“BUILDING BETTER WORLDS” – A texture overhaul mod for Aliens: Colonial Marines

[Capt. Lamb]

**UPDATE:19/12/2018**

With the imminent V6 release of TemplarGFX's excellent overhaul mod, I thought it appropriate to make an official update on my texture overhaul mod. It has always been my hope that both our mods be used in conjunction (Temp's gameplay overhaul, my mod a visual overhaul) changing both the code and art of the game the best we can to dramatically change and improve the game. However, despite the work I have done over the past two years in my spare time, unlike Temp's mod, my mod got stuck in development.

As some of you will know, having spent a great deal of time and effort creating new textures for this game, I hit a hugely disappointing and frustrating roadblock in the form of TexMod itself (the program I use to 'inject' the new textures in to the game). The combination of TexMod and ACM works great if you are only adding a few new textures to the game but when the number, and therefore the file size, exceeds a certain amount, TexMod causes ACM to crash on start up or crash as soon as the level loads. This happens every single time, rendering my mod unusable. I was/am heartbroken.

I have tried a number of different things to fix or avoid this problem, and still have some ideas left to try. Reaching out to people on here, a few things were suggested to me that I have tried. This included the use of uMod, a less old alternative to the TexMod texture injector program, and the '4GB patch' (a tool that patches x86 executables in order to let them have 4GB (instead of only 2) of virtual memory on x64 platforms). Unfortunately, I still encountered instability issues and crashes with uMod (although I still have some things to try with it) and the 4GB patch did not seem to make any difference. For those wondering about my own specs, I have 16GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM.

Some time a go I made the decision to move from .png to .jpg image format for my exported textures in an attempt to decrease the file size of my texture packs. Then, about a week a go I was able to compress my .jpegs further (lowering the file size even more) without a noticable decrease in image quality, which I hope will further help my texture packs to work with ACM.

So, where do we go from here? The bad news is that I am still experiencing crashes with my mod. The good news, however, is that there are still things left to try and that I have just recently made a change that should help with stability and allow my mod to work. Certainly, there is still hope for my mod.

The plan going forward then: I am still working on this mod in my spare time and am committed to finishing what I started and releasing it. This mod will not cover the whole single player campaign but will instead cover the opening level 'Distress' on the Sulaco and the later level 'No hope at Hadley's' set on Acheron (LV-426). Following that, I am also interested in tweaking my texture pack for 'No hope at Hadley's' for the multiplayer map set at Hadley's Hope ('Tribute') but we'll see.

These texture packs will be released in two different ways:

• The complete set of textures in one pack for the individual map.
  
• The complete set of textures for the individual map separated out in to several smaller texture packs that can be swapped out over different checkpoints over the course of the level.

The smaller chunks approach is an attempt to avoid game crashes by only having to load a smaller texture pack at one time. Do I really expect people to bother going to that trouble? No, not really. But if it turns out to be the only way of releasing what I've created in a working order then at least you'll have the option to play using my mod if you'd like to. At this point, I'll encourage anyone who downloads my mod to work with me to troubleshoot the problem and maybe together we will find a way to get the large texture packs working!

At the very least it is important to me to present the work that I have done for this mod, even if we cannot ever get it working satisfactorily, and I will be uploading many screenshots of my work and mod in action (for the sake of screenshots I can be very selective with the textures I load and so avoid crashes).

All the best,

Capt. Lamb

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*This post will be updated over time and in particular with the release of new versions of the mod, which will be outlined in detail within the release notes below. I will post screenshots of my on going work in the comments.*

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“You secure that ♥♥♥♥, Hudson!”

“Building Better Worlds” is a texture overhaul mod for Aliens: Colonial Marines using the TexMod program. Currently a work in progress, the mod is a visual remastering and reimagining of the game’s original textures by altering its diffuse, specular, and normal maps.

“Building Better Worlds” aims to improve the appearance of the game in a number of different ways: by fixing ‘broken’ textures, where possible; by increasing the resolution of textures, where appropriate; by adding higher levels of detail and realism; by creating visuals that more closely match the film.

This is the first incarnation of this mod. I've got more textures in the works, some near completion, but I've been sitting on this for so long that I just wanted to get something out there finally. So here's the first few textures!

“We manufacture those, by the way.”

Version 1.0

• Darkened the ‘USS SULACO/SEPHORA’ name on the side of the ships to better match the film look.
  
• Decreased the size of bullet hole decals by 50% to be more realistic.
  
• Increased the brightness & contrast of the gas clouds in space to better match the film.
  
• Completely remade the torch spotlight used by marines to be more detailed, realistic, and to better match the film.
  
• Completely remade the motion tracker screen of NPC marines to better match the film.
  
• Increased the resolution of specular map for Xeno Soldier from 1024px to 2048px.
  
• Completely remade the starfield background in space to better match the film and increased the resolution from 2048px to 4096px.
  
• Remade and remastered the player’s motion tracker to be more realistic, more detailed, and to better match the film. These changes include a screen accurate recolour of the motion tracker from green to brown; the inclusion of some graffiti on the handle in both diffuse and normal map layers; an entirely remade ‘radar grid’ for the screen; new text/number details on screen; new screen ‘scanlines’; remade the darkened edges of screen effect, fixing error that caused the bottom edge to disappear off the bottom of the screen.
  
• Completely remade the texture that causes the starfield in space to ‘twinkle’.
  
• Completely remade and increased the resolution of the texture that renders blood splats on the bodies of dead Xenos to be more realistic and to remove the ‘polka dot’ effect caused by the original texture; original 512px increased to 2048px.
  
• Completely remade the title screen logo to include USMC font and “Building Better Worlds” mod version info.
  
• Completely remade vignette effect texture, increasing resolution from 64px to 1920 x 1080px, adding a new darkening effect and a blue coloured tint that matches the colour timing of the film. Increasing the resolution helps improve the quality of the image, helping to remove the colour banding caused by the original vignette texture.
  
• Completely remade the star texture as seen in the two stars in the opening sequence.

“It’s very pretty, Bishop, but what are we looking for?”

These screenshots were taken using Cilitbäng's DOF preset for ReShade 2, which I strongly recommend!

*Note: Only those changes listed in the changelog above, and pictured below in this first post, feature in the version of the mod currently available on ModDB. Those pictured elsewhere in the thread are not currently available for download.*

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785216536
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785216605
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785216569
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=786049430
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785216708

“Where do you want it?”

To download my “Building Better Worlds” mod:

• Click HERE and download the .rar file.
  
• Extract the .rar file to your desired location.

If you are using TemplarGFX's mod then you do not need to make the following changes. If you are not, then you will need to change your game settings in order to load higher resolution textures:

• Navigate to “This PC\Documents\My Games\Aliens Colonial Marines\PecanGame\Config.
  
• Open “PecanEngine.ini” in Notepad.
  
• Under “[SystemSettings]” copy over the equivalent section with the following code and set the file to read only:

TEXTUREGROUP_World=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Weapon=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Vehicle=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Cinematic=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Effects=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_EffectsNotFiltered=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Skybox=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_UI=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Lightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Shadowmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,NumStreamedMips=3,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_RenderTarget=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Data=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_MobileFlattened=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_Face=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_LightMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Heightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Weightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
PopulationAdjustment=100
(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,NumStreamedMips=3,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)
Fullscreen=True
bUseFilmGrain=False
FilmGrain=0
bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=True
bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=True
bAllowLightShafts=True
TEXTUREGROUP_ColorLookupTable=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=8192,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Sharpen5)

To install TexMod:

• Search for “TexMod” on your search engine of choice, download, and unzip anywhere you want it.
  
• Load the TexMod application. The program will open in “Package Mode” by default, but if it hasn’t, click on the “Package Mode” button.
  
• Under “Target Application” in the top-left corner of the window, left click on the large square button with the folder icon to select the game application. Typically the A:CM .exe will be found at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Aliens Colonial Marines\Binaries\Win32\ACM.exe”.
  
• Now to select the new textures, left click on the small button at the centre of the window with the small folder icon and “Browse…” to the “BBW.tpf” file (wherever you put it) and select.
  
• Make sure the .tpf file appears under “Package Name” in the white box.
  
• Please turn off your anit-virus software as it will conflict with TexMod and prevent TexMod from running.
  
• Now hit “Run” and enjoy!

“You’ve blown the main transaxle… ease down, ease down.”

From my experience TexMod has a nasty habit of always failing to load one texture from the texture pack. This texture seems to change every time and doesn’t appear to be caused by anything that I’ve done on my end. If the texture that fails to load involves the motion tracker and you can’t use it in-game, then you’re going to have to exit the game and reload it. Odds are it’ll affect some other texture though.

“Don’t ask me, man. I just work here.”

Q: Why are you doing this?
A: I love Aliens, grew up with it like many of you did. For me this is an opportunity to create some cool stuff about a film I love and learn how to texture props and environments for the first time in the process.

Q: Does this mod work with TemplarGFX’s most excellent overhaul mod?
A: Yes, this mod will work with both the vanilla game and Templar’s mod. TexMod just injects textures ‘over’ the game’s original textures, whatever version you’re running.

Q: Can I run it?
A: Try it! But remember that TexMod works by loading new textures in addition to the original, and stores the new textures within your system’s RAM (I think. Yes, RAM not VRAM.. Weird, I know. But I'm sure I read this somewhere). Clearly, this can cause problems for lower spec’ machines. Unfortunately, TexMod is pretty unstable, especially with larger texture packs.

Q: Do aliens mostly come out at night?
A: Mostly.

Q: How far are you planning to go with this?
A: Honestly, realistically – I don’t know. I’m a very busy guy; life happens. This is a labour of love, and sometimes frustration (!), when things don’t work quite right, but for a hardcore fan of the Alien trilogy it’s pretty cool to make stuff for that world and geek out over all the little details.

Q: It’s hot as hell in here.
A: Yeah, man.. but it’s a dry heat.

[Capt. Lamb]

This is the first incarnation of this mod. I've got more textures in the works, some near completion, but I've been sitting on this for so long that I just wanted to get something out there finally. So here's the first few textures!

Also, I'd be grateful if someone could take a screenshot of the NPC motion tracker in use so I can check how it's looking. I'm not currently on a level with an appropriate NPC and don't want to lose my save.

[Cyandos]

Originally posted by Capt. Lamb:

This is the first incarnation of this mod. I've got more textures in the works, some near completion, but I've been sitting on this for so long that I just wanted to get something out there finally. So here's the first few textures!

Also, I'd be grateful if someone could take a screenshot of the NPC motion tracker in use so I can check how it's looking. I'm not currently on a level with an appropriate NPC and don't want to lose my save.

How about the Coop Partner tracker? Is it the same?

[Capt. Lamb]

Originally posted by Ratchet Lombax:

How about the Coop Partner tracker? Is it the same?

The co-op partner tracker should look different too.

[Capt. Lamb]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=859561883

[Hex dk]

Compeart to Templars mod, wart will you say is the biggest difriens?

[Capt. Lamb]

Originally posted by Hex dk:

Compeart to Templars mod, wart will you say is the biggest difriens?

The mod that I'm working on is purely visual - all it does is change the textures. I'm redesigning textures and increasing their resolution. Ideally, you'd use Templar's mod and mine at the same time for maximum improvement!

[Cyandos]

Originally posted by Capt. Lamb:

Originally posted by Hex dk:

Compeart to Templars mod, wart will you say is the biggest difriens?

The mod that I'm working on is purely visual - all it does is change the textures. I'm redesigning textures and increasing their resolution. Ideally, you'd use Templar's mod and mine at the same time for maximum improvement!

Oh, i thought they wouldn't be compatible, this sounds great!

[Capt. Lamb]

Originally posted by Ratchet Lombax:

Originally posted by Capt. Lamb:

The mod that I'm working on is purely visual - all it does is change the textures. I'm redesigning textures and increasing their resolution. Ideally, you'd use Templar's mod and mine at the same time for maximum improvement!

Oh, i thought they wouldn't be compatible, this sounds great!

No, no.. 100% compatible :). Templar's mod is a must for us all!

[Slim Jim's Popcorn]

Sir if this turns into a full texture mod over time, you will have done what no one else has been able to do yet. I look forward to following progress.

[mahon007]

very sweet

[Capt. Lamb]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863400869

[Capt. Lamb]

Originally posted by DZ⍫SC:

Sir if this turns into a full texture mod over time, you will have done what no one else has been able to do yet. I look forward to following progress.

Thanks man, I appreciate the support!

[Capt. Lamb]

Originally posted by mahon007:

very sweet

Cheers :)

[Capt. Lamb]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=867058355

[Slim Jim's Popcorn]

Keep it up bro :) Greets from NZ