3203-torn-stars-add-on-mods#19832
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
They can certainly be annoying if you are not used to them. There is no mod yet to make the textures look nicer, but that is one of the things I’m planning on, once I figure out how you make the darn things convert to the game format in the first place. 🙂
–IronDuke
I-War 2 Discord: https://discord.gg/RWaabWB
Very little about the game is not known to me. Any questions you got, throw them at me. 🙂One of the things required for this is to make the game accept higher resolution textures, yes? I do not know how to do that. I have managed to convert the .iff files into .jpeg. I do not remember if I was able to change them back. If you can get the game to work with the better textures, then we can work together to get the conversion process down, and then generate some backgrounds and other textures. :woohoo: What do you think?
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
I don’t know if the game actually HAS a max resolution for textures, considering that Torn Stars/Unstable Space has some pretty high-res textures. I do know that 3d-models do. The UV maps, which are built into the .pso format that I-War2 uses for 3d-models, are locked at whatever resolution they were assigned. I think the only way to fix that would be to make new 3d-models, which I’m planning on doing anyway. If we were to use say a 512×512 instead of a 256×256, it would only use the top left quadrant.
But there is a problem with making new 3d-models. The version of Lightwave used by PS was very old. Annoyingly, the file format appears to have been changed only a year or two afterwards, and the game can’t read the new file format. None of the Lightwave versions after the reformat support the old one. In order to make 3d-models for the game, we have to get our hands on a very old copy of Lightwave, ie before version 6.0. I know from a screenshot a dev took that their version was 5.6. It’s possible that there’s some trick that can bridge this problem, but I don’t know of it.–IronDuke
I-War 2 Discord: https://discord.gg/RWaabWB
Very little about the game is not known to me. Any questions you got, throw them at me. 🙂Ah, I see…
I found a copy of lightwave 5.6 that is for sale (at least I think it is lightwave), but it costs $93.49… better look for that bridge. I found this:Okino. It is expensive as well but has demos.
One of the projects I would like to do is a paper model of the Storm Petrel. Without something that can properly access the UVs, it would be quite difficult to texture the model. Perhaps this problem can be met with this solution, but according to the Okino description, the UV system was changed the most and may not work.
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
My current plan is to see whether or not Blender’s export as Lightwave function will produce a file readable by I-War2. I think I did do something once that successfully got a model into the game, but I don’t remember exactly what that process was. I do know that the model was a fixed collider for the Heavy Destroyer, as the ingame collider is too small by, I think it was 50%.
I’m going to hunt down that file and start poking things to find out what I did. I have a veritable treasure-hoard of ancient files for I-War2 that would be utterly impossible for someone else to understand, and are hard enough for me to do so. But I’ll blow the dust off my archives and have a look.Speaking of textures, it’s an absolute pity that the game does not support normal mapping. 🙁 It could look stunning if it did so.
Oh, I just got an idea. I’m going to look into it straight away… :whistle:
–IronDuke
I-War 2 Discord: https://discord.gg/RWaabWB
Very little about the game is not known to me. Any questions you got, throw them at me. 🙂I hope you find something useful.
Speaking of textures, it’s an absolute pity that the game does not support normal mapping. 🙁 It could look stunning if it did so.
Someday… maybe someday we can make I-War 3, and we won’t have to worry about these problems.
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
Well, I have blisteringly good news.
I asked about my idea with the folks on the Limit Theory IRC, and they said it’s been done before quite safely, so here goes.My plan is to do a remake of I-War2 in Unity. However, it would have to draw some of the assets from an original I-War2 installation. Otherwise, maybe a ship wouldn’t exist, or something similar to that. The best part with this plan is top-of-the-line graphics, and the ability to throw in as much extra stuff as I want. Including an additional story. (I-War3! :woohoo: )
The only hole I see is that someone could simply identify which files my remake draws from the original game install, copy those files, and put them online. But actually, someone could just do that to the installer for the GOG version of the game, so…As I mentioned, this has been done before, to even well known games like X-Com. I think one or two of these remakes got a cease and desist, but only one or two. In any case, if it was taken to court (which would be a hilarious waste of money for Atari) they would probably lose, according to the IRC folks.
What do you think of that plan?
–IronDuke
I-War 2 Discord: https://discord.gg/RWaabWB
Very little about the game is not known to me. Any questions you got, throw them at me. 🙂I have a very different plan.
Someday I would like to build my own game engine (with rendering engine). This engine would allow me to make things work exactly as I want them to. Therefore, if you want normal mapping in the game, I can add normal mapping to the game. Considering I have written 0 lines of code for the engine, consider this worth a grain of salt…
I also have a plan regarding copyrights. Atari is really slacking in good game output, especially in the space-sim genre. The Roller Coaster Tycoon series is the best that I’ve seen on their site. Perhaps they would listen to a beautifully rendered trailer, with its own engine, a fighting chance in the space-sim genre, and a couple of good programmers willing to make a deal. From what I hear, there are quite a few people out there with memories of I-War.
Anyways, it would still be useful to import proper UVs from lightwave for something like this… 🙁
If you get into I-War 3 in Unity full swing, let me know. I can probably help with things like new ship models.
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
[quote=”Chessking” post=20220]I have a very different plan.
Someday I would like to build my own game engine (with rendering engine). This engine would allow me to make things work exactly as I want them to. Therefore, if you want normal mapping in the game, I can add normal mapping to the game. Considering I have written 0 lines of code for the engine, consider this worth a grain of salt…[/quote]
That’s hard. And I’m lazy. Bad combination, so Iwon’tcan’t help with that. But I wish you the best of luck, although attaining the level of skill needed to do that with one person would take about thirty years. 😉[quote=”Chessking” post=20220]
I also have a plan regarding copyrights. Atari is really slacking in good game output, especially in the space-sim genre. The Roller Coaster Tycoon series is the best that I’ve seen on their site. Perhaps they would listen to a beautifully rendered trailer, with its own engine, a fighting chance in the space-sim genre, and a couple of good programmers willing to make a deal. From what I hear, there are quite a few people out there with memories of I-War.[/quote]
People have been contacting them with requests for permission to make an I-War3 since 2003-4. They have either never responded, or said heck no. Possibly they could be budged a little by a trailer and engine already made, but I doubt it. And the fact that they are slacking in good games is one of the reasons I don’t want to attach myself to them. Plus, I don’t know what kind of deal they’d want. I feel edgy at the prospect of ‘deals’ with large companies.[quote=”Chessking” post=20220]Anyways, it would still be useful to import proper UVs from lightwave for something like this… 🙁
If you get into I-War 3 in Unity full swing, let me know. I can probably help with things like new ship models.[/quote]
First point: bah, just gotta make new models. It’s entirely possible that the UV’s are accessible, but I haven’t found them. I never poked the 3d-models part of the game too much. I was more into changing gameplay and such.
Second point: I will definitely let you know. Whatever you are able to help with I would appreciate. :cheer: A project that size would be hard, although I can use a lot of the default I-War2 assets this way.–IronDuke
I-War 2 Discord: https://discord.gg/RWaabWB
Very little about the game is not known to me. Any questions you got, throw them at me. 🙂It’s all very complicated… I probably should not have brought it up. I brought it up to say that after my engine is made, it would be a lot easier to implement graphics improvements than with the existing compiled I-War 2 engine.
There is a bit more to my plan than I previously mentioned. I base my plan off of Limit Theory. I would use C++ and OpenGL to make the engine. Judging from Limit Theory, it is possible to pull this off in less than thirty years. I feel bad for copying Josh Parnell, but he is the only one who has told me how to make a good game. :S Because of this, I decided that if I make a game, I would not make a space game (except for I-War 3 if possible), but rather a hunting game. Once all of this is finished, Atari may be in a more competitive mood.
That’s hard. And I’m lazy. Bad combination, so I won’t can’t help with that.
Strange, I’m too lazy to learn Unity…
A project that size would be hard, although I can use a lot of the default I-War2 assets this way.
Just for clarification, would the resulting I-War 3 be sellable, according to your plan? It would be a lot easier to complete that way.
Back to the original topic of better textures:
A new model would require new UVs. Even if the model imported correctly, the UVs may not because of the different versions of lightwave. I don’t know though. You will have to try it and see.
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
Speaking of Josh and LT, depending on whether importing modeling will be possible and how this will be done, it might be a good idea to implement the I-War models for a mod in LT first. After all, LT is about the perfect description of the I-War universe and the Badlands. Sure, some things would still need to be done, story-wise, but since LT is supposed to be highly moddable, it should not be too difficult – or at least less difficult than creating your very own space game engine from scratch. But that’s just my two cents.
Interesting…
Since Limit Theory uses procedural ships, the functionality to use existing models would need to be added. Which means someone needs to have a good understanding of the file format. Also, Josh revealed that modding will be done in Python, which I don’t plan on learning soon. I know that the models can be converted to other files, but the UVs don’t cross over. Back when the subject of UVs cam up, Schmatzler and someone else were doing a re-skin of the dreadnought. It may be necessary to do this with all models to get the textures working on other platforms.
This is one tough navy, boy. They don’t give you time off, even for being dead. -Clay
Storm Petrel
I know that LT’s assets are procedural, but the game will be highly moddable, Josh expects there will be a thriving community around it. I fully expect someone to hack in a way to import models from outside. Hell, Josh himself might do the deed. Anyway, nobody has heard from him for almost a month now, and while he’s been absent for far longer before, I wouldn’t make plans until LT finally ships, even as a Beta.
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