Modification appearance of Aliens - is it a possibility?

Kujal4 · Post by **Kujal4** » Sun, 15. Jun 08, 15:21

:?:Is there a method of changing the appearance and perhaps replacing the voice responses of the differing races in the top right communication window on X3 Reunion?

Probably sounds like an obvious question right? but I've been playing X3 Reunion for only three days and I'm already thinking of getting into modding - Please, be kind.

- Kujal4

Post by **Xenon_Slayer** » Sun, 15. Jun 08, 15:59

The alien comm videos are from a large video file so if you want to replace it, someone will need to create a new video full of moving alien heads. Not an easy task.

As for the voice responces, again, they are in a big file and that will need to be editted.

Kujal4 · Post by **Kujal4** » Sun, 15. Jun 08, 19:54

First off,... many thanks Xenon_Slayer for answering my question so quickly, secondly, re-authoring 3D graphics and creating film clips from thin air for me is, although time consuming, easy, I create short films using Poser and 3D studio Max and I can render it out, add effects etc, you name it - So for the video's, I'm covered.
Audio? well again I reckon I may have that covered too.

How can I locate and find the files I need within the X3 program so I may begin to edit? and could you give me your opinion on what program I might need to get started?
Thank you in advance and all the best to you - Kujal4

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Sun, 15. Jun 08, 21:21

You would absolutely, definitely be my hero if you could switch out those muppet heads for us.

And heck, if you need help with voices, I could be of some help. I'm armed with Garageband and a great deal of acting talent, so that's something.

A5PECT · Post by **A5PECT** » Sun, 15. Jun 08, 23:25

This sounds pretty interesting. What are your ideas on how the races should look?

I'd like to help, but I have little to no experience with 3D modeling programs (trying to get into the field, at the moment). Although I am a fairly skilled two dimensional artist.

Coridan · Post by **Coridan** » Mon, 16. Jun 08, 01:31

This is an amazing idea. Please replace the lame alien models/voices/animations (forgive me, and no offense) that egosoft created! You would be my #1 hero.

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Mon, 16. Jun 08, 03:49

KloHunt3r definitely wins...

Forgot to say, click the link in my sig and find "Bitching Bob Experimentation." It's a little experiment I did seeing how a male computer voice could come out. It's not much, but it's my current portfolio.

Kujal4 · Post by **Kujal4** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 02:09

OK, if someone can walk me through how to post an image on this forum, I'll show you what kind of Aliens I'm talking about - examples to follow after advice given.

****** Watch this space X3 People ******

A5PECT · Post by **A5PECT** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 02:56

Well you just have to find an image hosting site you can use to upload your picture to the internet (I use imageshack). Then copy the url for the thumbnail or picture itself and paste it into one of your posts.

eladan · Post by **eladan** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 03:11

Kujal4 wrote:How can I locate and find the files I need within the X3 program so I may begin to edit?

I don't know that there's info on all of it, but what I know is:

The files you are after are mov\00001.dat for the talking heads, and mov\00144.dat for the audio. There is an index for the audio in mov\00044.xml ('s=' for starting time in milliseconds, 'l=' for length, again in milliseconds,) though it doesn't give any info about what the audio clip actually is. I don't know of an index for the vid.

The file formats are wmv for the vid, and wma for the audio.

Hopefully someone else has some info to add to this.

Kujal4 · Post by **Kujal4** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 14:07

***** The wait is over *****

OK, thanks for your patience, now be kind guys and gals, I knocked this image up today. This'd be a one frame render of an Argon Military pilot at the end of an attack where they might be responding to your surrender request.
Thanks to KloHunt3r for pointing me towards imageshack to hold the images - Thanks mate. Tell me what you think - Be kind again people.
- Kujal4
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/4195 ... y01oz9.png

[Sorry, image size exceeds 100kB limit. Changed to link--Nanook]

Kujal4 · Post by **Kujal4** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 14:14

The second image is another possible Xenon maybe? - I know, I know, I gotta' get some clothes on him but hey, I gave myself a day for both of these - My PC hates me. - Kujal4

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/4919/xenonsn9.png

[Again, image size exceeds 100kB limit. Changed to link--Nanook]

THE_BIG_FISH:Leo · Post by **THE_BIG_FISH:Leo** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 14:15

i think we need to invent a word more awesome than awesome

Kujal4 wrote:The second image is another possible Xenon maybe? - I know, I know, I gotta' get some clothes on him but hey, I gave myself a day for both of these - My PC hates me. - Kujal4]

perhaps kark (however its spelt) as xenon are an AI, never less i can't wait

edit:

if you read this old news article you can see some of Egosofts art relating to the specie's http://www.egosoft.com/x/xnews/200608_44News.html it might help with ideas

Kujal4 · Post by **Kujal4** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 14:35

Oh, bugger, - Thanks THE_BIG_FISH, I did not know that the Xenon are AI, again, I've only been playing for about 5 days now, maybe Boron, they're supposed to be derived from fish dudes right? if this looks more like what the Khaak would look like then it can be Khaak as well, I'm just testing the water to see what interest the idea generates at the moment, I was planning on making a really mean looking mutha as I reckon this one looks a bit 'Girls blousy' so I guess I'll have to make that one later - If I can design a character that can give people nightmares I'll be on the right track. - Thanks though - possible AI character to design as well coooool.
Hey can anyone help me find a non dead link to pull down a program to open up this .CAT .DIT .DAT .YEAH WHATEVER
Thanks in advance folks - Kujal4

(----____JEFF____----)

The Xenon could be represented by something like QAI from Supreme Commander.
Here's a small clip of him saying some stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC5fgqsv ... re=related

Like the Xenon he's a evil AI

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 17:24

Shoot, man, these are awesome! Much better than the "muppet people"

As far as looks for the various aliens, I believe there's a few fan art pieces for the Boron, Split, and Paranid to be found in the Creative forum that you could base your ideas on- also I think someone did a new Teladi in 3D that looked pretty good. A few good places to start I think.

Dragon93 · Post by **Dragon93** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 17:27

That is absolutely amazing work. I think you should remove the tentacles of the second guy though, not sure what it fits with though, not really right for Boron. Possibly with some edits it, could be Split or Paranid. Boron i think should be more slender and maybe obvious gills. About the Khaak i dont think it needs to be biped, maybe get some ideas from the Shivans in Freespace.

I like the idea of the QAI Jeff, maybe though will a more mechanical body. Or maybe no actual body at all.

You could maybe make some cool vids for when talking to Capital ship captains, big holo panels with maps on in the background and officers and crew walking around the bridge.

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 17:47

Agreed with Dragon, a couple of ship captains for each race could be cool. Could have them standing up with a much wider view of the space around them... if you wanted to do a LOT more of these you could distinguish between TL and M2/M1 captains, where the military captains would be in military flight suits and an admiral's hat with lots of tactical maps and military-looking things in the background, but the TL captains would be sitting at a desk in a civilian getup, etc...

Just some ideas, I'm not sure if there can actually be more talking heads than there currently are, not being familiar with how their index works.

The Kha'ak and the Xenon actually don't generally communicate with you... in fact I don't think they do at all. So you wouldn't really NEED comms videos for them, though it would be interesting to see what they could theoretically look like.

I think it's generally accepted that the Xenon actually ARE their ships, and that there isn't some sort of humanoid robot pilot inside each of them... I may be mistaken though. But that could make room for a QAI-like communication entity, which would be fairly awesome

A5PECT · Post by **A5PECT** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 18:57

Very nice models. Did you make them from scratch? I've had some ideas for the appearance of X characters as well, so I'll try to get the up here as well.

For the Xenon you could have a simple graphic screen that says "Sound Only" with one of those wave visualizations or something.

...of course then we'd need to get them to talk.

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Tue, 17. Jun 08, 20:11

I could manage a talking Xenon...

Granted, I don't think the Xenon are the type that would taunt... the premise would have to be that Xenon communications have been hacked and translated by the races, I guess.

So you'd get stuff like, "Proceed to terminate," "Impacts- Evading..." stuff like that.

Also, how about that scream that everyone has when they get blown up? I'd expect something more like a semblance of a scream that gets cut off by sudden vacuum and the first quarter second of an explosion. Nice and violent, of course.

Anyway, I'll experiment with some voice acting today.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Modification appearance of Aliens - is it a possibility?

Modification appearance of Aliens - is it a possibility?

The next step?

Re: The next step?