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About this mod
Restores the pitch black sky, the moon and brings improved clouds to resemble the look and feel of the Black Island / Ireland levels from the original Core Design Tomb Raider Chronicles game (PS1 version).
Since patch 1 they also implemented the black sky, stars and even lifted the skybox like this mod did.
- Permissions and credits
- Donations
Installation:
About the moon photo: After some research and comparison between photos, I finally found the exact one Core Design developer chose to put in the game, which NASA describes as "Full disc of moon photographed by Apollo 17 crewmen during transearth coast". File name: as17-152-23311. It's not the face of the moon that we are familiar with here on Earth, it's one that can only be seen from space, no wonder it's such an uncanny view which perfectly fits these levels.
The information below refers to the game before patch 1. Since then, they also changed the sky to black and even lifted the skybox (they did through game code), they also introduced stars through a new layer (I had to add them before within the skybox). It seems they took some of my implementations in this mod to their first patch. My desired lightning effect was also introduced.
The sky at the top for the HD/remastered version is not pitch black like the original, instead it's grey because the clouds are transparent to pass through that colour from the background of this game engine. So I generated a new cloud texture with a black background. I put a moon like in the PS1 version which the place, colour, contrast and size is closer to the original. Only Gallows Tree level had a moon originally, but as this game shares the same skybox throughout the 3 levels, in this mod the moon will be present in all of them, which is good. Stars were added to give a better nightly feeling, but I left an option without stars for a more purist look. I also lifted just a bit of the skybox, so the brighter horizon is now more visible at several points of view from the levels, like in the original game. This mod is my attempt to restore the looks and feel of the sky from these astounding levels as we knew from memory.
Originally, it had lighting effects to resemble lightning. I believe that now there's no way to mod anything related to the levels, which includes lighting. If you have the knowledge, please, comment in the discussion section on how this could possibly be done.
- Navigate to the game's root folder.
- (Optional) In "5/TEX" folder, create a backup of the 7007.DDS, 7112, 7113 and 7116.DDS files.
- Copy the "5" folder provided in this mod to the main game folder. A prompt should appear, just accept to replace the files.
About the moon photo: After some research and comparison between photos, I finally found the exact one Core Design developer chose to put in the game, which NASA describes as "Full disc of moon photographed by Apollo 17 crewmen during transearth coast". File name: as17-152-23311. It's not the face of the moon that we are familiar with here on Earth, it's one that can only be seen from space, no wonder it's such an uncanny view which perfectly fits these levels.
The information below refers to the game before patch 1. Since then, they also changed the sky to black and even lifted the skybox (they did through game code), they also introduced stars through a new layer (I had to add them before within the skybox). It seems they took some of my implementations in this mod to their first patch. My desired lightning effect was also introduced.
The sky at the top for the HD/remastered version is not pitch black like the original, instead it's grey because the clouds are transparent to pass through that colour from the background of this game engine. So I generated a new cloud texture with a black background. I put a moon like in the PS1 version which the place, colour, contrast and size is closer to the original. Only Gallows Tree level had a moon originally, but as this game shares the same skybox throughout the 3 levels, in this mod the moon will be present in all of them, which is good. Stars were added to give a better nightly feeling, but I left an option without stars for a more purist look. I also lifted just a bit of the skybox, so the brighter horizon is now more visible at several points of view from the levels, like in the original game. This mod is my attempt to restore the looks and feel of the sky from these astounding levels as we knew from memory.
Originally, it had lighting effects to resemble lightning. I believe that now there's no way to mod anything related to the levels, which includes lighting. If you have the knowledge, please, comment in the discussion section on how this could possibly be done.