SS2 RocketMan Alternative Weapons Pack 1.1

[673fbbba98730RocketMan]

Thanks for the comments and new screenies!

Yeah, the wrench textures are no hell, that's for sure.  Could you be more specific about what's too loud and how (ie. should be darker, lighter, less saturated, etc) and I'll see what I can do to fix it.

[673fbbba98903miracle.flame]

Hmmm I examined closely and I think I know... It's that yellow rubber at the longsides and then the bright green whatever that's inside. That makes it so garish in overall picture. It feels like the wrench just came fresh out of store and never tasted the hand of engineer. Yeah that yellow rubber that's it.

[673fbbba98a6cZylonBane]

Wow, the Stasis Field Generator looks all Black Mesa-esque now. Cool.

[673fbbba98c1fRocketMan]

I know eh?  Props Assidragon.

Looks like I'm gonna have to make the wrench dirty......very very dirty

By the way, I just though it might be interesting to report that I summoned all of the new weapons that I currently have installed: Wrench, pistol, shotgun, stasis, worm launcher, VP, grenade launcher.......and i moved my mouse in small rapid circles to assess the frame rate when I WASN"T looking at them.....smooth as sex.  Then i turn around and did the same thing with everything in view and WHAAAA....noticeably choppy.  By no means unplayable, I'm guessing maybe 20-30 FPS.  I've got an HD2900 BTW.  Looks like I'll have to be more careful with my poly counts and texture usage from now on....modellers/texturers take note!

[673fbbba98fb2Rainalkar]

Argh, I'm currently on probably the slowest modem in Europe, and the picture od SFG didn't screen to me, so I saved the mod itself, but since I'm on a pc on which I can't open it I saved it on a stick and will look at it at home, although I don't doubt that it's brilliant lol I can't believe all the jibberish I just wrote.

The Wrench I don't like though, it looks unrealistic, I think you should simply try to copy the feel from the original, even better look at the world model in SHTUP and try to make it look like that in hand (I never got it how could the two be the same models, world look fabulous, hand so so). I can ask my friend if he has some texture which could be used for a wrench if you want, or you could use the SHTUP texture.

[673fbbba993e9ZylonBane]

I never got it how could the two be the same models, world look fabulous, hand so so

It didn't occur to you that they're NOT the same model?

[673fbbba99501Rainalkar]

Frankly, no. That would seem kind of silly to me, to have different textures (if so), I don't see the point, especially when one seems clearly superior.

[673fbbba99615ZylonBane]

Ummm... one of them is clearly superior because the textures were recently updated. In the original game the textures on both models have about the same level of quality.

[673fbbba9972dRainalkar]

Yes, I remember the original. Can we expect to see the update on the hand model as well? 

[673fbbba99888Chandlermaki]

Yes! Statis feild generator!

[673fbbba99975Chandlermaki]

The SFG isn't working after i install with the Mod Manager

[673fbbba99b04Kolya]

You just posted that your install isn't working after uninstalling UNN Nightwalker...
Maybe, possibly something is wrong with your installation? So please refrain from posting in every mod thread that it's not working when it's likely an individual problem of yours.

[673fbbba99c64Gaco]

Does anyone have a picture of how the original stasis field generator looks in the original? I have not played the game through having any profound heavy or energy weapon proficiency.

EDIT: Ok I found one in the screenshot thread: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php/topic,52.0.html. Hmm I can't decide which one I like the best. Does RocketMan's Stasis Field Generator glow in the dark (as Eldon's Psiamp) or is it just coloured blue?

[673fbbba99d6dmiracle.flame]

It doesn't glow. It's blue and transparent and all the way better looking and still true to original just like Tacticool's models.

[673fbbba9a0e1Gaco]

It doesn't glow. It's blue and transparent and all the way better looking and still true to original just like Tacticool's models.

Ok good. Well you sold me on that one, Rocketman's stasis field generator is now on my mod list as well

I'm still looking for a screenshot of the original viral proliferator though so I can see how Rocketman's model of that weapon compares to the original. I know that I definently don't like the Worm Launcher (looks like a bow, way too untrue to the original in a bad way IMO, fills up too much of the screen etc.) but I'm still considering the viral proliferator (which I never got to try even though I went straight for exotic because of was 11 cybermodules short in the end *sniff )

[673fbbba9a4b6Kolya]

I'm still looking for a screenshot of the original viral proliferator

Ctrl+F9

[673fbbba9a673RocketMan]

Time for another update!  BETA 4: For the K-Man

New to this edition is the Crystal Shard.  The old shard was just fine....being a shard and all but I decided to do my best to pimp it out a little bit.  It now has a crystalline texture that sort of resembles millions of tiny refracting grains of glass.  It is also multi textured which brings me to the model changes.  There are 2 shards, one embedded in the other to give the crystal some dimension and also prevent it from looking like a mere transluscent plane......because the shard is also semi-transparent now.  See if you like it's new irridescence.  Finally, I added a couple of crystal branches and repositioned the old ones a bit because they were too biased in one direction on the old one.

See the first post for shard-only and cumulative mod packs.

Kolya:  I'm at 45 BTW...remembered to check first this time

[673fbbba9a815miracle.flame]

Again I've made some pics and again here's my criticism.
I think it's way too transparent now, see the second pic... I'd suggest at least 20% less transparency.
And the second thing... It occurs to me it doesn't resemble millions of tiny refracting grains of glass..that would be exactly fine. Now it doesn't seem to be clear crystal but it looks like some ore alloys are in there.
I think a texture like this with 30% trasparency would be most fitting.

[673fbbba9aa64RocketMan]

Thanks for the screenshot Miracle.Freak.  I think you're right about the transparency.  I was having trouble deciding what the best value would be.  I think the world model is ok at that value but when you are wielding it, it's a bit more distracting since it's so close to the player.  I'll adjust the values of both models and strike a balance.

With regards to the texture,  I think there are better textures out there for what I was trying to do because I was searching for quite a while before I resigned myself to the one I'm currently using but honestly I don't care much for the basic white color scheme.  Kind of looks like boring frosted glass or snow or something.  From what I could root up on the net, it looks like crystals can have all sorts of appearances, depending on their geometric structure and composition (doping, etc.) and anyone with a chandellier (sp?) or a set of crystal glasses can vouch that you can see a whole bunch of different colors from what is otherwise just clear glass.

The description of the shard says that it's pretty much just silica glass but with some trace elements used as dopants and has a resonant freq. that's in tune with psionic emenations.  Elsewhere it is implied that the shard is almost alive, giving off a soft glow.  I can't do anything about the glow obviously but the random, scrambled color scheme and the self illumination was meant to give the shard a bit of character so it looked remotely special and not like a piece of broken window pane.

I'll keep looking around for a better crystal texture.  Everything is still a W.I.P. so we'll see how things turn out

[673fbbba9ac04miracle.flame]

Thanks for the remark about "soft glow". I think we could implenet such soft snowy glow in next ADaoB just like with Laser Rapier but less luminating. Any opinions there? I've started a new thread about this.

I'd still prefer texture of snowy crystal without alloys.

[673fbbba9acfeChandlermaki]

Does the shard have it's own hand model? Because my hand is black with it...

[673fbbba9ae1bmiracle.flame]

Chandlermaki for your technical problems you should choose Helpdesk board because this alone has nothing to do with this particular mod itself. It's working perfectly fine.

EDIT: Well, Chandlermaki rewrote his post entirely so this one makes no sense anymore.

[673fbbba9afa9RocketMan]

I've been experimenting with more white, frosted textures and I must admit, it looks more familiar but still better than the original than the colored one....probably because the rainbow sparkle effect isn't very convincing when it doesn't actually change with the light.  The problem is now I can see all the intersecting planes that were otherwise camoflauged by the colors.  Looks like garbage.  The other thing is that even though the shard can look like a phantom at times, it can also look very opaque if the light hits it directly so I'm hesitant to touch the transparency on it.  I'm going to try reducing self-illum to see if that reduces the opacity in full light.  That way I can reduce the transparency without having to worry about vastly different looks in different lighting conditions.  By the way if anyone can find a good looking glass or crystal pattern that is uniform and shiny/sparkly then please post it.  I'm not finding much out there.

[673fbbba9b159miracle.flame]

My guess is that when you put there a static texture with reflecting or rainbow effects which don't change a bit when you move around light sources it will look odd no matter what. It will require really too high count of polygons and a texture that shines on the distorted surface according to light sources to make realistic look. That would be helluva piece of work.