GDC 2011 Cinematic Character Lighting in SWTOR

This is a Game Developers Conference 2011 presentation by BioWare's Ben Cloward (Senior Technical Artist) and Aaron Otstott (Senior Software Engineer), where they describe the concept art-like, "stylized realism" that was set as a goal for SWTOR's graphic style, opposite to the usual aim for photorealism, and how it was achieved. They discuss the implementation via shaders and other methods of techniques such as gradient lighting, rim lighting, depth of field, automatic camera and light positioning, etc., several of which are being or have been implemented by the SWTOR Slicers team in tools like TORCommunity.com's Character Designer, Unreal and Blender shaders, etc.

The videorecording of the presentation is 59 minutes-long (48 minutes of actual presentation plus Q&A).

The slides can be downloaded as a PDF (22 MB).

We do not condone the usage of our tools for malicious intent, including: exploits, harassment of others, or anything else that may violate EA/Bioware's EULA, TOS, DSA, Privacy Policy Copyrights, Trademarks, or anything else illegal. We will not be held accountable for your actions, and will act against you if nessesary.

INTRODUCTION

IMPORTING SWTOR MODELS INTO BLENDER: A BRIEF OVERVIEW.
Check this intro first. Afterwards, you can jump directly to the guides on extracting PCs, NPCs and others.

TOOLS

Downloadable Tools (All Links Page):

(NEW) ExtracTOR Windows app.
(Replaces the old Slicers GUI app)
Blender 3D Windows/Mac/Linux app.
SWTOR .gr2 Objects Importer Blender Add-on.
Required by other add-ons.
ZG SWTOR Tools Blender Add-on:
- Installation and Status Panel.
- Area Assembler Tools.
- Character Assembler Tools.
- Materials Tools.
- Objects Tools.
- Pose And Sculpt Tools.
- Baking Tools.
SWTOR Terrain Extractor Windows Command Line Tool.

Online Tools:

Jedipedia.net:
- SWTOR Database.
- File Reader.
- World Viewer.
TORCommunity.com:
(runs VERY slowly)
- SWTOR Database (with NPC Exporters).
- Character Designer.

No longer working:

EasyMYP Windows app.
Noesis Windows app.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO AUTO-EXTRACTING AND ASSEMBLING PLAYER CHARACTERS AND NPCs:

READ THE BROAD STROKES FIRST: YOU'LL SEE IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK!

The steps:
Extra steps that require manual work and some knowledge of SWTOR's assets:
- Making capes and hair work, manually and through Cloth Simulation.
- Locating weapons' assets manually.
- Attaching weapons and other objects to a character with a SWTOR rig.
- Attaching weapons and other objects to a character with a custom rig.
- Baking the models' textures and exporting to other apps:
  - Baking with Legacy SWTOR materials and modern ones.
  - Baking the multiple materials of an object into a single one.
  - Exporting to VRChat.
  - Exporting to Star Wars Battlefront II.
  - Exporting to Unreal Engine.
  - Exporting to Garry's Mod.
  - Exporting to Tabletop Simulator.
- 3D Printing:
  - Baking Normals into real 3D detailing

ASSEMBLING GAME LOCATIONS AUTOMATICALLY:

Assembling SWTOR Game Areas with Jedipedia.net data and ZG SWTOR Tools Add-on's Area Assembler.

LOCATING AND ASSEMBLING ASSETS MANUALLY:

OTHER GUIDES (WIP):

Snippets.
Improving and customizing our SWTOR models and materials.
Other Extracting Strategies (needs updating).
SWTOR Materials recipes:
- SWTOR’s holosigns: how to make them work in Blender.

MODDING

Modding isn't working since SWTOR moved to 64-bit codebase. Unless a new coder takes charge, it'll stay so indefinitely.

Alternative techniques:
- Modding SWTOR textures with Special K (USE CAUTION).

DATAMINING

Basically, use Jedipedia.net's tools and check our Discord. We'll see about adding new material, but this is very involved stuff.

SWTOR TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

File Formats:
(32-bit. Needs updating to 64-bit):
A look at SWTOR's Materials and Texture Files.

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly