Vurt's Thief 2 Graphics Overhaul

[677deca956053vurt]

Entirely AI (edit: close to it).
New models for trees, bushes, mushrooms and more.

Direct comparison screens, original vs new: https://imgur.com/a/thief-2-comparison-screens-gSzv7W3

~1500 new textures.

To do:
1024 textures instead of 2048 since the game seems more prone to crashes.
Some models needs to be reworked
Fixes to some carpets that connects in an ugly way
Add more textures
+ more stuff, likely

[677deca956173vurt]

Which level uses fam/catacomb?

[677deca9562efZylonBane]

The Catacomb family was carried over directly from Thief 1, where it was of course used primarily in Bonehoard. Since T2 doesn't have any undead-focused levels, I doubt there's a single level that uses most of it. The Mechanist crypt in Eavesdropping uses a few of them.

[677deca9563cavurt]

yeah i was suspecting that since i couldn't recall any such level in T2. Thanks!

[677deca956530voodoo47]

you can have multiple resource locations, and then override as necessary either by editing the cam_mod.ini modpaths, or managing with the modmanager.

probably a good idea to set things up with the modmanager in mind nowadays.

[677deca956683vurt]

yes i know that..personally (when finally getting to play) i will use a ton of various graphical mods but i will instead just use overwrite, and put my own mod in last, that will cover a lot.

An example of how paintings are improved. for these i couldn't use my own fine tuned model, i am not a painter..

Might not even be used in T2, but i will probably make a version for T1 so that we get use for everything.

[677deca956787ZylonBane]

You might want to do... whatever it is you do with AIs... to get rid of that swirly hallucinated AI nightmare detail on the left of the cloak thing.

And maybe some manual touch-up where the red part touches her hair so it looks like it's going behind her head instead of merging with it.

[677deca9568a5vurt]

yeah it likes to do ornaments when it can't find a substitute of what's going on.
I have several versions of each painting, each a bit different and where some parts resemble the original better.
So in the end i layer the images on top and just use the eraser on the parts that are off, like the ornament thing.
 

[677deca9569cavoodoo47]

the cheeks and jaw are a definite improvement though.

[677deca956af2vurt]

So i just noticed that the game refuses to read RUSTD2.dds, if i make a .tga it works. many hundreds of other .dds files works, but not this one, it also seems to affect some other doors, the ones with the Hammerites symbol is one i noticed was completely white.

Is there any way to know which objects are affected by this thing, which ones i need to make into .tga's instead? 

[677deca956bf2voodoo47]

anything interesting in the editor console? does the texture have a power of two resolution? would be ideal to find out what the problem is, instead of just working around it.

[677deca956cf3ZylonBane]

Extract all the OBJ files somewhere. Do a search of that folder for files containing "RUSTD2".

Why would you make it a TGA instead of a PNG? It doesn't even have any transparency.

Did you save it as DXT1 without mipmaps?

[677deca956e7fvurt]

Yes it has proper resolution for .dds and for the game.

I decided with .tga because i know that worked with my older overhaul for that texture.

So they shouldn't have mipmaps? I had no idea. I'll let chatgpt write a python script that checks all of them and removes them.
It is odd though because this .dds file is done in the exact same way as the others, same with the other doors.. so it seems like doors is something that absolutely can't have mipmaps, other stuff might be fine.
Thanks again.

edit: yeah, the script found them in almost all files
--- Summary ---
Total DDS files processed: 1100
Files with mipmaps removed: 1098
The water .dds files for my old overhaul also had them.


So it's the same for system shock 2 too right? pretty sure they have mipmaps in my mods. if i used .dds, but i usually do.

[677deca956f76ZylonBane]

I don't know for a fact that mimaps don't work on object textures, it was just a guess.

[677deca957054vurt]

fixed my issue, it seems it works for some stuff, for doors (that you can open) it's a no-go.

[677deca957128voodoo47]

so the conclusion is don't use mipmaps unless you are sure you need them?

[677deca9573a7sarge945]

"AI Remaster" to me makes this mod sound like an AI overhaul mod, akin to Scary Monsters.

[677deca9574a5vurt]

I guess. If someone is familiar with my mods they probably think of textures though. I might call it the same as the old mod, just make this an update to it.

[677deca9576ddZylonBane]

so the conclusion is don't use mipmaps unless you are sure you need them?

That's not something a human really decides. IIRC Dark will auto generate mipmaps for terrain textures. I think NewDark will use mipmaps in DDS textures, but I'm not 100% sure.

[677deca9577dfvoodoo47]

and yeah, the project name could use an improvement. "Vurt's AI upscaled texture pack" or something.

[677deca9578e9ZylonBane]

Or "ESRGAN Upscaled" if that's what was used. "AI" is thrown around so much lately that it's become almost meaningless by itself.

[677deca957a12vurt]

I'll use the old name, Vurt's Thief 2 Graphics Overhaul. Since it also has 40'ish meshes + it's actually not entirely AI (though probably 90%).
I don't use traditional upscaling at all for this.

1200 textures are now done, big focus has been all windows, doors (there are so many of them, especially windows) + other big surfaces like walls and floors and wood / iron panels.

[677deca957b33voodoo47]

well Vurt's something is a pretty established brand, so why not.

so the alpha stuff (like the foliage, which was not 1:1 so technically just a resource, not a ready to go mod) is getting slurped into this?

[677deca957c50vurt]

@voodoo47
Not sure what you mean with a ready to go mod, it definitely works out of the box with the mod installed.
It won't be as true to the original as the EP2 pack i think, most of it will, but not all.