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.