Tags: °mesh °SS2

The following mod is a heavily adjusted version of a high poly artistic rendering of the SS2 Protocol Droid, rigged to work as a replacement enemy.  It aims to be authentic to the game design while preserving as much of the creator's vision as possible.  The original author of the source model is Simon Pennington, whose works can be found here:

http://www.mrsmo3d.com/

Adjustments to the model and rigging it for use in-game was done by myself with texture adjustment work and other troubleshooting kindly provided by Grosnus.  Please note that due to engine limitations, the polygon count has been significantly reduced and while the general impression of the author's work is hopefully preserved, the current level of fidelity is no longer representative of the source material.

Two versions of the droid are attached.  The first is one in which the droid projects a visible laser beam from one of its eyes.  This can add a dramatic effect but is not present in the original model.  The second version is exactly the same, minus the laser beam.  A casket model is also attached.  You will need the casket + 1 of the droid versions for your SS2 playthrough to look consistent.  A special thanks to Olfred for getting the casket to work correctly!

Thanks to Simon for his generous contribution to this game's modding community.

Open issues (jump in if you know how to solve these):

How to force the droid to render, even when the player isn't looking at it.  Needed to prevent laser from disappearing when you turn away.

Laser beam droid preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SJKPzGW2kU
 

Yeah the laser thing is a piece of cake to remove if need be.  I figured the same but it was so awesome I had to put it on

Yikes. Looks like some kind of heavily-armored, laser-guided terminator bot now. Would be good for a mod, but as a model upgrade it somewhat misses the point of the protocol droid design, IMHO.

Once you see it you'll have a pretty good idea where it came from.

Apprently, I don't.

Is it ethical for me to just say who it is at this point?  I wasn't sure.

how to download?

while it's not too far fetched to assume a multipurpose protocol droid would have a laser pointer installed, I would also vote for making an alternate laserless version available, or to remove it completely.

and give it to the cyborg assassin.

as I always say - by all means. there is no such thing as having too many SS2 AI replacement models.

Actually I quite like Assidragon's  (EDIT:  I might actually be confusing with Arcaniac here) assassin.  It's not super high res or anything but it fits the bill.  Far as the droid goes, I'll certainly do what I can to make it match better, given specific feedback, within my means.  I may need help with the texture work though because I would make a mess to touch that myself.  The laser I can delete but I don't know how much weaker I can make him look.  I think the high resolution plating gives the illusion of armor but keep in mind most of the robot is completely exposed and those plates could be merely to protect joints, electronics and moving parts from damage when interacting with the environment, hence the knee pads for example, so he doesn't jam a servo by kneeling on a metal grate.  Aside from all that logical justification, it looks bang on the same as the old model except for some minor nuances like texture color and a few ribbon cables.

Try some different colours on the laser. Red always looks aggressive. Blue or green would be better. Then turn it red when it has spotted the player.
If you remove the laser I'd like an alternate version. I'm not ready to give up on awesomeness in the name of some misconceived "realism" or "true to original". Read the first comments on Eldron's psi amp sometime again, a universally beloved model these days. You'll know what I mean.

Can't wait for a FM to put some droids into a dark room and let them go First Contact on you
Image: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120318011044/memoryalpha/en/images/5/59/Borg_approach_in_dark.jpg

Read the first comments on Eldron's psi amp sometime again, a universally beloved model these days. You'll know what I mean.

There's a post somewhere around here by Eldron saying he now wishes he'd made his psi amp more like the original.