Blogs - jmdigital

Well, a lot of time has passed since I last updated this blog, so I thought I would share some things I've been working on over the past 4 years.

Most recently, I completed porting all Red Alert 3 & Uprising maps to the awesome Generals Evolution mod. This was the combination of over a year's work on and off.

This can be downloaded here: Moddb.com

In 2023 I finally was able to get an upgraded graphics card after many years of waiting for prices to become more reasonable. I managed to pick up a RTX3080ti for a good price and have been feverishly working on various projects and putting it through its paces.

One of those projects is a mod for GTAIV. A kind of back-port of an older mod for GTAV I was working on back in the late 2010s, an Australian conversion mod.

During that time, and with the help of the new GPU, I got into training AI SRGAN models for upscaling images, mainly game textures, with a focus on GTAIV. I coded and released a tool to help in GAN training which can be found over on my GitHub: Github.com

This tool helps in training models by splitting square images into tiles and has HQ and LQ batching features. I'm still training the models in whatever free time I can find.

Back in 2021 I released a large map pack for Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath which can be downloaded from here: Moddb.com

In later 2023 I coded a Video Comparison program that helps with comparing 2 videos side-by-side. Pretty self-explanatory but is useful for comparing an original video with some kind of processed one. It can be found over on my GitHub: Github.com

Around the same time, I wrote and released a Forza Vehicle Database website, which helps modders and Forza nerds compare and sort vehicles all the way back from Forza Motorsport 2 to Forza Horizon 5. The interactive website can be found at: Jenkinstr.github.io and the source code is over on my GitHub: Github.com

In August 2023 I wrote a UModel Brute Forcer to help modders extract models from UE1/2/3/4 games that aren't always officially supported by UModel. This enables you to choose from an array of UModel parameters and 'brute force' them over a set of files/folders. Helpful if the game you're trying to extract doesn't have known support but might be close enough to an already supported game. GitHub link: Github.com

In July 2023 I was experimenting with trying to get GTAIV world files loaded and viewable in a web-based application running on Cesium. This projected has been put on hold because Cesium actually contains exploits to break into a web server and access the root directories of the server. My whole website and VPS were compromised by this exploit, and I had to remove Cesium and restore my server to a previous state, which took several days. Until I can find a better solution, this project will just exist as experimental code on my GitHub: Github.com

Also in July, related to the above, I coded a tool to help with finding and updating missing textures in an OBJ/MTL format 3D model/s. This will scan folders and find matching textures that are referenced inside an MTL and will choose the largest known occurrence of that texture and update the MTL file accordingly. This can help with many different converters and export tools for 3D programs that can break the texture definitions of a model, but don't actually lose them entirely. GitHub link: Github.com

Back at the start of 2023 I wrote a Spotify Canvas Generator tool to created 8 second long, portrait videos for Spotify's canvas features for artists. GitHub link: Github.com

In 2022 I released a few more EPs over on my Spotify and uploaded all of my previous completed albums and EPs from the last 15 years. You can head over to my Spotify to check them out: Open.spotify.com

2022 was a particularly difficult year for me, as my mum passed away somewhat unexpectedly. I was blessed to have such an amazing mum and losing her has been one of the hardest things I've ever gone through. I was immensely grateful for everything she's ever done for me, been there for me in my darkest times, and losing her meant I lost a good friend, mentor and the only support I had outside of my wife & kids. She lived a pretty incredible life and will be forever missed. Love you mum.

2023 proved to be another tough year with my wife being diagnosed with a brain condition that she's required several risky surgeries for, and through all this I've had to become her official carer. She's doing ok now but does require assistance in many things. That will probably mean that I'm not able to work on as many projects in my spare time, as my family comes first.

Kane's Wrath: Beyond is a mod set to enhance and extend the Single & Multiplayer gameplay of Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath.

So far, the mod includes all the individual fixes from egozi44, parts of the KWbandage by theHostileNegotiator, and a few minor changes to the music. These are only preliminary changes, however, as there is a lot more planned for the future.

This mod will also incorporate my still unfinished Ultimate Kane's Wrath Official Map Variations pack in some form. There is no way to build these as options in the Skirmish Menu, and may still have to live inside the mod as separate maps.

Other features planned:

• Porting terrain textures, static props & their textures, and some ambient sounds from CNC4.
• Queue multiple structures to build.
• Select vehicles that require power to function, and some that produce it.
• And much more...

Generally speaking, the idea is to only add or fix problems that are already existing in Kane's Wrath. Modifying unit or special power values for personal taste is not going to happen as I would like to keep them as EA intended unless exploitable balance problems that exist because of the game being based on an earlier version of CNC3 (~1.05), which are being slowly amended based on the KWbandage.

Release of this mod even in an alpha state will not come until mid to late this year, as I am about to move house.

Well, it's been years since I've shared anything related to mods or addons for games in general, but I still quietly tweak and dissect games in my ever limiting free time.

One of my more recent ambitious projects has been a follow up to a semi-popular older addon I made years ago for Red Alert 3.
This time, it's the same basic principle, official map variations on all 64 skirmish maps for Kane's Wrath.

The difference this time, not as many variations (4ea instead of 5), and a new variation I like to call "Lone Wolf". This is a commando-only variation and is still being heavily tested, but early tests have been surprising and a lot of fun.

This is as close as a "mod" that I can make for Kane's Wrath. It is possible to make a fully-fledged, CNC3 style mod for it but is too complicated for this purpose, as with CNC3 itself. Adding these variations as options in the Skirmish menu is out of the question, as there aren't enough modules to modify in the Skirmish menu itself.

That means that the only real way to have different combinations of options for each official map, is to make them in WorldBuilder, which I have been doing for CNC games for decades now.

I have taken it upon myself to build wiki pages for each map too, which is now located on the Command & Conquer Wiki like the Kane's Wrath Skirmish Maps page

This work is the only thing in my life at the moment that makes sense to me, and that I have full control over. With kids, bills & unnecessary drama, it is somewhat therapeutic to work on projects like this, that are (hopefully) timeless contributions to the people out there that love these games as much as I do, and want to extend the replayability even further.

This is just one of many unfinished projects I have sitting around being poked and prodded every now and then to maintain some illusion of life.