Kaucukovnik's SS2 graphical modifications

[67433f2d747f1Kaucukovnik]

Since I'm apparettly keeping too far from vanilla game's aesthetics for inclusion in the main replacement pack(s), there is no reason I should continue posting my stuff in the SCP discussion. So, reposting + adding...
These are NOT meant to be faithful recreations, but more of reimagining of bits of the game.

New worms and beakers adapted to use the new texture effectively:

Download
Blender file

Brain of the Many [WIP]

I would be grateful if someone could make a mini-mod to stop the brain from spinning and enlarge the brain sack collision according to the enormous size of my brain. I'll have the final model exported soon.

[67433f2d74b2dvoodoo47]

the texture animation works like this - the textures need to be named texture_.ext, texture_1.ext, texture_2.ext, ... texture_xx.ext, and the engine will animate them automatically. as mentioned before, we can control the animation with a mtl file (small txt where you can set up things like anim rate, looping and some more). the texture that should be referenced in the model is texture_.ext (the very first one).

[67433f2d74c5eKaucukovnik]

Thanks! Complete worm package should be ready soon!

[67433f2d74e30voodoo47]

attaching the current resources converted to mod format (hexedited the texture name in the model, renamed the textures and duplicated the first frame because it was missing, and added the mtl). note - now the textures are a bit too lowres. still needs less ground (none ground) to be visible through the pile, and the worms need to be less fat, more spiky, and less brown to not look like a pile of turds.

the 3d model helps a lot.

[67433f2d74f96Kaucukovnik]

Great! Thanks again!

Now I have an odd problem with the beakers, whatever I change, the transparency goes all wrong. Even when I reduce it to the same amount of overlapping transparencies as the new pile has - 2 worm layers + 1 glass, the pile has 3 wormy layers.

[67433f2d7512eKaucukovnik]

Nevermind, I had the glass and worms as separate meshes.
Edited the first post.

Should I add a 25 frame variant as well?

[67433f2d75313voodoo47]

why not? anyway, I think the texture resolution is fine now.

now I would recommend improving the visuals - as mentioned, texture needs to be more wormy so the ground wouldn't show (just like the orig), and the worms still look more like spilled guts then worms. making them sleeker (less of that marbles in a sock look), and making the worm ends pointy would be good.

to make it short, it would work best if it was the same as the orig texture, just hires. that is what players like, and what causes least headaches for other modders.


also watch out, the worm pile model from the last package is referencing an incorrect texture.

and I will have a look at the brain stuff, if it can be dml'd, I'll do it. but not today, too tired.


//forgot about the beaker - the bottom still has z-figting, and, as yet again mentioned before, there aren't enough worms to make this work. it's not good that one can see through the beaker - it doesn't look like a beaker with worm matter inside, but like a water filled beaker with a bunch of worms swimming inside. the orig aesthetics would be preferable.

[67433f2d7595dKaucukovnik]

it would work best if it was the same as the orig texture, just hires. that is what players like, and what causes least headaches for other modders.

You and some other players like it, and it causes you less headaches when making 100% faithful upres according to your tastes and preferences. Not every modder wants to be a humble servant of the original's looks and feels.
I reference a new material name, so no conflicts there. My original naming "kck_*.png" was precisely to avoid mod conflicts - another "xwormy*.png" texture may appear somewhere, but "kck_wormy*.png? Hardly ever. And they are also easier to look up in the txt16 dir. Was there a technical problem with my file naming?

I would even understand your persistence if we were talking the last lowpoly/lowres stragglers in the game, but for example literally NO AI model has a faithful recreation, maybe except Eldron's midwife, but I'm sure she has some horrible consistency issue I'm not aware of as well.

Yes, I agree - it would be amazing if we had all the assets 1:1 recreated in higher detail, but do you really think it's going to happen the way things are going?

You see, it's like some metalheads rating music almost exclusively by the criteria "how much metal" it is. Doesn't really help you unless you are looking for the most metal stuff ever and you both have similar tastes.
And people also have different tastes as to what constitutes being faithful and not detrimental to atmosphere. For example I like the first Silent Hill the most partially because it's the crudest and most pixellated of the series, and no HD remake/overhaul will do any good in this regard, but I'm sure I could stomach some sensible alternate textures.
How are the vanilla worms consistent even with its own larger, AI worms? The former are basically a bunch of earthworms, and the latter are thick, stubby larvae consisting of just of a few segments. To my sensibilities i have improved the worms. Definitely not perfect, but neithere were the 3-frame earthworms. But I guess SS2 devs didn't make mistakes/compromises, period. 

And adding some slime would be nice, but it's beyond my abilities to animate something like that. If you can and want to, please go ahead. I'll be very happy if someone improves on my work.
There will most likely be some tweaks, I'm not that happy with the outcome.

[67433f2d75b10Kolya]

Hello Kaucukovnik. I have attached your downloads to your first post. I really really suggest you attach new or updated files there yourself as well. External downloads tend to disappear, while we have been here for more than 10 years.
If the worm mod is playable I would like to move this thread into the SS2 mods forum. What do you think?

[67433f2d75ca0voodoo47]

you are free to take your own path with the visuals of course, but optimally, the new resource should be an improvement over the orig in all aspects. at the moment, I don't believe that's the case - the old beaker looks better, imho. anyway, just adding some brown background would solve the problem with too much stuff being visible through the worms.

also yes, two underscores are not allowed in animated textures, so you will have to change that (kckwormy_.png would be ok).

and yes, piles of disgusting worms are one of the great mysteries of SS2 - nobody really knows what they are.


//K, would wait until the author considers the mod ready. at the moment, it's usable, but there are still some things left that would be better off fixed or improved.

[67433f2d75e43Kolya]

After reading the discussion in the SCP models thread, I have another idea for the worm pile:
A model for it could be a hump plus a few wormy extensions protruding from that hump. Instead of making the worms move around, they would have digesting bumps go alongside their bodies, getting thicker and thinner in waves. This movement could be created purely through texture animation.
Well, it's just an idea.

[67433f2d76038voodoo47]

ok, to demonstrate what I mean, here is a video (view in hd and a new window), with the orig pile using your model on the left, and the current new pile on the right - while the animation is obviously choppy and the resolution is low on the orig pile, it does a better job of convincing the observer that it has actual mass, while the texture on the new pile is making it painfully obvious that the worms are just flat, especially when viewed from angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCfOgAydt_Q


setting the visuals and color aside, this is something that really needs to be improved, I believe. and yes, there are places in the game when you can view piles from angles, so this would be visible.

[67433f2d761ccKaucukovnik]

That's exactly what I'm attempting right now with the beakers - the sense of more mass. I created a static, non-transparent texture to have as inner layer to make the beaker content completely opaque, but transparency gets screwed again. It seems to be happening at random - triangulating the mesh, reducing transparancy layers (the amount ov overlaying transparent meshes) or changing distance between them doesn't make any difference. The ones I posted are suffering from this too, that's why there seem to be so few worms in them.
Hopefully the glass is the culprit and giving more mass to the piles should be easier.

And yeah, it's functional but not really in a release state.

[67433f2d762c0voodoo47]

Olfred would be the person you should ask about this.

[67433f2d764d4nemyax]

Kaucukovnik
The transparency issues are due to lack of polygon sorting. Currently there are two ways to solve them:

• Use bsp.exe instead of the Blender addon.
• If you're using the addon, split the beaker into two objects, and make sure the inner part is the parent of the outer part. This will cause the parent's polygons to render first, which is exactly what's needed in this case.

I'm planning to add optional BSP sorting to the addon some time, but I don't know when.

[67433f2d765e3Kaucukovnik]

Hell yeah! Thanks, nemyax! I don't mind the extra setup, as long as the process works reliably, and it does.
Beakers are now swarming with worms.

[67433f2d76710eliwolfe92]

Wow! The brain of the many looks fantastic. I have to say it's definitely an improvement over the original. I think I agree with voodoo about the worms though. While they're higher res, they kinda look like mr. hankeys. I think a simple recoloring would fix that.

[67433f2d76887Kaucukovnik]

Glad you like the brain. It still needs some work, and I'm probably going to have 2 variants in the end.

Improved worms and beakers:

Download Worms_v2.7z

All these worm shots are taken in the basketball court on Recreation deck and brightened up a lot. I'd swear there was a light switch somewhere.

[67433f2d769dfvoodoo47]

better, but the static parts seem to be on top of the dynamic ones, would look better the other way around. also, some texture cutoffs going on at the edges. but I think it's reached the point when it looks better than orig.

the basketball court lights need to be enabled by using a charged power cell in the pool room.

[67433f2d76b1dDjant]

Yeah I think this looks good, although the animations could be a bit more convincing. Also the colours could be lighter. But yeah, this mod is more or less ready now.