TL;DR version:
- Is it possible to replace old UV coordinates with new ones?
- Is it possible to replace or add on more geometry to an object without re weightpainting or recreating the objects rig? example: making new geo a child of the existing model?
- Do you think we could figure out a way to duplicate the No.69 impact grenade, replace the model with the knife, remove the explosive damage and how it alerts AI to essentially create throwing knifes?
- Has anyone attempted to contact the LS3D engine programmers to see if they could release their old engines internal build?
Long version:
Hello! so only recently started playing this game friend of mine introduced me and i dunno how the hell i managed to miss out on this for so long.
anyway i checked out a texture and sound mod then quickly started modding my own sounds in and soon i got to the textures, a quick test showed that just replacing even a 256x256 texture with a 1024x1024 one displays perfectly fine in game, Awesome i thought: time to look at modding the vehicles
so since i know maya well i exported the jeep from 3ds max into maya to preview texture changes and... 34 textures? what in the hell.. for 1 jeep?
Does anyone know how the game handles UV mapping? i can get the models into maya easily enough and unwrapping it properly into a sensible modern layout is doable but how would i go about getting a new UV map into the game?
id assume the engine is already set up to load all 34files for when a jeep loads up so id have to figure out a way to change its path and direct it to a single texture file with new UV coordinates.
I'm also curious what the poly limit would be since I've seen other modders have success adding on geometry or replacing existing weapons but again doing so stuffs up the UVs since its new polys and the engine is just loading the old UVs.
if that was figured out then technically to get say a better looking tank i could just replace the model with a higher poly one adding more detail and cutting way down on the absurd amount of files need to load onto one vehicle.
The other downside to that would be rigging i wouldn't have a clue how to rig in 3ds max 2014 (which is what i was using to preview models and export to maya)
Unless there's a method in which more geometry is added onto the existing geo as a child so that it doesn't effect the rigging in anyway.
Another part to modding is a programming friend of mine has an idea on modding in throwing knifes
the theory is that we:
Make a duplicate of the No.69 impact grenades
Replace the model with a knife
Disable explosive damage and particle effects
Disable noise so that it wont alert nearby enemies.
No idea if that's possible as I'm more of a modeler/animator where as my friend is the programmer. It does sound like it might need engine level access if its not possible to script up and use in the editor.
Speaking of has anyone tried contacting folks that worked on the engine? all i could find on it was on the
Russian wiki
(weirdly on the english HD2 page it just redirects to 2K Czech)
If modders had engine level access then itad open up the game to whatever you code.
It mentions the Illusion Engine used for Mafia2 succeeded LS3D so even if its possible to track someone down they might not be able to give it out under contract or something but surely a 2006 or earlier build of LS3D wouldn't be worth anything to them? i guess it would then come down to the bureaucratic parts of how it possibly effecting their hold on the intellectual property.
Well if anyone has any ideas or could point me in the right direction please let me know!
