Battlefront III Legacy [? - Apr, 28th, 2017]

[AQT]

Every texture already has a specular map applied. Some are custom, some are original. I think some greyscales can be edited/changed a bit and some need a higher "value" (The ones between 0 and 255).

Ah. Simply using a grayscale version of the diffuse texture as the specular texture isn't going to produce the best result most of the time, especially if the grayscale doesn't have much variation in contrast. Also, don't forget to apply the specular texture to the normal map texture because otherwise you won't see the specular texture's effects on high lighting. This could explain why some things are overly shiny.

[Kingpin]

Vader had turned off his lightsaber in the first place. But unfortunately I couldn't get his saber throw working. It works, actually, but only without a red blade then. I am still thinking about removing saber throw and giving his turn off suff back or...keeping it as it is.

I experienced this bug while designing Sith Wars 1.0. Some character animations bug out with it, the stock ones that do this being Emperor and Dooku. This also happens to any character with their lightsaber sheathed while idle. I would personally remove saber throw and give him a more fitting power and keeping his saber off.

[thelegend]

Ah. Simply using a grayscale version of the diffuse texture as the specular texture isn't going to produce the best result most of the time, especially if the grayscale doesn't have much variation in contrast. Also, don't forget to apply the specular texture to the normal map texture because otherwise you won't see the specular texture's effects on high lighting. This could explain why some things are overly shiny.

Hm okay. I never tried applying a specular mask into a normal map. I never saw this in the stock assets or rarely heard about that. I am going to try this on some. By the way when making a specular map I usually remove all colors, make metallic parts brighter and "natural" parts darker.

I experienced this bug while designing Sith Wars 1.0. Some character animations bug out with it, the stock ones that do this being Emperor and Dooku. This also happens to any character with their lightsaber sheathed while idle. I would personally remove saber throw and give him a more fitting power and keeping his saber off.

I think it might be the best to remove saber throw (Even if Vader was the only one doing this in the movies). Fore push might be a good alternative.

[AQT]

I never saw this in the stock assets or rarely heard about that. I am going to try this on some.

That's because stock assets don't use specular/normal map combinations, and people hardly openly discussed using them around here until recently (for some reason), but that doesn't mean it's not true. Certain stock assets, however, do use a specular/bump map combination, and the same principle applies. Notably, stock first person weapon models use a specular texture in both the diffuse and bump texture, as the specular in the diffuse controls the shininess on medium lighting and the specular in the bump/normal controls the shininess on high lighting.

By the way when making a specular map I usually remove all colors, make metallic parts brighter and "natural" parts darker.

of cause. This is indeed the best way to go.

[thelegend]

@AQT: I love you. I did what you said to all Map's Normal maps and now the textures, colors and lights feel so much stronger and more realistic. I will use this method for the vehicles and characters too as well.

@Kingpin: I removed saber throw and turned off his lightsaber for IDLE only.

[Anakin]

@legend. I told you to put the spec in the normal's alpha and diffuse. You remember?? I already did that for the sides.
About Vader, I'd still use only idle 1 and take the throw. Idle 3 with turned off saber only for trailer filming.

[suLac]

I watched the trailer a moment ago and it looks great!
Finally, we'll get BFIII ... as good as the Zero Engine can handle all this new stuff
Keep up working on this awesome project

[Generalfacu]

By the Force it's Durge!!!

[xezene]

Since I'm quite excited with this project, I was rewatching some of the videos of it on the @thelegend's main YT channel, and I just had three things I wanted to point out, things I noticed:

-- Is there a way to shorten Yoda's saber? It seems too big for him given his size.
-- I'm sure you guys know better than me how to correct this (I have no experience so far at least with modding), but it seems like when Padme is shooting, her left shoulder seizes up unnaturally, sticking out almost like a point. There's no such problem when she's not shooting. Is there a way to correct this?
-- Is there a way to keep fighter combat fresh and active, in space or in the sky? It doesn't have to be Suun Ra level, but I see the potential here for a fully immersize map in a sort of similar way to that one. A space to ground map with lively space combat would really be an incredible, rare addition to the modding community (in most space to ground maps I've played, space is pretty empty aside from capital ships).

Beyond that, so far, so good guys! I'm glad you are taking the time to develop this properly and not just rush it out there. It all looks great so far, and the small concerns I mentioned all seem, at least, to be very fixable.

If we're talking heroes and suggestions, Rahm Kota and Starkiller would be great as the hero and villain of GCW Death Star in my opinion.

I know Ben Kenobi and Vader are better choices, but I don't know where else they could go.

You make a good point about Rahm and Starkiller, but man... I sure would love to see Old Ben and Vader together in a Death Star map. Sounds like a match made in heaven. Couldn't Rahm be the CW Republic hero in the Coruscant Jedi Temple map? As for Starkiller, hmm... Maybe Tantive? Though I suppose the new Leia will be there against new Vader... I'm not sure where Starkiller could go. But I'm sure there is a place for him.

[giftheck]

You make a good point about Rahm and Starkiller, but man... I sure would love to see Old Ben and Vader together in a Death Star map. Sounds like a match made in heaven. Couldn't Rahm be the CW Republic hero in the Coruscant Jedi Temple map? As for Starkiller, hmm... Maybe Tantive? Though I suppose the new Leia will be there against new Vader... I'm not sure where Starkiller could go. But I'm sure there is a place for him.

How about Felucia and the GCW Jedi Temple? (though I'm not 100% sure whether he would be Rebel of Empire hero on both maps) And if they're adding support for the SWBF1 conversions in the mod, Kota could go on Bespin: Platforms for GCW.

[xezene]

You make a good point about Rahm and Starkiller, but man... I sure would love to see Old Ben and Vader together in a Death Star map. Sounds like a match made in heaven. Couldn't Rahm be the CW Republic hero in the Coruscant Jedi Temple map? As for Starkiller, hmm... Maybe Tantive? Though I suppose the new Leia will be there against new Vader... I'm not sure where Starkiller could go. But I'm sure there is a place for him.

How about Felucia and the GCW Jedi Temple? (though I'm not 100% sure whether he would be Rebel of Empire hero on both maps) And if they're adding support for the SWBF1 conversions in the mod, Kota could go on Bespin: Platforms for GCW.

Those are both good ideas, I think. I didn't think of GCW Jedi Temple for Starkiller.

[thelegend]

-- Is there a way to shorten Yoda's saber? It seems too big for him given his size.
-- I'm sure you guys know better than me how to correct this (I have no experience so far at least with modding), but it seems like when Padme is shooting, her left shoulder seizes up unnaturally, sticking out almost like a point. There's no such problem when she's not shooting. Is there a way to correct this?
-- Is there a way to keep fighter combat fresh and active, in space or in the sky? It doesn't have to be Suun Ra level, but I see the potential here for a fully immersize map in a sort of similar way to that one. A space to ground map with lively space combat would really be an incredible, rare addition to the modding community (in most space to ground maps I've played, space is pretty empty aside from capital ships).

1. I also had that feeling when playing as Yoda for the first time there. I think I can shorten it a bit.
2. I will take a look at her.
3. At the momemt the map sometimes crash if I put the number of flyers and AI too high. I still need to figure out how to reduce other, less necessary things to prevent the game from crashing when setting up higher stuff like 64 flyers at all (Trust me. 64 is a huge number and amount of available RAM. Stock space maps have a maxiumum of 32 flyers at all).

[jjonthefreeway]

The picture I saw of Luke in his Jedi Tunic isn't the final version I hope. I think there may be a more polished one on file front if that website is still up. It was part of a JKA mod

[LordStarkiller]

I've been binging on your channel's videos on the map and I'm just blown away here. The amount of detail and love that's going into this is a work of art!

I really wish you could add the ground to space transition to the stock maps but that's asking too much

[thelegend]

Here's a quick update of the Sound Stuff. We added custom, original extracted sounds from the game, to the republic (and cis) weapons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSGPOqZ_NuQ

[iamastupid]

Yay, something I posted here was actually used!!! I am so hyped for this!

[thelegend]

Fighter Squadron

I am now presenting you a new mode. It's called "Fighter Squadron" and forces you to battle your enemies in space. This mode is specially for Space Battles above the planet's surface and its priority is dogfighting. So far there aren't any real additional objectives. I heard some good ideas here and there and think I could implement something which generates your team additional points.

Gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nscrdc8Iikw

What do you think about this mode? If you are experienced in Space Battles can you give us some tips which increases a better gameplay and space feeling?

[Maveritchell]

Team Dogfight is a really boring mode if it's not kept really short. Nothing evolves over the course of the mission; it's just fly-out-and-shoot, fly-out-and-shoot over and over again on the exact same playing field. Without objectives or some kind of sense of progression, you'll want to cap it to like 30 tickets per side tops.

[xezene]

Fighter Squadron

I am now presenting you a new mode. It's called "Fighter Squadron" and forces you to battle your enemies in space. This mode is specially for Space Battles above the planet's surface and its priority is dogfighting. So far there aren't any real additional objectives. I heard some good ideas here and there and think I could implement something which generates your team additional points.

Gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nscrdc8Iikw

What do you think about this mode? If you are experienced in Space Battles can you give us some tips which increases a better gameplay and space feeling?

It looks good. Two small things I noticed: there are a lot (almost too much?) of the 'wooshing' sound effect of engines from nearby starships, so I wonder your thoughts on that, and then I am wondering if it is possible to improve the look of the planet? Perhaps less blue, maybe make it resemble what Coruscant would generally look like from orbit? I would even use direct or indirect inspiration from BF2's Space Coruscant, which looked incredible (how often do we get to fight on the dark side of a planet in BF? though, speaking of which, I'm sure a sunset map of Coruscant could be absolutely gorgeous). Sometimes space maps actually really do benefit a lot from a beautiful background. Just two thoughts. So, basically just taking a look at the sound and visual aspect a little bit.

As for space combat itself, beyond those two things I mentioned, everything else looks cool. The gameplay looks good. I love how you can go in those little 'tunnels' in the ships!

Side-note: I have seen maps where there have been 'fake' explosions in the distance and so on to make the space battle look more intense. I think even Mav's Dark Times II had some stuff like that at Space Mon Calamari, maybe a few others had that. I don't know how they did it, but it made the battle look more intense. Perhaps that's an option?

[Kingpin]

Team Dogfight is a really boring mode if it's not kept really short. Nothing evolves over the course of the mission; it's just fly-out-and-shoot, fly-out-and-shoot over and over again on the exact same playing field. Without objectives or some kind of sense of progression, you'll want to cap it to like 30 tickets per side tops.

Completely agree. Maybe you could try and add some sort of hero system to make it interesting, like a hero Millennium Falcon or something.