Making holograms for Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith is easy and makes you look like you really know your stuff when it comes to editing. It only involves setting some flags on an adjoined surface. (No cogs--yay!)
Now that we have something to "project"
our hologram, we are going to create the surface that
will actually be our hologram. Cleave the sector
straight between the two consoles like so:
Creating the Surface
First, we need to select a computer
console to place our floating hologram above. You don't
need one for this to work, but it makes it look a whole
lot better. The best one to use is the 'console5'.
Just type it in the thing's name area or select it in
the template 'Doors/elev etc-walkstructure'. Place two
of them facing back to back (make sure they aren't
sticking through the floor):
Now you have created a nice surface that
we can play with. Multiselect both of them (one surface
belongs to each of the two sectors--make sure you get
them both).
**Note: Every time that you have to
cleave a surface while making a hologram, make sure you
multiselect BOTH SIDES before you cleave. It will save
you half the time and work than if you don't. Also
remember to clear your multiselection after each cleave
by pressing the 'Backspace' key.
Looking at the surfaces from the side,
cleave a 4 meter slice in both sides:
Now multiselect both of the new surfaces
above the consoles and cleave a 2 meter section a little
above the consoles: (Remember the
note!)
Right now, our surface is adjoined to both
sectors, and is invisible. To make it show up go to the
'+GEO' text area in the item selector. Click on the
text area so it is selected, and double-click on the
'+GEO' button.
When your surface has all the right flags,
test it. Look at both sides, shoot it, and jump through
it to make sure everything works. This is what it should
look like in the game:
I can't see one or both sides of my hologram!
I can't move through my hologram!
One or both of my consoles aren't there!
If you have any comments, questions, problems, or cool
screenshots of your level, e-mail me at
samcoulson@hotmail.com.Making it Show Up
Now that we have our surface that will
become the hologram, we can choose what we want it to
look like. Multiselect both surfaces and keep them
multiselected until we are done making our holo.
Double-click on the '+MATERIAL' button in the item
editor so you can choose the mat to use as the holo.
Ones that work nicely are:
(JK) (JK) (JK) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (MotS) (JK/MotS) (JK/MotS)
**If you double-click the button without clicking on the
text area, you will go into the texture selector because
it (the texture selector) is automatically selected when
the window is activated.
After doubleclicking on the '+GEO' button,
you should see a nice little window with values that you
can select. We want our picture to show up, so select
'Draw Textured' (I don't think it matters if you select
the first or the last 'Draw Textured'--if you have
problems e-mail me
). Once you have selected 'Draw Textured' click
'OK'. Make sure that both surfaces are still
multiselected, or you will have to set the flags for the
other side of the surface.
Now that we have done that, our hologram
should appear. Hit 'F12' and go into the 3-D Preview.
Your holo should look like this (maybe with a different
mat):
Setting the Flags
There's still two more things to do to
make this look really good (besides retexturing the
mat).
Most holograms are transparent, so we need
to set another flag to make it so. This flag is in the
'+FACE FLAGS' section on your Item Editor, so open it
just like the '+GEO' button. Then
select 'translucent' and click 'OK'. You won't be able
to see that it is transparent in the 3-D Preview, but it
shows up in the game.
This next flag is optional, but makes the
hologram look very real. What we will do is make the
holo look like it has its own power source by having it
fully lit, just like in the movies. To do this open the
'+LIGHT MODE' button like you did the
'+GEO' and '+FACE FLAGS' and select 'Fully Lit'.
Here's the flags that we
used--make sure that both surfaces have them all!
Troubleshooting
Here are some problems I ran into while
making my own holograms. If your problem isn't here,
e-mail me at
samcoulson@hotmail.com and I will do my best to help
you.