Bionicle Heroes: Double Vision mod

Bionicle Heroes: Double Vision Landmark 2.0 Release!

Hey everyone! It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since the last update, one which already took Double Vision strongly into the Total Conversion basket thanks to being a full aesthetic overhaul - but since then, I've been working on something quite special. Double Vision is now officially being moved up to Version 2.0, in recognition of the fact this release features not one, not two, but three major technical advancements for Bionicle Heroes since the last release - custom weapon models, and level-side vertex editing! Let's get started!

Visuals

-Added remastered DS weapons for all Level 1 Toa - Thanks to the same program which was used to rip the level textures from the game, MelonRipper, and to new functionality created by Hex, all of the Toa DS weapons have been ported into Bionicle Heroes! With their geometry reconstructed and their textures remastered, they now replace all of the level 1 weapons for the Toa.

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-Added modified remastered DS weapons for all Level 2 Toa - With the Level 1 weapon variants for the Toa, I largely reconstructed and remastered them as faithfully to the DS as I could reasonably get, but with Level 2 onwards, I began to add new geometry to show a progression in the visual power and density of the Toa's arsenal.

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-Added modified remastered DS weapons for all Level 3 Toa - As with Level 2, the Toa weapon models received further enhancements again for Level 3, making each of the weapons appropriately fearsome in appearance!

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-Added modified remastered DS weapons for the Silver Toa - For fans of the Silver Toa addon, that addon has now come even closer to content completion thanks to the zamor launcher being ported for each level of the Silver Toa. As with the standard edition of the mod, Level 2 and 3 have some more creative liberties taken to show a clear progression in the power level of the weapon.

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You can download the updated Seventh Toa edition here.

-Added a custom Kraahkan head model for Makuta - Thanks to the same approach used for custom weapons models, it's also possible for us to replace head models - as seen in the GWP Tahu mod - and now, Makuta in Double Vision is more authentic than ever! Featuring a custom-made Heroes-styled Kraahkan model created by Vissova (and graciously donated to the mod), it replaces the player-model version of the old vertex edited model.

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-Modified Makuta's weapon to have two blades closer to the set - In keeping with this increase in faithfulness, Makuta's modified Vezon staff has now received a second set of blades that was enabled by the same technology that brought custom weapon models to the fold.

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-Splash screens made consistent with world texture edits - The level loading splash screens of DV were constructed from a mixture of ripped DS menu graphics and the ripped low-res level previews of the original game. Since Version 1.3's overhaul of the world aesthetics, these previews have no longer been consistent and they were always a little crusty, so every splash screen has now been updated with a new screenshot of the level. Most of the time I aimed for parity with the original level's location (just with the new textures), but in one or two instances I decided it made more sense to pick a different shot.

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-Level previews made consistent with DV level changes - The low-res level previews are those seen in the hub "portals". Since new shots were taken to make the splash screens consistent, these were also ported into the portal preview images.

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Levels

-Modified the appearance of Vezon's head in bonus 2 and 3 to have the Kraahkan appearance of Makuta
- Thanks to Vertex Editing now being possible with levels as well as models (and since custom models implemented into levels is not yet possible), the two appearances of Vezon in Bonus 2 and 3 have been vertex edited to appear similar to the proto-Kraahkan seen in the 1.0-iterations of Double Vision.

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Misc

-Now includes the ability to skip some cutscenes left in the game with ESC - Thanks to an EXE hack implemented by Hexadecimal Mantis (ever the programming whizz), you can now skip cutscenes with ESC. This means the few cutscenes that had to be left in for trigger purposes can now be safely skipped at the player's discretion.

-Includes plugin support + plugins - To facilitate weapon hold-type changes for the DS weapon model ports (which is typically hard-coded), Hex also created a plugin system and a custom DLL which allows you to change the hold-type via the CFGC! This plugin is free for anyone to use with credit to Hex and will probably see a release somewhere else in future.

-Main menu logo improved in quality - Now that it's known you can safely save some HUD files at lower compression volumes, the main menu logo has been saved without compression for maximum quality.

-Included Debug flags - The no HUD screenshots taken for both previews and showcases in this article were possible thanks to Debug flags, which were enabled during development of this version. I've decided to leave them in and active for anyone fancying toying around with their effects.

-Extracted all .pak files in the game to make it easier to mod and install non-intrusive mods into the game - This is a legacy change inspired by Modder Edition, which means it should now be far easier for you to mix-and-match mods. Mods without explicit compatibility will still behave a little strangely, but much less so than before.

-Amended credits - The credits have been updated thanks to contributions from Vissova and amendments to the contributions of others.

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Conclusion

DV 2.0 has been in the oven for a long while - almost as long as the original Double Vision 1.0 release - and this landmark version marks a huge leap forwards. Custom weapons, custom heads, hell, even custom level geometry to a certain extent have all made their way into a Bionicle Heroes mod, and it's so exciting to see the scene continue to evolve almost three years since it started. Expect the volume of custom content in this release to be a predecessor to increasingly fantastic mods in the weeks, months, and years to come. And as always, if you want to get in on the modding action, consider checking out our modding Discord: Discord.gg